WorldWideScience

Sample records for quality networks evaluacion

  1. A rapid appraisal process on an irrigation system in Pakistan; Evaluacion rapida de una zona de riego tipica de Pakistan

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ruiz-Carmona, Victor Manuel; Ojeda-Bustamante, Waldo [Instituto Mexicano de Tecnologia del Agua, Jiutepec, Morelos (Mexico); Contijoch, Manuel [Banco Mundial (Mexico)

    2006-07-15

    This paper presents the results obtained on the implementation of a rapid appraisal process on an irrigation system in the province of Punjab in Pakistan. The purpose of the evaluation was to know the present irrigation service quality and to propose some alternative to improve it. The evaluation results were: the canal inflow is smaller than peak crop water requirement; net aquifer loss; crops are always under stress which is reflected on low crop yields, the secondary canal network has not control structures and was not designed for rotation, insufficient human-human communication between canal operators; the operators have no complementary training course to enhance their capacity; discrepancy between the service the canal is supposed to provide and the real service it offers. The suggested actions to improve the irrigation service were: the irrigation service must be client oriented; the irrigation users should participate to determine the irrigation service characteristics; the difference between actual and stage irrigation service must be eliminated; clear definition on water allocation; implement a modernization program to provide the irrigation service required. The evaluation methodology used can be applied in other countries like Mexico for the analysis of large irrigation systems making an optimal use of time and resources. [Spanish] En el presente trabajo se muestran los resultados obtenidos al aplicar una metodologia de evaluacion rapida de sistemas de riego a una zona de la provincia del Punjab, Pakistan. El objetivo de la evaluacion fue conocer el estado actual del servicio de riego que ofrece la agencia responsable del manejo del riego en un distrito del Punjab y proponer alternativas para mejorarlo. Los principales resultados de esta evaluacion fueron los siguientes: la falta de capacidad de los canales, el abatimiento neto del acuifero; el estres hidrico continuo de los cultivos, que propicia un bajo rendimiento; la red secundaria de canales no

  2. REVISIÓN DE LAS EVALUACIONES ADAPTATIVAS COMPUTARIZADAS (CAT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ruber López

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available En este artículo presentamos una revisión de las Evaluaciones Adaptativas Computarizadas. A diferencia de los test convencionales, estas evaluaciones plantean un examen adaptado a las necesidades y capacidades de cada uno de los evaluados, lo cual redunda en una mejor experiencia para el evaluado y en una mayor precisión del resultado. Las evaluaciones adaptativas se fundamentan en la teoría de respuesta a ítems, que define las directrices y condiciones para que este tipo de pruebas sea posible. A partir de esta teoría, surgen distintos modelos que permiten modelar diferentes rasgos de los evaluados y la relación de estos con la probabilidad de acertar un ítem dado. Para llevar a cabo el proceso de evaluación, un test adaptativo debe estar conformado de un banco de ítems, un método que permita la selección de estos y un criterio de terminación. Todos estos componentes articulan la prueba y la ayudan a concretarse adecuadamente. AbstractThis paper is a review of the Computerized Adaptive Testing Process. Unlike conventional tests, these assessments propose a test adapted to every examinee’s needs and capabilities, which results in a better experience for those assessed and a more accurate score. Adaptive assessments are based on item response theory, which defines the guidelines and conditions for such tests to be carried out. From this theory, different models that allow the repositioning of different traits of the examinees and their relationship with the probability to succeed in a given item, arise. To complete the assessment process, an adaptive test should consist of a set of items, a method which allows the selection of these and a termination criterion. All the aforementioned components articulate the test and help to properly materialize it.

  3. La importancia del <evaluacion del consumidor de productos horticolas

    OpenAIRE

    Guerrero, Jose Felipe; Abad, Juan Carlos; Aguera, Emilia Del

    2010-01-01

    La percepcion sobre el pais de origen de un producto es uno de los principales determinates de la evaluacion y eleccion de dicho producto, sobre todo en los mercados foraneos. En la literatura de marketing existen multiples trabajos que han analizado este aspecto, si bien la amyor parte de ellos se han centrado en productos duraderos de alta implicacion. Este trabajo analiza la importancia que el atributo pais de origen tiene en el proceso de evaluacion del consumidor para el caso de la compr...

  4. Energy evaluation process of electric domestic refrigerators; Proceso de evaluacion energetica de refrigeradores electrodomesticos

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Malacara Toral, Manuel; Ruiz Neblina, Joaquin [Instituto de Investigaciones Electricas, Cuernavaca (Mexico)

    1993-12-31

    A description is made of an energy evaluation study on electric domestic refrigerators carried out by the Instituto de Investigaciones Electricas (IIE), in its strategy for diminishing the energy consumption through the design enhancement, the manufacture, the operation and the standardization of the electric appliances. In order to initiate the evaluation-standardization process, the Mexican (NOM), the American (ANSI/AHAM) and the Canadian (CAN/CSA) standards were taken as a base to harmonize the procedures and the parameters of the tests. The energy assessment demonstrated that there are significant differences among the standards encompassed by the study, therefore, recommendations were made for the harmonization of the standards. [Espanol] Se describe un estudio de evaluacion energetica sobre refrigeradores electrodomesticos realizado en el Instituto de Investigaciones Electricas (IIE) dentro de la estrategia para disminuir los consumos de energia a traves de mejoras en el diseno, la manufactura, la operacion y la normalizacion de equipos electricos. Se tomo como base las normas mexicanas (NOM), americana (ANSI/AHAM) y canadiense (CAN/CSA) para iniciar el proceso de evaluacion-normalizacion a fin de armonizar los procedimientos y parametros de las pruebas. La evaluacion energetica demostro que existen diferencias significativas entre las normas que abarco el estudio por lo que se presentan recomendaciones para la armonizacion de las normas.

  5. Energy evaluation process of electric domestic refrigerators; Proceso de evaluacion energetica de refrigeradores electrodomesticos

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Malacara Toral, Manuel; Ruiz Neblina, Joaquin [Instituto de Investigaciones Electricas, Cuernavaca (Mexico)

    1992-12-31

    A description is made of an energy evaluation study on electric domestic refrigerators carried out by the Instituto de Investigaciones Electricas (IIE), in its strategy for diminishing the energy consumption through the design enhancement, the manufacture, the operation and the standardization of the electric appliances. In order to initiate the evaluation-standardization process, the Mexican (NOM), the American (ANSI/AHAM) and the Canadian (CAN/CSA) standards were taken as a base to harmonize the procedures and the parameters of the tests. The energy assessment demonstrated that there are significant differences among the standards encompassed by the study, therefore, recommendations were made for the harmonization of the standards. [Espanol] Se describe un estudio de evaluacion energetica sobre refrigeradores electrodomesticos realizado en el Instituto de Investigaciones Electricas (IIE) dentro de la estrategia para disminuir los consumos de energia a traves de mejoras en el diseno, la manufactura, la operacion y la normalizacion de equipos electricos. Se tomo como base las normas mexicanas (NOM), americana (ANSI/AHAM) y canadiense (CAN/CSA) para iniciar el proceso de evaluacion-normalizacion a fin de armonizar los procedimientos y parametros de las pruebas. La evaluacion energetica demostro que existen diferencias significativas entre las normas que abarco el estudio por lo que se presentan recomendaciones para la armonizacion de las normas.

  6. Voice Quality Estimation in Wireless Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Petr Zach

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available This article deals with the impact of Wireless (Wi-Fi networks on the perceived quality of voice services. The Quality of Service (QoS metrics must be monitored in the computer network during the voice data transmission to ensure proper voice service quality the end-user has paid for, especially in the wireless networks. In addition to the QoS, research area called Quality of Experience (QoE provides metrics and methods for quality evaluation from the end-user’s perspective. This article focuses on a QoE estimation of Voice over IP (VoIP calls in the wireless networks using network simulator. Results contribute to voice quality estimation based on characteristics of the wireless network and location of a wireless client.

  7. Quality and food network configuration

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kjeldsen, Chris; Noe, Egon

    The aim of the paper is to analyze how the emergence of distinct quality conventions relates to particular network relations within two selected Danish organic dairy enterprises. The paper starts out from the assumption that the distinct qualities, which distinguish organic food, can be viewed...... as a form of symbolic capital. In order to be recognized and thus qualified as symbolic capital, mediation of quality takes place throughout the selected networks, all the way from cow to cup. At some point, symbolic capital will be converted into economic capital. In practical terms, management of quality...... is thus extremely important and even more so if the product chain in question is a ‘high-quality’ food chain of a relatively high level of complexity, such as an organic food network. Analytically, our main focus is on the relation between network structure and the qualities mediated from cow to cup...

  8. Quality assurance and quality control for Hydro-Quebec's ambient air monitoring networks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lambert, M.; Varfalvy, L.

    1993-01-01

    Hydro Quebec has three ambient air monitoring networks to determine the contribution of some of its thermal plants to ambient air quality. They are located in Becancour (gas turbines), Iles-de-la-Madeleine (diesel), and Tracy (conventional oil-fired). To ensure good quality results and consistency between networks, a quality assurance/quality control program was set up. A description is presented of the ambient air quality monitoring network and the quality assurance/quality control program. A guide has been created for use by the network operators, discussing objectives of the individual network, a complete description of each network, field operation for each model of instrument in use, treatment of data for each data logger in use, global considerations regarding quality assurance and control, and reports. A brief overview is presented of the guide's purpose and contents, focusing on the field operation section and the sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide monitors. 6 figs., 1 tab

  9. Perceptual tools for quality-aware video networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bovik, A. C.

    2014-01-01

    Monitoring and controlling the quality of the viewing experience of videos transmitted over increasingly congested networks (especially wireless networks) is a pressing problem owing to rapid advances in video-centric mobile communication and display devices that are straining the capacity of the network infrastructure. New developments in automatic perceptual video quality models offer tools that have the potential to be used to perceptually optimize wireless video, leading to more efficient video data delivery and better received quality. In this talk I will review key perceptual principles that are, or could be used to create effective video quality prediction models, and leading quality prediction models that utilize these principles. The goal is to be able to monitor and perceptually optimize video networks by making them "quality-aware."

  10. Enhancing Sensor Network Data Quality via Collaborated Circuit and Network Operations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lucas Vespa

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available In many applications, the quality of data gathered by sensor networks is directly related to the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR of the sensor data being transmitted in the networks. Different from the SNR that is often used in measuring the quality of communication links, the SNR used in this work measures how accurately the data in the network packets represent the physical parameters being sensed. Hence, the signal here refers to the physical parameters that are being monitored by sensor networks; the noise is due to environmental interference and circuit noises at sensor nodes, and packet loss during network transmission. While issues affecting SNR at sensor nodes have been intensively investigated, the impact of network packet loss on data SNR has not attracted significant attention in sensor network design. This paper investigates the impact of packet loss on sensor network data SNR and shows that data SNR is dramatically affected by network packet loss. A data quality metric, based on data SNR, is developed and a cross-layer adaptive scheme is presented to minimize data quality degradation in congested sensor networks. The proposed scheme consists of adaptive downsampling and bit truncation at sensor nodes and intelligent traffic management techniques at the network level. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the validity and effectiveness of the proposed techniques.

  11. Quality of service in optical packet switched networks

    CERN Document Server

    Rahbar, Akbar G

    2015-01-01

    This book is a comprehensive study on OPS networks, its architectures, and developed techniques for improving its quality of switching and managing quality of service.  The book includes: Introduction to OPS networks, OOFDM networks, GMPLS-enabled optical networks, QoS in OPS networks Hybrid contention avoidance/resolution schemes in both long-haul and metro optical networks Hybrid optical switching schemes

  12. Progress and lessons learned from water-quality monitoring networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Myers, Donna N.; Ludtke, Amy S.

    2017-01-01

    Stream-quality monitoring networks in the United States were initiated and expanded after passage of successive federal water-pollution control laws from 1948 to 1972. The first networks addressed information gaps on the extent and severity of stream pollution and served as early warning systems for spills. From 1965 to 1972, monitoring networks expanded to evaluate compliance with stream standards, track emerging issues, and assess water-quality status and trends. After 1972, concerns arose regarding the ability of monitoring networks to determine if water quality was getting better or worse and why. As a result, monitoring networks adopted a hydrologic systems approach targeted to key water-quality issues, accounted for human and natural factors affecting water quality, innovated new statistical methods, and introduced geographic information systems and models that predict water quality at unmeasured locations. Despite improvements, national-scale monitoring networks have declined over time. Only about 1%, or 217, of more than 36,000 US Geological Survey monitoring sites sampled from 1975 to 2014 have been operated throughout the four decades since passage of the 1972 Clean Water Act. Efforts to sustain monitoring networks are important because these networks have collected information crucial to the description of water-quality trends over time and are providing information against which to evaluate future trends.

  13. Evaluation of the useful life of steam turbine rotors; Evaluacion de vida util de rotores de turbinas de vapor

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Carnero Parra, Antonio; Garcia Illescas, Rafael; Kubiak Szyszka, Janusz [Instituto de Investigaciones Electricas, Temixco, Morelos (Mexico)

    1999-07-01

    This article presents the methodology applied by the Management of Turbomachinery of the Institute of Investigaciones Electricas (IIE), for the evaluation of the remaining useful life of steam turbine rotors in the phase of initiation of fissures. The evaluation of the remaining useful life of turbines, will reveal the real state of health of the rotor and will serve as a base for the future decision making that guarantees their structural integrity. [Spanish] El presentes articulo presenta la metodologia aplicada por la Gerencia de Turbomaquinaria del Instituto de Investigaciones Electricas (IIE), para la evaluacion de la vida util remanente de rotores de turbinas de vapor en la fase de iniciacion de fisuras. La evaluacion de la vida util de turbinas, revelar el estado real de salud del rotor y servira de base para la toma de decisiones futuras que garanticen su integridad estructural.

  14. Offset Trace-Based Video Quality Evaluation Network Transport

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Seeling, P.; Reisslein, M.; Fitzek, Frank

    2006-01-01

    Video traces contain information about encoded video frames, such as frame sizes and qualities, and provide a convenient method to conduct multimedia networking research. Although wiedely used in networking research, these traces do not allow to determine the video qaulityin an accurate manner...... after networking transport that includes losses and delays. In this work, we provide (i) an overview of frame dependencies that have to be taken into consideration when working with video traces, (ii) an algorithmic approach to combine traditional video traces and offset distortion traces to determine...... the video quality or distortion after lossy network transport, (iii) offset distortion and quality characteristics and (iv) the offset distortion trace format and tools to create offset distortion traces....

  15. Research on Holographic Evaluation of Service Quality in Power Data Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wei, Chen; Jing, Tao; Ji, Yutong

    2018-01-01

    With the rapid development of power data network, the continuous development of the Power data application service system, more and more service systems are being put into operation. Following this, the higher requirements for network quality and service quality are raised, in the actual process for the network operation and maintenance. This paper describes the electricity network and data network services status. A holographic assessment model was presented to achieve a comprehensive intelligence assessment on the power data network and quality of service in the operation and maintenance on the power data network. This evaluation method avoids the problems caused by traditional means which performs a single assessment of network performance quality. This intelligent Evaluation method can improve the efficiency of network operation and maintenance guarantee the quality of real-time service in the power data network..

  16. Evaluation of a integral systems greenhouse - solar dryer for small growers; Evaluacion de un sistema integral invernadero - secadero solar para pequenos productores

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Garcia, Victor O; Iriarte, Adolfo A [INENCO, Universidad Nacional de Catamarca, Catamarca (Argentina); Carabajal, Dante; Sabadzija, Gabriela; Tomalino, Luis [E.E.A. INTA, Catamarca, Catamarca (Argentina)

    2000-07-01

    Due to poor yielding capacity in the province of Catamarca, Argentina, it is necessary to improve solar drying systems in order to have a better quality final product. It is also essential to divide the costs of infrastructure with other complementary activities because of the need to make drying methods profitable. The system proposed in this work is a dryer-greenhouse with a double purposed macrotunnel greenhouse: during Winter it is used as a yielding system, and in Summer it is prepared to fulfill the functions of a solar dryer. The crops evaluated in winter were: small vegetable marrow (Curcubita maxima L), melon (Cucumis melo), ad cucumber (Cucuis sativus). Crop cycle, harvest time and tield in Kg/m were determined for each species. The assessment of the dryer was made using pepper for paprika observation of the thermal behavior of the product during drying and its final quality. The product obtained had a very good quality in color, taste and aroma with a classification of extra quality according to the Argentine Nutritional Code and the 7541 ISO Standard. Drying time decreased considerably compared to that observed in open air drying, 1995, 1996 and 1997 campaigns were economically assessed, and an evaluation of investments in five years was also conducted obtaining a positive VAN and a TIR above the cost of the best alternative for money expenditure. This integrated system is valid alternative in a sustainable production for small growers. [Spanish] Debido a las caracteristicas productivas de la Provincia de Catamarca Argentina, es necesario optimizar los procesos del secado solar teniendo en cuenta la calidad final del producto. Ademas, debido a la necesidad de rentabilizar los metodos de secado, imprescindible repartir los costos de infraestructura con otro tipo de actividad complementaria. El sistema propuesto en este trabajo es un invernadero secadero que utiliza un invernadero macrotunel que cumple una doble funcion, durante el invierno se usa como

  17. Methodology for evaluating the grounding system in electrical substations; Metodologia para la evaluacion del sistema de puesta a tierra en subestaciones electricas

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Torrelles Rivas, L.F [Universidad Nacional Experimental Politecnica: Antonio Jose de Sucre (UNEXPO), Guayana, Bolivar (Venezuela)]. E-mail: torrellesluis@gmail.com; Alvarez, P. [Petroleos de Venezuela S.A (PDVSA), Maturin, Monagas (Venezuela)]. E-mail: alvarezph@pdvsa.com

    2013-03-15

    The present work proposes a methodology for evaluating grounding systems in electrical substations from medium and high voltage, in order to diagnose the state of the elements of the grounding system and the corresponding electrical variables. The assessment methodology developed includes a visual inspection phase to the elements of the substation. Then, by performing measurements and data analysis, the electrical continuity between the components of the substation and the mesh ground is verified, the soil resistivity and resistance of the mesh. Also included in the methodology the calculation of the step and touch voltage of the substation, based on the criteria of the International IEEE standards. We study the case of the 115 kV Pirital Substation belonging to PDVSA Oriente Transmission Network. [Spanish] En el presente trabajo se plantea una metodologia para la evaluacion de sistemas de puesta a tierra en subestaciones electricas de media y alta tension, con la finalidad de diagnosticar el estado de los elementos que conforman dicho sistema y las variables electricas correspondientes. La metodologia de evaluacion desarrollada incluye una fase de inspeccion visual de los elementos que conforman la subestacion. Luego, mediante la ejecucion de mediciones y analisis de datos, se verifica la continuidad electrica entre los componentes de la subestacion y la malla de puesta a tierra, la resistividad del suelo y resistencia de la malla. Se incluye tambien en la metodologia el calculo de las tensiones de paso y de toque de la subestacion, segun lo fundamentado en los criterios de los estandares Internacionales IEEE. Se estudia el caso de la Subestacion Pirital 115 kV perteneciente a la Red de Transmision de PDVSA Oriente.

  18. Neural Network-Based Resistance Spot Welding Control and Quality Prediction

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Allen, J.D., Jr.; Ivezic, N.D.; Zacharia, T.

    1999-07-10

    This paper describes the development and evaluation of neural network-based systems for industrial resistance spot welding process control and weld quality assessment. The developed systems utilize recurrent neural networks for process control and both recurrent networks and static networks for quality prediction. The first section describes a system capable of both welding process control and real-time weld quality assessment, The second describes the development and evaluation of a static neural network-based weld quality assessment system that relied on experimental design to limit the influence of environmental variability. Relevant data analysis methods are also discussed. The weld classifier resulting from the analysis successfldly balances predictive power and simplicity of interpretation. The results presented for both systems demonstrate clearly that neural networks can be employed to address two significant problems common to the resistance spot welding industry, control of the process itself, and non-destructive determination of resulting weld quality.

  19. A Neural Network Model for Prediction of Sound Quality

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen,, Lars Bramsløw

    An artificial neural network structure has been specified, implemented and optimized for the purpose of predicting the perceived sound quality for normal-hearing and hearing-impaired subjects. The network was implemented by means of commercially available software and optimized to predict results...... obtained in subjective sound quality rating experiments based on input data from an auditory model. Various types of input data and data representations from the auditory model were used as input data for the chosen network structure, which was a three-layer perceptron. This network was trained by means...... the physical signal parameters and the subjectively perceived sound quality. No simple objective-subjective relationship was evident from this analysis....

  20. Representativeness of air quality monitoring networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Duyzer, J.; Hout, D. van den; Zandveld, P.; Ratingen, S. van

    2015-01-01

    The suitability of European networks to check compliance with air quality standards and to assess exposure of the population was investigated. An air quality model (URBIS) was applied to estimate and compare the spatial distribution of the concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in ambient air in

  1. Image quality assessment using deep convolutional networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Yezhou; Ye, Xiang; Li, Yong

    2017-12-01

    This paper proposes a method of accurately assessing image quality without a reference image by using a deep convolutional neural network. Existing training based methods usually utilize a compact set of linear filters for learning features of images captured by different sensors to assess their quality. These methods may not be able to learn the semantic features that are intimately related with the features used in human subject assessment. Observing this drawback, this work proposes training a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) with labelled images for image quality assessment. The ReLU in the CNN allows non-linear transformations for extracting high-level image features, providing a more reliable assessment of image quality than linear filters. To enable the neural network to take images of any arbitrary size as input, the spatial pyramid pooling (SPP) is introduced connecting the top convolutional layer and the fully-connected layer. In addition, the SPP makes the CNN robust to object deformations to a certain extent. The proposed method taking an image as input carries out an end-to-end learning process, and outputs the quality of the image. It is tested on public datasets. Experimental results show that it outperforms existing methods by a large margin and can accurately assess the image quality on images taken by different sensors of varying sizes.

  2. Geospatial Data Quality of the Servir CORS Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Santos, J.; Teodoro, R.; Mira, N.; Mendes, V. B.

    2015-08-01

    The SERVIR Continuous Operation Reference Stations (CORS) network was implemented in 2006 to facilitate land surveying with Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) positioning techniques. Nowadays, the network covers all Portuguese mainland. The SERVIR data is provided to many users, such as surveyors, universities (for education and research purposes) and companies that deal with geographic information. By middle 2012, there was a significant change in the network accessing paradigm, the most important of all being the increase in the responsibility of managing the network to guarantee a permanent availability and the highest quality of the geospatial data. In addition, the software that is used to manage the network and to compute the differential corrections was replaced by a new software package. These facts were decisive to perform the quality control of the SERVIR network and evaluate positional accuracy. In order to perform such quality control, a significant number of geodetic monuments spread throughout the country were chosen. Some of these monuments are located in the worst location regarding the network geometry in order to evaluate the accuracy of positions for the worst case scenarios. Data collection was carried out using different GNSS positioning modes and were compared against the benchmark positions that were determined using data acquired in static mode in 3-hour sessions. We conclude the geospatial data calculated and provided to the users community by the network is, within the surveying purposes, accurate, precise and fits the needs of those users.

  3. Management of speech and video telephony quality in heterogeneous wireless networks

    CERN Document Server

    Lewcio, Błażej

    2014-01-01

    This book shows how networking research and quality engineering can be combined to successfully manage the transmission quality when speech and video telephony is delivered in heterogeneous wireless networks. Nomadic use of services requires intelligent management of ongoing transmission, and to make the best of available resources many fundamental trade-offs must be considered. Network coverage versus throughput and reliability of a connection is one key aspect, efficiency versus robustness of signal compression is another. However, to successfully manage services, user-perceived Quality of Experience (QoE) in heterogeneous networks must be known, and the perception of quality changes must be understood.  These issues are addressed in this book, in particular focusing on the perception of quality changes due to switching between diverse networks, speech and video codecs, and encoding bit rates during active calls.

  4. Structural Quality of Service in Large-Scale Networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pedersen, Jens Myrup

    , telephony and data. To meet the requirements of the different applications, and to handle the increased vulnerability to failures, the ability to design robust networks providing good Quality of Service is crucial. However, most planning of large-scale networks today is ad-hoc based, leading to highly...... complex networks lacking predictability and global structural properties. The thesis applies the concept of Structural Quality of Service to formulate desirable global properties, and it shows how regular graph structures can be used to obtain such properties.......Digitalization has created the base for co-existence and convergence in communications, leading to an increasing use of multi service networks. This is for example seen in the Fiber To The Home implementations, where a single fiber is used for virtually all means of communication, including TV...

  5. NQAR: Network Quality Aware Routing in Error-Prone Wireless Sensor Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jaewon Choi

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available We propose a network quality aware routing (NQAR mechanism to provide an enabling method of the delay-sensitive data delivery over error-prone wireless sensor networks. Unlike the existing routing methods that select routes with the shortest arrival latency or the minimum hop count, the proposed scheme adaptively selects the route based on the network qualities including link errors and collisions with minimum additional complexity. It is designed to avoid the paths with potential noise and collision that may cause many non-deterministic backoffs and retransmissions. We propose a generic framework to select a minimum cost route that takes the packet loss rate and collision history into account. NQAR uses a data centric approach to estimate a single-hop delay based on processing time, propagation delay, packet loss rate, number of backoffs, and the retransmission timeout between two neighboring nodes. This enables a source node to choose the shortest expected end-to-end delay path to send a delay-sensitive data. The experiment results show that NQAR reduces the end-to-end transfer delay up to approximately 50% in comparison with the latency-based directed diffusion and the hop count-based directed diffusion under the error-prone network environments. Moreover, NQAR shows better performance than those routing methods in terms of jitter, reachability, and network lifetime.

  6. E-Services quality assessment framework for collaborative networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stegaru, Georgiana; Danila, Cristian; Sacala, Ioan Stefan; Moisescu, Mihnea; Mihai Stanescu, Aurelian

    2015-08-01

    In a globalised networked economy, collaborative networks (CNs) are formed to take advantage of new business opportunities. Collaboration involves shared resources and capabilities, such as e-Services that can be dynamically composed to automate CN participants' business processes. Quality is essential for the success of business process automation. Current approaches mostly focus on quality of service (QoS)-based service selection and ranking algorithms, overlooking the process of service composition which requires interoperable, adaptable and secure e-Services to ensure seamless collaboration, data confidentiality and integrity. Lack of assessment of these quality attributes can result in e-Service composition failure. The quality of e-Service composition relies on the quality of each e-Service and on the quality of the composition process. Therefore, there is the need for a framework that addresses quality from both views: product and process. We propose a quality of e-Service composition (QoESC) framework for quality assessment of e-Service composition for CNs which comprises of a quality model for e-Service evaluation and guidelines for quality of e-Service composition process. We implemented a prototype considering a simplified telemedicine use case which involves a CN in e-Healthcare domain. To validate the proposed quality-driven framework, we analysed service composition reliability with and without using the proposed framework.

  7. Network Compression as a Quality Measure for Protein Interaction Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Royer, Loic; Reimann, Matthias; Stewart, A. Francis; Schroeder, Michael

    2012-01-01

    With the advent of large-scale protein interaction studies, there is much debate about data quality. Can different noise levels in the measurements be assessed by analyzing network structure? Because proteomic regulation is inherently co-operative, modular and redundant, it is inherently compressible when represented as a network. Here we propose that network compression can be used to compare false positive and false negative noise levels in protein interaction networks. We validate this hypothesis by first confirming the detrimental effect of false positives and false negatives. Second, we show that gold standard networks are more compressible. Third, we show that compressibility correlates with co-expression, co-localization, and shared function. Fourth, we also observe correlation with better protein tagging methods, physiological expression in contrast to over-expression of tagged proteins, and smart pooling approaches for yeast two-hybrid screens. Overall, this new measure is a proxy for both sensitivity and specificity and gives complementary information to standard measures such as average degree and clustering coefficients. PMID:22719828

  8. SATWG networked quality function deployment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Don

    1992-01-01

    The initiative of this work is to develop a cooperative process for continual evolution of an integrated, time phased avionics technology plan that involves customers, technologists, developers, and managers. This will be accomplished by demonstrating a computer network technology to augment the Quality Function Deployment (QFD). All results are presented in viewgraph format.

  9. Training resources in renewable energy: study and evaluation; Recursos de capacitacion en energia renovable: estudio y evaluacion

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    De Buen Rodriguez, Odon [Energia, Tecnologia y Educacion, S.C., ENTE, S.C. (Mexico)

    2010-07-01

    The report herein describes the results of an evaluation process carried out to identify, document and analyze teaching and training capacities in the field of renewable energy for those who participate in the development, acquisition, installation, inspection and operation and maintenance of small- and large-scale wind, photovoltaic and solar water heating systems in North America. The document is divided into four sections. Chapter 1 presents the results of the evaluation process, expressed according to different parameters, as well as some of the significant findings. Chapter 2 responds to several questions related to difficulties, challenges, opportunities for improvement and recommendations, with a trilateral perspective. Chapter 3 evaluates the three technologies that are the focus of this study: photovoltaic, wind and solar heat. Chapter 4 describes the knowledge needed by those who professionally work in activities related to the three technologies mentioned, as well as their institutional context. The list of courses identified through this evaluation process are available on the CCA website, at www.cec.org/cursosenergia. [Spanish] El presente informe describe los resultados de un proceso de evaluacion llevado a cabo para identificar, documentar y analizar las capacidades en materia de ensenanza y capacitacion en energia renovable de quienes participan en la elaboracion, adquisicion, instalacion, inspeccion y operacion y mantenimiento de sistemas eolicos, fotovoltaicos y de calentamiento solar de agua -tanto pequenos como de gran escala-, en America del Norte. El documento se divide en cuatro partes. El capitulo 1 presenta los resultados del proceso de evaluacion, expresandolos en funcion de diferentes parametros, asi como ciertos hallazgos importantes. El capitulo 2 responde a diversas preguntas relativas a las dificultades, retos, oportunidades de mejoramiento y recomendaciones, con una perspectiva trilateral. El capitulo 3 evalua las tres tecnologias

  10. Nonintrusive Method Based on Neural Networks for Video Quality of Experience Assessment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diego José Luis Botia Valderrama

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The measurement and evaluation of the QoE (Quality of Experience have become one of the main focuses in the telecommunications to provide services with the expected quality for their users. However, factors like the network parameters and codification can affect the quality of video, limiting the correlation between the objective and subjective metrics. The above increases the complexity to evaluate the real quality of video perceived by users. In this paper, a model based on artificial neural networks such as BPNNs (Backpropagation Neural Networks and the RNNs (Random Neural Networks is applied to evaluate the subjective quality metrics MOS (Mean Opinion Score and the PSNR (Peak Signal Noise Ratio, SSIM (Structural Similarity Index Metric, VQM (Video Quality Metric, and QIBF (Quality Index Based Frame. The proposed model allows establishing the QoS (Quality of Service based in the strategy Diffserv. The metrics were analyzed through Pearson’s and Spearman’s correlation coefficients, RMSE (Root Mean Square Error, and outliers rate. Correlation values greater than 90% were obtained for all the evaluated metrics.

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

    Science.gov (United States)

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

    2016-01-01

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

  12. Encryption for confidentiality of the network and influence of this to the quality of streaming video through network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sevcik, L.; Uhrin, D.; Frnda, J.; Voznak, M.; Toral-Cruz, Homer; Mikulec, M.; Jakovlev, Sergej

    2015-05-01

    Nowadays, the interest in real-time services, like audio and video, is growing. These services are mostly transmitted over packet networks, which are based on IP protocol. It leads to analyses of these services and their behavior in such networks which are becoming more frequent. Video has become the significant part of all data traffic sent via IP networks. In general, a video service is one-way service (except e.g. video calls) and network delay is not such an important factor as in a voice service. Dominant network factors that influence the final video quality are especially packet loss, delay variation and the capacity of the transmission links. Analysis of video quality concentrates on the resistance of video codecs to packet loss in the network, which causes artefacts in the video. IPsec provides confidentiality in terms of safety, integrity and non-repudiation (using HMAC-SHA1 and 3DES encryption for confidentiality and AES in CBC mode) with an authentication header and ESP (Encapsulating Security Payload). The paper brings a detailed view of the performance of video streaming over an IP-based network. We compared quality of video with packet loss and encryption as well. The measured results demonstrated the relation between the video codec type and bitrate to the final video quality.

  13. Differentiating Agar wood Oil Quality Using Artificial Neural Network

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nurlaila Ismail; Nor Azah Mohd Ali; Mailina Jamil; Saiful Nizam Tajuddin; Mohd Nasir Taib

    2013-01-01

    Agar wood oil is well known as expensive oil extracted from the resinous of fragrant heartwood. The oil is getting high demand in the market especially from the Middle East countries, China and Japan because of its unique odor. As part of an on-going research in grading the agar wood oil quality, the application of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is proposed in this study to analyze agar wood oil quality using its chemical profiles. The work involves of selected agar wood oil from low and high quality, the extraction of chemical compounds using GC-MS and Z-score to identify of the significant compounds as input to the network. The ANN programming algorithm was developed and computed automatically via Matlab software version R2010a. Back-propagation training algorithm and sigmoid transfer function were used to optimize the parameters in the training network. The result obtained showed the capability of ANN in analyzing the agar wood oil quality hence beneficial for the further application such as grading and classification for agar wood oil. (author)

  14. Air Quality System (AQS) Monitoring Network, EPA OAR OAQPS

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — This GIS dataset contains points which depict air quality monitors within EPA's Air Quality System (AQS) monitoring network. This dataset is updated weekly to...

  15. MapReduce Based Parallel Bayesian Network for Manufacturing Quality Control

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zheng, Mao-Kuan; Ming, Xin-Guo; Zhang, Xian-Yu; Li, Guo-Ming

    2017-09-01

    Increasing complexity of industrial products and manufacturing processes have challenged conventional statistics based quality management approaches in the circumstances of dynamic production. A Bayesian network and big data analytics integrated approach for manufacturing process quality analysis and control is proposed. Based on Hadoop distributed architecture and MapReduce parallel computing model, big volume and variety quality related data generated during the manufacturing process could be dealt with. Artificial intelligent algorithms, including Bayesian network learning, classification and reasoning, are embedded into the Reduce process. Relying on the ability of the Bayesian network in dealing with dynamic and uncertain problem and the parallel computing power of MapReduce, Bayesian network of impact factors on quality are built based on prior probability distribution and modified with posterior probability distribution. A case study on hull segment manufacturing precision management for ship and offshore platform building shows that computing speed accelerates almost directly proportionally to the increase of computing nodes. It is also proved that the proposed model is feasible for locating and reasoning of root causes, forecasting of manufacturing outcome, and intelligent decision for precision problem solving. The integration of bigdata analytics and BN method offers a whole new perspective in manufacturing quality control.

  16. Evaluaciones económicas en salud: Conceptos básicos y clasificación

    OpenAIRE

    ZÁRATE,VÍCTOR

    2010-01-01

    El alza creciente de los costos en salud ha creado la urgente necesidad de evaluar económicamente las intervenciones de salud con el objetivo de priorizar aquellas que ofrecen un mejor valor o beneficio en relación a sus costos en un contexto local. El propósito de este artículo es entregar algunos principios básicos de evaluaciones económicas que mejorarán el conocimiento médico acerca de la metodología utilizada en este tipo de análisis y además ayudará a demostrar como la práctica clínica ...

  17. Recognition of power quality events by using multiwavelet-based neural networks

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kaewarsa, Suriya; Attakitmongcol, Kitti; Kulworawanichpong, Thanatchai [School of Electrical Engineering, Suranaree University of Technology, 111 University Avenue, Muang District, Nakhon Ratchasima 30000 (Thailand)

    2008-05-15

    Recognition of power quality events by analyzing the voltage and current waveform disturbances is a very important task for the power system monitoring. This paper presents a novel approach for the recognition of power quality disturbances using multiwavelet transform and neural networks. The proposed method employs the multiwavelet transform using multiresolution signal decomposition techniques working together with multiple neural networks using a learning vector quantization network as a powerful classifier. Various transient events are tested, such as voltage sag, swell, interruption, notching, impulsive transient, and harmonic distortion show that the classifier can detect and classify different power quality signal types efficiency. (author)

  18. Kaolin Quality Prediction from Samples: A Bayesian Network Approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rivas, T.; Taboada, J.; Ordonez, C.; Matias, J. M.

    2009-01-01

    We describe the results of an expert system applied to the evaluation of samples of kaolin for industrial use in paper or ceramic manufacture. Different machine learning techniques - classification trees, support vector machines and Bayesian networks - were applied with the aim of evaluating and comparing their interpretability and prediction capacities. The predictive capacity of these models for the samples analyzed was highly satisfactory, both for ceramic quality and paper quality. However, Bayesian networks generally proved to be the most useful technique for our study, as this approach combines good predictive capacity with excellent interpretability of the kaolin quality structure, as it graphically represents relationships between variables and facilitates what-if analyses.

  19. Network-based production quality control

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kwon, Yongjin; Tseng, Bill; Chiou, Richard

    2007-09-01

    This study investigates the feasibility of remote quality control using a host of advanced automation equipment with Internet accessibility. Recent emphasis on product quality and reduction of waste stems from the dynamic, globalized and customer-driven market, which brings opportunities and threats to companies, depending on the response speed and production strategies. The current trends in industry also include a wide spread of distributed manufacturing systems, where design, production, and management facilities are geographically dispersed. This situation mandates not only the accessibility to remotely located production equipment for monitoring and control, but efficient means of responding to changing environment to counter process variations and diverse customer demands. To compete under such an environment, companies are striving to achieve 100%, sensor-based, automated inspection for zero-defect manufacturing. In this study, the Internet-based quality control scheme is referred to as "E-Quality for Manufacturing" or "EQM" for short. By its definition, EQM refers to a holistic approach to design and to embed efficient quality control functions in the context of network integrated manufacturing systems. Such system let designers located far away from the production facility to monitor, control and adjust the quality inspection processes as production design evolves.

  20. Quality of Service Metrics in Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey

    Science.gov (United States)

    Snigdh, Itu; Gupta, Nisha

    2016-03-01

    Wireless ad hoc network is characterized by autonomous nodes communicating with each other by forming a multi hop radio network and maintaining connectivity in a decentralized manner. This paper presents a systematic approach to the interdependencies and the analogy of the various factors that affect and constrain the wireless sensor network. This article elaborates the quality of service parameters in terms of methods of deployment, coverage and connectivity which affect the lifetime of the network that have been addressed, till date by the different literatures. The analogy of the indispensable rudiments was discussed that are important factors to determine the varied quality of service achieved, yet have not been duly focused upon.

  1. Design and Optimization of Capacitated Supply Chain Networks Including Quality Measures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Krystel K. Castillo-Villar

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents (1 a novel capacitated model for supply chain network design which considers manufacturing, distribution, and quality costs (named SCND-COQ model and (2 five combinatorial optimization methods, based on nonlinear optimization, heuristic, and metaheuristic approaches, which are used to solve realistic instances of practical size. The SCND-COQ model is a mixed-integer nonlinear problem which can be used at a strategic planning level to design a supply chain network that maximizes the total profit subject to meeting an overall quality level of the final product at minimum costs. The SCND-COQ model computes the quality-related costs for the whole supply chain network considering the interdependencies among business entities. The effectiveness of the proposed solution approaches is shown using numerical experiments. These methods allow solving more realistic (capacitated supply chain network design problems including quality-related costs (inspections, rework, opportunity costs, and others within a reasonable computational time.

  2. A new tool for quality of multimedia estimation based on network behaviour

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jaroslav Frnda

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we present a software tool capable of predicting the final quality of triple play services by using the most common assessment metrics. The quality of speech and video in network environment is a growing concern of all the internet service providers to carry the multimedia traffic without the excessive delays and losses, which degrade the quality of multimedia as it is perceived by the end users. Prediction mathematical model is based on results obtained from many performed testing scenarios simulating real behavior in the network. Based on the proposed model, speech or video quality is calculated with regard to policies applied for packet processing by routers and to the level of total network utilization. The application cannot only predict QoS parameters but also generate the source code of particular QoS policy setting according to the user interaction and apply the policy to the routers in the network. Contribution of the work consists of a new software tool enables network administrators and designers to improve and optimize network traffic efficiently.

  3. Voice Quality Estimation in Combined Radio-VoIP Networks for Dispatching Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jiri Vodrazka

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The voice quality modelling assessment and planning field is deeply and widely theoretically and practically mastered for common voice communication systems, especially for the public fixed and mobile telephone networks including Next Generation Networks (NGN - internet protocol based networks. This article seeks to contribute voice quality modelling assessment and planning for dispatching communication systems based on Internet Protocol (IP and private radio networks. The network plan, correction in E-model calculation and default values for the model are presented and discussed.

  4. [Reliability theory based on quality risk network analysis for Chinese medicine injection].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Zheng; Kang, Li-Yuan; Fan, Xiao-Hui

    2014-08-01

    A new risk analysis method based upon reliability theory was introduced in this paper for the quality risk management of Chinese medicine injection manufacturing plants. The risk events including both cause and effect ones were derived in the framework as nodes with a Bayesian network analysis approach. It thus transforms the risk analysis results from failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) into a Bayesian network platform. With its structure and parameters determined, the network can be used to evaluate the system reliability quantitatively with probabilistic analytical appraoches. Using network analysis tools such as GeNie and AgenaRisk, we are able to find the nodes that are most critical to influence the system reliability. The importance of each node to the system can be quantitatively evaluated by calculating the effect of the node on the overall risk, and minimization plan can be determined accordingly to reduce their influences and improve the system reliability. Using the Shengmai injection manufacturing plant of SZYY Ltd as a user case, we analyzed the quality risk with both static FMEA analysis and dynamic Bayesian Network analysis. The potential risk factors for the quality of Shengmai injection manufacturing were identified with the network analysis platform. Quality assurance actions were further defined to reduce the risk and improve the product quality.

  5. NETWORKS AND QUALITY IMPROVEMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Miodrag Hadžistević

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Tools used in the past to analyze business value creation, such as value chain and process models, are simply too slow, inadequate, or inappropriate to address this new level of business complexity. In stead of that, company has to find way to create quality management system in a multi-layered supply chain. The problem can be solved by networking in the cluster. Cluster can be known as a competitive cooperation in the purpose to gain higher level of competitiveness and success. Bat there is another problem: Organization of the production process in a company is extremely complex process itself, and when we transfer it to the cluster level, we get a complex task which is difficult to solve. For that purpose, this paper analyses the conditions and possibilities that would enable those structures to adapt to changes in the surroundings - flexibility and management adequacy of production and organizational structures - by creating network value system.

  6. Quality management status of national radiation environmental monitoring network and strategy for development

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Huang Renjie; Zhang Rongsuo; Ni Shiying; Shen Gang

    2009-01-01

    During the period of 10th five-year plan, MEP has constructed a national radiation environmental monitoring network. In the running of the network, quality management on monitoring data is of vital importance. So all the members of the radiation environmental monitoring network are required to ensure the quality of monitoring method, equipment, reagent,quality of personnel, data processing and information management and so on. Thus the monitoring result would be typical and accuracy in science. The article introduced in detail the quality management status of the National Radiation Environmental Monitoring Network and put forward the strategy for development from the institutionalized and large-scale point of view of radioactive environmental monitoring work. (authors)

  7. The reaction of teachers to external evaluations of schools: Proposition of a Model La Reacción de los Profesores a las Evaluaciones Externas de los Establecimientos Escolares: La Proposición de un Modelo

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diego Durán

    2004-03-01

    Full Text Available During the decade of the 1990s, several changes took place in education focusing on evaluating the academic achievements of students in their schools. Many of those assessments sought to reveal the "real" situation of the schools and their quality, in most of the cases limited to the academic performance of the students. Some of these assessments also sought to influence the organization of the schools. This article will discuss how the goal of regulating the system has not always been achieved. On the contrary, most of the time, one can discern an increasing resistance among the main actors of the system (especially teachers toward the politics of regulating schools through the use of assessment instruments. I present a model that allows a closer view of this conflict based on teachers' perceptions of these assessments and the educational project of their schools. Un sin número de cambios se han producido respecto de la atención prestada a los resultados de los alumnos en los establecimientos educacionales. Muchas son las evaluaciones de las escuelas que buscan dar cuenta del verdadero estado de éstas asi como de su calidad (en la mayoría de los casos limitada solamente a los resultados académicos de sus alumnos. Sin embargo, muchas de estas evaluaciones persiguen también un cierto efecto en las organizaciones educativas, unido a una eventual regulación del sistema educativo en general y de las escuelas en particular. Este objetivo, de regulación del sistema, no siempre es alcanzado y por el contrario muchas veces observamos una oposición creciente en los actores del sistema (principalmente los profesores, a este tipo de políticas. Este artículo presenta un modelo que permite une aproximación a este conflicto, a partir de la percepción de los profesores de estas evaluaciones como del proyecto educativo de sus escuelas.

  8. The national stream quality accounting network: A flux-basedapproach to monitoring the water quality of large rivers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hooper, R.P.; Aulenbach, Brent T.; Kelly, V.J.

    2001-01-01

    Estimating the annual mass flux at a network of fixed stations is one approach to characterizing water quality of large rivers. The interpretive context provided by annual flux includes identifying source and sink areas for constituents and estimating the loadings to receiving waters, such as reservoirs or the ocean. Since 1995, the US Geological Survey's National Stream Quality Accounting Network (NASQAN) has employed this approach at a network of 39 stations in four of the largest river basins of the USA: The Mississippi, the Columbia, the Colorado and the Rio Grande. In this paper, the design of NASQAN is described and its effectiveness at characterizing the water quality of these rivers is evaluated using data from the first 3 years of operation. A broad range of constituents was measured by NASQAN, including trace organic and inorganic chemicals, major ions, sediment and nutrients. Where possible, a regression model relating concentration to discharge and season was used to interpolate between chemical observations for flux estimation. For water-quality network design, the most important finding from NASQAN was the importance of having a specific objective (that is, estimating annual mass flux) and, from that, an explicitly stated data analysis strategy, namely the use of regression models to interpolate between observations. The use of such models aided in the design of sampling strategy and provided a context for data review. The regression models essentially form null hypotheses for concentration variation that can be evaluated by the observed data. The feedback between network operation and data collection established by the hypothesis tests places the water-quality network on a firm scientific footing.

  9. Quality-control design for surface-water sampling in the National Water-Quality Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riskin, Melissa L.; Reutter, David C.; Martin, Jeffrey D.; Mueller, David K.

    2018-04-10

    The data-quality objectives for samples collected at surface-water sites in the National Water-Quality Network include estimating the extent to which contamination, matrix effects, and measurement variability affect interpretation of environmental conditions. Quality-control samples provide insight into how well the samples collected at surface-water sites represent the true environmental conditions. Quality-control samples used in this program include field blanks, replicates, and field matrix spikes. This report describes the design for collection of these quality-control samples and the data management needed to properly identify these samples in the U.S. Geological Survey’s national database.

  10. Facing a Problem of Electrical Energy Quality in Ship Networks-measurements, Estimation, Control

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Tomasz Tarasiuk; Janusz Mindykowski; Xiaoyan Xu

    2003-01-01

    In this paper, electrical energy quality and its indices in ship electric networks are introduced, especially the meaning of electrical energy quality terms in voltage and active and reactive power distribution indices. Then methods of measurement of marine electrical energy indices are introduced in details and a microprocessor measurement-diagnosis system with the function of measurement and control is designed. Afterwards, estimation and control of electrical power quality of marine electrical power networks are introduced. And finally, according to the existing method of measurement and control of electrical power quality in ship power networks, the improvement of relative method is proposed.

  11. Network Analysis Reveals Putative Genes Affecting Meat Quality in Angus Cattle.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mateescu, Raluca G; Garrick, Dorian J; Reecy, James M

    2017-01-01

    Improvements in eating satisfaction will benefit consumers and should increase beef demand which is of interest to the beef industry. Tenderness, juiciness, and flavor are major determinants of the palatability of beef and are often used to reflect eating satisfaction. Carcass qualities are used as indicator traits for meat quality, with higher quality grade carcasses expected to relate to more tender and palatable meat. However, meat quality is a complex concept determined by many component traits making interpretation of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on any one component challenging to interpret. Recent approaches combining traditional GWAS with gene network interactions theory could be more efficient in dissecting the genetic architecture of complex traits. Phenotypic measures of 23 traits reflecting carcass characteristics, components of meat quality, along with mineral and peptide concentrations were used along with Illumina 54k bovine SNP genotypes to derive an annotated gene network associated with meat quality in 2,110 Angus beef cattle. The efficient mixed model association (EMMAX) approach in combination with a genomic relationship matrix was used to directly estimate the associations between 54k SNP genotypes and each of the 23 component traits. Genomic correlated regions were identified by partial correlations which were further used along with an information theory algorithm to derive gene network clusters. Correlated SNP across 23 component traits were subjected to network scoring and visualization software to identify significant SNP. Significant pathways implicated in the meat quality complex through GO term enrichment analysis included angiogenesis, inflammation, transmembrane transporter activity, and receptor activity. These results suggest that network analysis using partial correlations and annotation of significant SNP can reveal the genetic architecture of complex traits and provide novel information regarding biological mechanisms

  12. Integrated evolutionary computation neural network quality controller for automated systems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Patro, S.; Kolarik, W.J. [Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, TX (United States). Dept. of Industrial Engineering

    1999-06-01

    With increasing competition in the global market, more and more stringent quality standards and specifications are being demands at lower costs. Manufacturing applications of computing power are becoming more common. The application of neural networks to identification and control of dynamic processes has been discussed. The limitations of using neural networks for control purposes has been pointed out and a different technique, evolutionary computation, has been discussed. The results of identifying and controlling an unstable, dynamic process using evolutionary computation methods has been presented. A framework for an integrated system, using both neural networks and evolutionary computation, has been proposed to identify the process and then control the product quality, in a dynamic, multivariable system, in real-time.

  13. Enhancement of digital radiography image quality using a convolutional neural network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Yuewen; Li, Litao; Cong, Peng; Wang, Zhentao; Guo, Xiaojing

    2017-01-01

    Digital radiography system is widely used for noninvasive security check and medical imaging examination. However, the system has a limitation of lower image quality in spatial resolution and signal to noise ratio. In this study, we explored whether the image quality acquired by the digital radiography system can be improved with a modified convolutional neural network to generate high-resolution images with reduced noise from the original low-quality images. The experiment evaluated on a test dataset, which contains 5 X-ray images, showed that the proposed method outperformed the traditional methods (i.e., bicubic interpolation and 3D block-matching approach) as measured by peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) about 1.3 dB while kept highly efficient processing time within one second. Experimental results demonstrated that a residual to residual (RTR) convolutional neural network remarkably improved the image quality of object structural details by increasing the image resolution and reducing image noise. Thus, this study indicated that applying this RTR convolutional neural network system was useful to improve image quality acquired by the digital radiography system.

  14. Quality assurance in transnational higher education: a case study of the tropEd network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zwanikken, Prisca A C; Peterhans, Bernadette; Dardis, Lorraine; Scherpbier, Albert

    2013-03-27

    Transnational or cross-border higher education has rapidly expanded since the 1980s. Together with that expansion issues on quality assurance came to the forefront. This article aims to identify key issues regarding quality assurance of transnational higher education and discusses the quality assurance of the tropEd Network for International Health in Higher Education in relation to these key issues. Literature review and review of documents. From the literature the following key issues regarding transnational quality assurance were identified and explored: comparability of quality assurance frameworks, true collaboration versus erosion of national education sovereignty, accreditation agencies and transparency. The tropEd network developed a transnational quality assurance framework for the network. The network accredits modules through a rigorous process which has been accepted by major stakeholders. This process was a participatory learning process and at the same time the process worked positive for the relations between the institutions. The development of the quality assurance framework and the process provides a potential example for others.

  15. Can online networks provide quality answers to questions about occupational safety and health?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rhebergen, Martijn D F; Lenderink, Annet F; van Dijk, Frank J H; Hulshof, Carel T J

    2012-05-01

    To assess whether experts can provide high-quality answers to occupational safety and health (OSH) questions in online Question & Answer (Q&A) networks. The authors evaluated the quality of answers provided by qualified experts in two Dutch online networks: ArboAntwoord and the Helpdesk of the Netherlands Center for Occupational Diseases. A random sample of 594 answers was independently evaluated by two raters using nine answer quality criteria. An additional criterion, the agreement of answers with the best available evidence, was explored by peer review of a sample of 42 answers. Reviewers performed an evidence search in Medline. The median answer quality score of ArboAntwoord (N=295) and the Netherlands Center for Occupational Diseases Helpdesk (N=299) was 8 of 9 (IQR 2). The inter-rater reliability of the first nine quality criteria was high (κ 0.82-0.90, p<0.05). A question answered by two or more experts had a greater probability of a high-quality score than questions answered by one expert (OR 4.9, 95% CI 2.7 to 9.0). Answers most often scored insufficient on the use of evidence to underpin the answer (36% and 38% for the networks, respectively) and on conciseness (35% and 31%, respectively). Peer review demonstrated that 43%-72% of the answers in both online networks were in complete agreement with the best available evidence. OSH experts are able to provide quality answers in online OSH Q&A networks. Our answer quality appraisal instrument was feasible and provided information on how to improve answer quality.

  16. Building abstinent networks is an important resource in improving quality of life.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muller, Ashley Elizabeth; Skurtveit, Svetlana; Clausen, Thomas

    2017-11-01

    To investigate changes in social network and quality of life of a substance use disorder cohort as they progressed through treatment. Multi-site, prospective, observational study of 338 adults entering substance use disorder treatment. Patients at 21 facilities across Norway contributed baseline data when they initiated treatment, and follow-up data was collected from them one year later. The cohort was divided into those who completed, dropped out, and remained in treatment one year after treatment initiation. For each treatment status group, general linear models with repeated measures analyzed global and social quality of life with the generic QOL10 instrument over time. The between-group factor was a change in social network variable from the EuropASI. Those who gained an abstinent network reported the largest quality of life improvements. Improvements were smallest or negligible for the socially isolated and those who were no longer in contact with the treatment system. Developing an abstinent network is particularly important to improve the quality of life of those in substance use disorder treatment. Social isolation is a risk factor for impaired quality of life throughout the treatment course. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. Aproximaciones al análisis de accountability e implicancias altas y bajas de evaluaciones a gran escala en cinco países de América Latina

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Silvia Radulovich

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available Este trabajo forma parte de algunas discusiones y análisis en curso a propósito de nuestro trabajo en el Proyecto de Investigación que llevamos adelante sobre las funciones políticas de las evaluaciones nacionales en América Latina, con el ánimo de un intercambio crítico para la revisión y enriquecimiento de la progresión analítica.En el marco de las reformas educativas de los '80 y '90 en América Latina surgen las evaluaciones nacionales en un buen número de países al igual que las aplicaciones de pruebas internacionales que, según concluyen numerosos estudios, no han incidido significativamente en mejores prácticas educativas en el nivel docente ni en mejores aprendizajes en el nivel de los alumnos.Aún así, las evaluaciones nacionales persisten y parecen atender a funciones políticas primarias, secundarias y terciarias, así denominadas por Angulo Rasco (1995: 203-204 atento al grado de visibilidad social que presentan. Desde el ángulo comparativo, resulta necesario identificarlas en cada país, identificando también aquellas equivalencias funcionales en tanto sistemas nacionales de evaluación, expresión que –de acuerdo a Reijo Rivarola, quien cita a Marton– designaría los sentidos y configuraciones de significado en el discurso y en la acción, haya o no convergencia o identidad en los hechos descriptibles entre los casos en comparación (en Altbach y Kelly, 1990: 300.

  18. Speech Quality Monitoring in Czech National Research Network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Miroslav Voznak

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper deals with techniques of measuring and assessment of the voice transmitted in IP networks and describes design of quality measurement, which can be used for Cisco Gateways. Cisco gateways send Calculated Planning Impairment Factor in every CDR (Call Detail Record. Our design is based on collection of CDR's, their storing into SQL database and their visualization through web page. This design was implemented and successfully tested in CESNET network.

  19. The impacts of network competence, knowledge sharing on service innovation performance: Moderating role of relationship quality

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zaoquan Jian

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: To examine how network competence, knowledge sharing and relationship quality affect service innovation performanceDesign/methodology/approach: Empirical ResearchFindings: 1 Both enterprise’s network competence and knowledge sharing have distinct positive impact on SIP; (2 Knowledge sharing partially mediates the effect of network competence on SIP. (3 Relationship quality positively moderates the effect of network competence on knowledge sharing, and the effect of knowledge sharing on SIP. (4 Relationship quality does not positively moderate the effect of network competence on SIP.Originality/value: This study has enriched current understanding of the relationship among network competence, knowledge sharing, relationship quality and service innovation performance.

  20. Quality of Services in Integrated UMTS/IP Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ivan Bošnjak

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available Fast development and implementation of new telecommunicationservices and Intelligent Transp01t Systems (ITS havecreated new environment for the network telecom operatorsand service providers and logistic and transport enterprises. Thecmcial issue for successful business and other professional applicationsis the provision of the end-to-end quality of service inthe inter-network operation of mobile and fixed networks. Theproblem was less expressed in the traditional networks orientedto telephony, but the issue of different QoS algorithms growswith the spreading of data transmission services and multimediaapplications. The existence of different QoS algorithms andprocedures in the !?-based networks (JP- Internet Protocolalso makes difficult the finding of a single solution for the implementationofQoS in the !?-based networks. In the indicatedcontext this work systemically defines the problem of providinga single end-to-end QoS protocol in the connected UMTS/IPnetworks. The possibilities of its realization are presented on theexample of two protocols. The work gives the basic characteristicsof the two protocols that fulfil the criteria set in the realizationof the new generation of mobile networks.

  1. Evaluaciones Estandarizadas: Seis Reflexiones Críticas Standardized Assessments: Six Critical Reflections Avaliações Padronizadas: Seis Reflexões Críticas

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ignacio Barrenechea

    2010-04-01

    Full Text Available Este trabajo presenta una revisión de la literatura que analiza seis limitaciones claves que tienen las evaluaciones estandarizadas. Las seis críticas que se presentan son: la tensión que existe entre el concepto de inteligencias múltiples y las evaluaciones estandarizadas, la desatención de componentes del curriculum real - el cual no necesariamente se agota en el curriculum prescripto, los riesgos de enseñar para el test, los incentivos que se generan de hacer trampa con los resultados, la falta de consideración de las diferencias socio económicas de los alumnos que son evaluados, y, por último, las limitaciones de los resultados de las evaluaciones estandarizadas para predecir el éxito laboral de los estudiantes. Este trabajo concluye que este tipo de evaluaciones, si bien pueden tener ciertas ventajas, cuando son usadas como el único instrumento para tomar decisiones educativas, las limitaciones son mayores que sus beneficios.

    This paper presents a review of the literature analyzing six key limitations of standardized evaluations. The six criticisms are the following: the tension that exists between the concept of multiple intelligences and the standardized evaluations, the disregard of components of the real curriculum - which is not necessarily exhausted in the prescribed curriculum, the risks of teaching to the test, the incentives that are generated to cheat or inflate the results of the tests, the lack of consideration of the economic differences of the pupils who are evaluated, and, finally, the limitations of the results of standardized evaluations as predictors of the labour success of the students. This paper concludes that when this type of evaluation is used as the only basis of educational decisions, the costs outweigh the benefits.


    Este trabalho apresenta uma revisão da literatura para a análise de seis limitações chave que têm testes padronizados. As seis limitações apresentados são: tens

  2. Quality control in mutation analysis: the European Molecular Genetics Quality Network (EMQN).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Müller, C R

    2001-08-01

    The demand for clinical molecular genetics testing has steadily grown since its introduction in the 1980s. In order to reach and maintain the agreed quality standards of laboratory medicine, the same internal and external quality assurance (IQA/EQA) criteria have to be applied as for "conventional" clinical chemistry or pathology. In 1996 the European Molecular Genetics Quality Network (EMQN) was established in order to spread QA standards across Europe and to harmonise the existing national activities. EMQN is operated by a central co-ordinator and 17 national partners from 15 EU countries; since 1998 it is being funded by the EU commission for a 3-year period. EMQN promotes QA by two tools: by providing disease-specific best practice meetings (BPM) and EQA schemes. A typical BPM is focussed on one disease or group of related disorders. International experts report on the latest news of gene characterisation and function and the state-of-the-art techniques for mutation detection. Disease-specific EQA schemes are provided by experts in the field. DNA samples are sent out together with mock clinical referrals and a diagnostic question is asked. Written reports must be returned which are marked for genotyping and interpretation. So far, three BPMs have been held and six EQA schemes are in operation at various stages. Although mutation types and diagnostic techniques varied considerably between schemes, the overall technical performance showed a high diagnostic standard. Nevertheless, serious genotyping errors have been occurred in some schemes which underline the necessity of quality assurance efforts. The European Molecular Genetics Quality Network provides a necessary platform for the internal and external quality assurance of molecular genetic testing.

  3. AN OVERVIEW OF QUALITY OF SERVICE COMPUTER NETWORK

    OpenAIRE

    Mrs. Amandeep Kaur

    2011-01-01

    This paper highlights some of the basic concepts of QoS. The major research areas of Quality of Service Computer Networks are highlighted. The paper also compares some of the current QoS Routing techniques.

  4. Successful integration efforts in water quality from the integrated Ocean Observing System Regional Associations and the National Water Quality Monitoring Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ragsdale, R.; Vowinkel, E.; Porter, D.; Hamilton, P.; Morrison, R.; Kohut, J.; Connell, B.; Kelsey, H.; Trowbridge, P.

    2011-01-01

    The Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS??) Regional Associations and Interagency Partners hosted a water quality workshop in January 2010 to discuss issues of nutrient enrichment and dissolved oxygen depletion (hypoxia), harmful algal blooms (HABs), and beach water quality. In 2007, the National Water Quality Monitoring Council piloted demonstration projects as part of the National Water Quality Monitoring Network (Network) for U.S. Coastal Waters and their Tributaries in three IOOS Regional Associations, and these projects are ongoing. Examples of integrated science-based solutions to water quality issues of major concern from the IOOS regions and Network demonstration projects are explored in this article. These examples illustrate instances where management decisions have benefited from decision-support tools that make use of interoperable data. Gaps, challenges, and outcomes are identified, and a proposal is made for future work toward a multiregional water quality project for beach water quality.

  5. Quality Utilization Aware Based Data Gathering for Vehicular Communication Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yingying Ren

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The vehicular communication networks, which can employ mobile, intelligent sensing devices with participatory sensing to gather data, could be an efficient and economical way to build various applications based on big data. However, high quality data gathering for vehicular communication networks which is urgently needed faces a lot of challenges. So, in this paper, a fine-grained data collection framework is proposed to cope with these new challenges. Different from classical data gathering which concentrates on how to collect enough data to satisfy the requirements of applications, a Quality Utilization Aware Data Gathering (QUADG scheme is proposed for vehicular communication networks to collect the most appropriate data and to best satisfy the multidimensional requirements (mainly including data gathering quantity, quality, and cost of application. In QUADG scheme, the data sensing is fine-grained in which the data gathering time and data gathering area are divided into very fine granularity. A metric named “Quality Utilization” (QU is to quantify the ratio of quality of the collected sensing data to the cost of the system. Three data collection algorithms are proposed. The first algorithm is to ensure that the application which has obtained the specified quantity of sensing data can minimize the cost and maximize data quality by maximizing QU. The second algorithm is to ensure that the application which has obtained two requests of application (the quantity and quality of data collection, or the quantity and cost of data collection could maximize the QU. The third algorithm is to ensure that the application which aims to satisfy the requirements of quantity, quality, and cost of collected data simultaneously could maximize the QU. Finally, we compare our proposed scheme with the existing schemes via extensive simulations which well justify the effectiveness of our scheme.

  6. Collaborative Network Management for Enhancing Quality Education of Primary Schools

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chaikoed, Wisithsak; Sirisuthi, Chaiyuth; Numnaphol, Kochaporn

    2017-01-01

    This research aims to study the network and collaborative factors that enhance quality education of primary schools. Different methods were used in this research work: (1) Related approaches, theories, and research literatures and (2) Scholars were interviewed on 871 issues in the form of questionnaire, and the collaborative network factors were…

  7. Artificial neural networks for prediction of quality in resistance spot welding

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Martin, O.; Lopez, M.; Martin, F.

    2006-01-01

    An artificial neural network is proposed as a tool for predicting from three parameters (weld time, current intensity and electrode sort) if the quality of a resistance spot weld reaches a certain level or not. The quality id determined by cross tension testing. The fact of reaching this quality level or not is the desired output that goes with each input of the artificial neural network during its supervised learning. The available data set is made up of input/desired output pairs and is split randomly into a training subset (to update synaptic weight values) and a validation subset (to avoid overfitting phenomenon by means of cross validation). (Author) 44 refs

  8. Assessment of the water quality monitoring network of the Piabanha River experimental watersheds in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, using autoassociative neural networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Villas-Boas, Mariana D; Olivera, Francisco; de Azevedo, Jose Paulo S

    2017-09-01

    Water quality monitoring is a complex issue that requires support tools in order to provide information for water resource management. Budget constraints as well as an inadequate water quality network design call for the development of evaluation tools to provide efficient water quality monitoring. For this purpose, a nonlinear principal component analysis (NLPCA) based on an autoassociative neural network was performed to assess the redundancy of the parameters and monitoring locations of the water quality network in the Piabanha River watershed. Oftentimes, a small number of variables contain the most relevant information, while the others add little or no interpretation to the variability of water quality. Principal component analysis (PCA) is widely used for this purpose. However, conventional PCA is not able to capture the nonlinearities of water quality data, while neural networks can represent those nonlinear relationships. The results presented in this work demonstrate that NLPCA performs better than PCA in the reconstruction of the water quality data of Piabanha watershed, explaining most of data variance. From the results of NLPCA, the most relevant water quality parameter is fecal coliforms (FCs) and the least relevant is chemical oxygen demand (COD). Regarding the monitoring locations, the most relevant is Poço Tarzan (PT) and the least is Parque Petrópolis (PP).

  9. Assessment and rationalization of water quality monitoring network: a multivariate statistical approach to the Kabbini River (India).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mavukkandy, Musthafa Odayooth; Karmakar, Subhankar; Harikumar, P S

    2014-09-01

    The establishment of an efficient surface water quality monitoring (WQM) network is a critical component in the assessment, restoration and protection of river water quality. A periodic evaluation of monitoring network is mandatory to ensure effective data collection and possible redesigning of existing network in a river catchment. In this study, the efficacy and appropriateness of existing water quality monitoring network in the Kabbini River basin of Kerala, India is presented. Significant multivariate statistical techniques like principal component analysis (PCA) and principal factor analysis (PFA) have been employed to evaluate the efficiency of the surface water quality monitoring network with monitoring stations as the evaluated variables for the interpretation of complex data matrix of the river basin. The main objective is to identify significant monitoring stations that must essentially be included in assessing annual and seasonal variations of river water quality. Moreover, the significance of seasonal redesign of the monitoring network was also investigated to capture valuable information on water quality from the network. Results identified few monitoring stations as insignificant in explaining the annual variance of the dataset. Moreover, the seasonal redesign of the monitoring network through a multivariate statistical framework was found to capture valuable information from the system, thus making the network more efficient. Cluster analysis (CA) classified the sampling sites into different groups based on similarity in water quality characteristics. The PCA/PFA identified significant latent factors standing for different pollution sources such as organic pollution, industrial pollution, diffuse pollution and faecal contamination. Thus, the present study illustrates that various multivariate statistical techniques can be effectively employed in sustainable management of water resources. The effectiveness of existing river water quality monitoring

  10. Coordinating standards and applications for optical water quality sensor networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bergamaschi, B.; Pellerin, B.

    2011-01-01

    Joint USGS-CUAHSI Workshop: In Situ Optical Water Quality Sensor Networks; Shepherdstown, West Virginia, 8-10 June 2011; Advanced in situ optical water quality sensors and new techniques for data analysis hold enormous promise for advancing scientific understanding of aquatic systems through measurements of important biogeochemical parameters at the time scales over which they vary. High-frequency and real-time water quality data also provide the opportunity for early warning of water quality deterioration, trend detection, and science-based decision support. However, developing networks of optical sensors in freshwater systems that report reliable and comparable data across and between sites remains a challenge to the research and monitoring community. To address this, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI), convened a 3-day workshop to explore ways to coordinate development of standards and applications for optical sensors, as well as handling, storage, and analysis of the continuous data they produce.

  11. Integration and analysis of neighbor discovery and link quality estimation in wireless sensor networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Radi, Marjan; Dezfouli, Behnam; Abu Bakar, Kamalrulnizam; Abd Razak, Shukor

    2014-01-01

    Network connectivity and link quality information are the fundamental requirements of wireless sensor network protocols to perform their desired functionality. Most of the existing discovery protocols have only focused on the neighbor discovery problem, while a few number of them provide an integrated neighbor search and link estimation. As these protocols require a careful parameter adjustment before network deployment, they cannot provide scalable and accurate network initialization in large-scale dense wireless sensor networks with random topology. Furthermore, performance of these protocols has not entirely been evaluated yet. In this paper, we perform a comprehensive simulation study on the efficiency of employing adaptive protocols compared to the existing nonadaptive protocols for initializing sensor networks with random topology. In this regard, we propose adaptive network initialization protocols which integrate the initial neighbor discovery with link quality estimation process to initialize large-scale dense wireless sensor networks without requiring any parameter adjustment before network deployment. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first attempt to provide a detailed simulation study on the performance of integrated neighbor discovery and link quality estimation protocols for initializing sensor networks. This study can help system designers to determine the most appropriate approach for different applications.

  12. Integration and Analysis of Neighbor Discovery and Link Quality Estimation in Wireless Sensor Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marjan Radi

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Network connectivity and link quality information are the fundamental requirements of wireless sensor network protocols to perform their desired functionality. Most of the existing discovery protocols have only focused on the neighbor discovery problem, while a few number of them provide an integrated neighbor search and link estimation. As these protocols require a careful parameter adjustment before network deployment, they cannot provide scalable and accurate network initialization in large-scale dense wireless sensor networks with random topology. Furthermore, performance of these protocols has not entirely been evaluated yet. In this paper, we perform a comprehensive simulation study on the efficiency of employing adaptive protocols compared to the existing nonadaptive protocols for initializing sensor networks with random topology. In this regard, we propose adaptive network initialization protocols which integrate the initial neighbor discovery with link quality estimation process to initialize large-scale dense wireless sensor networks without requiring any parameter adjustment before network deployment. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first attempt to provide a detailed simulation study on the performance of integrated neighbor discovery and link quality estimation protocols for initializing sensor networks. This study can help system designers to determine the most appropriate approach for different applications.

  13. El impacto social en las evaluaciones de impacto ambienta: su conceptualización y práctica

    OpenAIRE

    Mercedes Pardo

    1994-01-01

    Análisis del impacto social de las obras públicas es parte integrante de las evaluaciones de impacto ambiental (eia) en España. En este artículo se analiza el impacto a través de la investigación de las declaraciones oficiales de impacto ambiental y situándolas en un marco más amplio relativo de conceptualización del impacto social que se hace en la legislación aplicable, en las guías metodológicas de análisis para este campo y en los estudios de impacto ambiental concretos. se concluye con u...

  14. El impacto social en las evaluaciones de impacto ambiental: su conceptualización y práctica

    OpenAIRE

    Pardo Buendía, Mercedes

    1994-01-01

    El análisis del impacto social de las obras públicas es parte integrante de las Evaluaciones de Impacto Ambiental (EIA) en España. En este artículo se analiza el impacto social a través de la investigación de las Declaraciones oficiales de Impacto Ambiental y situándolas en un marco más amplio relativo al tipo de conceptualización del impacto social que se hace en la legislación aplicable, en las guías metodológicas de análisis para este campo y en los estudios de impacto ambiental concretos....

  15. Enhanced data validation strategy of air quality monitoring network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harkat, Mohamed-Faouzi; Mansouri, Majdi; Nounou, Mohamed; Nounou, Hazem

    2018-01-01

    Quick validation and detection of faults in measured air quality data is a crucial step towards achieving the objectives of air quality networks. Therefore, the objectives of this paper are threefold: (i) to develop a modeling technique that can be used to predict the normal behavior of air quality variables and help provide accurate reference for monitoring purposes; (ii) to develop fault detection method that can effectively and quickly detect any anomalies in measured air quality data. For this purpose, a new fault detection method that is based on the combination of generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) and exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) will be developed. GLRT is a well-known statistical fault detection method that relies on maximizing the detection probability for a given false alarm rate. In this paper, we propose to develop GLRT-based EWMA fault detection method that will be able to detect the changes in the values of certain air quality variables; (iii) to develop fault isolation and identification method that allows defining the fault source(s) in order to properly apply appropriate corrective actions. In this paper, reconstruction approach that is based on Midpoint-Radii Principal Component Analysis (MRPCA) model will be developed to handle the types of data and models associated with air quality monitoring networks. All air quality modeling, fault detection, fault isolation and reconstruction methods developed in this paper will be validated using real air quality data (such as particulate matter, ozone, nitrogen and carbon oxides measurement). Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. Outlier Detection in Urban Air Quality Sensor Networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Zoest, V.M.; Stein, A.; Hoek, Gerard

    2018-01-01

    Low-cost urban air quality sensor networks are increasingly used to study the spatio-temporal variability in air pollutant concentrations. Recently installed low-cost urban sensors, however, are more prone to result in erroneous data than conventional monitors, e.g., leading to outliers. Commonly

  17. A Design of Wireless Sensor Networks for a Power Quality Monitoring System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sanggil Kang

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available Power grids deal with the business of generation, transmission, and distribution of electric power. Recently, interest in power quality in electrical distribution systems has increased rapidly. In Korea, the communication network to deliver voltage, current, and temperature measurements gathered from pole transformers to remote monitoring centers employs cellular mobile technology. Due to high cost of the cellular mobile technology, power quality monitoring measurements are limited and data gathering intervals are large. This causes difficulties in providing the power quality monitoring service. To alleviate the problems, in this paper we present a communication infrastructure to provide low cost, reliable data delivery. The communication infrastructure consists of wired connections between substations and monitoring centers, and wireless connections between pole transformers and substations. For the wireless connection, we employ a wireless sensor network and design its corresponding data forwarding protocol to improve the quality of data delivery. For the design, we adopt a tree-based data forwarding protocol in order to customize the distribution pattern of the power quality information. We verify the performance of the proposed data forwarding protocol quantitatively using the NS-2 network simulator.

  18. A design of wireless sensor networks for a power quality monitoring system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lim, Yujin; Kim, Hak-Man; Kang, Sanggil

    2010-01-01

    Power grids deal with the business of generation, transmission, and distribution of electric power. Recently, interest in power quality in electrical distribution systems has increased rapidly. In Korea, the communication network to deliver voltage, current, and temperature measurements gathered from pole transformers to remote monitoring centers employs cellular mobile technology. Due to high cost of the cellular mobile technology, power quality monitoring measurements are limited and data gathering intervals are large. This causes difficulties in providing the power quality monitoring service. To alleviate the problems, in this paper we present a communication infrastructure to provide low cost, reliable data delivery. The communication infrastructure consists of wired connections between substations and monitoring centers, and wireless connections between pole transformers and substations. For the wireless connection, we employ a wireless sensor network and design its corresponding data forwarding protocol to improve the quality of data delivery. For the design, we adopt a tree-based data forwarding protocol in order to customize the distribution pattern of the power quality information. We verify the performance of the proposed data forwarding protocol quantitatively using the NS-2 network simulator.

  19. An Effect of the Co-Operative Network Model for Students' Quality in Thai Primary Schools

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khanthaphum, Udomsin; Tesaputa, Kowat; Weangsamoot, Visoot

    2016-01-01

    This research aimed: 1) to study the current and desirable states of the co-operative network in developing the learners' quality in Thai primary schools, 2) to develop a model of the co-operative network in developing the learners' quality, and 3) to examine the results of implementation of the co-operative network model in the primary school.…

  20. Enhancing Network Quality using Baseband Frequency Hopping, Downlink Power Control and DTX in a Live GSM Network

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Thomas Toftegaard; Wagard, Jeroen; Skjærris, Søren

    1998-01-01

    Baseband frequency hopping in the combination with downlink power control and discontinuous transmission has been investigated as a quality improving feature in a live GSM network. Using the dropped call rate and the frame erasure rate to measure the network quality, the use of frequency hopping...... to the statistical inaccuracy with discontinuous transmission in GSM and maybe due to poor performance of the mobile stations, was encountered. The current status is therefore to reject the use of downlink discontinuous transmission until more information about the performance of the mobile stations is found...

  1. Data mining methods for quality assurance in an environmental monitoring network

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Athanasiadis, Ioannis N.; Rizzoli, Andrea Emilio; Beard, Daniel W.

    2010-01-01

    The paper presents a system architecture that employs data mining techniques for ensuring quality assurance in an environmental monitoring network. We investigate how data mining techniques can be incorporated in the quality assurance decision making process. As prior expert decisions are

  2. A combined geostatistical-optimization model for the optimal design of a groundwater quality monitoring network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kolosionis, Konstantinos; Papadopoulou, Maria P.

    2017-04-01

    Monitoring networks provide essential information for water resources management especially in areas with significant groundwater exploitation due to extensive agricultural activities. In this work, a simulation-optimization framework is developed based on heuristic optimization methodologies and geostatistical modeling approaches to obtain an optimal design for a groundwater quality monitoring network. Groundwater quantity and quality data obtained from 43 existing observation locations at 3 different hydrological periods in Mires basin in Crete, Greece will be used in the proposed framework in terms of Regression Kriging to develop the spatial distribution of nitrates concentration in the aquifer of interest. Based on the existing groundwater quality mapping, the proposed optimization tool will determine a cost-effective observation wells network that contributes significant information to water managers and authorities. The elimination of observation wells that add little or no beneficial information to groundwater level and quality mapping of the area can be obtain using estimations uncertainty and statistical error metrics without effecting the assessment of the groundwater quality. Given the high maintenance cost of groundwater monitoring networks, the proposed tool could used by water regulators in the decision-making process to obtain a efficient network design that is essential.

  3. Health professional networks as a vector for improving healthcare quality and safety: a systematic review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cunningham, Frances C; Ranmuthugala, Geetha; Plumb, Jennifer; Georgiou, Andrew; Westbrook, Johanna I; Braithwaite, Jeffrey

    2012-03-01

    While there is a considerable corpus of theoretical and empirical literature on networks within and outside of the health sector, multiple research questions are yet to be answered. To conduct a systematic review of studies of professionals' network structures, identifying factors associated with network effectiveness and sustainability, particularly in relation to quality of care and patient safety. The authors searched MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, Web of Science and Business Source Premier from January 1995 to December 2009. A majority of the 26 unique studies identified used social network analysis to examine structural relationships in networks: structural relationships within and between networks, health professionals and their social context, health collaboratives and partnerships, and knowledge sharing networks. Key aspects of networks explored were administrative and clinical exchanges, network performance, integration, stability and influences on the quality of healthcare. More recent studies show that cohesive and collaborative health professional networks can facilitate the coordination of care and contribute to improving quality and safety of care. Structural network vulnerabilities include cliques, professional and gender homophily, and over-reliance on central agencies or individuals. Effective professional networks employ natural structural network features (eg, bridges, brokers, density, centrality, degrees of separation, social capital, trust) in producing collaboratively oriented healthcare. This requires efficient transmission of information and social and professional interaction within and across networks. For those using networks to improve care, recurring success factors are understanding your network's characteristics, attending to its functioning and investing time in facilitating its improvement. Despite this, there is no guarantee that time spent on networks will necessarily improve patient care.

  4. Power quality enhancement of renewable energy source power network using SMES system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Seo, H.R.; Kim, A.R.; Park, M.; Yu, I.K.

    2011-01-01

    Power quality enhancement of a renewable energy source power network is performed by a real-toroidal-type SMES coil. SMES unit charges and discharges the HTS coil to mitigate the fluctuation of PV system output power. The grid connected PV and SMES system has been modeled and simulated using power-hard-in-the-loop simulation. The PHILS results demonstrated the effectiveness of the SMES system for enhancing power quality. This paper deals with power quality enhancement of renewable energy source power network using SMES system and describes the operation characteristics of HTS SMES system using real-toroidal-type SMES coil for smoothening the fluctuation of large-scale renewable energy source such as photovoltaic (PV) power generation system. It generates maximum power of PV array under various weather conditions. SMES unit charges and discharges the HTS coil to mitigate the fluctuation of PV system output power. The SMES unit is controlled according to the PV array output and the utility power quality conditions. The grid connected PV and SMES system has been modeled and simulated using power-hard-in-the-loop simulation (PHILS). The PHILS results demonstrated the effectiveness of the SMES system for enhancing power quality in power network including large-scale renewable energy source, especially PV power generation system.

  5. Water quality monitoring for high-priority water bodies in the Sonoran Desert network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Terry W. Sprouse; Robert M. Emanuel; Sara A. Strorrer

    2005-01-01

    This paper describes a network monitoring program for “high priority” water bodies in the Sonoran Desert Network of the National Park Service. Protocols were developed for monitoring selected waters for ten of the eleven parks in the Network. Park and network staff assisted in identifying potential locations of testing sites, local priorities, and how water quality...

  6. PREDICTION OF WATER QUALITY INDEX USING BACK PROPAGATION NETWORK ALGORITHM. CASE STUDY: GOMBAK RIVER

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    FARIS GORASHI

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this study is to enable prediction of water quality parameters with conjunction to land use attributes and to find a low-end alternative for water quality monitoring techniques, which are typically expensive and tedious. It also aims to ensure sustainable development, which is essentially has effects on water quality. The research approach followed in this study is via using artificial neural networks, and geographical information system to provide a reliable prediction model. Back propagation network algorithm was used for the purpose of this study. The proposed approach minimized most of anomalies associated with prediction methods and provided water quality prediction with precision. The study used 5 hidden nodes in this network. The network was optimized to complete 23145 cycles before it reaches the best error of 0.65. Stations 18 had shown the greatest fluctuation among the three stations as it reflects an area of on-going rapid development of Gombak river watershed. The results had shown a very close prediction with best error of 0.67 in a sensitivity test that was carried afterwards.

  7. DeepQA: improving the estimation of single protein model quality with deep belief networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cao, Renzhi; Bhattacharya, Debswapna; Hou, Jie; Cheng, Jianlin

    2016-12-05

    Protein quality assessment (QA) useful for ranking and selecting protein models has long been viewed as one of the major challenges for protein tertiary structure prediction. Especially, estimating the quality of a single protein model, which is important for selecting a few good models out of a large model pool consisting of mostly low-quality models, is still a largely unsolved problem. We introduce a novel single-model quality assessment method DeepQA based on deep belief network that utilizes a number of selected features describing the quality of a model from different perspectives, such as energy, physio-chemical characteristics, and structural information. The deep belief network is trained on several large datasets consisting of models from the Critical Assessment of Protein Structure Prediction (CASP) experiments, several publicly available datasets, and models generated by our in-house ab initio method. Our experiments demonstrate that deep belief network has better performance compared to Support Vector Machines and Neural Networks on the protein model quality assessment problem, and our method DeepQA achieves the state-of-the-art performance on CASP11 dataset. It also outperformed two well-established methods in selecting good outlier models from a large set of models of mostly low quality generated by ab initio modeling methods. DeepQA is a useful deep learning tool for protein single model quality assessment and protein structure prediction. The source code, executable, document and training/test datasets of DeepQA for Linux is freely available to non-commercial users at http://cactus.rnet.missouri.edu/DeepQA/ .

  8. Comparison Of Power Quality Disturbances Classification Based On Neural Network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nway Nway Kyaw Win

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Power quality disturbances PQDs result serious problems in the reliability safety and economy of power system network. In order to improve electric power quality events the detection and classification of PQDs must be made type of transient fault. Software analysis of wavelet transform with multiresolution analysis MRA algorithm and feed forward neural network probabilistic and multilayer feed forward neural network based methodology for automatic classification of eight types of PQ signals flicker harmonics sag swell impulse fluctuation notch and oscillatory will be presented. The wavelet family Db4 is chosen in this system to calculate the values of detailed energy distributions as input features for classification because it can perform well in detecting and localizing various types of PQ disturbances. This technique classifies the types of PQDs problem sevents.The classifiers classify and identify the disturbance type according to the energy distribution. The results show that the PNN can analyze different power disturbance types efficiently. Therefore it can be seen that PNN has better classification accuracy than MLFF.

  9. Principios básicos y alcances metodológicos de las evaluaciones económicas en salud Basic principles and methodological considerations of health economic evaluations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cesar Loza

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available La economía de la salud es un instrumento indispensable para la gestión sanitaria y las evaluaciones económicas, se pueden considerar como la herramienta que asiste a la toma de decisiones para asignar recursos en el área de la salud. Hoy en día, su uso es creciente en todas las regiones del mundo y fomenta la toma de decisiones basadas en la evidencia, buscando alternativas eficientes y racionales dentro del conjunto de actividades de los servicios. En esta revisión se efecturá una visión general y se delinea los tipos básicos de evaluación económica, sobre todo de las Evaluaciones Económicas (EE completas. Así mismo se revisará los conceptos más relevantes sobre las perspectivas desde las que se pueden realizar las EE, los tipos de costos, el horizonte temporal, los descuentos, la evaluación de la incertidumbre y las reglas de decisión. Finalmente, se describirán conceptos sobre la transferibilidad y la generalización de las Evaluaciones Económicas en salud.Health Economics is an essential instrument for health management, and economic evaluations can be considered as tools assisting the decision-making process for the allocation of resources in health. Currently, economic evaluations are increasingly being used worldwide, thus encouraging evidence-based decision-making and seeking efficient and rational alternatives within the framework of health services activities. In this review, we present an overview and define the basic types of economic evaluations, with emphasis on complete Economic Evaluations (EE. In addition, we review key concepts regarding the perspectives from which EE can be conducted, the types of costs that can be considered, the time horizon, discounting, assessment of uncertainty and decision rules. Finally, we describe concepts about the extrapolation and spread of economic evaluations in health.

  10. Association between quality domains and health care spending across physician networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rahman, Farah; Guan, Jun; Glazier, Richard H.; Brown, Adalsteinn; Bierman, Arlene S.; Croxford, Ruth; Stukel, Therese A.

    2018-01-01

    One of the more fundamental health policy questions is the relationship between health care quality and spending. A better understanding of these relationships is needed to inform health systems interventions aimed at increasing quality and efficiency of care. We measured 65 validated quality indicators (QI) across Ontario physician networks. QIs were aggregated into domains representing six dimensions of care: screening and prevention, evidence-based medications, hospital-community transitions (7-day post-discharge visit with a primary care physician; 30-day post-discharge visit with a primary care physician and specialist), potentially avoidable hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits, potentially avoidable readmissions and unplanned returns to the ED, and poor cancer end of life care. Each domain rate was computed as a weighted average of QI rates, weighting by network population at risk. We also measured overall and sector-specific per capita healthcare network spending. We evaluated the associations between domain rates, and between domain rates and spending using weighted correlations, weighting by network population at risk, using an ecological design. All indicators were measured using Ontario health administrative databases. Large variations were seen in timely hospital-community transitions and potentially avoidable hospitalizations. Networks with timely hospital-community transitions had lower rates of avoidable admissions and readmissions (r = -0.89, -0.58, respectively). Higher physician spending, especially outpatient primary care spending, was associated with lower rates of avoidable hospitalizations (r = -0.83) and higher rates of timely hospital-community transitions (r = 0.81) and moderately associated with lower readmission rates (r = -0.46). Investment in effective primary care services may help reduce burden on the acute care sector and associated expenditures. PMID:29614131

  11. Social Support Networks and Quality of Life of Rural Men in a Context of Marriage Squeeze in China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Sasa; Yang, Xueyan; Attané, Isabelle

    2018-07-01

    A significant number of rural Chinese men are facing difficulties in finding a spouse and may fail to ever marry due to a relative scarcity of women in the adult population. Research has indicated that marriage squeeze is a stressful event which is harmful to men's quality of life, and also weakens their social support networks. Using data collected in rural Chaohu city, Anhui, China, this study explores the effects of social support networks on quality of life of rural men who experience a marriage squeeze. The results indicate that the size of social contact networks is directly and positively associated with the quality of life of marriage-squeezed men, and moderate the negative effect of age on quality of life. Having no or limited instrumental support network and social contact network are double-edged swords, which have direct negative associations with the quality of life of marriage-squeezed men, and have moderate effects on the relationship between marriage squeeze and quality of life.

  12. A Network and Visual Quality Aware N-Screen Content Recommender System Using Joint Matrix Factorization

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Farman Ullah

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available We propose a network and visual quality aware N-Screen content recommender system. N-Screen provides more ways than ever before to access multimedia content through multiple devices and heterogeneous access networks. The heterogeneity of devices and access networks present new questions of QoS (quality of service in the realm of user experience with content. We propose, a recommender system that ensures a better visual quality on user’s N-screen devices and the efficient utilization of available access network bandwidth with user preferences. The proposed system estimates the available bandwidth and visual quality on users N-Screen devices and integrates it with users preferences and contents genre information to personalize his N-Screen content. The objective is to recommend content that the user’s N-Screen device and access network are capable of displaying and streaming with the user preferences that have not been supported in existing systems. Furthermore, we suggest a joint matrix factorization approach to jointly factorize the users rating matrix with the users N-Screen device similarity and program genres similarity. Finally, the experimental results show that we also enhance the prediction and recommendation accuracy, sparsity, and cold start issues.

  13. A network and visual quality aware N-screen content recommender system using joint matrix factorization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ullah, Farman; Sarwar, Ghulam; Lee, Sungchang

    2014-01-01

    We propose a network and visual quality aware N-Screen content recommender system. N-Screen provides more ways than ever before to access multimedia content through multiple devices and heterogeneous access networks. The heterogeneity of devices and access networks present new questions of QoS (quality of service) in the realm of user experience with content. We propose, a recommender system that ensures a better visual quality on user's N-screen devices and the efficient utilization of available access network bandwidth with user preferences. The proposed system estimates the available bandwidth and visual quality on users N-Screen devices and integrates it with users preferences and contents genre information to personalize his N-Screen content. The objective is to recommend content that the user's N-Screen device and access network are capable of displaying and streaming with the user preferences that have not been supported in existing systems. Furthermore, we suggest a joint matrix factorization approach to jointly factorize the users rating matrix with the users N-Screen device similarity and program genres similarity. Finally, the experimental results show that we also enhance the prediction and recommendation accuracy, sparsity, and cold start issues.

  14. Demanda de educación superior: Evaluaciones y condicionamientos de los estudiantes en la elección de carrera

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    MARGARITA LATIESA

    1989-01-01

    Full Text Available Los estudiantes acceden a la Universidad con una pluralidad de motivaciones: deseo de participar en iniciativas y conocer innovaciones intelectuales, vivir nuevos encuentros sociales y tipos de roles, adquirir prestigio y conocimientos profesionales...,etc. El objetivo de este artículo es conocer estas evaluaciones que realizan los estudiantes y los condicionamientos que influyen en su elección de carrera. Para ello, se estudia la cohorte de alumnos que inician sus estudios en el año académico 1984/85 en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, en las carreras de Derecho, Medicina, Psicología, Ciencias y Letras.

  15. INTEGRAL INDEX OF OPERATION QUALITY FOR EVALUATION OF IMPACT OF DISTRIBUTIVE GENERATION SOURCES ON ELECTRIC NETWORK MODES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Petro D. Lezhniuk

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Method of operation quality evaluation of electric network, comprising renewable sources of energy (RSE is considered. Integral index that enables to evaluate the impact of RSE on energy losses and its quality as well as balance reliability in electric network is suggested. Mathematical model is constructed, taking into account the assumption that electric network with RSE may be in various operation modes, characterized by different technical economic indices. To determine the integral index of operation quality of electric network with RSE in all possible states tools of Markov processes theory and criterial method are used.

  16. A method of groundwater quality assessment based on fuzzy network-CANFIS and geographic information system (GIS)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gholami, V.; Khaleghi, M. R.; Sebghati, M.

    2017-11-01

    The process of water quality testing is money/time-consuming, quite important and difficult stage for routine measurements. Therefore, use of models has become commonplace in simulating water quality. In this study, the coactive neuro-fuzzy inference system (CANFIS) was used to simulate groundwater quality. Further, geographic information system (GIS) was used as the pre-processor and post-processor tool to demonstrate spatial variation of groundwater quality. All important factors were quantified and groundwater quality index (GWQI) was developed. The proposed model was trained and validated by taking a case study of Mazandaran Plain located in northern part of Iran. The factors affecting groundwater quality were the input variables for the simulation, whereas GWQI index was the output. The developed model was validated to simulate groundwater quality. Network validation was performed via comparison between the estimated and actual GWQI values. In GIS, the study area was separated to raster format in the pixel dimensions of 1 km and also by incorporation of input data layers of the Fuzzy Network-CANFIS model; the geo-referenced layers of the effective factors in groundwater quality were earned. Therefore, numeric values of each pixel with geographical coordinates were entered to the Fuzzy Network-CANFIS model and thus simulation of groundwater quality was accessed in the study area. Finally, the simulated GWQI indices using the Fuzzy Network-CANFIS model were entered into GIS, and hence groundwater quality map (raster layer) based on the results of the network simulation was earned. The study's results confirm the high efficiency of incorporation of neuro-fuzzy techniques and GIS. It is also worth noting that the general quality of the groundwater in the most studied plain is fairly low.

  17. Analysis of Network Clustering Algorithms and Cluster Quality Metrics at Scale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Emmons, Scott; Kobourov, Stephen; Gallant, Mike; Börner, Katy

    2016-01-01

    Notions of community quality underlie the clustering of networks. While studies surrounding network clustering are increasingly common, a precise understanding of the realtionship between different cluster quality metrics is unknown. In this paper, we examine the relationship between stand-alone cluster quality metrics and information recovery metrics through a rigorous analysis of four widely-used network clustering algorithms-Louvain, Infomap, label propagation, and smart local moving. We consider the stand-alone quality metrics of modularity, conductance, and coverage, and we consider the information recovery metrics of adjusted Rand score, normalized mutual information, and a variant of normalized mutual information used in previous work. Our study includes both synthetic graphs and empirical data sets of sizes varying from 1,000 to 1,000,000 nodes. We find significant differences among the results of the different cluster quality metrics. For example, clustering algorithms can return a value of 0.4 out of 1 on modularity but score 0 out of 1 on information recovery. We find conductance, though imperfect, to be the stand-alone quality metric that best indicates performance on the information recovery metrics. Additionally, our study shows that the variant of normalized mutual information used in previous work cannot be assumed to differ only slightly from traditional normalized mutual information. Smart local moving is the overall best performing algorithm in our study, but discrepancies between cluster evaluation metrics prevent us from declaring it an absolutely superior algorithm. Interestingly, Louvain performed better than Infomap in nearly all the tests in our study, contradicting the results of previous work in which Infomap was superior to Louvain. We find that although label propagation performs poorly when clusters are less clearly defined, it scales efficiently and accurately to large graphs with well-defined clusters.

  18. New Markov-Shannon Entropy models to assess connectivity quality in complex networks: from molecular to cellular pathway, Parasite-Host, Neural, Industry, and Legal-Social networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riera-Fernández, Pablo; Munteanu, Cristian R; Escobar, Manuel; Prado-Prado, Francisco; Martín-Romalde, Raquel; Pereira, David; Villalba, Karen; Duardo-Sánchez, Aliuska; González-Díaz, Humberto

    2012-01-21

    Graph and Complex Network theory is expanding its application to different levels of matter organization such as molecular, biological, technological, and social networks. A network is a set of items, usually called nodes, with connections between them, which are called links or edges. There are many different experimental and/or theoretical methods to assign node-node links depending on the type of network we want to construct. Unfortunately, the use of a method for experimental reevaluation of the entire network is very expensive in terms of time and resources; thus the development of cheaper theoretical methods is of major importance. In addition, different methods to link nodes in the same type of network are not totally accurate in such a way that they do not always coincide. In this sense, the development of computational methods useful to evaluate connectivity quality in complex networks (a posteriori of network assemble) is a goal of major interest. In this work, we report for the first time a new method to calculate numerical quality scores S(L(ij)) for network links L(ij) (connectivity) based on the Markov-Shannon Entropy indices of order k-th (θ(k)) for network nodes. The algorithm may be summarized as follows: (i) first, the θ(k)(j) values are calculated for all j-th nodes in a complex network already constructed; (ii) A Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) is used to seek a linear equation that discriminates connected or linked (L(ij)=1) pairs of nodes experimentally confirmed from non-linked ones (L(ij)=0); (iii) the new model is validated with external series of pairs of nodes; (iv) the equation obtained is used to re-evaluate the connectivity quality of the network, connecting/disconnecting nodes based on the quality scores calculated with the new connectivity function. This method was used to study different types of large networks. The linear models obtained produced the following results in terms of overall accuracy for network reconstruction

  19. Topological clustering as a tool for planning water quality monitoring in water distribution networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kirstein, Jonas Kjeld; Albrechtsen, Hans-Jørgen; Rygaard, Martin

    2015-01-01

    ) identify steady clusters for a part of the network where an actual contamination has occurred; (2) analyze this event by the use of mesh diagrams; and (3) analyze the use of mesh diagrams as a decision support tool for planning water quality monitoring. Initially, the network model was divided...... into strongly and weakly connected clusters for selected time periods and mesh diagrams were used for analysing cluster connections in the Nørrebro district. Here, areas of particular interest for water quality monitoring were identified by including user-information about consumption rates and consumers...... particular sensitive towards water quality deterioration. The analysis revealed sampling locations within steady clusters, which increased samples' comparability over time. Furthermore, the method provided a simplified overview of water movement in complex distribution networks, and could assist...

  20. Impact of weak social ties and networks on poor sleep quality: A case study of Iranian employees.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Masoudnia, Ebrahim

    2015-12-01

    The poor sleep quality is one of the major risk factors of somatic, psychiatric and social disorders and conditions as well as the major predictors of quality of employees' performance. The previous studies in Iran had neglected the impacts of social factors including social networks and ties on adults sleep quality. Thus, the aim of the current research was to determine the relationship between social networks and adult employees' sleep quality. This study was conducted with a correlational and descriptive design. Data were collected from 360 participants (183 males and 177 females) who were employed in Yazd public organizations in June and July of 2014. These samples were selected based on random sampling method. In addition, the measuring tools were the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and Social Relations Inventory (SRI). Based on the results, the prevalence rate of sleep disorder among Iranian adult employees was 63.1% (total PSQI>5). And, after controlling for socio-demographic variables, there was significant difference between individuals with strong and poor social network and ties in terms of overall sleep quality (p<.01), subjective sleep quality (p<.01), habitual sleep efficiency (p<.05), and daytime dysfunction (p<.01). The results also revealed that the employees with strong social network and ties had better overall sleep quality, had the most habitual sleep efficiency, and less daytime dysfunction than employees with poor social network and ties. It can be implied that the weak social network and ties serve as a risk factor for sleep disorders or poor sleep quality for adult employees. Therefore, the social and behavioral interventions seem essential to improve the adult's quality sleep. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  1. [Networking as a subject of research and quality characteristic of rehabilitation].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mau, W

    2010-12-01

    Rehabilitation has to meet numerous challenges in the sectorized health service and social security system. Rehabilitation science has analysed these problems at the interfaces between different actors and domains of care in a number of studies. In research projects and quality assurance, the solution-oriented and networking aspects of rehabilitation particularly of persons with chronic illnesses and disabilities are of interest. Therefore, exemplary studies concerning interface analyses leading to solutions and networking activities are discussed in this article. Different problems and fields of action regarding access to rehabilitation are presented: the role of physicians in practice concerning the patients' applications for rehabilitation, post-acute rehabilitation since introduction of the Diagnosis Related Groups in the acute hospital setting, and the involvement of companies and different funding agencies. With regard to networking in rehabilitation, issues dealt with are work-related interventions as well as challenges for the rehabilitation team concerning joint presentation of concepts in the face of an increasing differentiation of competences and a new distribution of roles and tasks. In this context, quality management within the rehabilitation facilities as well as internal and external patient-orientation including shared decision-making are highly significant during the rehabilitation process. The planning of activities to be realized after discharge from the rehabilitation facility is dealt with in greater detail in view of recommendations for and implementation of physical activities and stepwise return-to-work measures. Rehabilitation has an important course-setting function by supporting rehabilitants on their way toward self-management. Networking within, including and by means of rehabilitation requires considerable effort, which needs to be followed along by research and quality assurance. Due to its multifaceted competences and experiences

  2. An Energy-Efficient and High-Quality Video Transmission Architecture in Wireless Video-Based Sensor Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yasaman Samei

    2008-08-01

    Full Text Available Technological progress in the fields of Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS and wireless communications and also the availability of CMOS cameras, microphones and small-scale array sensors, which may ubiquitously capture multimedia content from the field, have fostered the development of low-cost limited resources Wireless Video-based Sensor Networks (WVSN. With regards to the constraints of videobased sensor nodes and wireless sensor networks, a supporting video stream is not easy to implement with the present sensor network protocols. In this paper, a thorough architecture is presented for video transmission over WVSN called Energy-efficient and high-Quality Video transmission Architecture (EQV-Architecture. This architecture influences three layers of communication protocol stack and considers wireless video sensor nodes constraints like limited process and energy resources while video quality is preserved in the receiver side. Application, transport, and network layers are the layers in which the compression protocol, transport protocol, and routing protocol are proposed respectively, also a dropping scheme is presented in network layer. Simulation results over various environments with dissimilar conditions revealed the effectiveness of the architecture in improving the lifetime of the network as well as preserving the video quality.

  3. An Energy-Efficient and High-Quality Video Transmission Architecture in Wireless Video-Based Sensor Networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aghdasi, Hadi S; Abbaspour, Maghsoud; Moghadam, Mohsen Ebrahimi; Samei, Yasaman

    2008-08-04

    Technological progress in the fields of Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and wireless communications and also the availability of CMOS cameras, microphones and small-scale array sensors, which may ubiquitously capture multimedia content from the field, have fostered the development of low-cost limited resources Wireless Video-based Sensor Networks (WVSN). With regards to the constraints of videobased sensor nodes and wireless sensor networks, a supporting video stream is not easy to implement with the present sensor network protocols. In this paper, a thorough architecture is presented for video transmission over WVSN called Energy-efficient and high-Quality Video transmission Architecture (EQV-Architecture). This architecture influences three layers of communication protocol stack and considers wireless video sensor nodes constraints like limited process and energy resources while video quality is preserved in the receiver side. Application, transport, and network layers are the layers in which the compression protocol, transport protocol, and routing protocol are proposed respectively, also a dropping scheme is presented in network layer. Simulation results over various environments with dissimilar conditions revealed the effectiveness of the architecture in improving the lifetime of the network as well as preserving the video quality.

  4. Best Signal Quality in Cellular Networks: Asymptotic Properties and Applications to Mobility Management in Small Cell Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Baccelli François

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available The quickly increasing data traffic and the user demand for a full coverage of mobile services anywhere and anytime are leading mobile networking into a future of small cell networks. However, due to the high-density and randomness of small cell networks, there are several technical challenges. In this paper, we investigate two critical issues: best signal quality and mobility management. Under the assumptions that base stations are uniformly distributed in a ring-shaped region and that shadowings are lognormal, independent, and identically distributed, we prove that when the number of sites in the ring tends to infinity, then (i the maximum signal strength received at the center of the ring tends in distribution to a Gumbel distribution when properly renormalized, and (ii it is asymptotically independent of the interference. Using these properties, we derive the distribution of the best signal quality. Furthermore, an optimized random cell scanning scheme is proposed, based on the evaluation of the optimal number of sites to be scanned for maximizing the user data throughput.

  5. Social networks, health promoting-behavior, and health-related quality of life in older Korean adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hong, Minjoo; De Gagne, Jennie C; Shin, Hyewon

    2018-03-01

    In this cross-sectional, descriptive study, we compared the sociodemographic characteristics, social networks, health-promoting behavior, and the health-related quality of life of older Korean adults living in South Korea to those of older Korean adult immigrants living in the USA. A total of 354 older adults, aged 65 years or older, participated. Data were collected through self-directed questionnaires, and analyzed using a two way analysis of variance, t-tests, χ 2 -tests, and Pearson's correlation coefficient. The association between four sociodemographic characteristics and health-related quality of life was significantly different between the two groups. For the older Korean adults living in South Korea, positive correlations existed between a measure of their social networks and both health-promoting behavior and health-related quality of life. For the older Korean immigrants, the findings revealed a positive correlation only between social networks and health-promoting behavior. The study findings support the important association social networks can have with health-related quality of life, and their possible relationship to health-promoting behaviors of older Korean adults. We suggest that health policy-makers and healthcare providers develop comprehensive programs that are designed to improve older adults' social networks. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

  6. Quality of Service in Networks Supporting Cultural Multimedia Applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kanellopoulos, Dimitris N.

    2011-01-01

    Purpose: This paper aims to provide an overview of representative multimedia applications in the cultural heritage sector, as well as research results on quality of service (QoS) mechanisms in internet protocol (IP) networks that support such applications. Design/methodology/approach: The paper's approach is a literature review. Findings: Cultural…

  7. Quality of Experience on Smartphones : Network, Application, and Energy Perspectives

    OpenAIRE

    Ickin, Selim

    2015-01-01

    Smartphones have become crucial enablers for users to exploit online services such as learning, leisure, communicating, and socializing. The user-perceived quality of applications and services is an important factor to consider, in order to achieve lean resource management, to prevent user churn and revenue depletion of service or network providers. This is often studied within the scope of Quality of Experience (QoE), which has attracted researchers both in academia and industry. The objecti...

  8. Tailoring groundwater quality monitoring to vulnerability: a GIS procedure for network design.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Preziosi, E; Petrangeli, A B; Giuliano, G

    2013-05-01

    Monitoring networks aiming to assess the state of groundwater quality and detect or predict changes could increase in efficiency when fitted to vulnerability and pollution risk assessment. The main purpose of this paper is to describe a methodology aiming at integrating aquifers vulnerability and actual levels of groundwater pollution in the monitoring network design. In this study carried out in a pilot area in central Italy, several factors such as hydrogeological setting, groundwater vulnerability, and natural and anthropogenic contamination levels were analyzed and used in designing a network tailored to the monitoring objectives, namely, surveying the evolution of groundwater quality relating to natural conditions as well as to polluting processes active in the area. Due to the absence of an aquifer vulnerability map for the whole area, a proxi evaluation of it was performed through a geographic information system (GIS) methodology, leading to the so called "susceptibility to groundwater quality degradation". The latter was used as a basis for the network density assessment, while water points were ranked by several factors including discharge, actual contamination levels, maintenance conditions, and accessibility for periodical sampling in order to select the most appropriate to the network. Two different GIS procedures were implemented which combine vulnerability conditions and water points suitability, producing two slightly different networks of 50 monitoring points selected out of the 121 candidate wells and springs. The results are compared with a "manual" selection of the points. The applied GIS procedures resulted capable to select the requested number of water points from the initial set, evaluating the most confident ones and an appropriate density. Moreover, it is worth underlining that the second procedure (point distance analysis [PDA]) is technically faster and simpler to be performed than the first one (GRID + PDA).

  9. EVALUACION DE LA DISPONIBILIDAD HÍDRICA ACTUAL Y FUTURA EN EL CONTEXTO DEL CAMBIO CLIMATICO EN LAS CUENCAS ILAVE Y RAMIS

    OpenAIRE

    LUJANO LAURA, EFRAIN; Servicio Nacional de Meteorología e Hidrología; DIAZ AGUILAR, RENNY DANIEL; Servicio Nacional de Meteorología e Hidrología; LUJANO LAURA, APLORINARIO; Servicio Nacional de Meteorología e Hidrología; QUISPE ARAGON, JOSE PITAGORAS; Servicio Nacional de Meteorología e Hidrología

    2015-01-01

    La investigación, se realizó en la región hidrográfica del Titicaca (lado peruano), cuyo objetivo fue evaluar la disponibilidad hídrica actual y futura en el contexto del cambio climático, donde se analiza la distribución temporal de la precipitación simulada en el Centro Hadley del Reino Unido con una base climática de 1961 – 1990 y con proyecciones para el horizonte 2071 – 2100. Para el modelamiento de caudales, se utilizó el modelo hidrológico mensual de 2 parámetros, cuyas evaluaciones es...

  10. Logistics network design for perishable products with heterogeneous quality decay

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Keizer, de Marlies; Akkerman, Renzo; Grunow, Martin; Bloemhof-Ruwaard, Jacqueline; Haijema, Rene; Vorst, van der Jack G.A.J.

    2017-01-01

    The duration of logistics operations, as well as the environmental conditions during these operations, significantly impact the performance of a logistics network for fresh agricultural products. When durations or temperatures increase, product quality decreases and more effort is required to

  11. A Survey on Quality of Service Monitoring and Analysis of Network of Agricultural Science and Technology Resources

    OpenAIRE

    Jian , Ma

    2014-01-01

    International audience; First, current situation on Network of agricultural science and technology resources is described. Then we pay much attention to the quality of service monitoring and analysis system of network resources. And finally, we come to the conclusion that the construction of Quality of service monitoring, analysis of network of agricultural science and technology resources is in great need.

  12. New approach in subjective and objective speech transmission quality measurement in TCP/IP networks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Souček, Pavel; Slavata, Oldřich; Holub, Jan

    2015-01-01

    This paper deals with problems of speech transmission quality measurement in modern telecommunication networks. It focuses on problems caused by specific types of distortions and errors caused present in transmissions using TCP/IP networks

  13. Report on the service quality incentive regulations for gas network operators and ERDF. 2009-2010 Report Synthesis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2010-11-01

    The latest natural gas transmission network tariffs, called 'ATRT4', and the tariffs for natural gas distribution network, 'ATRD3', as well as the 3. tariffs for using the public electricity networks, 'TURPE 3', constitute a regulatory framework offering incentives to gas transmission and distribution operators, as well as the electricity distributor ERDF, to control their costs and improve the quality of service provided for network users. For gas and electricity distribution system operators (DSO), the incentive-based regulation for quality of service implemented through the tariffs is complementary to the supervision powers of the licensing authorities. It operates by means of concession contracts which imply that the concessionaire has to deliver activity reports and that the licensing authorities have to publish monitoring reports of the concessionaire's activity. The licensing authorities act on the local level, whereas the incentive regulation is of national scope. The actions of the licensing authorities and of the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) contribute together to assess and enhance the quality of service of the DSO. As the service quality monitoring exercises are conducted successively, the analysis will become more refined as a greater data history is acquired. The quality of service from the gas network operators (GrDF, GRTgaz and TIGF) and the electricity distributor (ERDF) has been improving gradually over the period of the monitoring, or has stabilised at a satisfactory level for the areas that are most important for the correct functioning of the market. Some objectives set by the tariffs have been met or even exceeded, which earns financial bonuses for the operators in question. This second service quality monitoring report on the gas network operators and ERDF is going to be used by the CRE, in consultation with all the market players, to refine the incentive mechanisms already in place. Contents: 1

  14. A Study of Quality of Service Communication for High-Speed Packet-Switching Computer Sub-Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cui, Zhenqian

    1999-01-01

    In this thesis, we analyze various factors that affect quality of service (QoS) communication in high-speed, packet-switching sub-networks. We hypothesize that sub-network-wide bandwidth reservation and guaranteed CPU processing power at endpoint systems for handling data traffic are indispensable to achieving hard end-to-end quality of service. Different bandwidth reservation strategies, traffic characterization schemes, and scheduling algorithms affect the network resources and CPU usage as well as the extent that QoS can be achieved. In order to analyze those factors, we design and implement a communication layer. Our experimental analysis supports our research hypothesis. The Resource ReSerVation Protocol (RSVP) is designed to realize resource reservation. Our analysis of RSVP shows that using RSVP solely is insufficient to provide hard end-to-end quality of service in a high-speed sub-network. Analysis of the IEEE 802.lp protocol also supports the research hypothesis.

  15. Effects of Social Networks on the Quality of Life in an Elder and Middle-Aged Deaf Community Sample

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gerich, Joachim; Fellinger, Johannes

    2012-01-01

    This article endeavors to investigate the role of social networks in contributing to the quality of life of an elder and middle-aged Deaf population. In particular, it poses the question of whether a certain network composition (deaf and hearing network persons) provides positive resources to improve quality of life and attempts to identify…

  16. Food choice patterns among frail older adults: The associations between social network, food choice values, and diet quality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Chang-O

    2016-01-01

    Social network type might affect an individual's food choice because these decisions are often made as a group rather than individually. In this study, the associations between social network type, food choice value, and diet quality in frail older adults with low socioeconomic status were investigated. For this cross-sectional study, 87 frail older adults were recruited from the National Home Healthcare Services in Seoul, South Korea. Social network types, food choice values, and diet quality were assessed using The Practitioner Assessment of Network Type Instrument, The Food Choice Questionnaire, and mean adequacy ratio, respectively. Results showed that frail older adults with close relationships with local family and/or friends and neighbors were less likely to follow their own preferences, such as taste, price, and beliefs regarding food health values. In contrast, frail older adults with a small social network and few community contacts were more likely to be influenced by their food choice values, such as price or healthiness of food. Frail older adults who tend to choose familiar foods were associated with low-quality dietary intake, while older adults who valued healthiness or use of natural ingredients were associated with a high-quality diet. The strength and direction of these associations were dependent on social network type of frail older adults. This study explored the hypothesis that food choice values are associated with a certain type of social network and consequently affect diet quality. While additional research needs to be conducted, community-based intervention intended to improve diet quality of frail older adults must carefully consider individual food choice values as well as social network types. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Data Quality Assurance and Control for AmeriFlux Network at CDIAC, ORNL

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shem, W.; Boden, T.; Krassovski, M.; Yang, B.

    2014-12-01

    The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) serves as the long-term data repository for the AmeriFlux network. Datasets currently available include hourly or half-hourly meteorological and flux observations, biological measurement records, and synthesis data products. Currently there is a lack of standardized nomenclature and specifically designed procedures for data quality assurance/control in processing and handling micrometeorological and ecological data at individual flux sites. CDIAC's has bridged this gap by providing efficient and accurate procedures for data quality control and standardization of the results for easier assimilation by the models used in climate science. In this presentation we highlight the procedures we have put in place to scrutinize continuous flux and meteorological data within Ameriflux network. We itemize some basic data quality issues that we have observed over the past years and include some examples of typical data quality issues. Such issues, e.g., incorrect time-stamping, poor calibration or maintenance of instruments, missing or incomplete metadata and others that are commonly over-looked by PI's, invariably impact the time-series observations.

  18. Applying fuzzy analytic network process in quality function deployment model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammad Ali Afsharkazemi

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we propose an empirical study of QFD implementation when fuzzy numbers are used to handle the uncertainty associated with different components of the proposed model. We implement fuzzy analytical network to find the relative importance of various criteria and using fuzzy numbers we calculate the relative importance of these factors. The proposed model of this paper uses fuzzy matrix and house of quality to study the products development in QFD and also the second phase i.e. part deployment. In most researches, the primary objective is only on CRs to implement the quality function deployment and some other criteria such as production costs, manufacturing costs etc were disregarded. The results of using fuzzy analysis network process based on the QFD model in Daroupat packaging company to develop PVDC show that the most important indexes are being waterproof, resistant pill packages, and production cost. In addition, the PVDC coating is the most important index in terms of company experts’ point of view.

  19. Multiple Transcoding Impact on Speech Quality in Ideal Network Conditions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Martin Mikulec

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper deals with the impact of transcoding on the speech quality. We have focused mainly on the transcoding between codecs without the negative influence of the network parameters such as packet loss and delay. It has ensured objective and repeatable results from our measurement. The measurement was performed on the Transcoding Measuring System developed especially for this purpose. The system is based on the open source projects and is useful as a design tool for VoIP system administrators. The paper compares the most used codecs from the transcoding perspective. The multiple transcoding between G711, GSM and G729 codecs were performed and the speech quality of these calls was evaluated. The speech quality was measured by Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality method, which provides results in Mean Opinion Score used to describe the speech quality on a scale from 1 to 5. The obtained results indicate periodical speech quality degradation on every transcoding between two codecs.

  20. TinyOS-based quality of service management in wireless sensor networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peterson, N.; Anusuya-Rangappa, L.; Shirazi, B.A.; Huang, R.; Song, W.-Z.; Miceli, M.; McBride, D.; Hurson, A.; LaHusen, R.

    2009-01-01

    Previously the cost and extremely limited capabilities of sensors prohibited Quality of Service (QoS) implementations in wireless sensor networks. With advances in technology, sensors are becoming significantly less expensive and the increases in computational and storage capabilities are opening the door for new, sophisticated algorithms to be implemented. Newer sensor network applications require higher data rates with more stringent priority requirements. We introduce a dynamic scheduling algorithm to improve bandwidth for high priority data in sensor networks, called Tiny-DWFQ. Our Tiny-Dynamic Weighted Fair Queuing scheduling algorithm allows for dynamic QoS for prioritized communications by continually adjusting the treatment of communication packages according to their priorities and the current level of network congestion. For performance evaluation, we tested Tiny-DWFQ, Tiny-WFQ (traditional WFQ algorithm implemented in TinyOS), and FIFO queues on an Imote2-based wireless sensor network and report their throughput and packet loss. Our results show that Tiny-DWFQ performs better in all test cases. ?? 2009 IEEE.

  1. Quality of Recovery Evaluation of the Protection Schemes for Fiber-Wireless Access Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fu, Minglei; Chai, Zhicheng; Le, Zichun

    2016-03-01

    With the rapid development of fiber-wireless (FiWi) access network, the protection schemes have got more and more attention due to the risk of huge data loss when failures occur. However, there are few studies on the performance evaluation of the FiWi protection schemes by the unified evaluation criterion. In this paper, quality of recovery (QoR) method was adopted to evaluate the performance of three typical protection schemes (MPMC scheme, OBOF scheme and RPMF scheme) against the segment-level failure in FiWi access network. The QoR models of the three schemes were derived in terms of availability, quality of backup path, recovery time and redundancy. To compare the performance of the three protection schemes comprehensively, five different classes of network services such as emergency service, prioritized elastic service, conversational service, etc. were utilized by means of assigning different QoR weights. Simulation results showed that, for the most service cases, RPMF scheme was proved to be the best solution to enhance the survivability when planning the FiWi access network.

  2. The Quality of Social Networks: Its Determinants and Impacts on Helping and Volunteering in Macao

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tong, Kwok Kit; Hung, Eva P. W.; Yuen, Sze Man

    2011-01-01

    Pro-social behaviors serve essential societal functions. This study examines the factors affecting the quality of social networks, in terms of network size and perceived respect. It further explores the role of social networks in enhancing helping intention and helping behaviors. Eight hundred and eighty people were randomly interviewed by phone.…

  3. Frequency and Quality of Social Networking Among Young Adults: Associations With Depressive Symptoms, Rumination, and Corumination

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davila, Joanne; Hershenberg, Rachel; Feinstein, Brian A.; Gorman, Kaitlyn; Bhatia, Vickie; Starr, Lisa R.

    2012-01-01

    Two studies examined associations between social networking and depressive symptoms among youth. In Study 1, 384 participants (68% female; mean age = 20.22 years, SD = 2.90) were surveyed. In Study 2, 334 participants (62% female; M age = 19.44 years, SD = 2.05) were surveyed initially and 3 weeks later. Results indicated that depressive symptoms were associated with quality of social networking interactions, not quantity. There was some evidence that depressive rumination moderated associations, and both depressive rumination and corumination were associated with aspects of social networking usage and quality. Implications for understanding circumstances that increase social networking, as well as resulting negative interactions and negative affect are discussed. PMID:24490122

  4. Research on the Topological Properties of Air Quality Index Based on a Complex Network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yongli Zhang

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available To analyze the dynamic characteristics of air quality for enforcing effective measures to prevent and evade air pollution harm, air quality index (AQI time series data was selected and transformed into a symbol sequence consisting of characters (H, M, L through the coarse graining process; then each 6-symbols series was treated as one vertex by time sequence to construct the AQI directed-weighted network; finally the centrality, clusterability, and ranking of the AQI network were analyzed. The results indicated that vertex strength and cumulative strength distribution, vertex strength and strength rank presented power law distributions, and the AQI network is a scale-free network. Only 17 vertices possessed a higher weighted clustering coefficient; meanwhile weighted clustering coefficient and vertex strength didn’t show a strong correlation. The AQI network did not have an obvious central tendency towards intermediaries in general, but 20.55% of vertices accounted for nearly 1/2 of the intermediaries, and the varieties still existed. The mean distance of 68.4932% of vertices was 6.120–9.973, the AQI network did not have obvious small-world phenomena, the conversion of AQI patterns presented the characteristics of periodicity and regularity, and 20.2055% of vertices had high proximity prestige. The vertices fell into six islands, the AQI pattern indicating heavy or serious air pollution lasting six days always lingered for a long time. The number of triads 2-012 was the largest, and the AQI network followed the transitivity model. The study has instructional significance in understanding time change regulation of air quality in Beijing, opening a new way for time series prediction research. Additionally, the factors causing the change of topological properties should be analyzed in the future research.

  5. 3D conditional generative adversarial networks for high-quality PET image estimation at low dose.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Yan; Yu, Biting; Wang, Lei; Zu, Chen; Lalush, David S; Lin, Weili; Wu, Xi; Zhou, Jiliu; Shen, Dinggang; Zhou, Luping

    2018-07-01

    Positron emission tomography (PET) is a widely used imaging modality, providing insight into both the biochemical and physiological processes of human body. Usually, a full dose radioactive tracer is required to obtain high-quality PET images for clinical needs. This inevitably raises concerns about potential health hazards. On the other hand, dose reduction may cause the increased noise in the reconstructed PET images, which impacts the image quality to a certain extent. In this paper, in order to reduce the radiation exposure while maintaining the high quality of PET images, we propose a novel method based on 3D conditional generative adversarial networks (3D c-GANs) to estimate the high-quality full-dose PET images from low-dose ones. Generative adversarial networks (GANs) include a generator network and a discriminator network which are trained simultaneously with the goal of one beating the other. Similar to GANs, in the proposed 3D c-GANs, we condition the model on an input low-dose PET image and generate a corresponding output full-dose PET image. Specifically, to render the same underlying information between the low-dose and full-dose PET images, a 3D U-net-like deep architecture which can combine hierarchical features by using skip connection is designed as the generator network to synthesize the full-dose image. In order to guarantee the synthesized PET image to be close to the real one, we take into account of the estimation error loss in addition to the discriminator feedback to train the generator network. Furthermore, a concatenated 3D c-GANs based progressive refinement scheme is also proposed to further improve the quality of estimated images. Validation was done on a real human brain dataset including both the normal subjects and the subjects diagnosed as mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Experimental results show that our proposed 3D c-GANs method outperforms the benchmark methods and achieves much better performance than the state

  6. Influence of the Training Set Value on the Quality of the Neural Network to Identify Selected Moulding Sand Properties

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jakubski J.

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Artificial neural networks are one of the modern methods of the production optimisation. An attempt to apply neural networks for controlling the quality of bentonite moulding sands is presented in this paper. This is the assessment method of sands suitability by means of detecting correlations between their individual parameters. This paper presents the next part of the study on usefulness of artificial neural networks to support rebonding of green moulding sand, using chosen properties of moulding sands, which can be determined fast. The effect of changes in the training set quantity on the quality of the network is presented in this article. It has been shown that a small change in the data set would change the quality of the network, and may also make it necessary to change the type of network in order to obtain good results.

  7. A Portable Low-Cost High Density Sensor Network for Air Quality at London Heathrow Airport

    Science.gov (United States)

    Popoola, Olalekan; Mead, Iq; Bright, Vivien; Baron, Ronan; Saffell, John; Stewart, Gregor; Kaye, Paul; Jones, Roderic

    2013-04-01

    Outdoor air quality and its impact on human health and the environment have been well studied and it has been projected that poor air quality will surpass poor sanitation as the major course of environmental premature mortality by 2050 (IGAC / IGBP, release statement, 2012). Transport-related pollution has been regulated at various levels by enactment of legislations at local, national, regional and global stages. As part of the mitigation measures, routine measurements of atmospheric pollutants such as carbon monoxide (CO), nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) have to be established in areas where air quality problems are identified. In addition, emission inventories are also generated for different atmospheric environments including urban areas and airport environments required for air quality models. Whilst recognising that most of the existing sparse monitoring networks provide high temporal measurements, spatial data of these highly variable pollutants are not captured, making it difficult to adequately characterise the highly heterogeneous air quality. Spatial information is often obtained from model data which can only be constrained using measurements from the sparse monitoring networks. The work presented here shows the application of low-cost sensor networks aimed at addressing this missing spatial information. We have shown in previous studies the application of low-cost electrochemical sensor network instruments in monitoring road transport pollutants including CO, NO and NO2 in an urban environment (Mead et. al. 2012, accepted Atmospheric Environment). Modified versions of these instruments which include additional species such as O3, SO2, VOCs and CO2 are currently deployed at London Heathrow Airport (LHR) as part of the Sensor Network for Air Quality (SNAQ) project. Meteorology data such as temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction are also measured as well as size-speciated particulates (0.38 to 17.4 µm). A network of 50

  8. Scotland's Knowledge Network: translating knowledge into action to improve quality of care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wales, A; Graham, S; Rooney, K; Crawford, A

    2012-11-01

    The Knowledge Network (www.knowledge.scot.nhs.uk) is Scotland's online knowledge service for health and social care. It is designed to support practitioners to apply knowledge in frontline delivery of care, helping to translate knowledge into better health-care outcomes through safe, effective, person-centred care. The Knowledge Network helps to combine the worlds of evidence-based practice and quality improvement by providing access to knowledge about the effectiveness of clinical interventions ('know-what') and knowledge about how to implement this knowledge to support individual patients in working health-care environments ('know-how'). An 'evidence and guidance' search enables clinicians to quickly access quality-assured evidence and best practice, while point of care and mobile solutions provide knowledge in actionable formats to embed in clinical workflow. This research-based knowledge is complemented by social networking services and improvement tools which support the capture and exchange of knowledge from experience, facilitating practice change and systems improvement. In these cases, the Knowledge Network supports key components of the knowledge-to-action cycle--acquiring, creating, sharing and disseminating knowledge to improve performance and innovate. It provides a vehicle for implementing the recommendations of the national Knowledge into Action review, which outlines a new national approach to embedding knowledge in frontline practice and systems improvement.

  9. A Method for Assessing Quality of Service in Broadband Networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bujlow, Tomasz; Riaz, M. Tahir; Pedersen, Jens Myrup

    2012-01-01

    Monitoring of Quality of Service (QoS) in high-speed Internet infrastructure is a challenging task. However, precise assessments must take into account the fact that the requirements for the given quality level are service-dependent. Backbone QoS monitoring and analysis requires processing of large...... taken from the description of system sockets. This paper proposes a new method for measuring the Quality of Service (QoS) level in broadband networks, based on our Volunteer-Based System for collecting the training data, Machine Learning Algorithms for generating the classification rules and application...... and provide C5.0 high-quality training data, divided into groups corresponding to different types of applications. It was found that currently existing means of collecting data (classification by ports, Deep Packet Inspection, statistical classification, public data sources) are not sufficient and they do...

  10. Congestion Prediction Modeling for Quality of Service Improvement in Wireless Sensor Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ga-Won Lee

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Information technology (IT is pushing ahead with drastic reforms of modern life for improvement of human welfare. Objects constitute “Information Networks” through smart, self-regulated information gathering that also recognizes and controls current information states in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs. Information observed from sensor networks in real-time is used to increase quality of life (QoL in various industries and daily life. One of the key challenges of the WSNs is how to achieve lossless data transmission. Although nowadays sensor nodes have enhanced capacities, it is hard to assure lossless and reliable end-to-end data transmission in WSNs due to the unstable wireless links and low hard ware resources to satisfy high quality of service (QoS requirements. We propose a node and path traffic prediction model to predict and minimize the congestion. This solution includes prediction of packet generation due to network congestion from both periodic and event data generation. Simulation using NS-2 and Matlab is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed solution.

  11. Supporting differentiated quality of service in optical burst switched networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Bin; Bassiouni, Mostafa A.

    2006-01-01

    We propose and evaluate two new schemes for providing differentiated services in optical burst switched (OBS) networks. The two new schemes are suitable for implementation in OBS networks using just-in-time (JIT) or just-enough-time (JET) scheduling protocols. The first scheme adjusts the size of the search space for a free wavelength based on the priority level of the burst. A simple equation is used to divide the search spectrum into two parts: a base part and an adjustable part. The size of the adjustable part increases as the priority of the burst becomes higher. The scheme is very easy to implement and does not demand any major software or hardware resources in optical cross-connects. The second scheme reduces the dropping probability of bursts with higher priorities through the use of different proactive discarding rates in the network access station (NAS) of the source node. Our extensive simulation tests using JIT show that both schemes are capable of providing tangible quality of service (QoS) differentiation without negatively impacting the throughput of OBS networks.

  12. Intelligent Packet Shaper to Avoid Network Congestion for Improved Streaming Video Quality at Clients

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kaul, Manohar; Khosla, Rajiv; Mitsukura, Y

    2003-01-01

    of this intelligent traffic-shaping algorithm on the underlying network real time packet traffic and the eradication of unwanted abruption in the streaming video qualiy. This paper concluded from the end results of the simulation that neural networks are a very superior means of modeling real-time traffic......This paper proposes a traffic shaping algorithm based on neural networks, which adapts to a network over which streaming video is being transmitted. The purpose of this intelligent shaper is to eradicate all traffic congestion and improve the end-user's video quality. It possesses the capability...

  13. Including 10-Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Network under End-to-End Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching Provisioned Quality of Service

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brewka, Lukasz Jerzy; Gavler, Anders; Wessing, Henrik

    2012-01-01

    of the network where quality of service signaling is bridged. This article proposes strategies for generalized multi-protocol label switching control over next emerging passive optical network standard, i.e., the 10-gigabit-capable passive optical network. Node management and resource allocation approaches...... are discussed, and possible issues are raised. The analysis shows that consideration of a 10-gigabit-capable passive optical network as a generalized multi-protocol label switching controlled domain is valid and may advance end-to-end quality of service provisioning for passive optical network based customers.......End-to-end quality of service provisioning is still a challenging task despite many years of research and development in this area. Considering a generalized multi-protocol label switching based core/metro network and resource reservation protocol capable home gateways, it is the access part...

  14. El impacto social en las evaluaciones de impacto ambienta: su conceptualización y práctica

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mercedes Pardo

    1994-01-01

    Full Text Available Análisis del impacto social de las obras públicas es parte integrante de las evaluaciones de impacto ambiental (eia en España. En este artículo se analiza el impacto a través de la investigación de las declaraciones oficiales de impacto ambiental y situándolas en un marco más amplio relativo de conceptualización del impacto social que se hace en la legislación aplicable, en las guías metodológicas de análisis para este campo y en los estudios de impacto ambiental concretos. se concluye con unas propuestas de integración de la participación pública en las diferentes fases de evaluación ambiental con objeto de su incorporación en el procedimiento administrativo legal de las eia.

  15. The control network of air quality in the Lorraine steel industry country: an example of a specific steel industry network

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Poncin, G.

    1991-01-01

    This specific (for steel industry region) network for the air quality control mainly measures the concentrations in sulfur dioxide, airborne dust and fall out particles. The recent automation of this network implied a preliminary optimization study which consisted of a statistical analysis of the numerous data collected by many hand operated sensors. The implementation and working conditions of the new equipment have required the use of air-conditioned monoblock metallic cabins

  16. Abnormal quality detection and isolation in water distribution networks using simulation models

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    F. Nejjari

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available This paper proposes a model based detection and localisation method to deal with abnormal quality levels based on the chlorine measurements and chlorine sensitivity analysis in a water distribution network. A fault isolation algorithm which correlates on line the residuals (generated by comparing the available chlorine measurements with their estimations using a model with the fault sensitivity matrix is used. The proposed methodology has been applied to a District Metered Area (DMA in the Barcelona network.

  17. Exploring network operations for data and information networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yao, Bing; Su, Jing; Ma, Fei; Wang, Xiaomin; Zhao, Xiyang; Yao, Ming

    2017-01-01

    Barabási and Albert, in 1999, formulated scale-free models based on some real networks: World-Wide Web, Internet, metabolic and protein networks, language or sexual networks. Scale-free networks not only appear around us, but also have high qualities in the world. As known, high quality information networks can transfer feasibly and efficiently data, clearly, their topological structures are very important for data safety. We build up network operations for constructing large scale of dynamic networks from smaller scale of network models having good property and high quality. We focus on the simplest operators to formulate complex operations, and are interesting on the closeness of operations to desired network properties.

  18. Quality of Context Enhancements and Cost Effective Radio over Fiber Network Planning

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Shawky, Ahmed Sherif Mahmoud

    In Communication networks today there is an endless quest for increased capacity and improved quality. With wireless systems being now popular worldwide for allowing users and devices to communicate and share information with each other irrespective of their location, the development of sustainable...... into dynamic context information reliability by developing models and online algorithms that ensure increased reliability for context information exchange. Eventually, the PhD looks into improving network planning by implementing an automated network planning model that takes advantage of both Radio over Fiber...... services. The increased number of mobile users puts a demand on today's networks in terms of application sensitivity, mobility and reliability. Mobile operators are offering various context-aware services and applications to the user. Today, mobile users are demanding access to dynamic context information...

  19. A Method for Evaluation of Quality of Service in Computer Networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bujlow, Tomasz; Hald, Sara Ligaard; Riaz, M. Tahir

    2012-01-01

    , together with the application name taken from the description of system sockets. This paper proposes a new method for measuring the level of Quality of Service in broadband networks. It is based on our Volunteer-Based System to collect the training data, Machine Learning Algorithms to generate...

  20. Stigma, discrimination, empowerment and social networks: a preliminary investigation of their influence on subjective quality of life in a Swedish sample.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lundberg, Bertil; Hansson, Lars; Wentz, Elisabet; Björkman, Tommy

    2008-01-01

    Studies investigating the importance of social network, empowerment and experiences of stigma on subjective quality of life among persons with mental illness are rare. This study aimed to investigate beliefs of devaluation/discrimination, actual rejection experiences, empowerment, social network and the relationship of these factors to subjective quality of life among subjects with mental illness. A cross-sectional study assessing beliefs of devaluation/discrimination, actual rejection experiences, empowerment, social network and subjective quality of life was performed on 150 subjects with mental illness. The factors most prominently related to subjective quality of life were overall empowerment and overall social network. For a subgroup of subjects suffering from psychotic disorders there was a significant negative relationship between subjective quality of life and rejection experiences. This group also reported more frequent rejection experiences. The findings indicate that persons with mental illness are a heterogeneous group with regard to the influence of social network, stigma and empowerment on subjective quality of life. The negative impact of actual rejection experiences might express that, in order to increase subjective quality of life, stigma must be addressed as a separate and important factor in its own right.

  1. Collaborative Catchment-Scale Water Quality Management using Integrated Wireless Sensor Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zia, Huma; Harris, Nick; Merrett, Geoff

    2013-04-01

    Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, United Kingdom Summary The challenge of improving water quality (WQ) is a growing global concern [1]. Poor WQ is mainly attributed to poor water management and outdated agricultural activities. We propose that collaborative sensor networks spread across an entire catchment can allow cooperation among individual activities for integrated WQ monitoring and management. We show that sharing information on critical parameters among networks of water bodies and farms can enable identification and quantification of the contaminant sources, enabling better decision making for agricultural practices and thereby reducing contaminants fluxes. Motivation and results Nutrient losses from land to water have accelerated due to agricultural and urban pursuits [2]. In many cases, the application of fertiliser can be reduced by 30-50% without any loss of yield [3]. Thus information about nutrient levels and trends around the farm can improve agricultural practices and thereby reduce water contamination. The use of sensor networks for monitoring WQ in a catchment is in its infancy, but more applications are being tested [4]. However, these are focussed on local requirements and are mostly limited to water bodies. They have yet to explore the use of this technology for catchment-scale monitoring and management decisions, in an autonomous and dynamic manner. For effective and integrated WQ management, we propose a system that utilises local monitoring networks across a catchment, with provision for collaborative information sharing. This system of networks shares information about critical events, such as rain or flooding. Higher-level applications make use of this information to inform decisions about nutrient management, improving the quality of monitoring through the provision of richer datasets of catchment information to local networks. In the full paper, we present example scenarios and analyse how the benefits of

  2. Methods for computing water-quality loads at sites in the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Casey J.; Murphy, Jennifer C.; Crawford, Charles G.; Deacon, Jeffrey R.

    2017-10-24

    The U.S. Geological Survey publishes information on concentrations and loads of water-quality constituents at 111 sites across the United States as part of the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Network (NWQN). This report details historical and updated methods for computing water-quality loads at NWQN sites. The primary updates to historical load estimation methods include (1) an adaptation to methods for computing loads to the Gulf of Mexico; (2) the inclusion of loads computed using the Weighted Regressions on Time, Discharge, and Season (WRTDS) method; and (3) the inclusion of loads computed using continuous water-quality data. Loads computed using WRTDS and continuous water-quality data are provided along with those computed using historical methods. Various aspects of method updates are evaluated in this report to help users of water-quality loading data determine which estimation methods best suit their particular application.

  3. Use of neural networks to improve quality control of interpretations in myocardial perfusion imaging

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tagil, K.; Marving, J.; Lomsky, M.

    2008-01-01

    BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to explore the feasibility of using a technique based on artificial neural networks for quality assurance of image reporting. The networks were used to identify potentially suboptimal or erroneous interpretations of myocardial perfusion scintigrams (MPS......Tc-sestamibi myocardial perfusion scintigraphy. After a training process, the networks were used to select the 20 cases in each region that were more likely to have a false clinical interpretation. These cases, together with 20 control cases in which the networks detected no likelihood of false clinical interpretation...... cases. Forty-six of the 53 cases (87%) came from the group selected by the neural networks, and only seven (13%) were control cases (P

  4. Data on the key performance indicators for quality of service of GSM networks in Nigeria

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Segun I. Popoola

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available In this data article, the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs for Quality of Service (QoS of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM networks in Nigeria are provided and analyzed. The data provided in this paper contain the Call Setup Success Rate (CSSR, Drop Call Rate (DCR, Stand-alone Dedicated Channel (SDCCH congestion, and Traffic Channel (TCH congestion for the four GSM network operators in Nigeria (Airtel, Etisalat, Glo, and MTN. These comprehensive data were obtained from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC. Significant differences in each of the KPIs for the four quarters of each year were presented based on Analysis of Variance (ANOVA. The values of the KPIs were plotted against the months of the year for better visualization and understanding of data trends across the four quarters. Multiple comparisons of the mean-quarterly differences of the KPIs were also presented using Tukey's Post Hoc test. Public availability and further interpretation and discussion of these useful information will assist the network providers, Nigerian government, local and international regulatory bodies, policy makers, and other stakeholders in ensuring access of people, machines, and things to high quality telecommunications services. Keywords: Quality of service, GSM networks, Call setup success rate, Drop call rate, Stand-alone dedicated channel congestion, Traffic channel congestion

  5. System-Aware Smart Network Management for Nano-Enriched Water Quality Monitoring

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    B. Mokhtar

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a comprehensive water quality monitoring system that employs a smart network management, nano-enriched sensing framework, and intelligent and efficient data analysis and forwarding protocols for smart and system-aware decision making. The presented system comprises two main subsystems, a data sensing and forwarding subsystem (DSFS, and Operation Management Subsystem (OMS. The OMS operates based on real-time learned patterns and rules of system operations projected from the DSFS to manage the entire network of sensors. The main tasks of OMS are to enable real-time data visualization, managed system control, and secure system operation. The DSFS employs a Hybrid Intelligence (HI scheme which is proposed through integrating an association rule learning algorithm with fuzzy logic and weighted decision trees. The DSFS operation is based on profiling and registering raw data readings, generated from a set of optical nanosensors, as profiles of attribute-value pairs. As a case study, we evaluate our implemented test bed via simulation scenarios in a water quality monitoring framework. The monitoring processes are simulated based on measuring the percentage of dissolved oxygen and potential hydrogen (PH in fresh water. Simulation results show the efficiency of the proposed HI-based methodology at learning different water quality classes.

  6. Dynamic quality of service model for improving performance of multimedia real-time transmission in industrial networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gopalakrishnan, Ravichandran C; Karunakaran, Manivannan

    2014-01-01

    Nowadays, quality of service (QoS) is very popular in various research areas like distributed systems, multimedia real-time applications and networking. The requirements of these systems are to satisfy reliability, uptime, security constraints and throughput as well as application specific requirements. The real-time multimedia applications are commonly distributed over the network and meet various time constraints across networks without creating any intervention over control flows. In particular, video compressors make variable bit-rate streams that mismatch the constant-bit-rate channels typically provided by classical real-time protocols, severely reducing the efficiency of network utilization. Thus, it is necessary to enlarge the communication bandwidth to transfer the compressed multimedia streams using Flexible Time Triggered- Enhanced Switched Ethernet (FTT-ESE) protocol. FTT-ESE provides automation to calculate the compression level and change the bandwidth of the stream. This paper focuses on low-latency multimedia transmission over Ethernet with dynamic quality-of-service (QoS) management. This proposed framework deals with a dynamic QoS for multimedia transmission over Ethernet with FTT-ESE protocol. This paper also presents distinct QoS metrics based both on the image quality and network features. Some experiments with recorded and live video streams show the advantages of the proposed framework. To validate the solution we have designed and implemented a simulator based on the Matlab/Simulink, which is a tool to evaluate different network architecture using Simulink blocks.

  7. Role of monitoring network in the control management of air quality. An industrial case history

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zerbo, G. [Catania Univ. (Italy). Inst. of Merceology; Fabiano, B.; Ferraiolo, A.; Solisio, C.; Ruaro, R.

    1995-12-31

    Air quality control by a system of monitoring station is indispensable for the environmental protection. Moreover, a monitoring network have not to be only a mere data collection a good air quality control is possible only if the network management allows to prevent unacceptable pollutants level. In other terms, elaboration and interpretation data are fundamental in order to make monitoring system really able for regulations of corrective measures as, for example, the reduction of local emissions. The case of monitoring network run from the Industrial Society CIPA of Siracusa (Italy) is discussed. The management of the data obtained from a continuous survey allows to keep pollutants level below the current limits set down by the Italian law. Furthermore, elaboration of the data allows useful evaluations about atmospheric dispersion phenomena. (author)

  8. Role of monitoring network in the control management of air quality. An industrial case history

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zerbo, G [Catania Univ. (Italy). Inst. of Merceology; Fabiano, B; Ferraiolo, A; Solisio, C; Ruaro, R

    1996-12-31

    Air quality control by a system of monitoring station is indispensable for the environmental protection. Moreover, a monitoring network have not to be only a mere data collection a good air quality control is possible only if the network management allows to prevent unacceptable pollutants level. In other terms, elaboration and interpretation data are fundamental in order to make monitoring system really able for regulations of corrective measures as, for example, the reduction of local emissions. The case of monitoring network run from the Industrial Society CIPA of Siracusa (Italy) is discussed. The management of the data obtained from a continuous survey allows to keep pollutants level below the current limits set down by the Italian law. Furthermore, elaboration of the data allows useful evaluations about atmospheric dispersion phenomena. (author)

  9. The Implementation of a Quality Management Standard in a Food SME: A Network Learning Perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zam-Zam Abdirahman

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available In the modern agrifood economies, the development of quality management standards is crucial, and food small and medium enterprises (SMEs usually face difficulties in implementing them. In this context, the aim of the article is two‐fold. Firstly it is to craft an original analytical framework in line with the literature on innovation networks and related learning effects specifically devoted to the study of quality management standards implementation. Secondly the objective of the article is to apply this framework to a specific food SME case in order to test it and to identify the key network learningeffects that occur during the implementation of a quality management standard, namely the ISO 22000 standard for food safety. From this research, the practical output will be to propose tools to enhance food SMEs’ innovative capacity, through an improvement of their insertion in active formal and/or informal innovation networks. These specific tools will be especially targeted towards the strengthening of learning processes between the SME and the partners involved in the implementation.

  10. Provisioning Strategies for Transparent Optical Networks Considering Transmission Quality, Security, and Energy Efficiency

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jirattigalachote, Amornrat

    2012-07-01

    The continuous growth of traffic demand driven by the brisk increase in number of Internet users and emerging online services creates new challenges for communication networks. The latest advances in Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) technology make it possible to build Transparent Optical Networks (TONs) which are expected to be able to satisfy this rapidly growing capacity demand. The work in this thesis addresses three important aspects. In particular, this thesis focuses on routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) strategies specifically devised to target: (i) the lightpath transmission quality, (ii) the network security (i.e., in terms of vulnerability to physical-layer attacks), and (iii) the reduction of the network energy consumption. Our contributions are summarized below. A number of Impairment Constraint Based Routing (ICBR) algorithms have been proposed in the literature to consider physical-layer impairments during the connection provisioning phase. Their objective is to prevent the selection of optical connections (referred to as lightpaths) with poor signal quality. These ICBR approaches always assign each connection request the least impaired lightpath and support only a single threshold of transmission quality, used for all connection requests. However, next generation networks are expected to support a variety of services with disparate requirements for transmission quality. To address this issue, in this thesis we propose an ICBR algorithm supporting differentiation of services at the Bit Error Rate (BER) level, referred to as ICBR-Diff. Our approach takes into account the effect of physical-layer impairments during the connection provisioning phase where various BER thresholds are considered for accepting/blocking connection requests, depending on the signal quality requirements of the connection requests. We tested the proposed ICBR-Diff approach in different network scenarios, including also a fiber heterogeneity. It is shown that it can

  11. Video Quality Prediction Models Based on Video Content Dynamics for H.264 Video over UMTS Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Asiya Khan

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to present video quality prediction models for objective non-intrusive, prediction of H.264 encoded video for all content types combining parameters both in the physical and application layer over Universal Mobile Telecommunication Systems (UMTS networks. In order to characterize the Quality of Service (QoS level, a learning model based on Adaptive Neural Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS and a second model based on non-linear regression analysis is proposed to predict the video quality in terms of the Mean Opinion Score (MOS. The objective of the paper is two-fold. First, to find the impact of QoS parameters on end-to-end video quality for H.264 encoded video. Second, to develop learning models based on ANFIS and non-linear regression analysis to predict video quality over UMTS networks by considering the impact of radio link loss models. The loss models considered are 2-state Markov models. Both the models are trained with a combination of physical and application layer parameters and validated with unseen dataset. Preliminary results show that good prediction accuracy was obtained from both the models. The work should help in the development of a reference-free video prediction model and QoS control methods for video over UMTS networks.

  12. Social networks of people with mild intellectual disabilities: characteristics, satisfaction, wishes and quality of life.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Asselt-Goverts, A E; Embregts, P J C M; Hendriks, A H C

    2015-05-01

    A supportive social network is crucial for facilitating social inclusion, which can, in turn, contribute to the quality of life (QOL) for people with intellectual disabilities (ID). In this study, we investigate how people with mild ID perceive their social networks and which network characteristics relate to satisfaction with the network and perceived QOL. Data were gathered from 33 young adults with a mild to borderline ID using structured questionnaires: the MSNA to map the social network, the IDQOL-16 to assess QOL, and a questionnaire to determine satisfaction and wishes with regard to the social network. The majority of the participants (73.1%) were satisfied with their social networks. Improvement in the area of strengthening existing ties (e.g. more frequent contact, better contact) was desired as opposed to expansion of the network. Affection--especially towards family and professionals--was most strongly related to perceived QOL. It appears to be essential that relatives live in the same town, can frequently meet up and provide both emotional and practical support. The significance of family and the importance of high-quality interpersonal relationships between professional and client in the lives of young adults with ID cannot be overestimated. Although measures of satisfaction and wishes can have limitations, in actual practice it is considered useful to assess the opinions of clients with respect to their social networks. Interventions can then be tailored to the needs and wishes of the persons themselves. © 2014 MENCAP and International Association of the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  13. Adolescent Problematic Social Networking and School Experiences: The Mediating Effects of Sleep Disruptions and Sleep Quality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vernon, Lynette; Barber, Bonnie L; Modecki, Kathryn L

    2015-07-01

    An important developmental task for adolescents is to become increasingly responsible for their own health behaviors. Establishing healthy sleep routines and controlling media use before bedtime are important for adequate, quality sleep so adolescents are alert during the day and perform well at school. Despite the prevalence of adolescent social media use and the large percentage of computers and cell phones in adolescents' bedrooms, no studies to date have investigated the link between problematic adolescent investment in social networking, their sleep practices, and associated experiences at school. A sample of 1,886 students in Australia aged between 12 and 18 years of age completed self-report data on problematic social networking use, sleep disturbances, sleep quality, and school satisfaction. Structural equation modeling (SEM) substantiated the serial mediation hypothesis: for adolescents, problematic social networking use significantly increased sleep disturbances, which adversely affected perceptions of sleep quality that, in turn, lowered adolescents' appraisals of their school satisfaction. This significant pattern was largely driven by the indirect effect of sleep disturbances. These findings suggest that adolescents are vulnerable to negative consequences from social networking use. Specifically, problematic social networking is associated with poor school experiences, which result from poor sleep habits. Promoting better sleep routines by minimizing sleep disturbances from social media use could improve school experiences for adolescents with enhanced emotional engagement and improved subjective well-being.

  14. Assessment of the Atmospheric Suspended Particles Pollution in the Madrid Air Quality Networks; Evaluacion de la Contaminacion Atmosferica producida por Particulas en Suspension en las Redes de Calidad del Aire de la Comunidad de Madrid

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Salvador, P; Artinano, B

    2000-07-01

    Suspended particles are a very complex type of atmospheric pollution because of their chemical composition and size. In fact, there are a quite high number of particles sources which are linked to different physico-chemical processes that determine their size. At present particles smaller than 10 {mu}m are considered the most dangerous, as has been recently pointed out by numerous epidemiologic studies. In this way, more restrictive concentration limit values have been approved in the EU countries, so an assessment of present airborne concentration values and the sources apportionment in their most representative areas is needed. In the Madrid Community a first approaching of these and other aims, has been carried out from an analysis of the Madrid Air Quality networks data. This will contribute to the stablishment of concentration levels abatement strategies. (Author) 111 refs.

  15. Classifying Sources Influencing Indoor Air Quality (IAQ Using Artificial Neural Network (ANN

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shaharil Mad Saad

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Monitoring indoor air quality (IAQ is deemed important nowadays. A sophisticated IAQ monitoring system which could classify the source influencing the IAQ is definitely going to be very helpful to the users. Therefore, in this paper, an IAQ monitoring system has been proposed with a newly added feature which enables the system to identify the sources influencing the level of IAQ. In order to achieve this, the data collected has been trained with artificial neural network or ANN—a proven method for pattern recognition. Basically, the proposed system consists of sensor module cloud (SMC, base station and service-oriented client. The SMC contain collections of sensor modules that measure the air quality data and transmit the captured data to base station through wireless network. The IAQ monitoring system is also equipped with IAQ Index and thermal comfort index which could tell the users about the room’s conditions. The results showed that the system is able to measure the level of air quality and successfully classify the sources influencing IAQ in various environments like ambient air, chemical presence, fragrance presence, foods and beverages and human activity.

  16. Quality assessment and artificial neural networks modeling for characterization of chemical and physical parameters of potable water.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salari, Marjan; Salami Shahid, Esmaeel; Afzali, Seied Hosein; Ehteshami, Majid; Conti, Gea Oliveri; Derakhshan, Zahra; Sheibani, Solmaz Nikbakht

    2018-04-22

    Today, due to the increase in the population, the growth of industry and the variety of chemical compounds, the quality of drinking water has decreased. Five important river water quality properties such as: dissolved oxygen (DO), total dissolved solids (TDS), total hardness (TH), alkalinity (ALK) and turbidity (TU) were estimated by parameters such as: electric conductivity (EC), temperature (T), and pH that could be measured easily with almost no costs. Simulate water quality parameters were examined with two methods of modeling include mathematical and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). Mathematical methods are based on polynomial fitting with least square method and ANN modeling algorithms are feed-forward networks. All conditions/circumstances covered by neural network modeling were tested for all parameters in this study, except for Alkalinity. All optimum ANN models developed to simulate water quality parameters had precision value as R-value close to 0.99. The ANN model extended to simulate alkalinity with R-value equals to 0.82. Moreover, Surface fitting techniques were used to refine data sets. Presented models and equations are reliable/useable tools for studying water quality parameters at similar rivers, as a proper replacement for traditional water quality measuring equipment's. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. The carbon commute: Effects of urbanization on dissolved organic carbon quality on a suburban New England river network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balch, E.; Robison, A.; Wollheim, W. M.

    2017-12-01

    Understanding anthropogenic influence on the sources and fluxes of carbon is necessary for interpreting the carbon cycle and contaminant transport throughout a river system. As urbanization increases worldwide, it is critical to understand how urbanization affects the carbon cycle so that we may be able to predict future changes. Rivers act as both transporters of terrestrial dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to coastal regions, and active transformers of DOC. The character (lability) of the carbon found within a river network is influenced by its sources and fluxes, as determined by the ecological processes, land use, and discharge, which vary throughout the network. We have characterized DOC quantity and quality throughout a suburban New England river network (Ipswich River, MA) in an attempt to provide a detailed picture of how DOC quality varies within a network, and how urbanization influences these changes. We conducted a synoptic survey of 45 sites over two hydrologically similar days in the Ipswich River network in northeast Massachusetts, USA. We collected discrete grab samples for DOC quantity and quality analyses. We also collected dissolved oxygen, conductivity, and nutrients (major anions and cations) as an extension of the synoptic survey. We plan to determine the source of the DOC by using excitation-emission matrices (EEMs), and specific UV absorption (SUVA) at 254 nm. These analyses will provide us with a detailed picture of how DOC quality varies within a network, and how urbanization influences these changes. Using land use data of the Ipswich River watershed, we are able to model the changes in DOC quality throughout the network. In highly urbanized headwaters, through the progressively more forested and wetland dominated main stem reaches, we expect to see the imprint of urbanization throughout the network due to its decreased lability. Studying the imprint of urbanization on DOC throughout a river network helps us complete our understanding of

  18. IDMA-Based MAC Protocol for Satellite Networks with Consideration on Channel Quality

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gongliang Liu

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available In order to overcome the shortcomings of existing medium access control (MAC protocols based on TDMA or CDMA in satellite networks, interleave division multiple access (IDMA technique is introduced into satellite communication networks. Therefore, a novel wide-band IDMA MAC protocol based on channel quality is proposed in this paper, consisting of a dynamic power allocation algorithm, a rate adaptation algorithm, and a call admission control (CAC scheme. Firstly, the power allocation algorithm combining the technique of IDMA SINR-evolution and channel quality prediction is developed to guarantee high power efficiency even in terrible channel conditions. Secondly, the effective rate adaptation algorithm, based on accurate channel information per timeslot and by the means of rate degradation, can be realized. What is more, based on channel quality prediction, the CAC scheme, combining the new power allocation algorithm, rate scheduling, and buffering strategies together, is proposed for the emerging IDMA systems, which can support a variety of traffic types, and offering quality of service (QoS requirements corresponding to different priority levels. Simulation results show that the new wide-band IDMA MAC protocol can make accurate estimation of available resource considering the effect of multiuser detection (MUD and QoS requirements of multimedia traffic, leading to low outage probability as well as high overall system throughput.

  19. Quality of service on Linux for the Atlas TDAQ event building network

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yasu, Y.; Manabe, A.; Fujii, H.; Watase, Y.; Nagasaka, Y.; Hasegawa, Y.; Shimojima, M.; Nomachi, M.

    2001-01-01

    Congestion control for packets sent on a network is important for DAQ systems that contain an event builder using switching network technologies. Quality of Service (QoS) is a technique for congestion control. Recent Linux releases provide QoS in the kernel to manage network traffic. The authors have analyzed the packet-loss and packet distribution for the event builder prototype of the Atlas TDAQ system. The authors used PC/Linux with Gigabit Ethernet network as the testbed. The results showed that QoS using CBQ and TBF eliminated packet loss on UDP/IP transfer while the UDP/IP transfer in best effort made lots of packet loss. The result also showed that the QoS overhead was small. The authors concluded that QoS on Linux performed efficiently in TCP/IP and UDP/IP and will have an important role of the Atlas TDAQ system

  20. Performance assessment of air quality monitoring networks using principal component analysis and cluster analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lu, Wei-Zhen; He, Hong-Di; Dong, Li-yun

    2011-01-01

    This study aims to evaluate the performance of two statistical methods, principal component analysis and cluster analysis, for the management of air quality monitoring network of Hong Kong and the reduction of associated expenses. The specific objectives include: (i) to identify city areas with similar air pollution behavior; and (ii) to locate emission sources. The statistical methods were applied to the mass concentrations of sulphur dioxide (SO 2 ), respirable suspended particulates (RSP) and nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), collected in monitoring network of Hong Kong from January 2001 to December 2007. The results demonstrate that, for each pollutant, the monitoring stations are grouped into different classes based on their air pollution behaviors. The monitoring stations located in nearby area are characterized by the same specific air pollution characteristics and suggested with an effective management of air quality monitoring system. The redundant equipments should be transferred to other monitoring stations for allowing further enlargement of the monitored area. Additionally, the existence of different air pollution behaviors in the monitoring network is explained by the variability of wind directions across the region. The results imply that the air quality problem in Hong Kong is not only a local problem mainly from street-level pollutions, but also a region problem from the Pearl River Delta region. (author)

  1. A general framework for a collaborative water quality knowledge and information network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dalcanale, Fernanda; Fontane, Darrell; Csapo, Jorge

    2011-03-01

    Increasing knowledge about the environment has brought about a better understanding of the complexity of the issues, and more information publicly available has resulted into a steady shift from centralized decision making to increasing levels of participatory processes. The management of that information, in turn, is becoming more complex. One of the ways to deal with the complexity is the development of tools that would allow all players, including managers, researchers, educators, stakeholders and the civil society, to be able to contribute to the information system, in any level they are inclined to do so. In this project, a search for the available technology for collaboration, methods of community filtering, and community-based review was performed and the possible implementation of these tools to create a general framework for a collaborative "Water Quality Knowledge and Information Network" was evaluated. The main goals of the network are to advance water quality education and knowledge; encourage distribution and access to data; provide networking opportunities; allow public perceptions and concerns to be collected; promote exchange of ideas; and, give general, open, and free access to information. A reference implementation was made available online and received positive feedback from the community, which also suggested some possible improvements.

  2. Experience with Quality Assurance in Two Store-and-Forward Telemedicine Networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wootton, Richard; Liu, Joanne; Bonnardot, Laurent; Venugopal, Raghu; Oakley, Amanda

    2015-01-01

    Despite the increasing use of telemedicine around the world, little has been done to incorporate quality assurance (QA) into these operations. The purpose of the present study was to examine the feasibility of QA in store-and-forward teleconsulting using a previously published framework. During a 2-year study period, we examined the feasibility of using QA tools in two mature telemedicine networks [Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and New Zealand Teledermatology (NZT)]. The tools included performance reporting to assess trends, automated follow-up of patients to obtain outcomes data, automated surveying of referrers to obtain user feedback, and retrospective assessment of randomly selected cases to assess quality. In addition, the senior case coordinators in each network were responsible for identifying potential adverse events from email reports received from users. During the study period, there were 149 responses to the patient follow-up questions relating to the 1241 MSF cases (i.e., 12% of cases), and there were 271 responses to the follow-up questions relating to the 639 NZT cases (i.e., 42% of cases). The collection of user feedback reports was combined with the collection of patient follow-up data, thus producing the same response rates. The outcomes data suggested that the telemedicine advice proved useful for the referring doctor in the majority of cases and was likely to benefit the patient. The user feedback was overwhelmingly positive, over 90% of referrers in the two networks finding the advice received to be of educational benefit. The feedback also suggested that the teleconsultation had provided cost savings in about 20% of cases, either to the patient/family, or to the hospital/clinic treating the patient. Various problems were detected by regular monitoring, and certain adverse events were identified from email reports by the users. A single aberrant quality reading was detected by using a process control chart. The present study demonstrates

  3. A Quality-Control-Oriented Database for a Mesoscale Meteorological Observation Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lussana, C.; Ranci, M.; Uboldi, F.

    2012-04-01

    In the operational context of a local weather service, data accessibility and quality related issues must be managed by taking into account a wide set of user needs. This work describes the structure and the operational choices made for the operational implementation of a database system storing data from highly automated observing stations, metadata and information on data quality. Lombardy's environmental protection agency, ARPA Lombardia, manages a highly automated mesoscale meteorological network. A Quality Assurance System (QAS) ensures that reliable observational information is collected and disseminated to the users. The weather unit in ARPA Lombardia, at the same time an important QAS component and an intensive data user, has developed a database specifically aimed to: 1) providing quick access to data for operational activities and 2) ensuring data quality for real-time applications, by means of an Automatic Data Quality Control (ADQC) procedure. Quantities stored in the archive include hourly aggregated observations of: precipitation amount, temperature, wind, relative humidity, pressure, global and net solar radiation. The ADQC performs several independent tests on raw data and compares their results in a decision-making procedure. An important ADQC component is the Spatial Consistency Test based on Optimal Interpolation. Interpolated and Cross-Validation analysis values are also stored in the database, providing further information to human operators and useful estimates in case of missing data. The technical solution adopted is based on a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and Php) system, constituting an open source environment suitable for both development and operational practice. The ADQC procedure itself is performed by R scripts directly interacting with the MySQL database. Users and network managers can access the database by using a set of web-based Php applications.

  4. Oral health related quality of life in pregnant and post partum women in two social network domains; predominantly home-based and work-based networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lamarca, Gabriela A; Leal, Maria do C; Leao, Anna T T; Sheiham, Aubrey; Vettore, Mario V

    2012-01-13

    Individuals connected to supportive social networks have better general and oral health quality of life. The objective of this study was to assess whether there were differences in oral health related quality of life (OHRQoL) between women connected to either predominantly home-based and work-based social networks. A follow-up prevalence study was conducted on 1403 pregnant and post-partum women (mean age of 25.2 ± 6.3 years) living in two cities in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Women were participants in an established cohort followed from pregnancy (baseline) to post-partum period (follow-up). All participants were allocated to two groups; 1. work-based social network group--employed women with paid work, and, 2. home-based social network group--women with no paid work, housewives or unemployed women. Measures of social support and social network were used as well as questions on sociodemographic characteristics and OHRQoL and health related behaviors. Multinomial logistic regression was performed to obtain OR of relationships between occupational contexts, affectionate support and positive social interaction on the one hand, and oral health quality of life, using the Oral Health Impacts Profile (OHIP) measure, adjusted for age, ethnicity, family income, schooling, marital status and social class. There was a modifying effect of positive social interaction on the odds of occupational context on OHRQoL. The odds of having a poorer OHIP score, ≥ 4, was significantly higher for women with home-based social networks and moderate levels of positive social interactions [OR 1.64 (95% CI: 1.08-2.48)], and for women with home-based social networks and low levels of positive social interactions [OR 2.15 (95% CI: 1.40-3.30)] compared with women with work-based social networks and high levels of positive social interactions. Black ethnicity was associated with OHIP scores ≥ 4 [OR 1.73 (95% CI: 1.23-2.42)]. Pregnant and post-partum Brazilian women in paid

  5. Oral health related quality of life in pregnant and post partum women in two social network domains; predominantly home-based and work-based networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-01-01

    Background Individuals connected to supportive social networks have better general and oral health quality of life. The objective of this study was to assess whether there were differences in oral health related quality of life (OHRQoL) between women connected to either predominantly home-based and work-based social networks. Methods A follow-up prevalence study was conducted on 1403 pregnant and post-partum women (mean age of 25.2 ± 6.3 years) living in two cities in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Women were participants in an established cohort followed from pregnancy (baseline) to post-partum period (follow-up). All participants were allocated to two groups; 1. work-based social network group - employed women with paid work, and, 2. home-based social network group - women with no paid work, housewives or unemployed women. Measures of social support and social network were used as well as questions on sociodemographic characteristics and OHRQoL and health related behaviors. Multinomial logistic regression was performed to obtain OR of relationships between occupational contexts, affectionate support and positive social interaction on the one hand, and oral health quality of life, using the Oral Health Impacts Profile (OHIP) measure, adjusted for age, ethnicity, family income, schooling, marital status and social class. Results There was a modifying effect of positive social interaction on the odds of occupational context on OHRQoL. The odds of having a poorer OHIP score, ≥4, was significantly higher for women with home-based social networks and moderate levels of positive social interactions [OR 1.64 (95% CI: 1.08-2.48)], and for women with home-based social networks and low levels of positive social interactions [OR 2.15 (95% CI: 1.40-3.30)] compared with women with work-based social networks and high levels of positive social interactions. Black ethnicity was associated with OHIP scores ≥4 [OR 1.73 (95% CI: 1.23-2.42)]. Conclusions Pregnant and post

  6. Detection and classification of power quality disturbances using S-transform and modular neural network

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bhende, C.N.; Mishra, S.; Panigrahi, B.K. [Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi 110016 (India)

    2008-01-15

    This paper presents an S-transform based modular neural network (NN) classifier for recognition of power quality disturbances. The excellent time - frequency resolution characteristics of the S-transform makes it an attractive candidate for the analysis of power quality (PQ) disturbances under noisy condition and has the ability to detect the disturbance correctly. On the other hand, the performance of wavelet transform (WT) degrades while detecting and localizing the disturbances in the presence of noise. Features extracted by using the S-transform are applied to a modular NN for automatic classification of the PQ disturbances that solves a relatively complex problem by decomposing it into simpler subtasks. Modularity of neural network provides better classification, model complexity reduction and better learning capability, etc. Eleven types of PQ disturbances are considered for the classification. The simulation results show that the combination of the S-transform and a modular NN can effectively detect and classify different power quality disturbances. (author)

  7. Network Performance and Quality of Experience of Remote Access Laboratories

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexander A. Kist

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available Remote Access Laboratories (RAL have become important learning and teaching tools. This paper presents a performance study that targets a specific remote access architecture implemented within a universities operational environment. This particular RAL system provides globally authenticated and arbitrated remote access to virtualized computers as well as computer controlled hardware experiments. This paper presents system performance results that have been obtained utilizing both a set of automated and human subject tests. Principle objectives of the study were: To gain a better understanding of the nature of network traffic caused by experimental activity usage; to obtain an indication of user expectations of activity performance; and to develop a measure to predict Quality of Experience, based on easily measurable Quality of Service parameters. The study emulates network layer variation of access-bandwidth and round-trip-time of typical usage scenarios and contrasts against user perception results that allow classifying expected user performance. It demonstrates that failure rate is excellent measure of usability, and that round-trip-time predominantly affects user experience. Thin-client and remote desktop architectures are popular to separate the location of users and the actual data processing and use similar structures, hence results of this study to be applied in these application areas as well.

  8. Social networks, social support mechanisms, and quality of life after breast cancer diagnosis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kroenke, Candyce H; Kwan, Marilyn L.; Neugut, Alfred I.; Ergas, Isaac J.; Wright, Jaime D.; Caan, Bette J.; Hershman, Dawn; Kushi, Lawrence H.

    2013-01-01

    Purpose We examined mechanisms through which social relationships influence quality of life (QOL) in breast cancer survivors. Methods This study included 3,139 women from the Pathways Study who were diagnosed with breast cancer from 2006-2011 and provided data on social networks (presence of spouse or intimate partner, religious/social ties, volunteering, and numbers of close friends and relatives), social support (tangible, emotional/informational, affection, positive social interaction), and quality of life (QOL), measured by the FACT-B, approximately two months post-diagnosis. We used logistic models to evaluate associations between social network size, social support, and lower vs. higher than median QOL scores. We further stratified by stage at diagnosis and treatment. Results In multivariate-adjusted analyses, women who were characterized as socially isolated had significantly lower FACT-B (OR=2.18, 95%CI:1.72-2.77), physical well-being (WB) (OR=1.61, 95%CI:1.27-2.03), functional WB (OR=2.08, 95%CI:1.65-2.63), social WB (OR=3.46, 95%CI:2.73-4.39), and emotional WB (OR=1.67, 95%CI:1.33-2.11) scores and higher breast cancer symptoms (OR=1.48, 95%CI:1.18-1.87), compared with socially integrated women. Each social network member independently predicted higher QOL. Simultaneous adjustment for social networks and social support partially attenuated associations between social networks and QOL. The strongest mediator and type of social support that was most predictive of QOL outcomes was “positive social interaction”. However, each type of support was important depending on outcome, stage, and treatment status. Conclusions Larger social networks and greater social support were related to higher QOL after a diagnosis of breast cancer. Effective social support interventions need to evolve beyond social-emotional interventions and need to account for disease severity and treatment status. PMID:23657404

  9. Maintaining High Quality Network Performance at the GSN: Sensor Installation Methods, New VBB Borehole Sensors and Data Quality Assessment from MUSTANG

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hafner, Katrin

    2017-04-01

    The goal of the Global Seismographic Network (GSN) is to provide the highest possible data quality and dynamic recording range in support of scientific needs. Considerable effort is made at each GSN seismic station site to achieve the lowest noise performance possible under local conditions. We continue to strive for higher data quality with a combination of new sensors and improved installation techniques. Most seismometers are installed either in 100 m deep steel-cased boreholes or in vaults tunneled underground. A few vaults are built at the surface or on the foundation of a building. All vault installations have a concrete pier, mechanically isolated from the floor, upon which the seismometers are placed. Many sites are now nearly 30 years old, and the GSN is investing in civil works at several stations to keep them in good condition or make critical repairs. Using GSN data from inception to the present, we will present analyses that demonstrate how successful these sensor installation strategies have been and describe ongoing experiments at GSN testing facilities to evaluate the best, most cost effective strategy to modernize existing GSN facilities. To improve sensor performance at some vault sites, we will employ new sensor installation strategies. Years of experience operating the GSN and the USArray Transportable Array, along with focused testing of emplacement strategies, show that the vulnerability of a sensor's horizontal components to tilt can be mitigated if the sensor package is buried at even shallow depth. At selected vault installations, shallow boreholes will be drilled to accommodate recently developed borehole VBB sensor models. The incremental cost of modern VBB instruments over standard BB models is small, and we expect to be able to preserve the GSN's crucial very broad bandwidth while improving noise performance and reliability using this strategy. A crucial link in making GSN station data available to the scientific community is the IRIS

  10. Flexible quality of service model for wireless body area sensor networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liao, Yangzhe; Leeson, Mark S; Higgins, Matthew D

    2016-03-01

    Wireless body area sensor networks (WBASNs) are becoming an increasingly significant breakthrough technology for smart healthcare systems, enabling improved clinical decision-making in daily medical care. Recently, radio frequency ultra-wideband technology has developed substantially for physiological signal monitoring due to its advantages such as low-power consumption, high transmission data rate, and miniature antenna size. Applications of future ubiquitous healthcare systems offer the prospect of collecting human vital signs, early detection of abnormal medical conditions, real-time healthcare data transmission and remote telemedicine support. However, due to the technical constraints of sensor batteries, the supply of power is a major bottleneck for healthcare system design. Moreover, medium access control (MAC) needs to support reliable transmission links that allow sensors to transmit data safely and stably. In this Letter, the authors provide a flexible quality of service model for ad hoc networks that can support fast data transmission, adaptive schedule MAC control, and energy efficient ubiquitous WBASN networks. Results show that the proposed multi-hop communication ad hoc network model can balance information packet collisions and power consumption. Additionally, wireless communications link in WBASNs can effectively overcome multi-user interference and offer high transmission data rates for healthcare systems.

  11. Geostatistical prediction of microbial water quality throughout a stream network using meteorology, land cover, and spatiotemporal autocorrelation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holcomb, David Andrew; Messier, Kyle P; Serre, Marc L; Rowny, Jakob G; Stewart, Jill R

    2018-06-11

    Predictive modeling is promising as an inexpensive tool to assess water quality. We developed geostatistical predictive models of microbial water quality that empirically modelled spatiotemporal autocorrelation in measured fecal coliform (FC) bacteria concentrations to improve prediction. We compared five geostatistical models featuring different autocorrelation structures, fit to 676 observations from 19 locations in North Carolina's Jordan Lake watershed using meteorological and land cover predictor variables. Though stream distance metrics (with and without flow-weighting) failed to improve prediction over the Euclidean distance metric, incorporating temporal autocorrelation substantially improved prediction over the space-only models. We predicted FC throughout the stream network daily for one year, designating locations "impaired", "unimpaired", or "unassessed" if the probability of exceeding the state standard was >90%, 10% but <90%, respectively. We could assign impairment status to more of the stream network on days any FC were measured, suggesting frequent sample-based monitoring remains necessary, though implementing spatiotemporal predictive models may reduce the number of concurrent sampling locations required to adequately assess water quality. Together, these results suggest that prioritizing sampling at different times and conditions using geographically sparse monitoring networks is adequate to build robust and informative geostatistical models of water quality impairment.

  12. Effects of equipment performance on data quality from the National Atmospheric Deposition Program/National Trends Network and the Mercury Deposition Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wetherbee, Gregory A.; Rhodes, Mark F.

    2013-01-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey Branch of Quality Systems operates the Precipitation Chemistry Quality Assurance project (PCQA) to provide independent, external quality-assurance for the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP). NADP is composed of five monitoring networks that measure the chemical composition of precipitation and ambient air. PCQA and the NADP Program Office completed five short-term studies to investigate the effects of equipment performance with respect to the National Trends Network (NTN) and Mercury Deposition Network (MDN) data quality: sample evaporation from NTN collectors; sample volume and mercury loss from MDN collectors; mercury adsorption to MDN collector glassware, grid-type precipitation sensors for precipitation collectors, and the effects of an NTN collector wind shield on sample catch efficiency. Sample-volume evaporation from an NTN Aerochem Metrics (ACM) collector ranged between 1.1–33 percent with a median of 4.7 percent. The results suggest that weekly NTN sample evaporation is small relative to sample volume. MDN sample evaporation occurs predominantly in western and southern regions of the United States (U.S.) and more frequently with modified ACM collectors than with N-CON Systems Inc. collectors due to differences in airflow through the collectors. Variations in mercury concentrations, measured to be as high as 47.5 percent per week with a median of 5 percent, are associated with MDN sample-volume loss. Small amounts of mercury are also lost from MDN samples by adsorption to collector glassware irrespective of collector type. MDN 11-grid sensors were found to open collectors sooner, keep them open longer, and cause fewer lid cycles than NTN 7-grid sensors. Wind shielding an NTN ACM collector resulted in collection of larger quantities of precipitation while also preserving sample integrity.

  13. External quality-assurance project report for the National Atmospheric Deposition Program/National Trends Network and Mercury Deposition Network, 2009-2010

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wetherbee, Gregory A.; Martin, RoseAnn; Rhodes, Mark F.; Chesney, Tanya A.

    2014-01-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey operated six distinct programs to provide external quality-assurance monitoring for the National Atmospheric Deposition Program/National Trends Network (NTN) and Mercury Deposition Network (MDN) during 2009–2010. The field-audit program assessed the effects of onsite exposure, sample handling, and shipping on the chemistry of NTN samples; a system-blank program assessed the same effects for MDN. Two interlaboratory-comparison programs assessed the bias and variability of the chemical analysis data from the Central Analytical Laboratory (CAL) and Mercury (Hg) Analytical Laboratory (HAL). The blind-audit program was also implemented for the MDN to evaluate analytical bias in total Hg concentration data produced by the HAL. The co-located-sampler program was used to identify and quantify potential shifts in NADP data resulting from replacement of original network instrumentation with new electronic recording rain gages (E-gages) and precipitation collectors that use optical sensors. The results indicate that NADP data continue to be of sufficient quality for the analysis of spatial distributions and time trends of chemical constituents in wet deposition across the United States. Results also suggest that retrofit of the NADP networks with the new precipitation collectors could cause –8 to +14 percent shifts in NADP annual precipitation-weighted mean concentrations and total deposition values for ammonium, nitrate, sulfate, and hydrogen ion, and larger shifts (+13 to +74 percent) for calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, and chloride. The prototype N-CON Systems bucket collector is more efficient in the catch of precipitation in winter than Aerochem Metrics Model 301 collector, especially for light snowfall.

  14. The WHO AFRO external quality assessment programme (EQAP): Linking laboratory networks through EQA programmes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boeras, Debrah I; Peeling, Rosanna W; Onyebujoh, Philip; Yahaya, Ali A; Gumede-Moeletsi, Hieronyma N; Ndihokubwayo, Jean B

    2016-01-01

    External Quality Assessment (EQA) surveys performed by the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO) revealed the need for the strengthening of public health microbiology laboratories, particularly for testing of epidemic-prone diseases in the African Region. These surveys revealed common issues such as supply chain management, skilled personnel, logistical support and overall lack of quality standards. For sustainable improvements to health systems as well as global health security, deficiencies identified need to be actively corrected through robust quality assurance programmes and implementation of laboratory quality management systems. Given all the pathogens of public health importance, an external quality assessment programme with a focus on vaccine-preventable diseases and emerging and re-emerging dangerous pathogens is important, and should not be stand-alone, but integrated within laboratory networks as seen in polio, measles, yellow fever and rubella. In 2015, WHO AFRO collaborated with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and partners in a series of consultations with countries and national and regional EQA providers for the development of quality assurance models to support HIV point-of-care testing and monitoring. These consultations revealed similar challenges as seen in the WHO AFRO surveys. WHO AFRO brought forth its experience in implementing quality standards for health programmes, and also opened discussions on how lessons learned through such established programmes can be utilised to supporting and strengthening the introduction of early infant diagnosis of HIV and viral load point-of-care testing. An optimised external quality assessment programme will impact the ability of countries to meet core capacities, providing improved quality management systems, improving the confidence of diagnostic network services in Africa, and including capacities to detect events

  15. Optimal design of monitoring networks for multiple groundwater quality parameters using a Kalman filter: application to the Irapuato-Valle aquifer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Júnez-Ferreira, H E; Herrera, G S; González-Hita, L; Cardona, A; Mora-Rodríguez, J

    2016-01-01

    A new method for the optimal design of groundwater quality monitoring networks is introduced in this paper. Various indicator parameters were considered simultaneously and tested for the Irapuato-Valle aquifer in Mexico. The steps followed in the design were (1) establishment of the monitoring network objectives, (2) definition of a groundwater quality conceptual model for the study area, (3) selection of the parameters to be sampled, and (4) selection of a monitoring network by choosing the well positions that minimize the estimate error variance of the selected indicator parameters. Equal weight for each parameter was given to most of the aquifer positions and a higher weight to priority zones. The objective for the monitoring network in the specific application was to obtain a general reconnaissance of the water quality, including water types, water origin, and first indications of contamination. Water quality indicator parameters were chosen in accordance with this objective, and for the selection of the optimal monitoring sites, it was sought to obtain a low-uncertainty estimate of these parameters for the entire aquifer and with more certainty in priority zones. The optimal monitoring network was selected using a combination of geostatistical methods, a Kalman filter and a heuristic optimization method. Results show that when monitoring the 69 locations with higher priority order (the optimal monitoring network), the joint average standard error in the study area for all the groundwater quality parameters was approximately 90 % of the obtained with the 140 available sampling locations (the set of pilot wells). This demonstrates that an optimal design can help to reduce monitoring costs, by avoiding redundancy in data acquisition.

  16. Network hydraulics inclusion in water quality event detection using multiple sensor stations data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oliker, Nurit; Ostfeld, Avi

    2015-09-01

    Event detection is one of the current most challenging topics in water distribution systems analysis: how regular on-line hydraulic (e.g., pressure, flow) and water quality (e.g., pH, residual chlorine, turbidity) measurements at different network locations can be efficiently utilized to detect water quality contamination events. This study describes an integrated event detection model which combines multiple sensor stations data with network hydraulics. To date event detection modelling is likely limited to single sensor station location and dataset. Single sensor station models are detached from network hydraulics insights and as a result might be significantly exposed to false positive alarms. This work is aimed at decreasing this limitation through integrating local and spatial hydraulic data understanding into an event detection model. The spatial analysis complements the local event detection effort through discovering events with lower signatures by exploring the sensors mutual hydraulic influences. The unique contribution of this study is in incorporating hydraulic simulation information into the overall event detection process of spatially distributed sensors. The methodology is demonstrated on two example applications using base runs and sensitivity analyses. Results show a clear advantage of the suggested model over single-sensor event detection schemes. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. RASGOS DEL TEMPERAMENTO DE LOS PERROS DOMÉSTICOS (CANIS FAMILIARIS: EVALUACIONES CONDUCTUALES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    ADRIANA JAKOVCEVIC

    2009-08-01

    Full Text Available

    Los rasgos del temperamento se definen como tendencias conductuales estables entre situaciones similares y a lo largo del tiempo. En el presente trabajo se revisan las pruebas conductuales diseñadas para la evaluación de rasgos aislados del temperamento en los perros domésticos. Para cada dimensión se describen los estímulos empleados, las respuestas evaluadas y el correlato fisiológico de las mismas. Los rasgos más estudiados fueron la temerosidad, la agresividad y la sociabilidad. Sin embargo, sólo la primera cuenta con correlatos fisiológicos bien establecidos. Finalmente, las evaluaciones conductuales resultan de suma importancia para la selección de los perros para las distintas funciones que cumplen en la sociedad humana: detección de drogas, compañía, guardia, rescate de personas, etc.

  18. Use of neural networks for monitoring surface water quality changes in a neotropical urban stream.

    Science.gov (United States)

    da Costa, Andréa Oliveira Souza; Silva, Priscila Ferreira; Sabará, Millôr Godoy; da Costa, Esly Ferreira

    2009-08-01

    This paper reports the using of neural networks for water quality analysis in a tropical urban stream before (2002) and after sewerage building and the completion of point-source control-based sanitation program (2003). Mathematical modeling divided water quality data in two categories: (a) input of some in situ water quality variables (temperature, pH, O2 concentration, O2 saturation and electrical conductivity) and (b) water chemical composition (N-NO2(-); N-NO3(-); N-NH4(+) Total-N; P-PO4(3-); K+; Ca2+; Mg+2; Cu2+; Zn2+ and Fe+3) as the output from tested models. Stream water data come from fortnightly sampling in five points along the Ipanema stream (Southeast Brazil, Minas Gerais state) plus two points downstream and upstream Ipanema discharge into Doce River. Once the best models are consistent with variables behavior we suggest that neural networking shows potential as a methodology to enhance guidelines for urban streams restoration, conservation and management.

  19. 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

  20. The LTER Network Information System: Improving Data Quality and Synthesis through Community Collaboration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Servilla, M.; Brunt, J.

    2011-12-01

    Emerging in the 1980's as a U.S. National Science Foundation funded research network, the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network began with six sites and with the goal of performing comparative data collection and analysis of major biotic regions of North America. Today, the LTER Network includes 26 sites located in North America, Antarctica, Puerto Rico, and French Polynesia and has contributed a corpus of over 7,000 data sets to the public domain. The diversity of LTER research has led to a wealth of scientific data derived from atmospheric to terrestrial to oceanographic to anthropogenic studies. Such diversity, however, is a contributing factor to data being published with poor or inconsistent quality or to data lacking descriptive documentation sufficient for understanding their origin or performing derivative studies. It is for these reasons that the LTER community, in collaboration with the LTER Network Office, have embarked on the development of the LTER Network Information System (NIS) - an integrative data management approach to improve the process by which quality LTER data and metadata are assembled into a central archive, thereby enabling better discovery, analysis, and synthesis of derived data products. The mission of the LTER NIS is to promote advances in collaborative and synthetic ecological science at multiple temporal and spatial scales by providing the information management and technology infrastructure to increase: ? availability and quality of data from LTER sites - by the use and support of standardized approaches to metadata management and access to data; ? timeliness and number of LTER derived data products - by creating a suite of middleware programs and workflows that make it easy to create and maintain integrated data sets derived from LTER data; and ? knowledge generated from the synthesis of LTER data - by creating standardized access and easy to use applications to discover, access, and use LTER data. The LTER NIS will utilize

  1. Surface Water Quality Trends from EPA's LTM Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Funk, C.; Lynch, J. A.

    2013-12-01

    Surface water chemistry provides direct indicators of the potential effects of anthropogenic impacts, such as acid deposition and climate change, on the overall health of aquatic ecosystems. Long-term surface water monitoring networks provide a host of environmental data that can be used, in conjunction with other networks, to assess how water bodies respond to stressors and if they are potentially at risk (e.g., receiving pollutant deposition beyond its critical load). Two EPA-administered monitoring programs provide information on the effects of acidic deposition on headwater aquatic systems: the Long Term Monitoring (LTM) program and the Temporally Integrated Monitoring of Ecosystems (TIME) program, designed to track the effectiveness of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) in reducing the acidity of surface waters in acid sensitive ecoregions of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. Here we present regional variability of long term trends in surface water quality in response to substantial reductions in atmospheric deposition. Water quality trends at acid sensitive LTM sites exhibit decreasing concentrations of sulfate at 100% of monitored sites in the Adirondack Mountains and New England, 80% of Northern Appalachian Plateau sites, and yet only 15% of sites in the Ridge and Blue Ridge Provinces over the 1990-2011 period of record. Across all regions, most LTM sites exhibited constant or only slightly declining nitrate concentrations over the same time period. Acid Neutralizing Capacity (ANC) levels improved at 68% and 45% of LTM sites in the Adirondacks and Northern Appalachian Plateau, respectively, but few sites showed increases in New England or the Ridge and Blue Ridge Provinces due to lagging improvements in base cation concentration. The ANC of northeastern TIME lakes was also evaluated from 1991 to 1994 and 2008 to 2011. The percentage of lakes with ANC values below 50 μeq/L, lakes of acute or elevated concern, dropped by about 7%, indicating improvement

  2. A new strategy for choosing “Q-markers” via network pharmacology, application to the quality control of a Chinese medical preparation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wei Xiang

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Due to its chemical complexity, proper quality control for a Chinese medical preparation (CMP has been a great challenge. Choosing the appropriate quality markers (Q-markers for quality control of CMP is an important work. Best of all, the chosen Q-markers are the main chemical compounds from the herbals as well as the active constituents of this CMP. Only in this way the established quality control system can really achieve the purpose of controlling the quality of CMP and ensuring the safely and effectively use of CMP. To achieve the purpose, network pharmacology combined with the contents of chemical compounds in the CMP has been used in this research. We took an anti-arrhythmic CMP, Shenxian-Shengmai oral liquid (SSOL, as an example. Firstly, UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS method was used to analyze the main components of SSOL. A total of 64 compounds were unambiguously or tentatively identified and 32 of them were further validated by reference compounds. Secondly, the network was constructed based on the identified compounds to predict the effective compounds related to cardiac arrhythmias. Based on the existing database and the operation method of topology, a method of double network analysis (DNAA was proposed, from which 10 important targets in the pathway of arrhythmia were screened out, and 26 compounds had good antiarrhythmic activity. Based on the prediction results of network pharmacology along with the contents of the compounds in this CMP, ten representative compounds were chosen as the Q-markers for the quality control of SSOL. We find that five of these ten compounds, including danshensu, rosmarinic acid, salvianolic acid A, epimedin A and icariin, have antiarrhythmic activity. Then, the UPLC-DAD method was established as the control method for SSOL. Keywords: Quality marker, Network pharmacology, Quality control, Shenxian Shengmai oral liquid

  3. Thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD) quality assurance network in the Czech Republic.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kroutilķková, Daniela; Novotný, Josef; Judas, Libor

    2003-02-01

    The Czech thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD) quality assurance network was established in 1997. Its aim is to pursue a regular independent quality audit in Czech radiotherapy centres and to support state supervision. The audit is realised via mailed TL dosimetry. The TLD system consists of encapsulated LiF:Mg,Ti powder (type MT-N) read with Harshaw manual reader model 4000. Basic mode of the TLD audit covers measurements under reference conditions, specifically beam calibration checks for all clinically used photon and electron beams. Advanced mode consists of measurements under both reference and non-reference conditions using a solid multipurpose phantom ('Leuven phantom') for photon beams. The radiotherapy centres are instructed to deliver to the TLD on central beam axis absorbed dose of 2 Gy calculated with their treatment planning system for a particular treatment set-up. The TLD measured doses are compared with the calculated ones. Deviations of +/-3% are considered acceptable for both basic and advanced mode of the audit. There are 34 radiotherapy centres in the Czech Republic. They undergo the basic mode of the TLD audit regularly every 2 years. If a centre shows a deviation outside the acceptance level, it is audited more often. Presently, most of the checked beams comply with the acceptance level. The advanced TLD audit has been implemented as a pilot study for the present. The results were mostly within the acceptance limit for the measurements on-axis, whereas for off-axis points they fell beyond the limit more frequently, especially for set-ups with inhomogeneities, oblique incidence and wedges. The results prove the importance of the national TLD quality assurance network. It has contributed to the improvement of clinical dosimetry in the Czech Republic. In addition, it helps the regulatory authority to monitor effectively and regularly radiotherapy centres.

  4. Thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD) quality assurance network in the Czech Republic

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kroutilikova, Daniela; Novotny, Josef; Judas, Libor

    2003-01-01

    Introduction: The Czech thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD) quality assurance network was established in 1997. Its aim is to pursue a regular independent quality audit in Czech radiotherapy centres and to support state supervision. Materials and methods: The audit is realised via mailed TL dosimetry. The TLD system consists of encapsulated LiF:Mg,Ti powder (type MT-N) read with Harshaw manual reader model 4000. Basic mode of the TLD audit covers measurements under reference conditions, specifically beam calibration checks for all clinically used photon and electron beams. Advanced mode consists of measurements under both reference and non-reference conditions using a solid multipurpose phantom ('Leuven phantom') for photon beams. The radiotherapy centres are instructed to deliver to the TLD on central beam axis absorbed dose of 2 Gy calculated with their treatment planning system for a particular treatment set-up. The TLD measured doses are compared with the calculated ones. Deviations of ±3% are considered acceptable for both basic and advanced mode of the audit. Results: There are 34 radiotherapy centres in the Czech Republic. They undergo the basic mode of the TLD audit regularly every 2 years. If a centre shows a deviation outside the acceptance level, it is audited more often. Presently, most of the checked beams comply with the acceptance level. The advanced TLD audit has been implemented as a pilot study for the present. The results were mostly within the acceptance limit for the measurements on-axis, whereas for off-axis points they fell beyond the limit more frequently, especially for set-ups with inhomogeneities, oblique incidence and wedges. Conclusions: The results prove the importance of the national TLD quality assurance network. It has contributed to the improvement of clinical dosimetry in the Czech Republic. In addition, it helps the regulatory authority to monitor effectively and regularly radiotherapy centres

  5. Sleep Quality in Medical Students; the Impact of Over-Use of Mobile Cell-Phone and Social Networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mohammadbeigi, Abolfazl; Absari, Rozita; Valizadeh, Farzaneh; Saadati, Mohammadreza; Sharifimoghadam, Soroush; Ahmadi, Ali; Mokhtari, Mohsen; Ansari, Hossein

    2016-01-01

    Poor sleep quality is closely associated with lifestyle habits including use of mobile cell-phones.This study aimed to identify the relationship between sleep quality due to abuse in mobile cell-phones and engagement in social networks. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 380 undergraduate students selected by proportional stratified sampling in Qom, Iran in 2015. Data were collected by two standard questionnaire including Cell-Phone Over-Use Scale (COS) and Pittsburgh sleep quality questionnaire beside the status of usage in cell-phone social networks. T-test, chi-square, Pearson correlation coefficient and multivariate logistic regression were used in data analysis. The mean age of participants was 21.8 ±3.2 yr, 69.1% were female, and 11.7% were married. The mean of COS and sleep quality scores were 48.18 ±17.5 and 5.38 ±2.31, respectively. The prevalence of over-use of cell phone was 10.7% (CI 0.95; 8.8%, 12.6%) and the prevalence of poor sleep quality was 61.7% (CI 0.95; 57.1%, 66.3%). The mean of all aspects and total score of sleep quality showed a direct significant association by cell-phone addiction score except sleep duration score that was inversely. Based on multivariate analysis affected to cell-phone addiction, being male gender and studying in general physician level are the most important predictors of poor sleep quality. Over use of internet and social networks via smart phones is related to poor sleep quality and quantity. Predefined sport programs, educational, cultural, and interesting entertainment are the essential needs for all medical students. These interventions are more important especially for male students who have longer educational.

  6. Storage Solutions for Power Quality Problems in Cyprus Electricity Distribution Network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andreas Poullikkas

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available In this work, a prediction of the effects of introducing energy storage systems on the network stability of the distribution network of Cyprus and a comparison in terms of cost with a traditional solution is carried out. In particular, for solving possible overvoltage problems, several scenarios of storage units' installation are used and compared with the alternative solution of extra cable connection between the node with the lowest voltage and the node with the highest voltage of the distribution network. For the comparison, a case study of a typical LV distribution feeder in the power system of Cyprus is used. The results indicated that the performance indicator of each solution depends on the type, the size and the position of installation of the storage unit. Also, as more storage units are installed the better the performance indicator and the more attractive is the investment in storage units to solve power quality problems in the distribution network. In the case where the technical requirements in voltage limitations according to distribution regulations are satisfied with one storage unit, the installation of an additional storage unit will only increase the final cost. The best solution, however, still remains the alternative solution of extra cable connection between the node with the lowest voltage and the node with the highest voltage of the distribution network, due to the lower investment costs compared to that of the storage units.

  7. Identifying uncertainty of the mean of some water quality variables along water quality monitoring network of Bahr El Baqar drain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hussein G. Karaman

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available Assigning objectives to the environmental monitoring network is the pillar of the design to these kinds of networks. Conflicting network objectives may affect the adequacy of the design in terms of sampling frequency and the spatial distribution of the monitoring stations which in turn affect the accuracy of the data and the information extracted. The first step in resolving this problem is to identify the uncertainty inherent in the network as the result of the vagueness of the design objective. Entropy has been utilized and adopted over the past decades to identify uncertainty in similar water data sets. Therefore it is used to identify the uncertainties inherent in the water quality monitoring network of Bahr El-Baqar drain located in the Eastern Delta. Toward investigating the applicability of the Entropy methodology, comprehensive analysis at the selected drain as well as their data sets is carried out. Furthermore, the uncertainty calculated by the entropy function will be presented by the means of the geographical information system to give the decision maker a global view to these uncertainties and to open the door to other researchers to find out innovative approaches to lower these uncertainties reaching optimal monitoring network in terms of the spatial distribution of the monitoring stations.

  8. Optimal redistribution of an urban air quality monitoring network using atmospheric dispersion model and genetic algorithm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hao, Yufang; Xie, Shaodong

    2018-03-01

    Air quality monitoring networks play a significant role in identifying the spatiotemporal patterns of air pollution, and they need to be deployed efficiently, with a minimum number of sites. The revision and optimal adjustment of existing monitoring networks is crucial for cities that have undergone rapid urban expansion and experience temporal variations in pollution patterns. The approach based on the Weather Research and Forecasting-California PUFF (WRF-CALPUFF) model and genetic algorithm (GA) was developed to design an optimal monitoring network. The maximization of coverage with minimum overlap and the ability to detect violations of standards were developed as the design objectives for redistributed networks. The non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm was applied to optimize the network size and site locations simultaneously for Shijiazhuang city, one of the most polluted cities in China. The assessment on the current network identified the insufficient spatial coverage of SO2 and NO2 monitoring for the expanding city. The optimization results showed that significant improvements were achieved in multiple objectives by redistributing the original network. Efficient coverage of the resulting designs improved to 60.99% and 76.06% of the urban area for SO2 and NO2, respectively. The redistributing design for multi-pollutant including 8 sites was also proposed, with the spatial representation covered 52.30% of the urban area and the overlapped areas decreased by 85.87% compared with the original network. The abilities to detect violations of standards were not improved as much as the other two objectives due to the conflicting nature between the multiple objectives. Additionally, the results demonstrated that the algorithm was slightly sensitive to the parameter settings, with the number of generations presented the most significant effect. Overall, our study presents an effective and feasible procedure for air quality network optimization at a city scale.

  9. Qualities and Inequalities in Online Social Networks through the Lens of the Generalized Friendship Paradox

    OpenAIRE

    Momeni, Naghmeh; Rabbat, Michael

    2016-01-01

    The friendship paradox is the phenomenon that in social networks, people on average have fewer friends than their friends do. The generalized friendship paradox is an extension to attributes other than the number of friends. The friendship paradox and its generalized version have gathered recent attention due to the information they provide about network structure and local inequalities. In this paper, we propose several measures of nodal qualities which capture different aspects of their act...

  10. Power quality challenges in future distribution networks; Aspekte der Strom- und Spannungsqualitaet in kuenftigen Verteilungsnetzen

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Klatt, Matthias; Meyer, Jan; Schegner, Peter [TU Dresden (Germany)

    2011-07-01

    Power quality in distribution grids is determined by consumer topology, generation topology, network topology and environmental influences (i.e. weather). New developments like decentralized power generation or e-mobility lead to significant changes in the grids as well as the equipment connected thereto. This paper discusses possible impacts of new technologies on power quality and is intended to attract attention of stakeholders to these issues. (orig.)

  11. WDM Core Networks : regenerator placement and green networking

    OpenAIRE

    Youssef , Mayssa

    2011-01-01

    As Operators strive today to optimize their networks, considerations of cost, availability, eco-sustainability, and quality of service are beginning to converge. Solutions that reduce capital and operational expenditures not only save money, but also tend to reduce the environmental impact. In "opaque" networks, optical signals undergo expensive electrical regeneration systematically at each node. In "transparent" networks, signal quality deteriorates due to the accumulation of physical impai...

  12. Social support network, mental health and quality of life: a cross-sectional study in primary care

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Flávia Batista Portugal

    Full Text Available The objective of this study was to identify the association between emotional distress and social support networks with quality of life in primary care patients. This was a cross-sectional study involving 1,466 patients in the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2009/2010. The General Health Questionnaire, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the brief version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Instrument were used. The Social Support Network Index classified patients with the highest and lowest index as socially integrated or isolated. A bivariate analysis and four multiple linear regressions were conducted for each quality of life outcome. The means scores for the physical, psychological, social relations, and environment domains were, respectively, 64.7; 64.2; 68.5 and 49.1. In the multivariate analysis, the psychological domain was negatively associated with isolation, whereas the social relations and environment domains were positively associated with integration. Integration and isolation proved to be important factors for those in emotional distress as they minimize or maximize negative effects on quality of life.

  13. Using heuristic algorithms for capacity leasing and task allocation issues in telecommunication networks under fuzzy quality of service constraints

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huseyin Turan, Hasan; Kasap, Nihat; Savran, Huseyin

    2014-03-01

    Nowadays, every firm uses telecommunication networks in different amounts and ways in order to complete their daily operations. In this article, we investigate an optimisation problem that a firm faces when acquiring network capacity from a market in which there exist several network providers offering different pricing and quality of service (QoS) schemes. The QoS level guaranteed by network providers and the minimum quality level of service, which is needed for accomplishing the operations are denoted as fuzzy numbers in order to handle the non-deterministic nature of the telecommunication network environment. Interestingly, the mathematical formulation of the aforementioned problem leads to the special case of a well-known two-dimensional bin packing problem, which is famous for its computational complexity. We propose two different heuristic solution procedures that have the capability of solving the resulting nonlinear mixed integer programming model with fuzzy constraints. In conclusion, the efficiency of each algorithm is tested in several test instances to demonstrate the applicability of the methodology.

  14. Predicting Causes of Data Quality Issues in a Clinical Data Research Network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khare, Ritu; Ruth, Byron J; Miller, Matthew; Tucker, Joshua; Utidjian, Levon H; Razzaghi, Hanieh; Patibandla, Nandan; Burrows, Evanette K; Bailey, L Charles

    2018-01-01

    Clinical data research networks (CDRNs) invest substantially in identifying and investigating data quality problems. While identification is largely automated, the investigation and resolution are carried out manually at individual institutions. In the PEDSnet CDRN, we found that only approximately 35% of the identified data quality issues are resolvable as they are caused by errors in the extract-transform-load (ETL) code. Nonetheless, with no prior knowledge of issue causes, partner institutions end up spending significant time investigating issues that represent either inherent data characteristics or false alarms. This work investigates whether the causes (ETL, Characteristic, or False alarm) can be predicted before spending time investigating issues. We trained a classifier on the metadata from 10,281 real-world data quality issues, and achieved a cause prediction F1-measure of up to 90%. While initially tested on PEDSnet, the proposed methodology is applicable to other CDRNs facing similar bottlenecks in handling data quality results.

  15. A social network's changing statistical properties and the quality of human innovation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uzzi, Brian

    2008-06-01

    We examined the entire network of creative artists that made Broadway musicals, in the post-War period, a collaboration network of international acclaim and influence, with an eye to investigating how the network's structural features condition the relationship between individual artistic talent and the success of their musicals. Our findings show that some of the evolving topographical qualities of degree distributions, path lengths and assortativity are relatively stable with time even as collaboration patterns shift, which suggests their changes are only minimally associated with the ebb and flux of the success of new productions. In contrast, the clustering coefficient changed substantially over time and we found that it had a nonlinear association with the production of financially and artistically successful shows. When the clustering coefficient ratio is low or high, the financial and artistic success of the industry is low, while an intermediate level of clustering is associated with successful shows. We supported these findings with sociological theory on the relationship between social structure and collaboration and with tests of statistical inference. Our discussion focuses on connecting the statistical properties of social networks to their performance and the performance of the actors embedded within them.

  16. A social network's changing statistical properties and the quality of human innovation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Uzzi, Brian

    2008-01-01

    We examined the entire network of creative artists that made Broadway musicals, in the post-War period, a collaboration network of international acclaim and influence, with an eye to investigating how the network's structural features condition the relationship between individual artistic talent and the success of their musicals. Our findings show that some of the evolving topographical qualities of degree distributions, path lengths and assortativity are relatively stable with time even as collaboration patterns shift, which suggests their changes are only minimally associated with the ebb and flux of the success of new productions. In contrast, the clustering coefficient changed substantially over time and we found that it had a nonlinear association with the production of financially and artistically successful shows. When the clustering coefficient ratio is low or high, the financial and artistic success of the industry is low, while an intermediate level of clustering is associated with successful shows. We supported these findings with sociological theory on the relationship between social structure and collaboration and with tests of statistical inference. Our discussion focuses on connecting the statistical properties of social networks to their performance and the performance of the actors embedded within them

  17. Optimizing sliver quality using Artificial Neural Networks in ring spinning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Samar Ahmed Mohsen Abd-Ellatif

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Sliver evenness is a very important parameter affecting the quality of the yarn produced. Therefore, controlling the sliver evenness is of major importance. Auto-levelers mounted on modern Drawing Frames should be accurately adjusted to help to achieve this task. The Leveling Action Point (LAP is one of the important auto-leveling parameters which highly influence the evenness of the slivers produced. Its adjustment is therefore of a crucial importance. In this research work, Artificial Neural Networks are applied to predict the optimum value of the LAP under different productions and material conditions. Five models are developed and tested for their ability to predict the optimum value of the LAP from the most influencing fiber and process parameters. As a final step, a statistical multiple regression model was developed to conduct a comparison between the performance of the developed Artificial Neural Network model and the currently applied statistical techniques.

  18. Architecture's models: Integral thermal evaluation; Modelos en arquitectura: evaluacion termica integral

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Roset, Jaume [Universidad Politecnica de Cataluna, Barcelona (Spain); Marincic, Irene; Ochoa, J. Manuel [Universidad de Sonora, Hermosillo, Sonora (Mexico)

    2000-07-01

    fin, se utilizan modelos que representen tanto la descripcion de los objetos y conceptos arquitectonicos, como las hipotesis sobre su comportamiento espacio-temporal. La cantidad y tipo de informacion que es necesario suministrar a un modelo para hacerlo operativo ha sido, y es, objeto de grandes controversias. La cuestion es: hasta que punto son mas utiles modelos con gran cantidad de entradas que otros mas simples? Entendiendo por modelos simples aquellos que habitualmente contienen cierta cantidad de coeficientes empiricos, lo que reduce el numero de datos, llevando el calculo a una aproximacion. Por otro lado, en el dominio de la arquitectura la informacion se presenta de manera habitual, sobre soportes de diferente tipo (tablas de valores numericos, planos, maquetas, ...). Las informaciones suministradas en cada tipo de soporte deben, necesariamente, ser combinadas de manera que se maximice la informacion contenida sobre el sistema global. En este trabajo, presentamos ejemplos referentes a estudios termicos que hemos realizado sobre diferentes maneras de abordar la evaluacion de modelos variables relacionados con el comportamiento termico de los edificios, la interaccion de estos con el medio ambiente que los rodea y su influencia sobre el confort en el interior de los mismos. Como conclusion general, podriamos decir que un modelo deberia tener las minimas entradas posibles con las cuales abordar los efectos mas significativos, que puedan representar de la manera mas aproximada posible al comportamiento real. Las hipotesis y condiciones de evaluacion de estos efectos deben ser comprendidas y asumidas por el usuario.

  19. A feed-forward Hopfield neural network algorithm (FHNNA) with a colour satellite image for water quality mapping

    Science.gov (United States)

    Asal Kzar, Ahmed; Mat Jafri, M. Z.; Hwee San, Lim; Al-Zuky, Ali A.; Mutter, Kussay N.; Hassan Al-Saleh, Anwar

    2016-06-01

    There are many techniques that have been given for water quality problem, but the remote sensing techniques have proven their success, especially when the artificial neural networks are used as mathematical models with these techniques. Hopfield neural network is one type of artificial neural networks which is common, fast, simple, and efficient, but it when it deals with images that have more than two colours such as remote sensing images. This work has attempted to solve this problem via modifying the network that deals with colour remote sensing images for water quality mapping. A Feed-forward Hopfield Neural Network Algorithm (FHNNA) was modified and used with a satellite colour image from type of Thailand earth observation system (THEOS) for TSS mapping in the Penang strait, Malaysia, through the classification of TSS concentrations. The new algorithm is based essentially on three modifications: using HNN as feed-forward network, considering the weights of bitplanes, and non-self-architecture or zero diagonal of weight matrix, in addition, it depends on a validation data. The achieved map was colour-coded for visual interpretation. The efficiency of the new algorithm has found out by the higher correlation coefficient (R=0.979) and the lower root mean square error (RMSE=4.301) between the validation data that were divided into two groups. One used for the algorithm and the other used for validating the results. The comparison was with the minimum distance classifier. Therefore, TSS mapping of polluted water in Penang strait, Malaysia, can be performed using FHNNA with remote sensing technique (THEOS). It is a new and useful application of HNN, so it is a new model with remote sensing techniques for water quality mapping which is considered important environmental problem.

  20. Investigation of Service Quality of Measurement Reference Points for the Internet Services on Mobile Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lipenbergs, E.; Bobrovs, Vj.; Ivanovs, G.

    2016-10-01

    To ensure that end-users and consumers have access to comprehensive, comparable and user-friendly information regarding the Internet access service quality, it is necessary to implement and regularly renew a set of legislative regulatory acts and to provide monitoring of the quality of Internet access services regarding the current European Regulatory Framework. The actual situation regarding the quality of service monitoring solutions in different European countries depends on national regulatory initiatives and public awareness. The service monitoring solutions are implemented using different measurement methodologies and tools. The paper investigates the practical implementations for developing a harmonising approach to quality monitoring in order to obtain objective information on the quality of Internet access services on mobile networks.

  1. Report on the quality of service of the gas network operators GrDF, GRTgaz and TIGF. Report 2008-2009

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2009-11-01

    CRE, the Energy Regulatory Commission, publishes the first annual report on the quality of service of the gas networks operators, GrDF, GRTgaz and TIGF. The monitoring of GrDF's quality of service covers a one-year period, from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009; that of GRTgaz and TIGF covers a 6-month period, from January 1, 2009 to June 30, 2009. The first finding of this report is that the three operators took the necessary measures in terms of tools and resources to implement the mechanisms required by the tariffs rules. Furthermore, almost all indicators are now monitored and published regularly by the gas networks operators. The whole picture is that the quality of service of GrDF, GRTgaz and TIGF progressively improved over the monitoring period in the most significant areas related to a proper functioning of the market. However, the objectives set by the tariffs rules were not all met. This led to financial penalties for the gas networks operators. During the tariff period, the tariff rules allow to revise the monitoring mechanism, as the tariffs in force provide the possibility to update the indicators. Consequently, and based on this first report, CRE will be working with the gas networks operators and the market players to improve the monitoring mechanism implemented, focusing more on the quality of services provided to end users

  2. Sound quality prediction of vehicle interior noise and mathematical modeling using a back propagation neural network (BPNN) based on particle swarm optimization (PSO)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang, Enlai; Hou, Liang; Shen, Chao; Shi, Yingliang; Zhang, Yaxiang

    2016-01-01

    To better solve the complex non-linear problem between the subjective sound quality evaluation results and objective psychoacoustics parameters, a method for the prediction of the sound quality is put forward by using a back propagation neural network (BPNN) based on particle swarm optimization (PSO), which is optimizing the initial weights and thresholds of BP network neurons through the PSO. In order to verify the effectiveness and accuracy of this approach, the noise signals of the B-Class vehicles from the idle speed to 120 km h −1 measured by the artificial head, are taken as a target. In addition, this paper describes a subjective evaluation experiment on the sound quality annoyance inside the vehicles through a grade evaluation method, by which the annoyance of each sample is obtained. With the use of Artemis software, the main objective psychoacoustic parameters of each noise sample are calculated. These parameters include loudness, sharpness, roughness, fluctuation, tonality, articulation index (AI) and A-weighted sound pressure level. Furthermore, three evaluation models with the same artificial neural network (ANN) structure are built: the standard BPNN model, the genetic algorithm-back-propagation neural network (GA-BPNN) model and the PSO-back-propagation neural network (PSO-BPNN) model. After the network training and the evaluation prediction on the three models’ network based on experimental data, it proves that the PSO-BPNN method can achieve convergence more quickly and improve the prediction accuracy of sound quality, which can further lay a foundation for the control of the sound quality inside vehicles. (paper)

  3. Status of and changes in water quality monitored for the Idaho statewide surface-water-quality network, 1989—2002

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hardy, Mark A.; Parliman, Deborah J.; O'Dell, Ivalou

    2005-01-01

    The Idaho statewide surface-water-quality monitoring network consists of 56 sites that have been monitored from 1989 through 2002 to provide data to document status and changes in the quality of Idaho streams. Sampling at 33 sites has covered a wide range of flows and seasons that describe water-quality variations representing both natural conditions and human influences. Targeting additional high- or low-flow sampling would better describe conditions at 20 sites during hydrologic extremes. At the three spring site types, sampling covered the range of flow conditions from 1989 through 2002 well. However, high flows at these sites since 1989 were lower than historical high flows as a result of declining ground-water levels in the Snake River Plain. Summertime stream temperatures at 45 sites commonly exceeded 19 and 22 degrees Celsius, the Idaho maximum daily mean and daily maximum criteria, respectively, for the protection of coldwater aquatic life. Criteria exceedances in stream basins with minimal development suggest that such high temperatures may occur naturally in many Idaho streams. Suspended-sediment concentrations were generally higher in southern Idaho than in central and northern Idaho, and network data suggest that the turbidity criteria are most likely to be exceeded at sites in southern Idaho and other sections of the Columbia Plateaus geomorphic province. This is probably because this province has more fine-grained soils that are subject to erosion and disturbance by land uses than the Northern Rocky Mountains province of northern and central

  4. Locations of Sampling Stations for Water Quality Monitoring in Water Distribution Networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rathi, Shweta; Gupta, Rajesh

    2014-04-01

    Water quality is required to be monitored in the water distribution networks (WDNs) at salient locations to assure the safe quality of water supplied to the consumers. Such monitoring stations (MSs) provide warning against any accidental contaminations. Various objectives like demand coverage, time for detection, volume of water contaminated before detection, extent of contamination, expected population affected prior to detection, detection likelihood and others, have been independently or jointly considered in determining optimal number and location of MSs in WDNs. "Demand coverage" defined as the percentage of network demand monitored by a particular monitoring station is a simple measure to locate MSs. Several methods based on formulation of coverage matrix using pre-specified coverage criteria and optimization have been suggested. Coverage criteria is defined as some minimum percentage of total flow received at the monitoring stations that passed through any upstream node included then as covered node of the monitoring station. Number of monitoring stations increases with the increase in the value of coverage criteria. Thus, the design of monitoring station becomes subjective. A simple methodology is proposed herein which priority wise iteratively selects MSs to achieve targeted demand coverage. The proposed methodology provided the same number and location of MSs for illustrative network as an optimization method did. Further, the proposed method is simple and avoids subjectivity that could arise from the consideration of coverage criteria. The application of methodology is also shown on a WDN of Dharampeth zone (Nagpur city WDN in Maharashtra, India) having 285 nodes and 367 pipes.

  5. The Earthscope USArray Array Network Facility (ANF): Metadata, Network and Data Monitoring, Quality Assurance During the Second Year of Operations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eakins, J. A.; Vernon, F. L.; Martynov, V.; Newman, R. L.; Cox, T. A.; Lindquist, K. L.; Hindley, A.; Foley, S.

    2005-12-01

    The Array Network Facility (ANF) for the Earthscope USArray Transportable Array seismic network is responsible for: the delivery of all Transportable Array stations (400 at full deployment) and telemetered Flexible Array stations (up to 200) to the IRIS Data Management Center; station command and control; verification and distribution of metadata; providing useful remotely accessible world wide web interfaces for personnel at the Array Operations Facility (AOF) to access state of health information; and quality control for all data. To meet these goals, we use the Antelope software package to facilitate data collection and transfer, generation and merging of the metadata, real-time monitoring of dataloggers, generation of station noise spectra, and analyst review of individual events. Recently, an Antelope extension to the PHP scripting language has been implemented which facilitates the dynamic presentation of the real-time data to local web pages. Metadata transfers have been simplified by the use of orb transfer technologies at the ANF and receiver end points. Web services are being investigated as a means to make a potentially complicated set of operations easy to follow and reproduce for each newly installed or decommissioned station. As part of the quality control process, daily analyst review has highlighted areas where neither the regional network bulletins nor the USGS global bulletin have published solutions. Currently four regional networks (Anza, BDSN, SCSN, and UNR) contribute data to the Transportable Array with additional contributors expected. The first 100 stations (42 new Earthscope stations) were operational by September 2005 with all but one of the California stations installed. By year's end, weather permitting, the total number of stations deployed is expected to be around 145. Visit http://anf.ucsd.edu for more information on the project and current status.

  6. Constructing Ecological Networks Based on Habitat Quality Assessment: A Case Study of Changzhou, China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Yu; Ma, Lei; Liu, Jiaxun; Zhuang, Zhuzhou; Huang, Qiuhao; Li, Manchun

    2017-01-01

    Fragmentation and reduced continuity of habitat patches threaten the environment and biodiversity. Recently, ecological networks are increasingly attracting the attention of researchers as they provide fundamental frameworks for environmental protection. This study suggests a set of procedures to construct an ecological network. First, we proposed a method to construct a landscape resistance surface based on the assessment of habitat quality. Second, to analyze the effect of the resistance surface on corridor simulations, we used three methods to construct resistance surfaces: (1) the method proposed in this paper, (2) the entropy coefficient method, and (3) the expert scoring method. Then, we integrated habitat patches and resistance surfaces to identify potential corridors using graph theory. These procedures were tested in Changzhou, China. Comparing the outputs of using different resistance surfaces demonstrated that: (1) different landscape resistance surfaces contribute to how corridors are identified, but only slightly affect the assessment of the importance of habitat patches and potential corridors; (2) the resistance surface, which is constructed based on habitat quality, is more applicable to corridor simulations; and (3) the assessment of the importance of habitat patches is fundamental for ecological network optimization in the conservation of critical habitat patches and corridors. PMID:28393879

  7. Quality-on-Demand Compression of EEG Signals for Telemedicine Applications Using Neural Network Predictors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N. Sriraam

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available A telemedicine system using communication and information technology to deliver medical signals such as ECG, EEG for long distance medical services has become reality. In either the urgent treatment or ordinary healthcare, it is necessary to compress these signals for the efficient use of bandwidth. This paper discusses a quality on demand compression of EEG signals using neural network predictors for telemedicine applications. The objective is to obtain a greater compression gains at a low bit rate while preserving the clinical information content. A two-stage compression scheme with a predictor and an entropy encoder is used. The residue signals obtained after prediction is first thresholded using various levels of thresholds and are further quantized and then encoded using an arithmetic encoder. Three neural network models, single-layer and multi-layer perceptrons and Elman network are used and the results are compared with linear predictors such as FIR filters and AR modeling. The fidelity of the reconstructed EEG signal is assessed quantitatively using parameters such as PRD, SNR, cross correlation and power spectral density. It is found from the results that the quality of the reconstructed signal is preserved at a low PRD thereby yielding better compression results compared to results obtained using lossless scheme.

  8. Data Quality Control of the French Permanent Broadband Network in the RESIF Framework

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grunberg, Marc; Lambotte, Sophie; Engels, Fabien; Dretzen, Remi; Hernandez, Alain

    2014-05-01

    In the framework of the RESIF (Réseau Sismologique et géodésique Français) project, a new information system is being setting up, allowing the improvement of the management and the distribution of high quality data from the different elements of RESIF and the associated networks. Within this information system, EOST (in Strasbourg) is in charge of collecting real-time permanent broadband seismic waveform, and performing Quality Control on these data. The real-time and validated data set are pushed to the French National Distribution Center (Isterre/Grenoble) in order to make them publicly available. Furthermore EOST hosts the BCSF-ReNaSS, in charge of the French metropolitan seismic bulletin. This allows to benefit from some high-end quality control based on the national and world-wide seismicity. Here we present first the real-time seismic data flow from the stations of the French National Broad Band Network to EOST, and then, the data Quality Control procedures that were recently installed, including some new developments. The data Quality Control consists in applying a variety of subprocesses to check the consistency of the whole system and process from the stations to the data center. This allows us to verify that instruments and data transmission are operating correctly. Moreover analysis of the ambient noise helps to characterize intrinsic seismic quality of the stations and to identify other kind of disturbances. The deployed Quality Control consist in a pipeline that starts with low-level procedures : check the real-time miniseed data file (file naming convention, data integrity), check for inconsistencies between waveform and meta-data (channel name, sample rate, etc.), compute waveform statistics (data availability, gap/overlap, mean, rms, time quality, spike). It is followed by some high-level procedures such as : power spectral density computation (PSD), STA/LTA computation to be correlated to the seismicity, phases picking and stations magnitudes

  9. Data Quality Control: Challenges, Methods, and Solutions from an Eco-Hydrologic Instrumentation Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eiriksson, D.; Jones, A. S.; Horsburgh, J. S.; Cox, C.; Dastrup, D.

    2017-12-01

    Over the past few decades, advances in electronic dataloggers and in situ sensor technology have revolutionized our ability to monitor air, soil, and water to address questions in the environmental sciences. The increased spatial and temporal resolution of in situ data is alluring. However, an often overlooked aspect of these advances are the challenges data managers and technicians face in performing quality control on millions of data points collected every year. While there is general agreement that high quantities of data offer little value unless the data are of high quality, it is commonly understood that despite efforts toward quality assurance, environmental data collection occasionally goes wrong. After identifying erroneous data, data managers and technicians must determine whether to flag, delete, leave unaltered, or retroactively correct suspect data. While individual instrumentation networks often develop their own QA/QC procedures, there is a scarcity of consensus and literature regarding specific solutions and methods for correcting data. This may be because back correction efforts are time consuming, so suspect data are often simply abandoned. Correction techniques are also rarely reported in the literature, likely because corrections are often performed by technicians rather than the researchers who write the scientific papers. Details of correction procedures are often glossed over as a minor component of data collection and processing. To help address this disconnect, we present case studies of quality control challenges, solutions, and lessons learned from a large scale, multi-watershed environmental observatory in Northern Utah that monitors Gradients Along Mountain to Urban Transitions (GAMUT). The GAMUT network consists of over 40 individual climate, water quality, and storm drain monitoring stations that have collected more than 200 million unique data points in four years of operation. In all of our examples, we emphasize that scientists

  10. The Art of Athlete Leadership: Identifying High-Quality Athlete Leadership at the Individual and Team Level Through Social Network Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fransen, Katrien; Van Puyenbroeck, Stef; Loughead, Todd M; Vanbeselaere, Norbert; De Cuyper, Bert; Vande Broek, Gert; Boen, Filip

    2015-06-01

    This research aimed to introduce social network analysis as a novel technique in sports teams to identify the attributes of high-quality athlete leadership, both at the individual and at the team level. Study 1 included 25 sports teams (N = 308 athletes) and focused on athletes' general leadership quality. Study 2 comprised 21 sports teams (N = 267 athletes) and focused on athletes' specific leadership quality as a task, motivational, social, and external leader. The extent to which athletes felt connected with their leader proved to be most predictive for athletes' perceptions of that leader's quality on each leadership role. Also at the team level, teams with higher athlete leadership quality were more strongly connected. We conclude that social network analysis constitutes a valuable tool to provide more insight in the attributes of high-quality leadership both at the individual and at the team level.

  11. Data on the key performance indicators for quality of service of GSM networks in Nigeria.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Popoola, Segun I; Atayero, Aderemi A; Faruk, Nasir; Badejo, Joke A

    2018-02-01

    In this data article, the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Quality of Service (QoS) of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) networks in Nigeria are provided and analyzed. The data provided in this paper contain the Call Setup Success Rate (CSSR), Drop Call Rate (DCR), Stand-alone Dedicated Channel (SDCCH) congestion, and Traffic Channel (TCH) congestion for the four GSM network operators in Nigeria (Airtel, Etisalat, Glo, and MTN). These comprehensive data were obtained from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). Significant differences in each of the KPIs for the four quarters of each year were presented based on Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The values of the KPIs were plotted against the months of the year for better visualization and understanding of data trends across the four quarters. Multiple comparisons of the mean-quarterly differences of the KPIs were also presented using Tukey's Post Hoc test. Public availability and further interpretation and discussion of these useful information will assist the network providers, Nigerian government, local and international regulatory bodies, policy makers, and other stakeholders in ensuring access of people, machines, and things to high quality telecommunications services.

  12. Towards a Diagnostic Instrument to Identify Improvement Opportunities for Quality Controlled Logistics in Agrifood Supply Chain Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jack G.A.J. van der Vorst

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available  Western-European consumers have become not only more demanding on product availability in retail outlets but also on other food attributes such as quality, integrity, and safety. When (redesigning food supply-chain networks, from a logistics point of view, one has to consider these demands next to traditional efficiency and responsiveness requirements. The concept ‘quality controlled logistics’ (QCL hypothesizes that if product quality in each step of the supply chain can be predicted in advance, goods flows can be controlled in a pro-active manner and better chain designs can be established resulting in higher product availability, constant quality, and less product losses. The paper discusses opportunities of using real-time product quality information for improvement of the design and management of ‘AgriFood Supply Chain Networks’, and presents a preliminary diagnostic instrument for assessment of ‘critical quality’ and ‘logistics control’ points in the supply chain network. Results of a tomato-chain case illustrate the added value of the QCL concept for identifying improvement opportunities in the supply chain as to increase both product availability and quality. Future research aims for the further development of the diagnostic instrument and the quantification of costs and benefits of QCL scenarios.

  13. Experience with quality assurance in two store-and-forward telemedicine networks

    OpenAIRE

    Wootton, Richard; Liu, Joanne; Bonnardot, Laurent; Venugopal, Raghu; Oakley, Amanda

    2015-01-01

    Published version. Also available at http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2015.00261 Despite the increasing use of telemedicine around the world, little has been done to incorporate quality assurance (QA) into these operations. The purpose of the present study was to examine the feasibility of QA in store-and-forward teleconsulting using a previously published framework. During a 2-year study period, we examined the feasibility of using QA tools in two mature telemedicine networks [Médecins Sa...

  14. Air pollution assessment in the Slovak Republic in 2005. Measurement stations of air quality monitoring network

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon

    2006-05-01

    In this Appendix to the report 'Air pollution assessment in the Slovak Republic in 2005' the main characteristics of measurement stations of air quality monitoring network of the Slovak Republic are presented

  15. Air pollution assessment in the Slovak Republic in 2004. Measurement stations of air quality monitoring network

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon

    2005-07-01

    In this Appendix to the report 'Air pollution assessment in the Slovak Republic in 2004' the main characteristics of measurement stations of air quality monitoring network of the Slovak Republic are presented

  16. Evaluation of physical, chemical and microbial quality of distribution network drinkingwater in Bushehr, Iran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elham Shabankareh fard

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: The physical, chemical and microbial properties of water are the criteria to consider it as drinking water quality. Unfavorable changes in such parameters may threat consumers' health. The aim of this study is to give a clear view of physical, chemical and microbial quality of distribution network drinking water in Bushehr and compare with national and EPA standards. Materials and Methods: This descriptive sectional study was done during Sep 2012 to Feb 2013 (6 months. 50 Samples were collected directly from distribution network drinking water in Bushehr. Physical and chemical analyses were done according to standard methods. Multiple tube fermentation method was used to determine fecal and total coliform bacteria and spread plate method was used to measure heterotrophic bacteria. Results: The mean values of measured parameters were as follow: electrical conductivity 1155.5 µs/cm, turbidity 0.27 NTU, pH 7.12, alkalinity 171.5, total hardness 458.96, calcium hardness 390.96, magnesium hardness 68 mg/L as CaCO3, calcium 156.38, magnesium 16.95, residual chlorine 0.61, chloride 83.26, TDS 577.7, iron 0.115, fluoride 0.48, phosphate 0.059, nitrate 3.08, nitrite 0.003 and sulphate 728.38 mg/L. Total coliform (0, fecal coliform (0 MPN/100 ml and HPC 309.8 CFU/mL. Except TDS and sulphate, all cited results met the national and EPA standards. Conclusion: Quality of water from distribution network in Bushehr was not problematical from health point of view. However, high TDS and sulphate content may increase diarrhea risk in consumer as well as corrosive effect of water.

  17. Image Quality Assessment of JPEG Compressed Mars Science Laboratory Mastcam Images using Convolutional Neural Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kerner, H. R.; Bell, J. F., III; Ben Amor, H.

    2017-12-01

    The Mastcam color imaging system on the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover acquires images within Gale crater for a variety of geologic and atmospheric studies. Images are often JPEG compressed before being downlinked to Earth. While critical for transmitting images on a low-bandwidth connection, this compression can result in image artifacts most noticeable as anomalous brightness or color changes within or near JPEG compression block boundaries. In images with significant high-frequency detail (e.g., in regions showing fine layering or lamination in sedimentary rocks), the image might need to be re-transmitted losslessly to enable accurate scientific interpretation of the data. The process of identifying which images have been adversely affected by compression artifacts is performed manually by the Mastcam science team, costing significant expert human time. To streamline the tedious process of identifying which images might need to be re-transmitted, we present an input-efficient neural network solution for predicting the perceived quality of a compressed Mastcam image. Most neural network solutions require large amounts of hand-labeled training data for the model to learn the target mapping between input (e.g. distorted images) and output (e.g. quality assessment). We propose an automatic labeling method using joint entropy between a compressed and uncompressed image to avoid the need for domain experts to label thousands of training examples by hand. We use automatically labeled data to train a convolutional neural network to estimate the probability that a Mastcam user would find the quality of a given compressed image acceptable for science analysis. We tested our model on a variety of Mastcam images and found that the proposed method correlates well with image quality perception by science team members. When assisted by our proposed method, we estimate that a Mastcam investigator could reduce the time spent reviewing images by a minimum of 70%.

  18. Author-paper affiliation network architecture influences the methodological quality of systematic reviews and meta-analyses of psoriasis.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juan Luis Sanz-Cabanillas

    Full Text Available Moderate-to-severe psoriasis is associated with significant comorbidity, an impaired quality of life, and increased medical costs, including those associated with treatments. Systematic reviews (SRs and meta-analyses (MAs of randomized clinical trials are considered two of the best approaches to the summarization of high-quality evidence. However, methodological bias can reduce the validity of conclusions from these types of studies and subsequently impair the quality of decision making. As co-authorship is among the most well-documented forms of research collaboration, the present study aimed to explore whether authors' collaboration methods might influence the methodological quality of SRs and MAs of psoriasis. Methodological quality was assessed by two raters who extracted information from full articles. After calculating total and per-item Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR scores, reviews were classified as low (0-4, medium (5-8, or high (9-11 quality. Article metadata and journal-related bibliometric indices were also obtained. A total of 741 authors from 520 different institutions and 32 countries published 220 reviews that were classified as high (17.2%, moderate (55%, or low (27.7% methodological quality. The high methodological quality subnetwork was larger but had a lower connection density than the low and moderate methodological quality subnetworks; specifically, the former contained relatively fewer nodes (authors and reviews, reviews by authors, and collaborators per author. Furthermore, the high methodological quality subnetwork was highly compartmentalized, with several modules representing few poorly interconnected communities. In conclusion, structural differences in author-paper affiliation network may influence the methodological quality of SRs and MAs on psoriasis. As the author-paper affiliation network structure affects study quality in this research field, authors who maintain an appropriate balance

  19. Evaluation of the energy saving potential in illumination using presence sensors; Evaluacion del potencial de ahorro de energia en iluminacion utilizando sensores de presencia

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cortes Eslava, Alejandro [Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM), Mexico, D. F. (Mexico)

    1999-07-01

    The analysis and the evaluation of the energy saving that would provide a system of illumination controlled by sensors of presence in an enclosure with low transit, evaluating the economic profitability of the system is presented. The data, from which the analysis is sustained and the results are deducted, coming from the use and installation of a timer in the area. [Spanish] Se presenta el analisis y la evaluacion de los ahorros de energia que suministraria un sistema de iluminacion controlado por sensores de presencia en un recinto con bajo transito, evaluando la rentabilidad economica del sistema. Los datos, a partir de los cuales se sustenta el analisis y se deducen los resultados, provienen de la utilizacion e instalacion de un contador de tiempo de uso en el recinto.

  20. A study of electrical power network of renewable energies and water desalination research center using power quality phenomena and indices

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Segayer, Ali Mehemmed

    2008-08-01

    Renewable energies and water distillation research center (REWDRC) is a very strategic research facility and contains many important and critical industrial and electrical loads that must to be operated as a group to fulfill the requirements and the needs of the center in the operation of the main research facility of the center which a 10 MW reactor. Faults on the electrical or the industrial system can occur on many ways such as a malfunction in the questioned system, power quality related problem, or a failure of any of the loads (such as central ventilation or water circulation system or one of the substations) have a great diverse effect on the operation of the main research facility (reactor). In this research common problems due to power quality phenomena were studied, assessed through a assigning some power quality indices to the electrical network of the center so that the operational condition of the REWDRC electrical and industrial network could be evaluated. power quality indices (PQI) were assigned based on results of real time measurements at the points of common coupling of the network (PCC) and the initial power quality survey report. indices analysis was done using three methods which were the normalization method, method of comparing to the limit value and analysis of measurement data time function profile. As a result of this research a recommendation for safe operation against power quality disturbances was pointed out through a continuous monitoring of assigned power quality indices. (Author)

  1. Assessment of the quality of public services based on the analysis of these social networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Krivko Sergei Rostislavovich

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Studied the possibilities and the potential of using data on the views of users of social networks on the uptake and quality of e-government services, the analysis of the distribution of publications in international scientific periodicals repertoire Related research.

  2. Effects of primary care team social networks on quality of care and costs for patients with cardiovascular disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mundt, Marlon P; Gilchrist, Valerie J; Fleming, Michael F; Zakletskaia, Larissa I; Tuan, Wen-Jan; Beasley, John W

    2015-03-01

    Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the United States. Primary care teams can be best suited to improve quality of care and lower costs for patients with cardiovascular disease. This study evaluates the associations between primary care team communication, interaction, and coordination (ie, social networks); quality of care; and costs for patients with cardiovascular disease. Using a sociometric survey, 155 health professionals from 31 teams at 6 primary care clinics identified with whom they interact daily about patient care. Social network analysis calculated variables of density and centralization representing team interaction structures. Three-level hierarchical modeling evaluated the link between team network density, centralization, and number of patients with a diagnosis of cardiovascular disease for controlled blood pressure and cholesterol, counts of urgent care visits, emergency department visits, hospital days, and medical care costs in the previous 12 months. Teams with dense interactions among all team members were associated with fewer hospital days (rate ratio [RR] = 0.62; 95% CI, 0.50-0.77) and lower medical care costs (-$556; 95% CI, -$781 to -$331) for patients with cardiovascular disease. Conversely, teams with interactions revolving around a few central individuals were associated with increased hospital days (RR = 1.45; 95% CI, 1.09-1.94) and greater costs ($506; 95% CI, $202-$810). Team-shared vision about goals and expectations mediated the relationship between social network structures and patient quality of care outcomes. Primary care teams that are more interconnected and less centralized and that have a shared team vision are better positioned to deliver high-quality cardiovascular disease care at a lower cost. © 2015 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.

  3. Groundwater quality data from the National Water-Quality Assessment Project, May 2012 through December 2013

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arnold, Terri L.; Desimone, Leslie A.; Bexfield, Laura M.; Lindsey, Bruce D.; Barlow, Jeannie R.; Kulongoski, Justin T.; Musgrove, MaryLynn; Kingsbury, James A.; Belitz, Kenneth

    2016-06-20

    Groundwater-quality data were collected from 748 wells as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment Project of the U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Program from May 2012 through December 2013. The data were collected from four types of well networks: principal aquifer study networks, which assess the quality of groundwater used for public water supply; land-use study networks, which assess land-use effects on shallow groundwater quality; major aquifer study networks, which assess the quality of groundwater used for domestic supply; and enhanced trends networks, which evaluate the time scales during which groundwater quality changes. Groundwater samples were analyzed for a large number of water-quality indicators and constituents, including major ions, nutrients, trace elements, volatile organic compounds, pesticides, and radionuclides. These groundwater quality data are tabulated in this report. Quality-control samples also were collected; data from blank and replicate quality-control samples are included in this report.

  4. Dynamics of quality as a strategic variable in complex food supply chain network competition: The case of fresh produce

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nagurney, Anna; Besik, Deniz; Yu, Min

    2018-04-01

    In this paper, we construct a competitive food supply chain network model in which the profit-maximizing producers decide not only as to the volume of fresh produce produced and distributed using various supply chain network pathways, but they also decide, with the associated costs, on the initial quality of the fresh produce. Consumers, in turn, respond to the various producers' product outputs through the prices that they are willing to pay, given also the average quality associated with each producer or brand at the retail outlets. The quality of the fresh produce is captured through explicit formulae that incorporate time, temperature, and other link characteristics with links associated with processing, shipment, storage, etc. Capacities on links are also incorporated as well as upper bounds on the initial product quality of the firms at their production/harvesting sites. The governing concept of the competitive supply chain network model is that of Nash Equilibrium, for which alternative variational inequality formulations are derived, along with existence results. An algorithmic procedure, which can be interpreted as a discrete-time tatonnement process, is then described and applied to compute the equilibrium produce flow patterns and accompanying link Lagrange multipliers in a realistic case study, focusing on peaches, which includes disruptions.

  5. Quality assurance in the HIV/AIDS laboratory network of China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Yan; Qiu, Maofeng; Zhang, Guiyun; Xing, Wenge; Xiao, Yao; Pan, Pinliang; Yao, Jun; Ou, Chin-Yih; Su, Xueli

    2010-12-01

    In 2009, there were 8273 local screening laboratories, 254 confirmatory laboratories, 35 provincial confirmatory central laboratories and 1 National AIDS Reference Laboratory (NARL) in China. These laboratories were located in Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) facilities, hospitals, blood donation clinics, maternal and child health (MCH) hospitals and border health quarantine health-care facilities. The NARL and provincial laboratories provide quality assurance through technical, bio-safety and managerial training; periodic proficiency testing; on-site supervisory inspections; and commercial serologic kit evaluations. From 2002 to 2009, more than 220 million HIV antibody tests were performed at screening laboratories, and all reactive and indeterminate samples were confirmed at confirmatory laboratories. The use of highly technically complex tests, including CD4 cell enumeration, viral load, dried blood spot (DBS)-based early infant diagnosis (EID), drug resistance (DR) genotyping, HIV-1 subtyping and incidence assays, have increased in recent years and their performance quality is closely monitored. China has made significant progress in establishing a well-coordinated HIV laboratory network and QA systems. However, the coverage and intensity of HIV testing and quality assurance programmes need to be strengthened so as to ensure that more infected persons are diagnosed and that they receive timely prevention and treatment services.

  6. Case study of physician leaders in quality and patient safety, and the development of a physician leadership network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hayes, Chris; Yousefi, Vandad; Wallington, Tamara; Ginzburg, Amir

    2010-01-01

    There is increasing recognition of the need for physician leadership in quality and patient safety, and emerging evidence that physician leadership contributes to improved care. Hospitals are beginning to establish physician leader positions; however, there is little guidance on how to define these roles and the strategies physician leaders can use toward improving care. This case study examines the roles of four physician leaders, describes their contribution to the design and implementation of hospital quality and patient safety agendas and discusses the creation of a physician network to support these activities. The positions were established between July 2006 and April 2009. All are corporate roles with varying reporting and accountability structures. The physician leads are involved in strategic planning, identifying and leading quality and safety initiatives, physician engagement and culture change. All have significantly contributed to the implementation of hospital improvement activities and are seen as influential among their peers as resources and mentors for local project success. Despite their accomplishments, these physician leads have been challenged by ambiguous role descriptions and difficulty identifying effective improvement strategies. As such, an expanding physician network was created with the goal of sharing approaches and tools and creating new strategies. Physician leaders are an important factor in the improvement of safety and quality within hospitals. This case study provides a template for the creation of such positions and highlights the importance of networking as an effective strategy for improving local care and advancing professional development of physician leaders in quality and patient safety.

  7. Building GSM network in extreme conditions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mikulec, M.; Voznak, M.; Fajkus, M.; Partila, P.; Tovarek, J.; Chmelikova, Z.

    2015-05-01

    The paper is focused on the building ad-hoc GSM network based on open source software and low-cost hardware. The created Base Transmission Station can be deployed and put into operation in a few minutes in a required area to ensure private communication between connected GSM mobile terminals. The convergence between BTS station and the other networks is possible through IP network. The paper tries to define connection parameters to provide sufficient quality of voice service between the GSM network and IP Multimedia Subsystem. The paper brings practical results of voice call quality measurement between users inside BTS station mobile network and users inside IP Multimedia Subsystem network. The calls are simulated by low-cost embedded solution for speech quality measurement in GSM network. This tool is under development of our laboratory and allows automatic speech quality measurement of any GSM or UMTS mobile network. The Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality method is used to get final comparable results. The communication between BTS station and connected networks has to be secured against the interception from the third party. The influence of the securing method for quality of service is presented in detail. Paper, apart from the quality of service measurement section, describes technical requirements for successful interconnection between BTS and IMS networks. The authentication, authorization and accounting methods in roaming between BTS and IMS system are presented too.

  8. Implementasi Wireless Quality of Service dengan Metode Load Switching Jaringan Seluler Menggunakan Software Defined Network untuk Meningkatkan Network Reliability pada Jaringan Dinamis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yoga Bayu Aji Pranawa

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Wireless Quality of Service (QOS adalah salah satu dimensi mobilitas, yaitu sebuah metode yang digunakan untuk menjaga kualitas suatu jaringan nirkabel. QOS diperlukan sebagai sebuah metode untuk memenuhi kriteria pelayanan sistem bagi pengguna, yaitu confidentiality, integrity, dan availability. Beberapa aspek yang menjadi topik utama dalam QOS adalah failure and recovery mechanism, variable bandwidth, computing distribution, discovery mechanism, variable lantency, dan performance feedback. Wireless yang dibahas pada penelitian ini dititik beratkan pada jaringan seluler yang cenderung tidak reliable pada daerah tertentu. Oleh karena itu dibutuhkan sebuah mekanisme yang dapat mengatasi tidak stabilnya jaringan seluler tersebut. mplementasi mekanisme yang diterapkan pada penelitian ini adalah dengan menerapkan load switching pada jaringan seluler dengan menggunakan beberapa provider dan menerapkan teknologi Software Defined Network (SDN. Berdasarkan hasi uji coba dapat disimpulkan bahwa sistem yang dibuat pada penelitian ini dapat menerapkan wireless quality of service dan meningkatkan network reliability sebesar 65,29% dan 83,87% lebih baik untuk penggunaan tanpa waktu tunggu dan dengan waktu tunggu pada suatu jaringan  dinamis.

  9. Quality assurance and improvement: the Pediatric Regional Anesthesia Network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Polaner, David M; Martin, Lynn D

    2012-01-01

    Quality assurance and improvement (QA/QI) is a critical activity in medicine. The use of large-scale collaborative databases is increasingly essential to obtain enough reports with which to establish standards of practice and define the incidence of complications and risk/benefit ratios for rare events. Such projects can enhance local QA/QI endeavors by enabling institutions to obtain benchmark data against which to compare their performance and can be used for prospective analyses of inter-institutional differences to determine 'best practice'. The pediatric regional anesthesia network (PRAN) is such a project. The first data cohort is currently being analyzed and offers insight into how such data can be used to detect trends in adverse events and improve care. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  10. Benchmarking and incentive regulation of quality of service: an application to the UK electricity distribution networks

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Giannakis, Dimitrios [Department of Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago (United States); Jamasb, Tooraj [Department of Applied Economics, University of Cambridge, Sidgwick Avenue, Austin Robinson Building, Cambridge, CB3 9DE (United Kingdom)]. E-mail: tooraj.jamasb@econ.cam.ac.uk; Pollitt, Michael [Judge Institute of Management, University of Cambridge, Cambridge (United Kingdom)

    2005-11-01

    Quality of service has emerged as an important issue in post-reform regulation of electricity distribution networks. Regulators have employed partial incentive schemes to promote cost saving, investment efficiency, and service quality. This paper presents a quality-incorporated benchmarking study of the electricity distribution utilities in the UK between 1991/92 and 1998/99. We calculate technical efficiency of the utilities using Data Envelopment Analysis technique and productivity change over time using quality-incorporated Malmquist indices. We find that cost-efficient firms do not necessarily exhibit high service quality and that efficiency scores of cost-only models do not show high correlation with those of quality-based models. The results also show that improvements in service quality have made a significant contribution to the sector's total productivity change. In addition, we show that integrating quality of service in regulatory benchmarking is preferable to cost-only approaches.

  11. Benchmarking and incentive regulation of quality of service: an application to the UK electricity distribution networks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Giannakis, Dimitrios; Jamasb, Tooraj; Pollitt, Michael

    2005-01-01

    Quality of service has emerged as an important issue in post-reform regulation of electricity distribution networks. Regulators have employed partial incentive schemes to promote cost saving, investment efficiency, and service quality. This paper presents a quality-incorporated benchmarking study of the electricity distribution utilities in the UK between 1991/92 and 1998/99. We calculate technical efficiency of the utilities using Data Envelopment Analysis technique and productivity change over time using quality-incorporated Malmquist indices. We find that cost-efficient firms do not necessarily exhibit high service quality and that efficiency scores of cost-only models do not show high correlation with those of quality-based models. The results also show that improvements in service quality have made a significant contribution to the sector's total productivity change. In addition, we show that integrating quality of service in regulatory benchmarking is preferable to cost-only approaches

  12. Análisis de las evaluaciones efectuadas a las intervenciones médico-humanitarias ejecutadas por médicos sin fronteras, en respuesta a epidemias, desastrees y enfermedades olvidades, en el período 2005-2010

    OpenAIRE

    Rubens, Daniel

    2015-01-01

    Las evaluaciones a los proyectos de asistencia humanitaria constituyen un apartado especial en el contexto del ejercicio evaluativo, relevantes dado el carácter social y político de los proyectos de intervención humanitaria, que responden a las necesidades de poblaciones extremadamente vulnerables y marginalizadas. Esta investigación de tipo metaevaluación sobre informes de evaluación de proyectos humanitarios realizados por MSF-OCBA revela una deficiencia en términos de presencia y precisión...

  13. Air quality monitoring at Seoul, Korea as a part of East-Asian air surveillance network

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hashimoto, Y.; Sekine, Y.; Kim, H.K.; Otoshi, T.

    1989-01-01

    Global scale air pollution study is a recent trend due to a perception that air pollution is changing climate and other essential earth's conditions that could seriously affect our lives. One of the important tasks which can contribute to protect our natural environment must be to know about the present and changing air quality. For this purpose, a regional air monitoring plan was designed by a research group and has proceeded to set up stations in the eastern Asia including Japan, Korea and China to get continuous data which can contribute to world wide data base of air quality. This project was initiated at Seoul, Korea in April, 1986 by the method of National Air Surveillance Network, Japan. Airborne particles were collected by so-called Hi-vol and Lo-vol, and their components were analyzed by neutron activation analysis and others. The results of Seoul sampling as a first step of this network plan are presented

  14. The National Network of State Perinatal Quality Collaboratives: A Growing Movement to Improve Maternal and Infant Health.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Henderson, Zsakeba T; Ernst, Kelly; Simpson, Kathleen Rice; Berns, Scott; Suchdev, Danielle B; Main, Elliott; McCaffrey, Martin; Lee, Karyn; Rouse, Tara Bristol; Olson, Christine K

    2018-03-01

    State Perinatal Quality Collaboratives (PQCs) are networks of multidisciplinary teams working to improve maternal and infant health outcomes. To address the shared needs across state PQCs and enable collaboration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in partnership with March of Dimes and perinatal quality improvement experts from across the country, supported the development and launch of the National Network of Perinatal Quality Collaboratives (NNPQC). This process included assessing the status of PQCs in this country and identifying the needs and resources that would be most useful to support PQC development. National representatives from 48 states gathered for the first meeting of the NNPQC to share best practices for making measurable improvements in maternal and infant health. The number of state PQCs has grown considerably over the past decade, with an active PQC or a PQC in development in almost every state. However, PQCs have some common challenges that need to be addressed. After its successful launch, the NNPQC is positioned to ensure that every state PQC has access to key tools and resources that build capacity to actively improve maternal and infant health outcomes and healthcare quality.

  15. A Survey on Data Quality for Dependable Monitoring in Wireless Sensor Networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jesus, Gonçalo; Casimiro, António; Oliveira, Anabela

    2017-09-02

    Wireless sensor networks are being increasingly used in several application areas, particularly to collect data and monitor physical processes. Non-functional requirements, like reliability, security or availability, are often important and must be accounted for in the application development. For that purpose, there is a large body of knowledge on dependability techniques for distributed systems, which provide a good basis to understand how to satisfy these non-functional requirements of WSN-based monitoring applications. Given the data-centric nature of monitoring applications, it is of particular importance to ensure that data are reliable or, more generically, that they have the necessary quality. In this survey, we look into the problem of ensuring the desired quality of data for dependable monitoring using WSNs. We take a dependability-oriented perspective, reviewing the possible impairments to dependability and the prominent existing solutions to solve or mitigate these impairments. Despite the variety of components that may form a WSN-based monitoring system, we give particular attention to understanding which faults can affect sensors, how they can affect the quality of the information and how this quality can be improved and quantified.

  16. Quality-of-Service Routing Using Path and Power Aware Techniques in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. Asokan

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available Mobile ad hoc network (MANET is a collection of wireless mobile hosts dynamically forming a temporary network without the aid of any existing established infrastructure. Quality of service (QoS is a set of service requirements that needs to be met by the network while transporting a packet stream from a source to its destination. QoS support MANETs is a challenging task due to the dynamic topology and limited resources. The main objective of this paper is to enhance the QoS routing for MANET using temporally ordered routing algorithm (TORA with self-healing and optimized routing techniques (SHORT. SHORT improves routing optimality by monitoring routing paths continuously and redirecting the path whenever a shortcut path is available. In this paper, the performance comparison of TORA and TORA with SHORT has been analyzed using network simulator for various parameters. TORA with SHORT enhances performance of TORA in terms of throughput, packet loss, end-to-end delay, and energy.

  17. Groundwater-quality data from the National Water-Quality Assessment Project, January through December 2014 and select quality-control data from May 2012 through December 2014

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arnold, Terri L.; Bexfield, Laura M.; Musgrove, MaryLynn; Lindsey, Bruce D.; Stackelberg, Paul E.; Barlow, Jeannie R.; Desimone, Leslie A.; Kulongoski, Justin T.; Kingsbury, James A.; Ayotte, Joseph D.; Fleming, Brandon J.; Belitz, Kenneth

    2017-10-05

    Groundwater-quality data were collected from 559 wells as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment Project of the U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Program from January through December 2014. The data were collected from four types of well networks: principal aquifer study networks, which are used to assess the quality of groundwater used for public water supply; land-use study networks, which are used to assess land-use effects on shallow groundwater quality; major aquifer study networks, which are used to assess the quality of groundwater used for domestic supply; and enhanced trends networks, which are used to evaluate the time scales during which groundwater quality changes. Groundwater samples were analyzed for a large number of water-quality indicators and constituents, including major ions, nutrients, trace elements, volatile organic compounds, pesticides, radionuclides, and some constituents of special interest (arsenic speciation, chromium [VI] and perchlorate). These groundwater-quality data, along with data from quality-control samples, are tabulated in this report and in an associated data release.

  18. Consumers in a social network: the perception of clothing quality per gender

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    José Sarto Freire Castelo

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Purpose – The general objective of this paper is to evaluate the determinant attributes of the perception of clothing quality by the users of a social network and to verify if there are any differences of evaluation of these determinants between genders. Design/methodology/approach – To achieve the objective, a survey was conducted with a sample of 295 consumers. All participants, regardless of gender, were asked to access the SurveyMonkey site link and to answer the questions regarding the quality of clothing for both men and women. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics and variance analysis (ANOVA. Findings – The main results show that: 1. The consumers of garments regard as highly important to take into consideration quality attributes when deciding to buy clothes, especially for women in relation to menswear; 2. Women has a higher perception than men as for the evaluation of the quality attributes of both women’s wear and menswear; and, 3. Clothing consumers, in particular consumers of women’s products, only consider to purchase such products if they have, in particular, style, fabric quality and fair price. Originality/value – This research filled in some theoretical and methodological gaps with regard to giving emphasis to gender differences in clothing quality assessment. This is in line with the conclusions of quality research conducted long ago, such as Olson & Jacoby’s (1972, which findings are specific to the type of product and/or consumer investigated. Therefore, generalizations beyond the product or the consumers examined are of dubious validity.

  19. Quality assurance network: The European pilot study

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chavaudra, J; Derreumaux, S; Brider, A [Institut Gustave Roussa, Villejuif (France). Service de Physique; Dutreix, A; Schueren, E van der [University Hospital, Leuven (Belgium)

    1996-08-01

    Based on the IAEA/WHO experience in mailed dosimetry, a Quality Assurance (QA) Network, sponsored by the EC committee ``Europe against Cancer``, has been set up in 1991 for all European centres. Besides a survey of radiotherapy infrastructure, the project includes three measurement steps: primarily, a check of beam output and quality in reference conditions with a mailed TLD-procedure, in a second step, the mailed verification of other beam data and dose calculation procedures with multipurpose phantom, and finally in vivo dosimetry at the individual patient levels with mailed dosimeters. The results concerning 162 beams from 85 centres are analysed (58 {sup 60}Co beams and 104 X-ray beams). 27 beams present minor deviations (3 to 6%) and 15 beams (4/58 {sup 60}Co beams and 11/104 X-ray beams) from 11 centres present major deviations ({>=} 6%). The analysis shows that 17/27 minor deviations and all major deviations have been detected in centres which have not benefited from an external check during the last five years; in 14 out of 15 large deviations, the measured dose is smaller than the stated dose. In most centres with major deviation, the physicists did not have the necessary experience and did not calibrate regularly the beams. In 6 centres out of 11 there was no dosimeter or the dosimeter available has not been calibrated recently. In 3 centres, the physicist did not give any explanations. The conclusions concerning the second step (multipurpose phantom), outline the larger magnitude of the deviations for off axis points, oblique surface and the use of wedge filters. (author). 32 refs, 7 figs, 2 tabs.

  20. Quality assurance network: The European pilot study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chavaudra, J.; Derreumaux, S.; Brider, A.

    1996-01-01

    Based on the IAEA/WHO experience in mailed dosimetry, a Quality Assurance (QA) Network, sponsored by the EC committee ''Europe against Cancer'', has been set up in 1991 for all European centres. Besides a survey of radiotherapy infrastructure, the project includes three measurement steps: primarily, a check of beam output and quality in reference conditions with a mailed TLD-procedure, in a second step, the mailed verification of other beam data and dose calculation procedures with multipurpose phantom, and finally in vivo dosimetry at the individual patient levels with mailed dosimeters. The results concerning 162 beams from 85 centres are analysed (58 60 Co beams and 104 X-ray beams). 27 beams present minor deviations (3 to 6%) and 15 beams (4/58 60 Co beams and 11/104 X-ray beams) from 11 centres present major deviations (≥ 6%). The analysis shows that 17/27 minor deviations and all major deviations have been detected in centres which have not benefited from an external check during the last five years; in 14 out of 15 large deviations, the measured dose is smaller than the stated dose. In most centres with major deviation, the physicists did not have the necessary experience and did not calibrate regularly the beams. In 6 centres out of 11 there was no dosimeter or the dosimeter available has not been calibrated recently. In 3 centres, the physicist did not give any explanations. The conclusions concerning the second step (multipurpose phantom), outline the larger magnitude of the deviations for off axis points, oblique surface and the use of wedge filters. (author). 32 refs, 7 figs, 2 tabs

  1. Evaluation of coffee roasting degree by using electronic nose and artificial neural network for off-line quality control.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Romani, Santina; Cevoli, Chiara; Fabbri, Angelo; Alessandrini, Laura; Dalla Rosa, Marco

    2012-09-01

    An electronic nose (EN) based on an array of 10 metal oxide semiconductor sensors was used, jointly with an artificial neural network (ANN), to predict coffee roasting degree. The flavor release evolution and the main physicochemical modifications (weight loss, density, moisture content, and surface color: L*, a*), during the roasting process of coffee, were monitored at different cooking times (0, 6, 8, 10, 14, 19 min). Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to reduce the dimensionality of sensors data set (600 values per sensor). The selected PCs were used as ANN input variables. Two types of ANN methods (multilayer perceptron [MLP] and general regression neural network [GRNN]) were used in order to estimate the EN signals. For both neural networks the input values were represented by scores of sensors data set PCs, while the output values were the quality parameter at different roasting times. Both the ANNs were able to well predict coffee roasting degree, giving good prediction results for both roasting time and coffee quality parameters. In particular, GRNN showed the highest prediction reliability. Actually the evaluation of coffee roasting degree is mainly a manned operation, substantially based on the empirical final color observation. For this reason it requires well-trained operators with a long professional skill. The coupling of e-nose and artificial neural networks (ANNs) may represent an effective possibility to roasting process automation and to set up a more reproducible procedure for final coffee bean quality characterization. © 2012 Institute of Food Technologists®

  2. A Fuzzy Neural Network Based on Non-Euclidean Distance Clustering for Quality Index Model in Slashing Process

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuxian Zhang

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The quality index model in slashing process is difficult to build by reason of the outliers and noise data from original data. To the above problem, a fuzzy neural network based on non-Euclidean distance clustering is proposed in which the input space is partitioned into many local regions by the fuzzy clustering based on non-Euclidean distance so that the computation complexity is decreased, and fuzzy rule number is determined by validity function based on both the separation and the compactness among clusterings. Then, the premise parameters and consequent parameters are trained by hybrid learning algorithm. The parameters identification is realized; meanwhile the convergence condition of consequent parameters is obtained by Lyapunov function. Finally, the proposed method is applied to build the quality index model in slashing process in which the experimental data come from the actual slashing process. The experiment results show that the proposed fuzzy neural network for quality index model has lower computation complexity and faster convergence time, comparing with GP-FNN, BPNN, and RBFNN.

  3. A software sensor model based on hybrid fuzzy neural network for rapid estimation water quality in Guangzhou section of Pearl River, China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Chunshan; Zhang, Chao; Tian, Di; Wang, Ke; Huang, Mingzhi; Liu, Yanbiao

    2018-01-02

    In order to manage water resources, a software sensor model was designed to estimate water quality using a hybrid fuzzy neural network (FNN) in Guangzhou section of Pearl River, China. The software sensor system was composed of data storage module, fuzzy decision-making module, neural network module and fuzzy reasoning generator module. Fuzzy subtractive clustering was employed to capture the character of model, and optimize network architecture for enhancing network performance. The results indicate that, on basis of available on-line measured variables, the software sensor model can accurately predict water quality according to the relationship between chemical oxygen demand (COD) and dissolved oxygen (DO), pH and NH 4 + -N. Owing to its ability in recognizing time series patterns and non-linear characteristics, the software sensor-based FNN is obviously superior to the traditional neural network model, and its R (correlation coefficient), MAPE (mean absolute percentage error) and RMSE (root mean square error) are 0.8931, 10.9051 and 0.4634, respectively.

  4. Machine-Learning Based Channel Quality and Stability Estimation for Stream-Based Multichannel Wireless Sensor Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Waqas Rehan

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Wireless sensor networks (WSNs have become more and more diversified and are today able to also support high data rate applications, such as multimedia. In this case, per-packet channel handshaking/switching may result in inducing additional overheads, such as energy consumption, delays and, therefore, data loss. One of the solutions is to perform stream-based channel allocation where channel handshaking is performed once before transmitting the whole data stream. Deciding stream-based channel allocation is more critical in case of multichannel WSNs where channels of different quality/stability are available and the wish for high performance requires sensor nodes to switch to the best among the available channels. In this work, we will focus on devising mechanisms that perform channel quality/stability estimation in order to improve the accommodation of stream-based communication in multichannel wireless sensor networks. For performing channel quality assessment, we have formulated a composite metric, which we call channel rank measurement (CRM, that can demarcate channels into good, intermediate and bad quality on the basis of the standard deviation of the received signal strength indicator (RSSI and the average of the link quality indicator (LQI of the received packets. CRM is then used to generate a data set for training a supervised machine learning-based algorithm (which we call Normal Equation based Channel quality prediction (NEC algorithm in such a way that it may perform instantaneous channel rank estimation of any channel. Subsequently, two robust extensions of the NEC algorithm are proposed (which we call Normal Equation based Weighted Moving Average Channel quality prediction (NEWMAC algorithm and Normal Equation based Aggregate Maturity Criteria with Beta Tracking based Channel weight prediction (NEAMCBTC algorithm, that can perform channel quality estimation on the basis of both current and past values of channel rank estimation

  5. Machine-Learning Based Channel Quality and Stability Estimation for Stream-Based Multichannel Wireless Sensor Networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rehan, Waqas; Fischer, Stefan; Rehan, Maaz

    2016-09-12

    Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have become more and more diversified and are today able to also support high data rate applications, such as multimedia. In this case, per-packet channel handshaking/switching may result in inducing additional overheads, such as energy consumption, delays and, therefore, data loss. One of the solutions is to perform stream-based channel allocation where channel handshaking is performed once before transmitting the whole data stream. Deciding stream-based channel allocation is more critical in case of multichannel WSNs where channels of different quality/stability are available and the wish for high performance requires sensor nodes to switch to the best among the available channels. In this work, we will focus on devising mechanisms that perform channel quality/stability estimation in order to improve the accommodation of stream-based communication in multichannel wireless sensor networks. For performing channel quality assessment, we have formulated a composite metric, which we call channel rank measurement (CRM), that can demarcate channels into good, intermediate and bad quality on the basis of the standard deviation of the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) and the average of the link quality indicator (LQI) of the received packets. CRM is then used to generate a data set for training a supervised machine learning-based algorithm (which we call Normal Equation based Channel quality prediction (NEC) algorithm) in such a way that it may perform instantaneous channel rank estimation of any channel. Subsequently, two robust extensions of the NEC algorithm are proposed (which we call Normal Equation based Weighted Moving Average Channel quality prediction (NEWMAC) algorithm and Normal Equation based Aggregate Maturity Criteria with Beta Tracking based Channel weight prediction (NEAMCBTC) algorithm), that can perform channel quality estimation on the basis of both current and past values of channel rank estimation. In the end

  6. Quality Evaluation of Land-Cover Classification Using Convolutional Neural Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dang, Y.; Zhang, J.; Zhao, Y.; Luo, F.; Ma, W.; Yu, F.

    2018-04-01

    Land-cover classification is one of the most important products of earth observation, which focuses mainly on profiling the physical characters of the land surface with temporal and distribution attributes and contains the information of both natural and man-made coverage elements, such as vegetation, soil, glaciers, rivers, lakes, marsh wetlands and various man-made structures. In recent years, the amount of high-resolution remote sensing data has increased sharply. Accordingly, the volume of land-cover classification products increases, as well as the need to evaluate such frequently updated products that is a big challenge. Conventionally, the automatic quality evaluation of land-cover classification is made through pixel-based classifying algorithms, which lead to a much trickier task and consequently hard to keep peace with the required updating frequency. In this paper, we propose a novel quality evaluation approach for evaluating the land-cover classification by a scene classification method Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model. By learning from remote sensing data, those randomly generated kernels that serve as filter matrixes evolved to some operators that has similar functions to man-crafted operators, like Sobel operator or Canny operator, and there are other kernels learned by the CNN model that are much more complex and can't be understood as existing filters. The method using CNN approach as the core algorithm serves quality-evaluation tasks well since it calculates a bunch of outputs which directly represent the image's membership grade to certain classes. An automatic quality evaluation approach for the land-cover DLG-DOM coupling data (DLG for Digital Line Graphic, DOM for Digital Orthophoto Map) will be introduced in this paper. The CNN model as an robustness method for image evaluation, then brought out the idea of an automatic quality evaluation approach for land-cover classification. Based on this experiment, new ideas of quality evaluation

  7. A social network's changing statistical properties and the quality of human innovation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Uzzi, Brian [Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL (United States)], E-mail: uzzi@northwestern.edu

    2008-06-06

    We examined the entire network of creative artists that made Broadway musicals, in the post-War period, a collaboration network of international acclaim and influence, with an eye to investigating how the network's structural features condition the relationship between individual artistic talent and the success of their musicals. Our findings show that some of the evolving topographical qualities of degree distributions, path lengths and assortativity are relatively stable with time even as collaboration patterns shift, which suggests their changes are only minimally associated with the ebb and flux of the success of new productions. In contrast, the clustering coefficient changed substantially over time and we found that it had a nonlinear association with the production of financially and artistically successful shows. When the clustering coefficient ratio is low or high, the financial and artistic success of the industry is low, while an intermediate level of clustering is associated with successful shows. We supported these findings with sociological theory on the relationship between social structure and collaboration and with tests of statistical inference. Our discussion focuses on connecting the statistical properties of social networks to their performance and the performance of the actors embedded within them.

  8. The use of Bayesian networks to assess the quality of evidence from research synthesis: 1.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gavin B Stewart

    Full Text Available The grades of recommendation, assessment, development and evaluation (GRADE approach is widely implemented in systematic reviews, health technology assessment and guideline development organisations throughout the world. A key advantage to this approach is that it aids transparency regarding judgments on the quality of evidence. However, the intricacies of making judgments about research methodology and evidence make the GRADE system complex and challenging to apply without training.We have developed a semi-automated quality assessment tool (SAQAT l based on GRADE. This is informed by responses by reviewers to checklist questions regarding characteristics that may lead to unreliability. These responses are then entered into the Bayesian network to ascertain the probabilities of risk of bias, inconsistency, indirectness, imprecision and publication bias conditional on review characteristics. The model then combines these probabilities to provide a probability for each of the GRADE overall quality categories. We tested the model using a range of plausible scenarios that guideline developers or review authors could encounter.Overall, the model reproduced GRADE judgements for a range of scenarios. Potential advantages over standard assessment are use of explicit and consistent weightings for different review characteristics, forcing consideration of important but sometimes neglected characteristics and principled downgrading where small but important probabilities of downgrading are accrued across domains.Bayesian networks have considerable potential for use as tools to assess the validity of research evidence. The key strength of such networks lies in the provision of a statistically coherent method for combining probabilities across a complex framework based on both belief and evidence. In addition to providing tools for less experienced users to implement reliability assessment, the potential for sensitivity analyses and automation may be

  9. An Adaptive Failure Detector Based on Quality of Service in Peer-to-Peer Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jian Dong

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available The failure detector is one of the fundamental components that maintain high availability of Peer-to-Peer (P2P networks. Under different network conditions, the adaptive failure detector based on quality of service (QoS can achieve the detection time and accuracy required by upper applications with lower detection overhead. In P2P systems, complexity of network and high churn lead to high message loss rate. To reduce the impact on detection accuracy, baseline detection strategy based on retransmission mechanism has been employed widely in many P2P applications; however, Chen’s classic adaptive model cannot describe this kind of detection strategy. In order to provide an efficient service of failure detection in P2P systems, this paper establishes a novel QoS evaluation model for the baseline detection strategy. The relationship between the detection period and the QoS is discussed and on this basis, an adaptive failure detector (B-AFD is proposed, which can meet the quantitative QoS metrics under changing network environment. Meanwhile, it is observed from the experimental analysis that B-AFD achieves better detection accuracy and time with lower detection overhead compared to the traditional baseline strategy and the adaptive detectors based on Chen’s model. Moreover, B-AFD has better adaptability to P2P network.

  10. An Adaptive Failure Detector Based on Quality of Service in Peer-to-Peer Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dong, Jian; Ren, Xiao; Zuo, Decheng; Liu, Hongwei

    2014-01-01

    The failure detector is one of the fundamental components that maintain high availability of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks. Under different network conditions, the adaptive failure detector based on quality of service (QoS) can achieve the detection time and accuracy required by upper applications with lower detection overhead. In P2P systems, complexity of network and high churn lead to high message loss rate. To reduce the impact on detection accuracy, baseline detection strategy based on retransmission mechanism has been employed widely in many P2P applications; however, Chen's classic adaptive model cannot describe this kind of detection strategy. In order to provide an efficient service of failure detection in P2P systems, this paper establishes a novel QoS evaluation model for the baseline detection strategy. The relationship between the detection period and the QoS is discussed and on this basis, an adaptive failure detector (B-AFD) is proposed, which can meet the quantitative QoS metrics under changing network environment. Meanwhile, it is observed from the experimental analysis that B-AFD achieves better detection accuracy and time with lower detection overhead compared to the traditional baseline strategy and the adaptive detectors based on Chen's model. Moreover, B-AFD has better adaptability to P2P network. PMID:25198005

  11. HIGH QUALITY FACADE SEGMENTATION BASED ON STRUCTURED RANDOM FOREST, REGION PROPOSAL NETWORK AND RECTANGULAR FITTING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K. Rahmani

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available In this paper we present a pipeline for high quality semantic segmentation of building facades using Structured Random Forest (SRF, Region Proposal Network (RPN based on a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN as well as rectangular fitting optimization. Our main contribution is that we employ features created by the RPN as channels in the SRF.We empirically show that this is very effective especially for doors and windows. Our pipeline is evaluated on two datasets where we outperform current state-of-the-art methods. Additionally, we quantify the contribution of the RPN and the rectangular fitting optimization on the accuracy of the result.

  12. Development and Application of a Next Generation Air Sensor Network for the Hong Kong Marathon 2015 Air Quality Monitoring.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Li; Wong, Ka Chun; Wei, Peng; Ye, Sheng; Huang, Hao; Yang, Fenhuan; Westerdahl, Dane; Louie, Peter K K; Luk, Connie W Y; Ning, Zhi

    2016-02-05

    This study presents the development and evaluation of a next generation air monitoring system with both laboratory and field tests. A multi-parameter algorithm was used to correct for the impact of environmental conditions on the electrochemical sensors for carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollutants. The field evaluation in an urban roadside environment in comparison to designated monitors showed good agreement with measurement error within 5% of the pollutant concentrations. Multiple sets of the developed system were then deployed in the Hong Kong Marathon 2015 forming a sensor-based network along the marathon route. Real-time air pollution concentration data were wirelessly transmitted and the Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) for the Green Marathon was calculated, which were broadcast to the public on an hourly basis. The route-specific sensor network showed somewhat different pollutant patterns than routine air monitoring, indicating the immediate impact of traffic control during the marathon on the roadside air quality. The study is one of the first applications of a next generation sensor network in international sport events, and it demonstrated the usefulness of the emerging sensor-based air monitoring technology in rapid network deployment to supplement existing air monitoring.

  13. Software Defined Networking

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Caba, Cosmin Marius

    Network Service Providers (NSP) often choose to overprovision their networks instead of deploying proper Quality of Services (QoS) mechanisms that allow for traffic differentiation and predictable quality. This tendency of overprovisioning is not sustainable for the simple reason that network...... resources are limited. Hence, to counteract this trend, current QoS mechanisms must become simpler to deploy and operate, in order to motivate NSPs to employ QoS techniques instead of overprovisioning. Software Defined Networking (SDN) represents a paradigm shift in the way telecommunication and data...... generic perspective (e.g. service provisioning speed, resources availability). As a result, new mechanisms for providing QoS are proposed, solutions for SDN-specific QoS challenges are designed and tested, and new network management concepts are prototyped, all aiming to improve QoS for network services...

  14. Institutional and scientific co-operation, networking and capacity building in the field of food safety and quality

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Boekel, van M.A.J.S.; Meerdink, G.; Banati, D.; Marvin, H.J.P.; Kuiper, H.A.; Houtman, C.B.

    2002-01-01

    This paper explains the situation in Hungary and The Netherlands regarding scientific co-operation, networking and capacity building in the field of food quality and safety. Specific details are given about institutional co-operation including exchanges between staff and students, collaborative

  15. An online expert network for high quality information on occupational safety and health: cross-sectional study of user satisfaction and impact

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rhebergen Martijn DF

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Many people have difficulties finding information on health questions, including occupational safety and health (OSH issues. One solution to alleviate these difficulties could be to offer questioners free-of-charge, online access to a network of OSH experts who provide tailored, high-quality information. The aim of this study was to assess whether network quality, respectively information quality, as perceived by the questioners, is associated with questioners' overall satisfaction and to explore the impact of the information received on questioners' knowledge, work and work functioning. Methods We evaluated the experiences of OSH questioners with the online network ArboAntwoord.com over a two-year period. In this network, approximately 80 qualified experts are available to answer OSH questions. By means of a questionnaire, we assessed questioners' overall satisfaction with the network, whether the network was user-friendly, easily accessible and easy to handle and whether the information provided was complete, applicable and received in a timely manner. The impact of the information on questioners' knowledge, work or work functioning was explored with seven questions. In the study period, 460 unique OSH questioners asked 851 OSH questions. In total, 205 of the 460 questioners completed the questionnaire (response rate 45%. Results Of the responders, 71% were satisfied with the ArboAntwoord network. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the applicability of the information had a positive influence on the questioners' overall satisfaction (OR = 16.0, 95% CI: 7.0-36.4. Also, user friendliness of the network (OR = 3.3, 95% CI: 1.3-8.6 and completeness of the information provided (OR = 3.0, 95% CI: 1.3-6.8 were positively related to the questioners' satisfaction. For 74% of the questioners, the information helped to increase their knowledge and understanding. Overall, 25% of the questioners indicated that the received

  16. An online expert network for high quality information on occupational safety and health: cross-sectional study of user satisfaction and impact.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rhebergen, Martijn D F; Lenderink, Annet F; van Dijk, Frank J H; Hulshof, Carel T J

    2011-11-23

    Many people have difficulties finding information on health questions, including occupational safety and health (OSH) issues. One solution to alleviate these difficulties could be to offer questioners free-of-charge, online access to a network of OSH experts who provide tailored, high-quality information. The aim of this study was to assess whether network quality, respectively information quality, as perceived by the questioners, is associated with questioners' overall satisfaction and to explore the impact of the information received on questioners' knowledge, work and work functioning. We evaluated the experiences of OSH questioners with the online network ArboAntwoord.com over a two-year period. In this network, approximately 80 qualified experts are available to answer OSH questions. By means of a questionnaire, we assessed questioners' overall satisfaction with the network, whether the network was user-friendly, easily accessible and easy to handle and whether the information provided was complete, applicable and received in a timely manner. The impact of the information on questioners' knowledge, work or work functioning was explored with seven questions. In the study period, 460 unique OSH questioners asked 851 OSH questions. In total, 205 of the 460 questioners completed the questionnaire (response rate 45%). Of the responders, 71% were satisfied with the ArboAntwoord network. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the applicability of the information had a positive influence on the questioners' overall satisfaction (OR = 16.0, 95% CI: 7.0-36.4). Also, user friendliness of the network (OR = 3.3, 95% CI: 1.3-8.6) and completeness of the information provided (OR = 3.0, 95% CI: 1.3-6.8) were positively related to the questioners' satisfaction. For 74% of the questioners, the information helped to increase their knowledge and understanding. Overall, 25% of the questioners indicated that the received information improved their work, work functioning

  17. Social networks, social support mechanisms, and quality of life after breast cancer diagnosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kroenke, Candyce H; Kwan, Marilyn L; Neugut, Alfred I; Ergas, Isaac J; Wright, Jaime D; Caan, Bette J; Hershman, Dawn; Kushi, Lawrence H

    2013-06-01

    We examined mechanisms through which social relationships influence quality of life (QOL) in breast cancer survivors. This study included 3,139 women from the Pathways Study who were diagnosed with breast cancer from 2006 to 2011 and provided data on social networks (the presence of a spouse or intimate partner, religious/social ties, volunteering, and numbers of close friends and relatives), social support (tangible support, emotional/informational support, affection, positive social interaction), and QOL, measured by the FACT-B, approximately 2 months post diagnosis. We used logistic models to evaluate associations between social network size, social support, and lower versus higher than median QOL scores. We further stratified by stage at diagnosis and treatment. In multivariate-adjusted analyses, women who were characterized as socially isolated had significantly lower FACT-B (OR = 2.18, 95 % CI: 1.72-2.77), physical well-being (WB) (OR = 1.61, 95 % CI: 1.27-2.03), functional WB (OR = 2.08, 95 % CI: 1.65-2.63), social WB (OR = 3.46, 95 % CI: 2.73-4.39), and emotional WB (OR = 1.67, 95 % CI: 1.33-2.11) scores and higher breast cancer symptoms (OR = 1.48, 95 % CI: 1.18-1.87) compared with socially integrated women. Each social network member independently predicted higher QOL. Simultaneous adjustment for social networks and social support partially attenuated associations between social networks and QOL. The strongest mediator and type of social support that was most predictive of QOL outcomes was "positive social interaction." However, each type of support was important depending on outcome, stage, and treatment status. Larger social networks and greater social support were related to higher QOL after a diagnosis of breast cancer. Effective social support interventions need to evolve beyond social-emotional interventions and need to account for disease severity and treatment status.

  18. Assessing the quality of teleconsultations in a store-and-forward telemedicine network -- long-term monitoring taking into account differences between cases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Richard eWootton

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available We have previously proposed a method for assessing the quality of individual teleconsultation cases; this paper proposes an additional step to allow the long-term monitoring of quality. The basic scenario is a teleconsultation system (aka an e-referral system or a tele-expertise system where the referrer posts a question about a clinical case, the question is relayed to an appropriate expert, and the chosen expert provides an answer. The people running this system want assurances that it is stable, i.e. they want routine quality assurance information about the output from the process. This requires two things. It needs a method of assessing the quality of individual patient consultations. And it needs a method for taking into account differences between patients, so that these quality assessments can be compared longitudinally. Building on the previously proposed methodology, the present paper proposes two techniques for measuring the difficulty posed by a particular teleconsultation. The first is an indirect method, similar to a willingness to pay economic estimation. The second is a direct method. Using these two methods with real data from a telemedicine network showed that the first method was feasible, but did not produce useful results in a pilot trial. The second method, while more laborious, was also feasible and did produce useful results. Thus when output quality is measured, an allowance can be made for the characteristics of the case submitted. This means that fluctuations in output quality can be attributed to variations in the process (network or to variations in the raw materials (queries submitted to the network. Long-term quality assurance should assist those providing telemedicine services in low-resource settings to ensure that the services are operated effectively and efficiently, despite the constraints and complexities of the environment.

  19. Integration of FBG Strain Sensors in WDM Networks, Effects on Quality Factor

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ali Al-Lawati

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available A study of the effect of integrating an FBG sensor in a four wavelength WDM communications system operating at 1550 nm is presented. The simulations considered focus on the mutual effects of both the sensing and the communications systems. The effect of power levels of the interrogating optical source on the performance of the two systems is also investigated under excitation levels of up to 10 dBm. The network layout used in the simulations is based on an actual optical link in Oman having a variety of spans. The results obtained at data rates of 2.5 and 10 Gbps with variable strains up to ±600 μs show a good tolerance in terms of quality of transmission for the two systems. However, the greater the strain values, the more noticeable are the degradations of transmission quality parameters of the communications system.

  20. Integral power evaluation in fossil fuel power plants; Evaluacion energetica integral en unidades de centrales termoelectricas

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Figueroa I, Luis R; Sanchez H, Laura E; Rodriguez M, Jose H [Instituto de Investigaciones Electricas, Cuernavaca, Morelos (Mexico); Nebradt G, Jesus [Unidad de Investigacion y Desarrollo de la Subdireccion de Generacion de la Comision Federal de Electricidad, (Mexico)

    2006-07-01

    In this occasion, a methodology is presented that carries out an integral energy evaluation of fossil fuel power plants units (FFPPU) with the purpose of determining the root of the significant decrements of power produced soon after the annual maintenance service. This proposal, besides identifying the origin of the energy efficiency problems, offers information about the contributions of each one of the involved equipment in the total decrement of the unit. With this methodology, the maintenance focuses in the equipment that contributes to the greater energy loss. This document presents such methodology along with its application in a real case, results and necessary remedial actions, demonstrating that its application offers bases for the investment in corrective measures. [Spanish] En esta ocasion se presenta una metodologia que efectua una evaluacion energetica integral de las unidades de centrales termoelectricas (UCT) con el fin de determinar la raiz de los decrementos de potencia significativos producidos luego del servicio anual de mantenimiento. Dicha propuesta, ademas de identificar el origen de los problemas de eficiencia energetica, brinda informacion acerca de las aportaciones de cada uno de los equipos involucrados al decremento total de la unidad. Con esta metodologia, el mantenimiento se enfoca a los equipos que contribuyen a la mayor perdida de potencia. Este documento exhibe tal metodologia junto con su aplicacion en un caso real, resultados y las acciones correctivas necesarias, demostrando que su aplicacion ofrece bases para una inversion futura en medidas correctivas.

  1. A Wireless Sensor Network-Based Approach with Decision Support for Monitoring Lake Water Quality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Xiaoci; Yi, Jianjun; Chen, Shaoli; Zhu, Xiaomin

    2015-11-19

    Online monitoring and water quality analysis of lakes are urgently needed. A feasible and effective approach is to use a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). Lake water environments, like other real world environments, present many changing and unpredictable situations. To ensure flexibility in such an environment, the WSN node has to be prepared to deal with varying situations. This paper presents a WSN self-configuration approach for lake water quality monitoring. The approach is based on the integration of a semantic framework, where a reasoner can make decisions on the configuration of WSN services. We present a WSN ontology and the relevant water quality monitoring context information, which considers its suitability in a pervasive computing environment. We also propose a rule-based reasoning engine that is used to conduct decision support through reasoning techniques and context-awareness. To evaluate the approach, we conduct usability experiments and performance benchmarks.

  2. Optimal spatio-temporal design of water quality monitoring networks for reservoirs: Application of the concept of value of information

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maymandi, Nahal; Kerachian, Reza; Nikoo, Mohammad Reza

    2018-03-01

    This paper presents a new methodology for optimizing Water Quality Monitoring (WQM) networks of reservoirs and lakes using the concept of the value of information (VOI) and utilizing results of a calibrated numerical water quality simulation model. With reference to the value of information theory, water quality of every checkpoint with a specific prior probability differs in time. After analyzing water quality samples taken from potential monitoring points, the posterior probabilities are updated using the Baye's theorem, and VOI of the samples is calculated. In the next step, the stations with maximum VOI is selected as optimal stations. This process is repeated for each sampling interval to obtain optimal monitoring network locations for each interval. The results of the proposed VOI-based methodology is compared with those obtained using an entropy theoretic approach. As the results of the two methodologies would be partially different, in the next step, the results are combined using a weighting method. Finally, the optimal sampling interval and location of WQM stations are chosen using the Evidential Reasoning (ER) decision making method. The efficiency and applicability of the methodology are evaluated using available water quantity and quality data of the Karkheh Reservoir in the southwestern part of Iran.

  3. Control and Optimization of Network in Networked Control System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wang Zhiwen

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available In order to avoid quality of performance (QoP degradation resulting from quality of service (QoS, the solution to network congestion from the point of control theory, which marks departure of our results from the existing methods, is proposed in this paper. The congestion and bandwidth are regarded as state and control variables, respectively; then, the linear time-invariant (LTI model between congestion state and bandwidth of network is established. Consequently, linear quadratic method is used to eliminate the network congestion by allocating bandwidth dynamically. At last, numerical simulation results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of this modeling approach.

  4. Qualities and Inequalities in Online Social Networks through the Lens of the Generalized Friendship Paradox.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Momeni, Naghmeh; Rabbat, Michael

    2016-01-01

    The friendship paradox is the phenomenon that in social networks, people on average have fewer friends than their friends do. The generalized friendship paradox is an extension to attributes other than the number of friends. The friendship paradox and its generalized version have gathered recent attention due to the information they provide about network structure and local inequalities. In this paper, we propose several measures of nodal qualities which capture different aspects of their activities and influence in online social networks. Using these measures we analyse the prevalence of the generalized friendship paradox over Twitter and we report high levels of prevalence (up to over 90% of nodes). We contend that this prevalence of the friendship paradox and its generalized version arise because of the hierarchical nature of the connections in the network. This hierarchy is nested as opposed to being star-like. We conclude that these paradoxes are collective phenomena not created merely by a minority of well-connected or high-attribute nodes. Moreover, our results show that a large fraction of individuals can experience the generalized friendship paradox even in the absence of a significant correlation between degrees and attributes.

  5. Qualities and Inequalities in Online Social Networks through the Lens of the Generalized Friendship Paradox.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Naghmeh Momeni

    Full Text Available The friendship paradox is the phenomenon that in social networks, people on average have fewer friends than their friends do. The generalized friendship paradox is an extension to attributes other than the number of friends. The friendship paradox and its generalized version have gathered recent attention due to the information they provide about network structure and local inequalities. In this paper, we propose several measures of nodal qualities which capture different aspects of their activities and influence in online social networks. Using these measures we analyse the prevalence of the generalized friendship paradox over Twitter and we report high levels of prevalence (up to over 90% of nodes. We contend that this prevalence of the friendship paradox and its generalized version arise because of the hierarchical nature of the connections in the network. This hierarchy is nested as opposed to being star-like. We conclude that these paradoxes are collective phenomena not created merely by a minority of well-connected or high-attribute nodes. Moreover, our results show that a large fraction of individuals can experience the generalized friendship paradox even in the absence of a significant correlation between degrees and attributes.

  6. Development and Application of a Next Generation Air Sensor Network for the Hong Kong Marathon 2015 Air Quality Monitoring

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Li Sun

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available This study presents the development and evaluation of a next generation air monitoring system with both laboratory and field tests. A multi-parameter algorithm was used to correct for the impact of environmental conditions on the electrochemical sensors for carbon monoxide (CO and nitrogen dioxide (NO2 pollutants. The field evaluation in an urban roadside environment in comparison to designated monitors showed good agreement with measurement error within 5% of the pollutant concentrations. Multiple sets of the developed system were then deployed in the Hong Kong Marathon 2015 forming a sensor-based network along the marathon route. Real-time air pollution concentration data were wirelessly transmitted and the Air Quality Health Index (AQHI for the Green Marathon was calculated, which were broadcast to the public on an hourly basis. The route-specific sensor network showed somewhat different pollutant patterns than routine air monitoring, indicating the immediate impact of traffic control during the marathon on the roadside air quality. The study is one of the first applications of a next generation sensor network in international sport events, and it demonstrated the usefulness of the emerging sensor-based air monitoring technology in rapid network deployment to supplement existing air monitoring.

  7. Development and Application of a Next Generation Air Sensor Network for the Hong Kong Marathon 2015 Air Quality Monitoring

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Li; Wong, Ka Chun; Wei, Peng; Ye, Sheng; Huang, Hao; Yang, Fenhuan; Westerdahl, Dane; Louie, Peter K.K.; Luk, Connie W.Y.; Ning, Zhi

    2016-01-01

    This study presents the development and evaluation of a next generation air monitoring system with both laboratory and field tests. A multi-parameter algorithm was used to correct for the impact of environmental conditions on the electrochemical sensors for carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollutants. The field evaluation in an urban roadside environment in comparison to designated monitors showed good agreement with measurement error within 5% of the pollutant concentrations. Multiple sets of the developed system were then deployed in the Hong Kong Marathon 2015 forming a sensor-based network along the marathon route. Real-time air pollution concentration data were wirelessly transmitted and the Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) for the Green Marathon was calculated, which were broadcast to the public on an hourly basis. The route-specific sensor network showed somewhat different pollutant patterns than routine air monitoring, indicating the immediate impact of traffic control during the marathon on the roadside air quality. The study is one of the first applications of a next generation sensor network in international sport events, and it demonstrated the usefulness of the emerging sensor-based air monitoring technology in rapid network deployment to supplement existing air monitoring. PMID:26861336

  8. Developing a Deep Brain Stimulation Neuromodulation Network for Parkinson Disease, Essential Tremor, and Dystonia: Report of a Quality Improvement Project.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Richard B Dewey

    Full Text Available To develop a process to improve patient outcomes from deep brain stimulation (DBS surgery for Parkinson disease (PD, essential tremor (ET, and dystonia.We employed standard quality improvement methodology using the Plan-Do-Study-Act process to improve patient selection, surgical DBS lead implantation, postoperative programming, and ongoing assessment of patient outcomes.The result of this quality improvement process was the development of a neuromodulation network. The key aspect of this program is rigorous patient assessment of both motor and non-motor outcomes tracked longitudinally using a REDCap database. We describe how this information is used to identify problems and to initiate Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles to address them. Preliminary outcomes data is presented for the cohort of PD and ET patients who have received surgery since the creation of the neuromodulation network.Careful outcomes tracking is essential to ensure quality in a complex therapeutic endeavor like DBS surgery for movement disorders. The REDCap database system is well suited to store outcomes data for the purpose of ongoing quality assurance monitoring.

  9. Simulation of devices mobility to estimate wireless channel quality metrics in 5G networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Orlov, Yu.; Fedorov, S.; Samuylov, A.; Gaidamaka, Yu.; Molchanov, D.

    2017-07-01

    The problem of channel quality estimation for devices in a wireless 5G network is formulated. As a performance metrics of interest we choose the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio, which depends essentially on the distance between the communicating devices. A model with a plurality of moving devices in a bounded three-dimensional space and a simulation algorithm to determine the distances between the devices for a given motion model are devised.

  10. Experimental optimization of exposure index and quality of service in WLAN networks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Plets, David; Vermeeren, Gunter; Poorter, Eli De; Moerman, Ingrid; Martens, Luc; Joseph, Wout; Goudos, Sotirios K.

    2017-01-01

    This paper presents the first real-life optimization of the Exposure Index (EI). A genetic optimization algorithm is developed and applied to three real-life Wireless Local Area Network scenarios in an experimental test-bed. The optimization accounts for down-link, uplink and uplink of other users, for realistic duty cycles, and ensures a sufficient Quality of Service to all users. EI reductions up to 97.5% compared to a reference configuration can be achieved in a down-link-only scenario, in combination with an improved Quality of Service. Due to the dominance of uplink exposure and the lack of WiFi power control, no optimizations are possible in scenarios that also consider uplink traffic. However, future deployments that do implement WiFi power control can be successfully optimized, with EI reductions up to 86% compared to a reference configuration and an EI that is 278 times lower than optimized configurations under the absence of power control. (authors)

  11. An integrated approach to uncover quality marker underlying the effects of Alisma orientale on lipid metabolism, using chemical analysis and network pharmacology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liao, Maoliang; Shang, Haihua; Li, Yazhuo; Li, Tian; Wang, Miao; Zheng, Yanan; Hou, Wenbin; Liu, Changxiao

    2018-06-01

    Quality control of traditional Chinese medicines is currently a great concern, due to the correlation between the quality control indicators and clinic effect is often questionable. According to the "multi-components and multi-targets" property of TCMs, a new special quality and bioactivity evaluation system is urgently needed. Present study adopted an integrated approach to provide new insights relating to uncover quality marker underlying the effects of Alisma orientale (AO) on lipid metabolism. In this paper, guided by the concept of the quality marker (Q-marker), an integrated strategies "effect-compound-target-fingerprint" was established to discovery and screen the potential quality marker of AO based on network pharmacology and chemical analysis. Firstly, a bioactivity evaluation was performed to screen the main active fractions. Then the chemical compositions were rapidly identified by chemical analysis. Next, networks were constructed to illuminate the interactions between these component and their targets for lipid metabolism, and the potential Q-marker of AO was initially screened. Finally, the activity of the Q-markers was validated in vitro. 50% ethanol extract fraction was found to have the strongest lipid-lowering activity. Then, the network pharmacology was used to clarify the unique relationship between the Q-markers and their integral pharmacological action. Combined with the results obtained, five active ingredients in the 50% ethanol extract fraction were given special considerations to be representative Q-markers: Alisol A, Alisol B, Alisol A 23-acetate, Alisol B 23-acetate and Alisol A 24-acetate, respectively. The chromatographic fingerprints based Q-marker was establishment. The integrated Q-marker screen may offer an alternative quality assessment of herbal medicines. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier GmbH.

  12. Emerging wireless networks concepts, techniques and applications

    CERN Document Server

    Makaya, Christian

    2011-01-01

    An authoritative collection of research papers and surveys, Emerging Wireless Networks: Concepts, Techniques, and Applications explores recent developments in next-generation wireless networks (NGWNs) and mobile broadband networks technologies, including 4G (LTE, WiMAX), 3G (UMTS, HSPA), WiFi, mobile ad hoc networks, mesh networks, and wireless sensor networks. Focusing on improving the performance of wireless networks and provisioning better quality of service and quality of experience for users, it reports on the standards of different emerging wireless networks, applications, and service fr

  13. Towards a Diagnostic Instrument to Identify Improvement Opportunities for Quality Controlled Logistics in Agrifood Supply Chain Networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vorst, van der J.G.A.J.; Kooten, van O.; Luning, P.A.

    2011-01-01

    Western-European consumers have become not only more demanding on product availability in retail outlets but also on other food attributes such as quality, integrity, and safety. When (re)designing food supply-chain networks, from a logistics point of view, one has to consider these demands next to

  14. Ensuring Support for Research and Quality Improvement (QI) Networks: Four Pillars of Sustainability-An Emerging Framework.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holve, Erin

    2013-01-01

    Multi-institutional research and quality improvement (QI) projects using electronic clinical data (ECD) hold great promise for improving quality of care and patient outcomes but typically require significant infrastructure investments both to initiate and maintain the project over its duration. Consequently, it is important for these projects to think holistically about sustainability to ensure their long-term success. Four "pillars" of sustainability are discussed based on the experiences of EDM Forum grantees and other research and QI networks. These include trust and value, governance, management, and financial and administrative support. Two "foundational considerations," adaptive capacity and policy levers, are also discussed.

  15. Exploring trade-offs between VMAT dose quality and delivery efficiency using a network optimization approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Salari, Ehsan; Craft, David; Wala, Jeremiah

    2012-01-01

    To formulate and solve the fluence-map merging procedure of the recently-published VMAT treatment-plan optimization method, called vmerge, as a bi-criteria optimization problem. Using an exact merging method rather than the previously-used heuristic, we are able to better characterize the trade-off between the delivery efficiency and dose quality. vmerge begins with a solution of the fluence-map optimization problem with 180 equi-spaced beams that yields the ‘ideal’ dose distribution. Neighboring fluence maps are then successively merged, meaning that they are added together and delivered as a single map. The merging process improves the delivery efficiency at the expense of deviating from the initial high-quality dose distribution. We replace the original merging heuristic by considering the merging problem as a discrete bi-criteria optimization problem with the objectives of maximizing the treatment efficiency and minimizing the deviation from the ideal dose. We formulate this using a network-flow model that represents the merging problem. Since the problem is discrete and thus non-convex, we employ a customized box algorithm to characterize the Pareto frontier. The Pareto frontier is then used as a benchmark to evaluate the performance of the standard vmerge algorithm as well as two other similar heuristics. We test the exact and heuristic merging approaches on a pancreas and a prostate cancer case. For both cases, the shape of the Pareto frontier suggests that starting from a high-quality plan, we can obtain efficient VMAT plans through merging neighboring fluence maps without substantially deviating from the initial dose distribution. The trade-off curves obtained by the various heuristics are contrasted and shown to all be equally capable of initial plan simplifications, but to deviate in quality for more drastic efficiency improvements. This work presents a network optimization approach to the merging problem. Contrasting the trade-off curves of the

  16. Exploring trade-offs between VMAT dose quality and delivery efficiency using a network optimization approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salari, Ehsan; Wala, Jeremiah; Craft, David

    2012-09-07

    To formulate and solve the fluence-map merging procedure of the recently-published VMAT treatment-plan optimization method, called VMERGE, as a bi-criteria optimization problem. Using an exact merging method rather than the previously-used heuristic, we are able to better characterize the trade-off between the delivery efficiency and dose quality. VMERGE begins with a solution of the fluence-map optimization problem with 180 equi-spaced beams that yields the 'ideal' dose distribution. Neighboring fluence maps are then successively merged, meaning that they are added together and delivered as a single map. The merging process improves the delivery efficiency at the expense of deviating from the initial high-quality dose distribution. We replace the original merging heuristic by considering the merging problem as a discrete bi-criteria optimization problem with the objectives of maximizing the treatment efficiency and minimizing the deviation from the ideal dose. We formulate this using a network-flow model that represents the merging problem. Since the problem is discrete and thus non-convex, we employ a customized box algorithm to characterize the Pareto frontier. The Pareto frontier is then used as a benchmark to evaluate the performance of the standard VMERGE algorithm as well as two other similar heuristics. We test the exact and heuristic merging approaches on a pancreas and a prostate cancer case. For both cases, the shape of the Pareto frontier suggests that starting from a high-quality plan, we can obtain efficient VMAT plans through merging neighboring fluence maps without substantially deviating from the initial dose distribution. The trade-off curves obtained by the various heuristics are contrasted and shown to all be equally capable of initial plan simplifications, but to deviate in quality for more drastic efficiency improvements. This work presents a network optimization approach to the merging problem. Contrasting the trade-off curves of the merging

  17. On the Design of Energy Efficient Optical Networks with Software Defined Networking Control Across Core and Access Networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wang, Jiayuan; Yan, Ying; Dittmann, Lars

    2013-01-01

    This paper presents a Software Defined Networking (SDN) control plane based on an overlay GMPLS control model. The SDN control platform manages optical core networks (WDM/DWDM networks) and the associated access networks (GPON networks), which makes it possible to gather global information...... and enable wider areas' energy efficiency networking. The energy related information of the networks and the types of the traffic flows are collected and utilized for the end-to-end QoS provision. Dynamic network simulation results show that by applying different routing algorithms according to the type...... of traffic in the core networks, the energy efficiency of the network is improved without compromising the quality of service....

  18. Water quality modeling in the dead end sections of drinking water distribution networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abokifa, Ahmed A; Yang, Y Jeffrey; Lo, Cynthia S; Biswas, Pratim

    2016-02-01

    Dead-end sections of drinking water distribution networks are known to be problematic zones in terms of water quality degradation. Extended residence time due to water stagnation leads to rapid reduction of disinfectant residuals allowing the regrowth of microbial pathogens. Water quality models developed so far apply spatial aggregation and temporal averaging techniques for hydraulic parameters by assigning hourly averaged water demands to the main nodes of the network. Although this practice has generally resulted in minimal loss of accuracy for the predicted disinfectant concentrations in main water transmission lines, this is not the case for the peripheries of the distribution network. This study proposes a new approach for simulating disinfectant residuals in dead end pipes while accounting for both spatial and temporal variability in hydraulic and transport parameters. A stochastic demand generator was developed to represent residential water pulses based on a non-homogenous Poisson process. Dispersive solute transport was considered using highly dynamic dispersion rates. A genetic algorithm was used to calibrate the axial hydraulic profile of the dead-end pipe based on the different demand shares of the withdrawal nodes. A parametric sensitivity analysis was done to assess the model performance under variation of different simulation parameters. A group of Monte-Carlo ensembles was carried out to investigate the influence of spatial and temporal variations in flow demands on the simulation accuracy. A set of three correction factors were analytically derived to adjust residence time, dispersion rate and wall demand to overcome simulation error caused by spatial aggregation approximation. The current model results show better agreement with field-measured concentrations of conservative fluoride tracer and free chlorine disinfectant than the simulations of recent advection dispersion reaction models published in the literature. Accuracy of the simulated

  19. Compromises Between Quality of Service Metrics and Energy Consumption of Hierarchical and Flat Routing Protocols for Wireless Sensors Network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abdelbari BEN YAGOUTA

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Wireless Sensor Network (WSN is wireless network composed of spatially distributed and tiny autonomous nodes, which cooperatively monitor physical or environmental conditions. Among the concerns of these networks is prolonging the lifetime by saving nodes energy. There are several protocols specially designed for WSNs based on energy conservation. However, many WSNs applications require QoS (Quality of Service criteria, such as latency, reliability and throughput. In this paper, we will compare three routing protocols for wireless sensors network LEACH (Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy, AODV (Ad hoc on demand Distance Vector and LABILE (Link Quality-Based Lexical Routing using Castalia simulator in terms of energy consumption, throughput, reliability and latency time of packets received by sink under different conditions to determinate the best configurations that offers the most suitable compromises between energy conservation and all QoS metrics for each routing protocols. The results show that, the best configurations that offer the suitable compromises between energy conservation and all QoS metrics is a large number of deployed nodes with low packet rate for LEACH (300 nodes and 1 packet/s, a medium number of deployed nodes with low packet rate For AODV (100 nodes and 1 packet/s and a very low nodes density with low packet rate for LABILE (50 nodes and 1 packet/s.

  20. Concurrent Transmission Based on Channel Quality in Ad Hoc Networks: A Game Theoretic Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Chen; Gao, Xinbo; Li, Xiaoji; Pei, Qingqi

    In this paper, a decentralized concurrent transmission strategy in shared channel in Ad Hoc networks is proposed based on game theory. Firstly, a static concurrent transmissions game is used to determine the candidates for transmitting by channel quality threshold and to maximize the overall throughput with consideration of channel quality variation. To achieve NES (Nash Equilibrium Solution), the selfish behaviors of node to attempt to improve the channel gain unilaterally are evaluated. Therefore, this game allows each node to be distributed and to decide whether to transmit concurrently with others or not depending on NES. Secondly, as there are always some nodes with lower channel gain than NES, which are defined as hunger nodes in this paper, a hunger suppression scheme is proposed by adjusting the price function with interferences reservation and forward relay, to fairly give hunger nodes transmission opportunities. Finally, inspired by stock trading, a dynamic concurrent transmission threshold determination scheme is implemented to make the static game practical. Numerical results show that the proposed scheme is feasible to increase concurrent transmission opportunities for active nodes, and at the same time, the number of hunger nodes is greatly reduced with the least increase of threshold by interferences reservation. Also, the good performance on network goodput of the proposed model can be seen from the results.

  1. Quality of electric service in utility distribution networks under electromagnetic compatibility principles. [ENEL

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chizzolini, P.; Lagostena, L.; Mirra, C.; Sani, G. (ENEL, Rome Milan (Italy))

    1989-03-01

    The development of electromagnetic compatibility criteria, being worked out in international standardization activities, requires the establishment of the characteristics of public utility distribution networks as a reference ambient. This is necessary for gauging the immunity levels towards users and for defining the disturbance emission limits. Therefore, it is a new way to look at the quality of electric service. Consequently, it is necessary to check and specify, in an homogeneous manner, the phenomena that affect electric service. Use must be made of experimental tests and of the collection and elaboration of operation data. In addition to testing techniques, this paper describes the checking procedures for the quality of electric service as they are implemented in the information system developed by ENEL (Italian Electricity Board) for distribution activities. The first reference data obtained from the national and international fields about voltage shape and supply continuity are also indicated.

  2. In situ optical water-quality sensor networks - Workshop summary report

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pellerin, Brian A.; Bergamaschi, Brian A.; Horsburgh, Jeffery S.

    2012-01-01

    Advanced in situ optical water-quality sensors and new techniques for data analysis hold enormous promise for furthering scientific understanding of aquatic systems. These sensors measure important biogeochemical parameters for long deployments, enabling the capture of data at time scales over which they vary most meaningfully. The high-frequency, real-time water-quality data they generate provide opportunities for early warning of water-quality deterioration, trend detection, and science-based decision support. However, developing networks of optical sensors in freshwater systems that report reliable and comparable data across and between sites remains a challenge to the research and monitoring community. To address this, the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI) convened a joint 3-day workshop (June 8-10, 2011) at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepardstown, West Virginia, to explore ways to coordinate development of standards and applications for optical sensors, and improve handling, storing, and analyzing the continuous data they produce. The workshop brought together more than 60 scientists, program managers, and vendors from universities, government agencies, and the private sector. Several important outcomes emerged from the presentations and breakout sessions. There was general consensus that making intercalibrated measurements requires that both manufacturers and users better characterize and calibrate the sensors under field conditions. For example, the influence of suspended particles, highly colored water, and temperature on optical sensors remains poorly understood, but consistently accounting for these factors is critical to successful deployment and for interpreting results in different settings. This, in turn, highlights the lack of appropriate standards for sensor calibrations, field checks, and characterizing interferences, as well as methods for

  3. Quality of Service Control Based on Virtual Private Network Services in a Wide Area Gigabit Ethernet Optical Test Bed

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rea, Luca; Pompei, Sergio; Valenti, Alessandro; Matera, Francesco; Zema, Cristiano; Settembre, Marina

    We report an experimental investigation about the Virtual Private LAN Service technique to guarantee the quality of service in the metro/core network and also in the presence of access bandwidth bottleneck. We also show how the virtual private network can be set up for answering to a user request in a very fast way. The tests were performed in a GMPLS test bed with GbE core routers linked with long (tens of kilometers) GbE G.652 fiber links.

  4. Supporting Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP in Wireless Meshed Networks using Random Linear Network Coding

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hundebøll, Martin; Pedersen, Morten Videbæk; Roetter, Daniel Enrique Lucani

    2014-01-01

    This work studies the potential and impact of the FRANC network coding protocol for delivering high quality Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) in wireless networks. Although DASH aims to tailor the video quality rate based on the available throughput to the destination, it relies...

  5. The WHO AFRO external quality assessment programme (EQAP: Linking laboratory networks through EQA programmes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Debrah I. Boeras

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available External Quality Assessment (EQA surveys performed by the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO revealed the need for the strengthening of publichealth microbiology laboratories, particularly for testing of epidemic-prone diseases in theAfrican Region. These surveys revealed common issues such as supply chain managementskilled personnel, logistical support and overall lack of quality standards. For sustainableimprovements to health systems as well as global health security, deficiencies identified needto be actively corrected through robust quality assurance programmes and implementation oflaboratory quality management systems. Given all the pathogens of public health importance, an external quality assessment programmewith a focus on vaccine-preventable diseases and emerging and re-emerging dangerouspathogens is important, and should not be stand-alone, but integrated within laboratorynetworks as seen in polio, measles, yellow fever and rubella. In 2015, WHO AFRO collaborated with the US Centers for Disease Control and Preventionthe London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and partners in a series of consultationswith countries and national and regional EQA providers for the development of qualityassurance models to support HIV point-of-care testing and monitoring. These consultationsrevealed similar challenges as seen in the WHO AFRO surveys. WHO AFRO brought forthits experience in implementing quality standards for health programmes, and also openeddiscussions on how lessons learned through such established programmes can be utilised tosupporting and strengthening the introduction of early infant diagnosis of HIV and viralload point-of-care testing. An optimised external quality assessment programme will impact the ability of countries tomeet core capacities, providing improved quality management systems, improving theconfidence of diagnostic network services in Africa, and including capacities to detect eventsof

  6. Twenty years of measurement of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in UK ambient air by nationwide air quality networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Andrew S; Brown, Richard J C; Coleman, Peter J; Conolly, Christopher; Sweetman, Andrew J; Jones, Kevin C; Butterfield, David M; Sarantaridis, Dimitris; Donovan, Brian J; Roberts, Ian

    2013-06-01

    The impact of human activities on the health of the population and of the wider environment has prompted action to monitor the presence of toxic compounds in the atmosphere. Toxic organic micropollutants (TOMPs) are some of the most insidious and persistent of these pollutants. Since 1991 the United Kingdom has operated nationwide air quality networks to assess the presence of TOMPs, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), in ambient air. The data produced in 2010 marked 20 years of nationwide PAH monitoring. This paper marks this milestone by providing a novel and critical review of the data produced since nationwide monitoring began up to the end of 2011 (the latest year for which published data is available), discussing how the networks performing this monitoring has evolved, and elucidating trends in the concentrations of the PAHs measured. The current challenges in the area and a forward look to the future of air quality monitoring for PAHs are also discussed briefly.

  7. Association of social network and social support with health-related quality of life and fatigue in long-term survivors of Hodgkin lymphoma.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soares, A; Biasoli, I; Scheliga, A; Baptista, R L; Brabo, E P; Morais, J C; Werneck, G L; Spector, N

    2013-08-01

    As the number of survivors of Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) increases, there has been a growing interest in long-term treatment-related side effects and their impact on the quality of life (QoL). The aim of this study was to assess the association of social network and social support with the QoL and fatigue among long-term HL survivors. A total of 200 HL survivors were included. The generic Short Form-12 (SF-12) questionnaire, the QoL cancer survivor's questionnaire (QOL-CS), and the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory were used to assess QoL and fatigue. Social network and social support were evaluated with the Social Support Survey. Social network and all social support measures were favorably associated with two or more SF-12 scales, mainly with physical functioning and the mental health scales. Social network and social support dimensions were also associated with better QOL-CS scores. Affective support, informational support, positive interaction, and emotional support were associated with less fatigue. Both social network and social support are associated with better QoL and lower levels of fatigue in HL survivors. This information may be useful to health professionals and community organizations in implementing effective interventions to improve these patients' quality of life.

  8. Fast decision algorithms in low-power embedded processors for quality-of-service based connectivity of mobile sensors in heterogeneous wireless sensor networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jaraíz-Simón, María D; Gómez-Pulido, Juan A; Vega-Rodríguez, Miguel A; Sánchez-Pérez, Juan M

    2012-01-01

    When a mobile wireless sensor is moving along heterogeneous wireless sensor networks, it can be under the coverage of more than one network many times. In these situations, the Vertical Handoff process can happen, where the mobile sensor decides to change its connection from a network to the best network among the available ones according to their quality of service characteristics. A fitness function is used for the handoff decision, being desirable to minimize it. This is an optimization problem which consists of the adjustment of a set of weights for the quality of service. Solving this problem efficiently is relevant to heterogeneous wireless sensor networks in many advanced applications. Numerous works can be found in the literature dealing with the vertical handoff decision, although they all suffer from the same shortfall: a non-comparable efficiency. Therefore, the aim of this work is twofold: first, to develop a fast decision algorithm that explores the entire space of possible combinations of weights, searching that one that minimizes the fitness function; and second, to design and implement a system on chip architecture based on reconfigurable hardware and embedded processors to achieve several goals necessary for competitive mobile terminals: good performance, low power consumption, low economic cost, and small area integration.

  9. I Keep my Problems to Myself: Negative Social Network Orientation, Social Resources, and Health-Related Quality of Life in Cancer Survivors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Symes, Yael; Campo, Rebecca A.; Wu, Lisa M.; Austin, Jane

    2016-01-01

    Background Cancer survivors treated with hematopoietic stem cell transplant rely on their social network for successful recovery. However, some survivors have negative attitudes about using social resources (negative social network orientation) that are critical for their recovery. Purpose We examined the association between survivors’ social network orientation and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and whether it was mediated by social resources (network size, perceived support, and negative and positive support-related social exchanges). Methods In a longitudinal study, 255 survivors completed validated measures of social network orientation, HRQoL, and social resources. Hypotheses were tested using path analysis. Results More negative social network orientation predicted worse HRQoL (p social exchanges. Conclusions Survivors with negative social network orientation may have poorer HRQoL in part due to deficits in several key social resources. Findings highlight a subgroup at risk for poor transplant outcomes and can guide intervention development. PMID:26693932

  10. An online network tool for quality information to answer questions about occupational safety and health: usability and applicability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    van Dijk Frank JH

    2010-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Common information facilities do not always provide the quality information needed to answer questions on health or health-related issues, such as Occupational Safety and Health (OSH matters. Barriers may be the accessibility, quantity and readability of information. Online Question & Answer (Q&A network tools, which link questioners directly to experts can overcome some of these barriers. When designing and testing online tools, assessing the usability and applicability is essential. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to assess the usability and applicability of a new online Q&A network tool for answers on OSH questions. Methods We applied a cross-sectional usability test design. Eight occupational health experts and twelve potential questioners from the working population (workers were purposively selected to include a variety of computer- and internet-experiences. During the test, participants were first observed while executing eight tasks that entailed important features of the tool. In addition, they were interviewed. Through task observations and interviews we assessed applicability, usability (effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction and facilitators and barriers in use. Results Most features were usable, though several could be improved. Most tasks were executed effectively. Some tasks, for example searching stored questions in categories, were not executed efficiently and participants were less satisfied with the corresponding features. Participants' recommendations led to improvements. The tool was found mostly applicable for additional information, to observe new OSH trends and to improve contact between OSH experts and workers. Hosting and support by a trustworthy professional organization, effective implementation campaigns, timely answering and anonymity were seen as important use requirements. Conclusions This network tool is a promising new strategy for offering company workers high quality information

  11. Trends in Surface-Water Quality at Selected Ambient-Monitoring Network Stations in Kentucky, 1979-2004

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crain, Angela S.; Martin, Gary R.

    2009-01-01

    Increasingly complex water-management decisions require water-quality monitoring programs that provide data for multiple purposes, including trend analyses, to detect improvement or deterioration in water quality with time. Understanding surface-water-quality trends assists resource managers in identifying emerging water-quality concerns, planning remediation efforts, and evaluating the effectiveness of the remediation. This report presents the results of a study conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet-Kentucky Division of Water, to analyze and summarize long-term water-quality trends of selected properties and water-quality constituents in selected streams in Kentucky's ambient stream water-quality monitoring network. Trends in surface-water quality for 15 properties and water-quality constituents were analyzed at 37 stations with drainage basins ranging in size from 62 to 6,431 square miles. Analyses of selected physical properties (temperature, specific conductance, pH, dissolved oxygen, hardness, and suspended solids), for major ions (chloride and sulfate), for selected metals (iron and manganese), for nutrients (total phosphorus, total nitrogen, total Kjeldahl nitrogen, nitrite plus nitrate), and for fecal coliform were compiled from the Commonwealth's ambient water-quality monitoring network. Trend analyses were completed using the S-Plus statistical software program S-Estimate Trend (S-ESTREND), which detects trends in water-quality data. The trend-detection techniques supplied by this software include the Seasonal Kendall nonparametric methods for use with uncensored data or data censored with only one reporting limit and the Tobit-regression parametric method for use with data censored with multiple reporting limits. One of these tests was selected for each property and water-quality constituent and applied to all station records so that results of the trend procedure could be compared among

  12. Social but safe? Quality and safety of diabetes-related online social networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weitzman, Elissa R; Cole, Emily; Kaci, Liljana; Mandl, Kenneth D

    2011-05-01

    To foster informed decision-making about health social networking (SN) by patients and clinicians, the authors evaluated the quality/safety of SN sites' policies and practices. Multisite structured observation of diabetes-focused SN sites. Measurements 28 indicators of quality and safety covering: (1) alignment of content with diabetes science and clinical practice recommendations; (2) safety practices for auditing content, supporting transparency and moderation; (3) accessibility of privacy policies and the communication and control of privacy risks; and (4) centralized sharing of member data and member control over sharing. Quality was variable across n=10 sites: 50% were aligned with diabetes science/clinical practice recommendations with gaps in medical disclaimer use (30% have) and specification of relevant glycosylated hemoglobin levels (0% have). Safety was mixed with gaps in external review approaches (20% used audits and association links) and internal review approaches (70% use moderation). Internal safety review offers limited protection: misinformation about a diabetes 'cure' was found on four moderated sites. Of nine sites with advertising, transparency was missing on five; ads for unfounded 'cures' were present on three. Technological safety was poor with almost no use of procedures for secure data storage and transmission; only three sites support member controls over personal information. Privacy policies' poor readability impedes risk communication. Only three sites (30%) demonstrated better practice. Limitations English-language diabetes sites only. The quality/safety of diabetes SN is variable. Observed better practice suggests improvement is feasible. Mechanisms for improvement are recommended that engage key stakeholders to balance autonomy, community ownership, conditions for innovation, and consumer protection.

  13. PROCORAD. An international network for quality control; PROCORAD. Ein internationales Netzwerk zur Qualitaetssicherung

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Berard, Philippe [CEA/Direction des Sciences du Vivant, Fontenay-aux-Roses CEDEX (France). Unite PROSITON; Hill, Peter [Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH (Germany); Kehagia, Konstantina [Greek Atomic Energy Commission, Agia Paraskevi (Greece)

    2011-07-01

    Intercomparisons in the testing field of in-vitro monitoring are an essential tool of quality control. The international network PROCORAD provides its members with annual inter-laboratory comparisons on nine different kinds of samples. They include different matrices (urine, faeces) as well as different radionuclides (e.g. tritium, strontium, polonium, actinides..). In 2010 there were 71 participating laboratories from 21 countries. An annual meeting of the participants offers the opportunity to discuss the results as well as an opportunity to relate to other participants, which is important for both scientific exchange and cross-border emergency response. (orig.)

  14. Quality assurance and quality control methodologies used within the austrian UV monitoring network

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mario, B.

    2004-01-01

    The Austrian UVB monitoring network is operational since 1997. Nine detectors for measuring erythemally weighted solar UV irradiance are distributed over Austria in order to cover the main populated areas as well as different levels of altitude. The detectors are calibrated to indicate the UV-Index, the internationally agreed unit for erythemally weighted solar UV irradiance. Calibration is carried out in the laboratory for determination of spectral sensitivity of each detector, and under the sun for absolute comparison with a well-calibrated, double-monochromator spectro-radiometer. For the conversion from detector-weighted units to erythemally weighted units a lookup table is used, which is calculated using a radiative transfer model and which reflects the dependence of the conversion on the solar zenith angle and total ozone content of the atmosphere. The uncertainty of the calibration is about ±7%, dominated by the uncertainty of the calibration lamp for the spectro-radiometer (±4%). The long-term stability of this type of detectors has been found to be not satisfactory. Therefore, routinely every year all detectors are completely re-calibrated. Variations of the calibration factors up to ±10% are found. Thus, during routine operation, several measures take place for quality control. The measured data are compared to results of model calculations with a radiative transfer model, where clear sky and an aerosol-free atmosphere are assumed. At each site, the UV data are also compared with data from a co-located pyrano-meter measuring total solar irradiance. These two radiation quantities are well correlated, especially on clear days and when the ozone content is taken into account. If suspicious measurements are found for one detector in the network, a well-calibrated travelling reference detector of the same type is set up side-by-side, allowing the identification of relative differences of ∼3%. If necessary, a recalibration is carried out. As the main aim

  15. Health-Related Quality of Life in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Results from the Autism Treatment Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuhlthau, Karen; Orlich, Felice; Hall, Trevor A.; Sikora, Darryn; Kovacs, Erica A.; Delahaye, Jennifer; Clemons, Traci E.

    2010-01-01

    We examined data collected as a part of the Autism Treatment Network, a group of 15 autism centers across the United States and Canada. Mean Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) scores of the 286 children assessed were significantly lower than those of healthy populations (according to published norms). When compared to normative data from…

  16. Networking quality and trust in professional services

    OpenAIRE

    Toryanto, Agustinus A.; Hasyim

    2017-01-01

    This study attempts to offer an outward-looking insight of the extent the knowledge management and value creation developed within professional organizations that is perceived to be able to influence networking behaviors and organizational performance. By using the Structural Equation Model (SEM) with AMOS, and conducting survey with non-probability sampling techniques of 300 law firms in several cities in Indonesia, the study proposed the networking capability as the mediating variable of...

  17. Evaluation of Network Failure induced IPTV degradation in Metro Networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wessing, Henrik; Berger, Michael Stübert; Yu, Hao

    2009-01-01

    In this paper, we evaluate future network services and classify them according to their network requirements. IPTV is used as candidate service to evaluate the performance of Carrier Ethernet OAM update mechanisms and requirements. The latter is done through quality measurements using MDI...

  18. A water-quality monitoring network for Vallecitos Valley, Alameda County, California. Water-resources investigations (final)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Farrar, C.D.

    1980-10-01

    A water-quality monitoring network is proposed to detect the presence of and trace the movement of radioisotopes in the hydrologic system in the vicinity of the Vallecitos Nuclear Center. The source of the radioisotopes is treated industrial wastewater from the Vallecitos Nuclear Center that is discharged into an unnamed tributary of Vallecitos Creek. The effluent infiltrates the alluvium along the stream course, percolates downward to the water table, and mixes with the native ground water in the subsurface. The average daily discharge of effluent to the hydrologic system in 1978 was about 100,000 gallons. The proposed network consists of four surface-water sampling sites and six wells to sample the ground-water system. Samples collected monthly at each site and analyzed for tritium and for alpha, beta, and gamma radiation would provide adequate data for monitoring

  19. Multielemental characterization of sediments from rivers and reservoirs of a sediment quality monitoring network of Sao Paulo state, Brazil

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Soares, Walace A.A.; Quinaglia, Gilson A., E-mail: wasoares@sp.gov.br, E-mail: gquinaglia@sp.gov.br [Companhia Ambiental do Estado de Sao Paulo (CETESB), SP (Brazil). Setor de Analises Toxicologicas; Favaro, Deborah I.T., E-mail: defavaro@ipen.br [Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares (LAN/CRPq/IPEN/CNEN-SP), Sao Paulo, SP (Brazil). Lab. de Analise por Ativacao Neutronica

    2013-07-01

    The Environment Company of the State of Sao Paulo (CETESB) by means of its quality monitoring network does, systematically, the assessment of water and sediment quality in rivers and reservoirs in the Sao Paulo state. The quality evaluation is done by means 50 parameters in water and 63 for sediment that are considered the more representative for CETESB monitoring. In 2011 the network monitoring analyzed 420 points being 24 in sediments. In the present study the multielemental characterization (total concentration) of 13 sediment samples from 24 rivers and reservoirs belonging to the CETESB monitoring network were analyzed by instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). The analytical validation according to precision and accuracy was checked through certified reference materials analyzes BEN (Basalt-IWG-GIT), SL-1 (Lake Sediment - IAEA) and Soil-5 (IAEA), that presents certified concentration values for all elements analyzed. The results obtained for multielemental characterization were compared to NASC values (North American Shale Composite) and the enrichment factor (EF) by using Sc as a normalizer element was calculated. The results showed higher enrichment values for As, Br, Cr, Hf, Ta, Th , U and Zn and rare earth elements (REE) Ce, Eu, La, Nd, Sm, Tb and Yb in many of the tested sediment samples indicating that there may be an anthropogenic contribution for these elements. The multielemental results were also compared to the granulometric composition of the sediment samples. Factorial and Cluster Analysis were applied and indicated that the elements distribution is controlled, mainly by the granulometric fractions of the sediments. (author)

  20. Multielemental characterization of sediments from rivers and reservoirs of a sediment quality monitoring network of Sao Paulo state, Brazil

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Soares, Walace A.A.; Quinaglia, Gilson A.; Favaro, Deborah I.T.

    2013-01-01

    The Environment Company of the State of Sao Paulo (CETESB) by means of its quality monitoring network does, systematically, the assessment of water and sediment quality in rivers and reservoirs in the Sao Paulo state. The quality evaluation is done by means 50 parameters in water and 63 for sediment that are considered the more representative for CETESB monitoring. In 2011 the network monitoring analyzed 420 points being 24 in sediments. In the present study the multielemental characterization (total concentration) of 13 sediment samples from 24 rivers and reservoirs belonging to the CETESB monitoring network were analyzed by instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). The analytical validation according to precision and accuracy was checked through certified reference materials analyzes BEN (Basalt-IWG-GIT), SL-1 (Lake Sediment - IAEA) and Soil-5 (IAEA), that presents certified concentration values for all elements analyzed. The results obtained for multielemental characterization were compared to NASC values (North American Shale Composite) and the enrichment factor (EF) by using Sc as a normalizer element was calculated. The results showed higher enrichment values for As, Br, Cr, Hf, Ta, Th , U and Zn and rare earth elements (REE) Ce, Eu, La, Nd, Sm, Tb and Yb in many of the tested sediment samples indicating that there may be an anthropogenic contribution for these elements. The multielemental results were also compared to the granulometric composition of the sediment samples. Factorial and Cluster Analysis were applied and indicated that the elements distribution is controlled, mainly by the granulometric fractions of the sediments. (author)

  1. Capacity enhancement and flexible operation of unified power quality conditioner in smart and microgrid network

    OpenAIRE

    Khadem, Shafiuzzaman Khan; Basu, Malabika; Conlon, Michael F.

    2018-01-01

    This paper presents a new approach to design Unified Power Quality Conditioner (UPQC), termed as distributed UPQC (D-UPQC), for smart or microgrid network where capacity enhancement and flexible operation of UPQC are the important issues. This paper shows the possibility of capacity enhancement and operational flexibility of UPQC through a coordinated control of existing resources. This UPQC consists of a single unit series active power filter (APFse) and multiple shunt APF (APFsh) units in a...

  2. A Collaborative Learning Network Approach to Improvement: The CUSP Learning Network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weaver, Sallie J; Lofthus, Jennifer; Sawyer, Melinda; Greer, Lee; Opett, Kristin; Reynolds, Catherine; Wyskiel, Rhonda; Peditto, Stephanie; Pronovost, Peter J

    2015-04-01

    Collaborative improvement networks draw on the science of collaborative organizational learning and communities of practice to facilitate peer-to-peer learning, coaching, and local adaption. Although significant improvements in patient safety and quality have been achieved through collaborative methods, insight regarding how collaborative networks are used by members is needed. Improvement Strategy: The Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) Learning Network is a multi-institutional collaborative network that is designed to facilitate peer-to-peer learning and coaching specifically related to CUSP. Member organizations implement all or part of the CUSP methodology to improve organizational safety culture, patient safety, and care quality. Qualitative case studies developed by participating members examine the impact of network participation across three levels of analysis (unit, hospital, health system). In addition, results of a satisfaction survey designed to evaluate member experiences were collected to inform network development. Common themes across case studies suggest that members found value in collaborative learning and sharing strategies across organizational boundaries related to a specific improvement strategy. The CUSP Learning Network is an example of network-based collaborative learning in action. Although this learning network focuses on a particular improvement methodology-CUSP-there is clear potential for member-driven learning networks to grow around other methods or topic areas. Such collaborative learning networks may offer a way to develop an infrastructure for longer-term support of improvement efforts and to more quickly diffuse creative sustainment strategies.

  3. Quantifying the Impact of Feedstock Quality on the Design of Bioenergy Supply Chain Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Krystel K. Castillo-Villar

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Logging residues, which refer to the unused portions of trees cut during logging, are important sources of biomass for the emerging biofuel industry and are critical feedstocks for the first-type biofuel facilities (e.g., corn-ethanol facilities. Logging residues are under-utilized sources of biomass for energetic purposes. To support the scaling-up of the bioenergy industry, it is essential to design cost-effective biofuel supply chains that not only minimize costs, but also consider the biomass quality characteristics. The biomass quality is heavily dependent upon the moisture and the ash contents. Ignoring the biomass quality characteristics and its intrinsic costs may yield substantial economic losses that will only be discovered after operations at a biorefinery have begun. This paper proposes a novel bioenergy supply chain network design model that minimizes operational costs and includes the biomass quality-related costs. The proposed model is unique in the sense that it supports decisions where quality is not unrealistically assumed to be perfect. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology is proven by assessing a case study in the state of Tennessee, USA. The results demonstrate that the ash and moisture contents of logging residues affect the performance of the supply chain (in monetary terms. Higher-than-target moisture and ash contents incur in additional quality-related costs. The quality-related costs in the optimal solution (with final ash content of 1% and final moisture of 50% account for 27% of overall supply chain cost. Based on the numeral experimentation, the total supply chain cost increased 7%, on average, for each additional percent in the final ash content.

  4. A Network Traffic Control Enhancement Approach over Bluetooth Networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Son, L.T.; Schiøler, Henrik; Madsen, Ole Brun

    2003-01-01

    This paper analyzes network traffic control issues in Bluetooth data networks as convex optimization problem. We formulate the problem of maximizing of total network flows and minimizing the costs of flows. An adaptive distributed network traffic control scheme is proposed as an approximated solu...... as capacity limitations and flow requirements in the network. Simulation shows that the performance of Bluetooth networks could be improved by applying the adaptive distributed network traffic control scheme...... solution of the stated optimization problem that satisfies quality of service requirements and topologically induced constraints in Bluetooth networks, such as link capacity and node resource limitations. The proposed scheme is decentralized and complies with frequent changes of topology as well......This paper analyzes network traffic control issues in Bluetooth data networks as convex optimization problem. We formulate the problem of maximizing of total network flows and minimizing the costs of flows. An adaptive distributed network traffic control scheme is proposed as an approximated...

  5. The use of artificial neural network analysis and multiple regression for trap quality evaluation: a case study of the Northern Kuqa Depression of Tarim Basin in western China

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Guangren Shi; Xingxi Zhou; Guangya Zhang; Xiaofeng Shi; Honghui Li [Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, Beijing (China)

    2004-03-01

    Artificial neural network analysis is found to be far superior to multiple regression when applied to the evaluation of trap quality in the Northern Kuqa Depression, a gas-rich depression of Tarim Basin in western China. This is because this technique can correlate the complex and non-linear relationship between trap quality and related geological factors, whereas multiple regression can only describe a linear relationship. However, multiple regression can work as an auxiliary tool, as it is suited to high-speed calculations and can indicate the degree of dependence between the trap quality and its related geological factors which artificial neural network analysis cannot. For illustration, we have investigated 30 traps in the Northern Kuqa Depression. For each of the traps, the values of 14 selected geological factors were all known. While geologists were also able to assign individual trap quality values to 27 traps, they were less certain about the values for the other three traps. Multiple regression and artificial neural network analysis were, therefore, respectively used to ascertain these values. Data for the 27 traps were used as known sample data, while the three traps were used as prediction candidates. Predictions from artificial neural network analysis are found to agree with exploration results: where simulation predicted high trap quality, commercial quality flows were afterwards found, and where low trap quality is indicated, no such discoveries have yet been made. On the other hand, multiple regression results indicate the order of dependence of the trap quality on geological factors, which reconciles with what geologists have commonly recognized. We can conclude, therefore, that the application of artificial neural network analysis with the aid of multiple regression to trap evaluation in the Northern Kuqa Depression has been quite successful. To ensure the precision of the above mentioned geological factors and their related parameters for each

  6. A decision tree model to estimate the value of information provided by a groundwater quality monitoring network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khader, A. I.; Rosenberg, D. E.; McKee, M.

    2013-05-01

    Groundwater contaminated with nitrate poses a serious health risk to infants when this contaminated water is used for culinary purposes. To avoid this health risk, people need to know whether their culinary water is contaminated or not. Therefore, there is a need to design an effective groundwater monitoring network, acquire information on groundwater conditions, and use acquired information to inform management options. These actions require time, money, and effort. This paper presents a method to estimate the value of information (VOI) provided by a groundwater quality monitoring network located in an aquifer whose water poses a spatially heterogeneous and uncertain health risk. A decision tree model describes the structure of the decision alternatives facing the decision-maker and the expected outcomes from these alternatives. The alternatives include (i) ignore the health risk of nitrate-contaminated water, (ii) switch to alternative water sources such as bottled water, or (iii) implement a previously designed groundwater quality monitoring network that takes into account uncertainties in aquifer properties, contaminant transport processes, and climate (Khader, 2012). The VOI is estimated as the difference between the expected costs of implementing the monitoring network and the lowest-cost uninformed alternative. We illustrate the method for the Eocene Aquifer, West Bank, Palestine, where methemoglobinemia (blue baby syndrome) is the main health problem associated with the principal contaminant nitrate. The expected cost of each alternative is estimated as the weighted sum of the costs and probabilities (likelihoods) associated with the uncertain outcomes resulting from the alternative. Uncertain outcomes include actual nitrate concentrations in the aquifer, concentrations reported by the monitoring system, whether people abide by manager recommendations to use/not use aquifer water, and whether people get sick from drinking contaminated water. Outcome costs

  7. SDN Based User-Centric Framework for Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhaoming Lu

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Due to the rapid growth of mobile data traffic, more and more basestations and access points (APs have been densely deployed to provide users with ubiquitous network access, which make current wireless network a complex heterogeneous network (HetNet. However, traditional wireless networks are designed with network-centric approaches where different networks have different quality of service (QoS strategies and cannot easily cooperate with each other to serve network users. Massive network infrastructures could not assure users perceived network and service quality, which is an indisputable fact. To address this issue, we design a new framework for heterogeneous wireless networks with the principle of user-centricity, refactoring the network from users’ perspective to suffice their requirements and preferences. Different from network-centric approaches, the proposed framework takes advantage of Software Defined Networking (SDN and virtualization technology, which will bring better perceived services quality for wireless network users. In the proposed user-centric framework, control plane and data plane are decoupled to manage the HetNets in a flexible and coadjutant way, and resource virtualization technology is introduced to abstract physical resources of HetNets into unified virtualized resources. Hence, ubiquitous and undifferentiated network connectivity and QoE (quality of experience driven fine-grained resource management could be achieved for wireless network users.

  8. Data Quality Control of the French Permanent Broadband Network in the RESIF Framework.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grunberg, M.; Lambotte, S.; Engels, F.

    2014-12-01

    In the framework of the RESIF (Réseau Sismologique et géodésique Français) project, a new information system is setting up, allowing the improvement of the management and the distribution of high quality data from the different elements of RESIF. Within this information system, EOST (in Strasbourg) is in charge of collecting real-time permanent broadband seismic waveform, and performing Quality Control on these data. The real-time and validated data set are pushed to the French National Distribution Center (Isterre/Grenoble) to make them publicly available. Furthermore EOST hosts the BCSF-ReNaSS, in charge of the French metropolitan seismic bulletin. This allows to benefit from some high-end quality control based on the national and world-wide seismicity. Here we present the real-time seismic data flow from the stations of the French National Broad Band Network to EOST, and then, the data Quality Control procedures that were recently installed, including some new developments.The data Quality Control consists in applying a variety of processes to check the consistency of the whole system from the stations to the data center. This allows us to verify that instruments and data transmission are operating correctly. Moreover, time quality is critical for most of the scientific data applications. To face this challenge and check the consistency of polarities and amplitudes, we deployed several high-end processes including a noise correlation procedure to check for timing accuracy (intrumental time errors result in a time-shift of the whole cross-correlation, clearly distinct from those due to change in medium physical properties), and a systematic comparison of synthetic and real data for teleseismic earthquakes of magnitude larger than 6.5 to detect timing errors as well as polarity and amplitude problems.

  9. Artificial neural networks for prediction of quality in resistance spot welding; Redes neuronales artificiales para la prediccion de la calidad en soldadura por resistencia por puntos

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Martin, O.; Lopez, M.; Martin, F.

    2006-07-01

    An artificial neural network is proposed as a tool for predicting from three parameters (weld time, current intensity and electrode sort) if the quality of a resistance spot weld reaches a certain level or not. The quality is determined by cross tension testing. The fact of reaching this quality level or not is the desired output that goes with each input of the artificial neural network during its supervised learning. The available data set is made up of input/desired output pairs and is split randomly into a training subset (to update synaptic weight values) and a validation subset (to avoid overfitting phenomenon by means of cross validation). (Author) 44 refs.

  10. Neural Network based Control of SG based Standalone Generating System with Energy Storage for Power Quality Enhancement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nayar, Priya; Singh, Bhim; Mishra, Sukumar

    2017-08-01

    An artificial intelligence based control algorithm is used in solving power quality problems of a diesel engine driven synchronous generator with automatic voltage regulator and governor based standalone system. A voltage source converter integrated with a battery energy storage system is employed to mitigate the power quality problems. An adaptive neural network based signed regressor control algorithm is used for the estimation of the fundamental component of load currents for control of a standalone system with load leveling as an integral feature. The developed model of the system performs accurately under varying load conditions and provides good dynamic response to the step changes in loads. The real time performance is achieved using MATLAB along with simulink/simpower system toolboxes and results adhere to an IEEE-519 standard for power quality enhancement.

  11. An inter-centre quality assurance network for IMRT verification: Results of the ESTRO QUASIMODO project

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gillis, Sofie; Wagter, Carlos de; Bohsung, Joerg; Perrin, Bruce; Williams, Peter; Mijnheer, Ben J.

    2005-01-01

    Background and purpose: IMRT necessitates extension of existing inter-centre quality assurance programs due to its increased complexity. We assessed the feasibility of an inter-centre verification method for different IMRT techniques. Materials and methods: Eight European radiotherapy institutions of the QUASIMODO network, have designed an IMRT plan for a horseshoe-shaped PTV surrounding a cylindrical OAR in a simplified pelvic phantom. All centres applied common plan objectives but used their own equipment for planning and delivery. They verified the delivery of this plan according to a common protocol with radiographic film and ionisation chamber measurements. The irradiated films, the results of the ionisation chamber measurements and the computed dose distributions were sent to one analysis centre that compared the measured and computed dose distributions with the gamma method and composite dose-area histograms. Results: 4% (relative to the prescribed dose) and 3 mm (distance-to-agreement) were decided feasible gamma criteria. The composite dose-area histograms showed a maximum local deviation of 3.5% in the mean dose of the PTV and 5% in the OAR. Systematic differences could be identified, and in some cases explained. Conclusions: This multi-centre dosimetric verification study demonstrated both the feasibility of a multi-centre quality assurance network to evaluate any IMRT planning and delivery system combination, as well as the validity of the methodology involved

  12. Launching a Laboratory Testing Process Quality Improvement Toolkit: From the Shared Networks of Colorado Ambulatory Practices and Partners (SNOCAP).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fernald, Douglas; Hamer, Mika; James, Kathy; Tutt, Brandon; West, David

    2015-01-01

    Family medicine and internal medicine physicians order diagnostic laboratory tests for nearly one-third of patient encounters in an average week, yet among medical errors in primary care, an estimated 15% to 54% are attributed to laboratory testing processes. From a practice improvement perspective, we (1) describe the need for laboratory testing process quality improvements from the perspective of primary care practices, and (2) describe the approaches and resources needed to implement laboratory testing process quality improvements in practice. We applied practice observations, process mapping, and interviews with primary care practices in the Shared Networks of Colorado Ambulatory Practices and Partners (SNOCAP)-affiliated practice-based research networks that field-tested in 2013 a laboratory testing process improvement toolkit. From the data collected in each of the 22 participating practices, common testing quality issues included, but were not limited to, 3 main testing process steps: laboratory test preparation, test tracking, and patient notification. Three overarching qualitative themes emerged: practices readily acknowledge multiple laboratory testing process problems; practices know that they need help addressing the issues; and practices face challenges with finding patient-centered solutions compatible with practice priorities and available resources. While practices were able to get started with guidance and a toolkit to improve laboratory testing processes, most did not seem able to achieve their quality improvement aims unassisted. Providing specific guidance tools with practice facilitation or other rapid-cycle quality improvement support may be an effective approach to improve common laboratory testing issues in primary care. © Copyright 2015 by the American Board of Family Medicine.

  13. Protocol and networking design issues for local access WDM networks

    OpenAIRE

    Salvador, M.R.; Heemstra de Groot, S.M.; Niemegeers, I.G.M.M.

    1999-01-01

    This report gives an overview of some of the protocol and networking design issues that have been addressed in Flamingo, a major ongoing project which investigates the use of WDM optical technology in local access networks. Quality of service delivery and wavelength assignment are focused on in this report. A brief introduction to optical networks and WDM as well as a brief description of Flamingo are also included in this report.

  14. The European pilot network for quality assurance in radiotherapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chavaudra, J.; Derremaux, S.; Bridier, A.; Dutreix, A.; Schueren, E. Van Der

    1997-01-01

    Based on the IAEA/WHO experience in mailed dosimetry, a Quality Assurance Network, sponsored by the EC Committee ''Europe against Cancer'', has been set-up in 1991. For all European Centres not involved in clinical research, besides a survey of radiotherapy facilities, the project includes three measurement steps: a check of beam output and quality in reference conditions with a mailed TLD procedure, the mailed verification of other beam data and dose calculation procedures with a multipurpose phantom, and in vivo dosimetry at the individual patient level with mailed dosimeters. The results concerning 228 beams from 105 Centres have been analysed (75 Co-60 beams and 153 X-ray beams). 33 beams present minor deviations (3 to 6%) and 12 beams (4/75 Co-60 beams and 8/153 X-ray beams) from 11 centres present major deviations (≥6%). The analysis shows that 13/33 minor deviations and all major deviations have been detected in centres which have not benefited from an external check during the last 5 years; in 10 out of 12 large deviations, the measured dose is smaller than the stated dose. This makes the clinical detection of such deviations more difficult. In most centres with major deviations, the physicists did not have the necessary experience and did not calibrate regularly the beams. In 5 Centres out of 11 there was no dosimeter or the dosimeter available had not been calibrated recently. In 4 Centres the physicist did not give any explanation. The conclusions concerning the second step (multipurpose phantom) outline the larger magnitude of the deviations for off-axis points, oblique beam incidence, and the use of wedge filters

  15. Northern Great Plains Network water quality monitoring design for tributaries to the Missouri National Recreational River

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rowe, Barbara L.; Wilson, Stephen K.; Yager, Lisa; Wilson, Marcia H.

    2013-01-01

    The National Park Service (NPS) organized more than 270 parks with important natural resources into 32 ecoregional networks to conduct Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) activities for assessment of natural resources within park units. The Missouri National Recreational River (NRR) is among the 13 parks in the NPS Northern Great Plain Network (NGPN). Park managers and NGPN staff identified surface water resources as a high priority vital sign to monitor in park units. The objectives for the Missouri NRR water quality sampling design are to (1) assess the current status and long-term trends of select water quality parameters; and (2) document trends in streamflow at high-priority stream systems. Due to the large size of the Missouri River main stem, the NGPN water quality design for the Missouri NRR focuses on wadeable tributaries within the park unit. To correlate with the NGPN water quality protocols, monitoring of the Missouri NRR consists of measurement of field core parameters including dissolved oxygen, pH, specific conductance, and temperature; and streamflow. The purpose of this document is to discuss factors examined for selection of water quality monitoring on segments of the Missouri River tributaries within the Missouri NRR.Awareness of the complex history of the Missouri NRR aids in the current understanding and direction for designing a monitoring plan. Historical and current monitoring data from agencies and entities were examined to assess potential NGPN monitoring sites. In addition, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 303(d) list was examined for the impaired segments on tributaries to the Missouri River main stem. Because major tributaries integrate water quality effects from complex combinations of land use and environmental settings within contributing areas, a 20-mile buffer of the Missouri NRR was used to establish environmental settings that may impact the water quality of tributaries that feed the Missouri River main stem. For selection of

  16. A Process Management System for Networked Manufacturing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Tingting; Wang, Huifen; Liu, Linyan

    With the development of computer, communication and network, networked manufacturing has become one of the main manufacturing paradigms in the 21st century. Under the networked manufacturing environment, there exist a large number of cooperative tasks susceptible to alterations, conflicts caused by resources and problems of cost and quality. This increases the complexity of administration. Process management is a technology used to design, enact, control, and analyze networked manufacturing processes. It supports efficient execution, effective management, conflict resolution, cost containment and quality control. In this paper we propose an integrated process management system for networked manufacturing. Requirements of process management are analyzed and architecture of the system is presented. And a process model considering process cost and quality is developed. Finally a case study is provided to explain how the system runs efficiently.

  17. Personality Antecedents of Self-Other Rating Discrepancy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nila Sinha

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available En los últimos tiempos, se está incrementando el uso de sistemas de feedback multi-evaluador por parte de las organizaciones para la evaluación y el desarrollo de su personal. La investigación sugiere que las autoevaluaciones del desempeño a menudo no correlacionan con las evaluaciones de los demás, lo que tiene implicaciones para la receptividad del evaluado al feedback. La investigación previa sugiere que la personalidad del evaluado puede ser un punto importante en la discrepancia entre las autoevaluaciones y las evaluaciones de los otros. En el presente estudio se exploró el grado en que cinco dimensiones de personalidad relacionadas con el trabajo explican la varianza en la discrepancia entre las autoevaluaciones y las evaluaciones de los otros, usando los datos de archivo de 527 empleados de una gran organización financiera. El análisis de 487 parejas de autoevaluaciones y evaluaciones de los compañeros y 501 parejas de autoevaluaciones y evaluaciones de los supervisores reveló un bajo acuerdo entre las autoevaluaciones, las evaluaciones de los supervisores y las evaluaciones de los compañeros. Los evaluados altos en extraversión, dominancia, conformidad cultural, cinismo y orientación al detalle fueron algo más probables a sobre-estimar su desempeño en las autoevaluaciones comparadas con las evaluaciones que recibían de sus compañeros. Los evaluados cínicos y orientados al detalle tendieron a sobre-estimar su desempeño en comparación con las evaluaciones de sus supervisores. La orientación al detalle y la conformidad cultural interactuaron para predecir las discrepancias entre las autoevaluaciones y las evaluaciones de los supervisores y los compañeros. Finalmente, se discuten las implicaciones para la investigación y la práctica profesional de estos hallazgos.

  18. Protocol and networking design issues for local access WDM networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Salvador, M.R.; Heemstra de Groot, S.M.; Niemegeers, I.G.M.M.

    This report gives an overview of some of the protocol and networking design issues that have been addressed in Flamingo, a major ongoing project which investigates the use of WDM optical technology in local access networks. Quality of service delivery and wavelength assignment are focused on in this

  19. Voice Quality in Mobile Telecommunication System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Evaldas Stankevičius

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available The article deals with methods measuring the quality of voice transmitted over the mobile network as well as related problem, algorithms and options. It presents the created voice quality measurement system and discusses its adequacy as well as efficiency. Besides, the author presents the results of system application under the optimal hardware configuration. Under almost ideal conditions, the system evaluates the voice quality with MOS 3.85 average estimate; while the standardized TEMS Investigation 9.0 has 4.05 average MOS estimate. Next, the article presents the discussion of voice quality predictor implementation and investigates the predictor using nonlinear and linear prediction methods of voice quality dependence on the mobile network settings. Nonlinear prediction using artificial neural network resulted in the correlation coefficient of 0.62. While the linear prediction method using the least mean squares resulted in the correlation coefficient of 0.57. The analytical expression of voice quality features from the three network parameters: BER, C / I, RSSI is given as well.Article in Lithuanian

  20. A multi-objective assessment of an air quality monitoring network using environmental, economic, and social indicators and GIS-based models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pope, Ronald; Wu, Jianguo

    2014-06-01

    In the United States, air pollution is primarily measured by Air Quality Monitoring Networks (AQMN). These AQMNs have multiple objectives, including characterizing pollution patterns, protecting the public health, and determining compliance with air quality standards. In 2006, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a directive that air pollution agencies assess the performance of their AQMNs. Although various methods to design and assess AQMNs exist, here we demonstrate a geographic information system (GIS)-based approach that combines environmental, economic, and social indicators through the assessment of the ozone (O3) and particulate matter (PM10) networks in Maricopa County, Arizona. The assessment was conducted in three phases: (1) to evaluate the performance of the existing networks, (2) to identify areas that would benefit from the addition of new monitoring stations, and (3) to recommend changes to the AQMN. A comprehensive set of indicators was created for evaluating differing aspects of the AQMNs' objectives, and weights were applied to emphasize important indicators. Indicators were also classified according to their sustainable development goal. Our results showed that O3 was well represented in the county with some redundancy in terms of the urban monitors. The addition of weights to the indicators only had a minimal effect on the results. For O3, urban monitors had greater social scores, while rural monitors had greater environmental scores. The results did not suggest a need for adding more O3 monitoring sites. For PM10, clustered urban monitors were redundant, and weights also had a minimal effect on the results. The clustered urban monitors had overall low scores; sites near point sources had high environmental scores. Several areas were identified as needing additional PM10 monitors. This study demonstrates the usefulness of a multi-indicator approach to assess AQMNs. Network managers and planners may use this method to assess the

  1. Exploring the use of grounded theory as a methodological approach to examine the 'black box' of network leadership in the national quality forum.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoflund, A Bryce

    2013-01-01

    This paper describes how grounded theory was used to investigate the "black box" of network leadership in the creation of the National Quality Forum. Scholars are beginning to recognize the importance of network organizations and are in the embryonic stages of collecting and analyzing data about network leadership processes. Grounded theory, with its focus on deriving theory from empirical data, offers researchers a distinctive way of studying little-known phenomena and is therefore well suited to exploring network leadership processes. Specifically, this paper provides an overview of grounded theory, a discussion of the appropriateness of grounded theory to investigating network phenomena, a description of how the research was conducted, and a discussion of the limitations and lessons learned from using this approach.

  2. Prediction ofWater Quality Parameters (NO3, CL in Karaj Riverby Usinga Combinationof Wavelet Neural Network, ANN and MLRModels

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    T. Rajaee

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available IntroductionThe water quality is an issue of ongoing concern. Evaluation of the quantity and quality of running waters is considerable in hydro-environmental management.The prediction and control of the quality of Karaj river water, as one of the important needed water supply sources of Tehran, possesses great importance. In this study, Performance of Artificial Neural Network (ANN, Wavelet Neural Network combination (WANN and multi linear regression (MLR models, to predict next month the Nitrate (NO3 and Chloride (CL ions of "gate ofBylaqan sluice" station located in Karaj River has been evaluated. Materials and MethodsIn this research two separate ANN models for prediction of NO3 and CL has been expanded. Each one of the parameters for prediction (NO3 / CL has been put related to the past amounts of the same time series (NO3 / CL and its amounts of Q in past months.From astatisticalperiod of10yearswas usedforthe input of the models. Hence 80% of entire data from (96 initial months of data as training set, next 10% of data (12 months and 10% of the end of time series (terminal 12 months were considered as for validation and test of the models, respectively. In WANNcombination model, the real monthly observed time series of river discharge (Q and mentioned qualityparameters(NO3 / CL were decomposed to some sub-time series at different levels by wavelet analysis.Then the decomposed quality parameters to predict and Q time series were used at different levels as inputs to the ANN technique for predicting one-step-ahead Nitrate and Chloride. These time series play various roles in the original time series and the behavior of each is distinct, so the contribution to the original time series varies from each other. In addition, prediction of high NO3 and CL values greater than mean of data that have great importancewere investigated by the models. The capability of the models was evaluated by Coefficient of Efficiency (E and the Root Mean Square

  3. HOLA: Human-like Orthogonal Network Layout.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kieffer, Steve; Dwyer, Tim; Marriott, Kim; Wybrow, Michael

    2016-01-01

    Over the last 50 years a wide variety of automatic network layout algorithms have been developed. Some are fast heuristic techniques suitable for networks with hundreds of thousands of nodes while others are multi-stage frameworks for higher-quality layout of smaller networks. However, despite decades of research currently no algorithm produces layout of comparable quality to that of a human. We give a new "human-centred" methodology for automatic network layout algorithm design that is intended to overcome this deficiency. User studies are first used to identify the aesthetic criteria algorithms should encode, then an algorithm is developed that is informed by these criteria and finally, a follow-up study evaluates the algorithm output. We have used this new methodology to develop an automatic orthogonal network layout method, HOLA, that achieves measurably better (by user study) layout than the best available orthogonal layout algorithm and which produces layouts of comparable quality to those produced by hand.

  4. Groundwater-quality characteristics for the Wyoming Groundwater-Quality Monitoring Network, November 2009 through September 2012

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boughton, Gregory K.

    2014-01-01

    Groundwater samples were collected from 146 shallow (less than or equal to 500 feet deep) wells for the Wyoming Groundwater-Quality Monitoring Network, from November 2009 through September 2012. Groundwater samples were analyzed for physical characteristics, major ions and dissolved solids, trace elements, nutrients and dissolved organic carbon, uranium, stable isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen, volatile organic compounds, and coliform bacteria. Selected samples also were analyzed for gross alpha radioactivity, gross beta radioactivity, radon, tritium, gasoline range organics, diesel range organics, dissolved hydrocarbon gases (methane, ethene, and ethane), and wastewater compounds. Water-quality measurements and concentrations in some samples exceeded numerous U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) drinking water standards. Physical characteristics and constituents that exceeded EPA Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) in some samples were arsenic, selenium, nitrite, nitrate, gross alpha activity, and uranium. Total coliforms and Escherichia coli in some samples exceeded EPA Maximum Contaminant Level Goals. Measurements of pH and turbidity and concentrations of chloride, sulfate, fluoride, dissolved solids, aluminum, iron, and manganese exceeded EPA Secondary Maximum Contaminant Levels in some samples. Radon concentrations in some samples exceeded the alternative MCL proposed by the EPA. Molybdenum and boron concentrations in some samples exceeded EPA Health Advisory Levels. Water-quality measurements and concentrations also exceeded numerous Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (WDEQ) groundwater standards. Physical characteristics and constituents that exceeded WDEQ Class I domestic groundwater standards in some samples were measurements of pH and concentrations of chloride, sulfate, dissolved solids, iron, manganese, boron, selenium, nitrite, and nitrate. Measurements of pH and concentrations of chloride, sulfate, dissolved solids, aluminum, iron

  5. Internet use, social networks, loneliness, and quality of life among adults aged 50 and older: mediating and moderating effects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khalaila, Rabia; Vitman-Schorr, Adi

    2018-02-01

    The increase in longevity of people on one hand, and on the other hand the fact that the social networks in later life become increasingly narrower, highlights the importance of Internet use to enhance quality of life (QoL). However, whether Internet use increases or decreases social networks, loneliness, and quality of life is not clear-cut. To explore the direct and/or indirect effects of Internet use on QoL, and to examine whether ethnicity and time the elderly spent with family moderate the mediation effect of Internet use on quality of life throughout loneliness. This descriptive-correlational study was carried out in 2016 by structured interviews with a convenience sample of 502 respondents aged 50 and older, living in northern Israel. Bootstrapping with resampling strategies was used for testing mediation a model. Use of the Internet was found to be positively associated with QoL. However, this relationship was mediated by loneliness, and moderated by the time the elderly spent with family members. In addition, respondents' ethnicity significantly moderated the mediation effect between Internet use and loneliness. Internet use can enhance QoL of older adults directly or indirectly by reducing loneliness. However, these effects are conditional on other variables. The indirect effect moderated by ethnicity, and the direct effect moderated by the time the elderly spend with their families. Researchers and practitioners should be aware of these interactions which can impact loneliness and quality of life of older persons differently.

  6. Policy-based Network Management in Home Area Networks: Interim Test Results

    OpenAIRE

    Ibrahim Rana, Annie; Ó Foghlú, Mícheál

    2009-01-01

    This paper argues that Home Area Networks (HANs) are a good candidate for advanced network management automation techniques, such as Policy-Based Network Management (PBNM). What is proposed is a simple use of policy based network management to introduce some level of Quality of Service (QoS) and Security management in the HAN, whilst hiding this complexity from the home user. In this paper we have presented the interim test results of our research experiments (based on a scenario) using the H...

  7. Efficient data replication for the delivery of high-quality video content over P2P VoD advertising networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ho, Chien-Peng; Yu, Jen-Yu; Lee, Suh-Yin

    2011-12-01

    Recent advances in modern television systems have had profound consequences for the scalability, stability, and quality of transmitted digital data signals. This is of particular significance for peer-to-peer (P2P) video-on-demand (VoD) related platforms, faced with an immediate and growing demand for reliable service delivery. In response to demands for high-quality video, the key objectives in the construction of the proposed framework were user satisfaction with perceived video quality and the effective utilization of available resources on P2P VoD networks. This study developed a peer-based promoter to support online advertising in P2P VoD networks based on an estimation of video distortion prior to the replication of data stream chunks. The proposed technology enables the recovery of lost video using replicated stream chunks in real time. Load balance is achieved by adjusting the replication level of each candidate group according to the degree-of-distortion, thereby enabling a significant reduction in server load and increased scalability in the P2P VoD system. This approach also promotes the use of advertising as an efficient tool for commercial promotion. Results indicate that the proposed system efficiently satisfies the given fault tolerances.

  8. User’s manual for the Automated Data Assurance and Management application developed for quality control of Everglades Depth Estimation Network water-level data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Petkewich, Matthew D.; Daamen, Ruby C.; Roehl, Edwin A.; Conrads, Paul

    2016-09-29

    The generation of Everglades Depth Estimation Network (EDEN) daily water-level and water-depth maps is dependent on high quality real-time data from over 240 water-level stations. To increase the accuracy of the daily water-surface maps, the Automated Data Assurance and Management (ADAM) tool was created by the U.S. Geological Survey as part of Greater Everglades Priority Ecosystems Science. The ADAM tool is used to provide accurate quality-assurance review of the real-time data from the EDEN network and allows estimation or replacement of missing or erroneous data. This user’s manual describes how to install and operate the ADAM software. File structure and operation of the ADAM software is explained using examples.

  9. Hierarchical Network Design Using Simulated Annealing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thomadsen, Tommy; Clausen, Jens

    2002-01-01

    networks are described and a mathematical model is proposed for a two level version of the hierarchical network problem. The problem is to determine which edges should connect nodes, and how demand is routed in the network. The problem is solved heuristically using simulated annealing which as a sub......-algorithm uses a construction algorithm to determine edges and route the demand. Performance for different versions of the algorithm are reported in terms of runtime and quality of the solutions. The algorithm is able to find solutions of reasonable quality in approximately 1 hour for networks with 100 nodes....

  10. Data Quality Assessment Methods for the Eastern Range 915 MHz Wind Profiler Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lambert, Winifred C.; Taylor, Gregory E.

    1998-01-01

    The Eastern Range installed a network of five 915 MHz Doppler Radar Wind Profilers with Radio Acoustic Sounding Systems in the Cape Canaveral Air Station/Kennedy Space Center area to provide three-dimensional wind speed and direction and virtual temperature estimates in the boundary layer. The Applied Meteorology Unit, staffed by ENSCO, Inc., was tasked by the 45th Weather Squadron, the Spaceflight Meteorology Group, and the National Weather Service in Melbourne, Florida to investigate methods which will help forecasters assess profiler network data quality when developing forecasts and warnings for critical ground, launch and landing operations. Four routines were evaluated in this study: a consensus time period check a precipitation contamination check, a median filter, and the Weber-Wuertz (WW) algorithm. No routine was able to effectively flag suspect data when used by itself. Therefore, the routines were used in different combinations. An evaluation of all possible combinations revealed two that provided the best results. The precipitation contamination and consensus time routines were used in both combinations. The median filter or WW was used as the final routine in the combinations to flag all other suspect data points.

  11. Social Capital, Network Effects and Savings in Rural Vietnam

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Newman, Carol; Tarp, Finn; Van Den Broeck, Katleen

    social networks in rural Vietnam can play a role in increasing formal savings where knowledge gaps exist. Networks are defined as active membership of women’s unions and the quality of networks is measured by the level of formal savings observed among group members. We find that membership of high...... quality networks leads to higher levels of saving in formal financial institutions and to higher levels of saving for productive investments as compared with other precautionary or lifecycle motives. Our results suggest that transmitting financial information through formal networks could be effective...... in increasing formal savings at grassroots level. We also conclude that ensuring information disseminated by networks is both accurate and desirable as well as important given that behavioural effects are also found in low-quality networks....

  12. The cost of service quality improvements: tracking the flow of funds in social franchise networks in Myanmar

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-01-01

    Introduction This paper examines the cost of quality improvements in Population Services International (PSI) Myanmar’s social franchise operations from 2007 to 2009. Methods The social franchise commodities studied were products for reproductive health, malaria, STIs, pneumonia, and diarrhea. This project applied ingredients based costing for labor, supplies, transport, and overhead. Data were gathered seven during key informant interviews with staff in the central Yangon office, examination of 3 years of payroll data, examination of a time motion study conducted by PSI, and spreadsheets recording the costs of acquiring and transporting supplies. Results In 2009 PSI Myanmar’s social franchise devoted $2.02 million towards a 94% reduction in commodity prices offered to its network of over 1700 primary care providers. These providers retained 1/3 of the subsidy as revenue and passed along the other 2/3 to their patients in the course of offering subsidized care for 1.5 million health episodes. In addition, PSI Myanmar devoted $2.09 million to support a team of franchise officers who conducted quality assurance for the private providers overseeing service quality and to distributing medical commodities. Conclusion In Myanmar, the social franchise operated by PSI spends roughly $1.00 in quality management and retailing for every $1.00 spent subsidizing medical commodities. Some services are free, but patients also pay fees for other lines of service. Overall patients contribute 1/6 as much as PSI does. Unlike other NGO’s, health services in social franchises like PSI are not all free to the patients, nor are the discounts uniformly applied. Discounts and subsidies evolve in response to public health concerns, market demand, providers’ cost structures as well as strategic objectives in maintaining the network and its portfolio of services. PMID:23826743

  13. The cost of service quality improvements: tracking the flow of funds in social franchise networks in Myanmar.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bishai, David; LeFevre, Amnesty; Theuss, Marc; Boxshall, Matt; Hetherington, John D; Zaw, Min; Montagu, Dominic

    2013-01-01

    This paper examines the cost of quality improvements in Population Services International (PSI) Myanmar's social franchise operations from 2007 to 2009. The social franchise commodities studied were products for reproductive health, malaria, STIs, pneumonia, and diarrhea. This project applied ingredients based costing for labor, supplies, transport, and overhead. Data were gathered seven during key informant interviews with staff in the central Yangon office, examination of 3 years of payroll data, examination of a time motion study conducted by PSI, and spreadsheets recording the costs of acquiring and transporting supplies. In 2009 PSI Myanmar's social franchise devoted $2.02 million towards a 94% reduction in commodity prices offered to its network of over 1700 primary care providers. These providers retained 1/3 of the subsidy as revenue and passed along the other 2/3 to their patients in the course of offering subsidized care for 1.5 million health episodes. In addition, PSI Myanmar devoted $2.09 million to support a team of franchise officers who conducted quality assurance for the private providers overseeing service quality and to distributing medical commodities. In Myanmar, the social franchise operated by PSI spends roughly $1.00 in quality management and retailing for every $1.00 spent subsidizing medical commodities. Some services are free, but patients also pay fees for other lines of service. Overall patients contribute 1/6 as much as PSI does. Unlike other NGO's, health services in social franchises like PSI are not all free to the patients, nor are the discounts uniformly applied. Discounts and subsidies evolve in response to public health concerns, market demand, providers' cost structures as well as strategic objectives in maintaining the network and its portfolio of services.

  14. Report on the incentive regulation regarding the service quality of natural gas network operators and ERDF. Summary report 2011

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2012-05-01

    The tariffs set by the French Energy Regulation Commission (CRE) for natural gas distribution system operators (DSOs), natural gas transmission system operators (TSOs) as well as for the electricity distribution system operator electricite Reseau Distribution France (ERDF) include an incentive regulation regarding the quality of service. The CRE has defined indicators to monitor the performance of operators in several fields considered relevant to assess the quality of service. Some of these indicators, considered to have specific importance in ensuring that the market operates properly, are subject to a system of financial incentives: bonuses or penalties are given to operators depending on the attainment of objectives set by the CRE. Other indicators, which do not carry financial incentives, complete the mechanism and ensure a broader surveillance of the operators' service quality. A financial incentive may be applied to these indicators at a later date if the CRE deems it necessary. The analyses of the service quality monitoring indicators presented in this report cover the period from 1 July 2010 to 30 June 2011. They were used to inform the work conducted to develop the incentive regulation mechanism for service quality in GrDF's ATRD4 tariff (A Third-party access to natural gas distribution networks, scheduled to enter into effect on 1 July 2012). The conclusions of the report will also be used by the CRE for ERDF as part of the work on TURPE 4 tariff (Tariff for the use of public electricity grids, scheduled to enter into effect during the third quarter of 2013), for natural gas local distribution companies (LDCs) to prepare their ATRD4 tariff (Entry into effect scheduled for 1 July 2013), as well as for GRTgaz and TIGF to define the future ATRT5 tariff (Third-party access to natural gas transmission networks, scheduled to enter into effect on 1 April 2013). Implemented in 2009 with an initial annual follow- up report on gas network operators Gr

  15. Connecting Social Networks with Ecosystem Services for Watershed Governance: a Social-Ecological Network Perspective Highlights the Critical Role of Bridging Organizations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kaitlyn J. Rathwell

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available In many densely settled agricultural watersheds, water quality is a point of conflict between amenity and agricultural activities because of the varied demands and impacts on shared water resources. Successful governance of these watersheds requires coordination among different activities. Recent research has highlighted the role that social networks between management entities can play to facilitate cross-scale interaction in watershed governance. For example, bridging organizations can be positioned in social networks to bridge local initiatives done by single municipalities across whole watersheds. To better understand the role of social networks in social-ecological system dynamics, we combine a social network analysis of the water quality management networks held by local governments with a social-ecological analysis of variation in water management and ecosystem services across the Montérégie, an agricultural landscape near Montréal, Québec, Canada. We analyze municipal water management networks by using one-mode networks to represent direct collaboration between municipalities, and two-mode networks to capture how bridging organizations indirectly connect municipalities. We find that municipalities do not collaborate directly with one another but instead are connected via bridging organizations that span the water quality management network. We also discovered that more connected municipalities engaged in more water management activities. However, bridging organizations preferentially connected with municipalities that used more tourism related ecosystem services rather than those that used more agricultural ecosystem services. Many agricultural municipalities were relatively isolated, despite being the main producers of water quality problems. In combination, these findings suggest that further strengthening the water management network in the Montérégie will contribute to improving water quality in the region. However, such

  16. Spatial and temporal trends from an air quality sensor network near a heavily trafficked intersection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Orlando, P.; Vo, D.; Giossi, C.; George, L.

    2017-12-01

    With the world-wide increase in urbanization and the increasing usage of combustion vehicles in urban areas, traffic-related air pollution is a growing health hazard. However, there are limited studies that examine the spatial and temporal impacts of traffic-related pollutants within cities. In particular, there are few studies that look at traffic management and its potential for pollution mitigation. In a previous study we examined roadway pollution and traffic parameters with one roadway station instrumented with standard measurement instruments. With the advent of low-cost air pollution sensors, we have expanded our work by observing multiple sites within a neighborhood to understand spatial and temporal exposures. We have deployed a high-density sensor network around urban arterial corridors in SE Portland, Oregon. This network consisted of ten nodes measuring CO, NO, NO2 and O3, and ten nodes measuring CO, CO2, VOC and PM2.5. The co-location of standard measurement instruments provided insight towards the utility of our low-cost sensor network, as the different nodes varied in cost, and potentially in quality. We have identified near-real-time temporal trends and local-scale spatial patterns during the summer of 2017. Meteorological and traffic data were included to further characterize these patterns, exploring the potential for pollution mitigation.

  17. Content-Based Multi-Channel Network Coding Algorithm in the Millimeter-Wave Sensor Network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kai Lin

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available With the development of wireless technology, the widespread use of 5G is already an irreversible trend, and millimeter-wave sensor networks are becoming more and more common. However, due to the high degree of complexity and bandwidth bottlenecks, the millimeter-wave sensor network still faces numerous problems. In this paper, we propose a novel content-based multi-channel network coding algorithm, which uses the functions of data fusion, multi-channel and network coding to improve the data transmission; the algorithm is referred to as content-based multi-channel network coding (CMNC. The CMNC algorithm provides a fusion-driven model based on the Dempster-Shafer (D-S evidence theory to classify the sensor nodes into different classes according to the data content. By using the result of the classification, the CMNC algorithm also provides the channel assignment strategy and uses network coding to further improve the quality of data transmission in the millimeter-wave sensor network. Extensive simulations are carried out and compared to other methods. Our simulation results show that the proposed CMNC algorithm can effectively improve the quality of data transmission and has better performance than the compared methods.

  18. Real-time network traffic classification technique for wireless local area networks based on compressed sensing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balouchestani, Mohammadreza

    2017-05-01

    Network traffic or data traffic in a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) is the amount of network packets moving across a wireless network from each wireless node to another wireless node, which provide the load of sampling in a wireless network. WLAN's Network traffic is the main component for network traffic measurement, network traffic control and simulation. Traffic classification technique is an essential tool for improving the Quality of Service (QoS) in different wireless networks in the complex applications such as local area networks, wireless local area networks, wireless personal area networks, wireless metropolitan area networks, and wide area networks. Network traffic classification is also an essential component in the products for QoS control in different wireless network systems and applications. Classifying network traffic in a WLAN allows to see what kinds of traffic we have in each part of the network, organize the various kinds of network traffic in each path into different classes in each path, and generate network traffic matrix in order to Identify and organize network traffic which is an important key for improving the QoS feature. To achieve effective network traffic classification, Real-time Network Traffic Classification (RNTC) algorithm for WLANs based on Compressed Sensing (CS) is presented in this paper. The fundamental goal of this algorithm is to solve difficult wireless network management problems. The proposed architecture allows reducing False Detection Rate (FDR) to 25% and Packet Delay (PD) to 15 %. The proposed architecture is also increased 10 % accuracy of wireless transmission, which provides a good background for establishing high quality wireless local area networks.

  19. Design and Realization of Network Teaching System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ji Shan Shan

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Since 21 century, with the wide spread in family and public, network has been applied in many new fields, and the application in classes is of no exception. In traditional education, teachers give lessons to students face to face. Hence, the teaching quality depends largely on the quality and initiative of the individual teacher. However, the serious disadvantages of this mode are that teachers completely dominate the classroom and may ignore the subjective cognition role of the students, which may be bad for the growth of creativity and the innovative thinking ability. Obviously, traditional education mode cannot meet the requirements of the this new era which leads to the booming developing tendency of the network. As a new teaching measure, scientifically combining modern information technology and teaching practice, network teaching not only changes the traditional education by the means and form, but even also gives new meanings to teaching concept, process, method as well as teacher-student role and other deep levels. With the help of network teaching system, on-line classroom learning, relevant information systematization, standardization and automation, this system provides students with an efficient online learning method with high quality. This also helps to solve the disadvantages of the traditional teaching mode and promote the teaching methods to a new stage. It improves the network teaching platform, enriches the network teaching resources, and establishes a network teaching system, so as to improve information quality of teachers and students and assist in improving teaching quality of schools.

  20. Performance Analysis of Quality-of-Service Controls in a Cell-Cluster-Based Wireless ATM Network

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cho, Young Jong [Ajou University, Suwon (Korea, Republic of)

    1997-04-01

    In this paper, an efficient cell-cluster-based call control scheme with guaranteed quality-of-service(QoS) provision ing is presented for next generation wireless ATM networks and its performance is mathematically analyzed using the open queuing network. With the cell-cluster-based call control, at the time a mobile connection is admitted to the network, a virtual cell is constructed by choosing a group of neighboring base stations to which the call may probabilistic ally hand over and by assigning to the call a collection of virtual paths between the base stations. Within a micro cell/pico cell environment, it is seen that the cell-cluster-based call control can support effectively a very high rate of handovers, provides very high system capacity, and guarantees a high degree of frequency reuse over the same geographical region without requiring the intervention of the network call control processor each time a handover occurs. But since mobiles, once admitted, are free to roam within the virtual cell, congestion condition occurs in which the number of calls to be handled by one base station exceeds the cell sites` capacity of radio channel and consequently a predefined QoS provision cannot be guaranteed. So, there must be a call admission control function to limit the number of calls existing in a cell-cluster such that required QoS objectives are met. As call acceptance criteria for constant-bit-rate or realtime variable-bit-rate ATM connections, we define four mobile QoS metrics: new-call blocking probability, wireless channel utilization efficiency, congestion probability and normalized average congestion duration. In addition, for QoS provision ing to available-bit-rate, unspecified-bit-rate or non-realtime variable-bit-rate connections, we further define another QoS metric, the minimum threshold breaking probability. By using the open network queuing model, we derive closed form expressions for the five QoS metrics defined above and show that they can be

  1. Quality controlled logistics in vegetable supply chain networks: how can an individual batch reach an individual consumer in hte optimal state?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schouten, R.E.; Kooten, van O.; Vorst, van der J.G.A.J.; Marcelis, W.J.; Luning, P.A.

    2012-01-01

    Western-European consumers have become demanding on product availability in retail outlets and vegetable attributes such as quality, integrity, safety. When (re)designing vegetable supply chain networks one has to take these demands into consideration, next to traditional efficiency and

  2. Bandwidth Reservations in Home Networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nelis, Jelle; Verslype, Dieter; Develder, Chris

    2010-01-01

    In order for service providers to provide their users high quality services in the home network, Quality of Service (QoS) provisioning is needed to protect premium services. In this paper, we describe how a Universal Plug-and-Play (UPnP) based home network architecture solves this problem...... in a heterogeneous home network. We outline how it both relieves the end user from troublesome configuration and still offers control to the service provider. We particularly present performance assessment results for UPnP-QoS v3, based on a fully operational experimental implementation. The quantitative measurement...

  3. Assessment of wind potential at three sites in the state of Durango; Evaluacion del potencial eolico en tres sitios del estado de Durango

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Saldana Flores, Ricardo; Miranda Miranda, Ubaldo

    2010-11-15

    As part of the activities of the project Laboratorio Nacional para la Evaluacion de los Recursos Renovables en Mexico (LERM), a preliminary estimate of the wind potential in three sites of Durango state was carried out, Lerdo (103 degrees 31 minutes 28 seconds W, 25 degrees 32 minutes 10 seconds N and 1140 m altitude), Guadalupe Victoria (104 degrees 07 minutes W, 24 degrees 27 minutes N and 2000 m altitude) and Santiago Papasquiaro (105 degrees 25 minuets 09 seconds W, 25 degrees 02 minutes 38 seconds N and 1720 m altitude). The following results were obtained from data analysis: Lerdo, measurement period February 2009 to January 2010 (20 m height), monthly wind speed average 1.790 to 2.960 m/s, mean power density 11.730 to 45.044 W/m{sup 2}, Guadalupe Victoria, measurement period March 2009 to February 2010 (50 m height), monthly wind speed average 3.200 to 6.440 m/s, mean power density 37.024 to 241.968 W/m{sup 2}; and Santiago Papasquiaro, measurement period April to August 2009 (30 m height), monthly wind speed average 2.290 to 4.320 m/s, mean power density 23.313 to 127.353 W/m{sup 2}. [Spanish] Como parte de las actividades desarrolladas dentro del proyecto Laboratorio Nacional para la Evaluacion de los Recursos Energeticos Renovables en Mexico (LERM), se llevo a cabo la estimacion preliminar del potencial eolico en tres sitios de interes del estado de Durango, Lerdo (103 grados 31 minutis 28 segundos O, 25 grados 32 minutos 10 segundos N y 1140 m de altitud), Guadalupe Victoria (104 grados 07 minutos O, 24 grados 27 minutos N y 2000 m de altitud) y Santiago Papasquiaro (105 grados 25 minutos 09 segundos O, 25 grados 02 minutos 38 segundos N y 1720 m de altitud). Analizando la informacion obtenida en diferentes periodos de medicion se obtuvieron los siguientes resultados: Lerdo, periodo de medicion de febrero de 2009 a enero de 2010 a 20 m de altura, velocidad promedio mensual del viento entre 1.790 y 2.960 m/s, densidad de potencia media entre 11.730 y 45

  4. Multivariate Analysis of the Determinants of the End-Product Quality of Manure-Based Composts and Vermicomposts Using Bayesian Network Modelling.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Julie Faverial

    Full Text Available Previous studies indicated that the quality of tropical composts is poorer than that of composts produced in temperate regions. The aim of this study was to test the type of manure, the use of co-composting with green waste, and the stabilization method for their ability to improve compost quality in the tropics. We produced 68 composts and vermicomposts that were analysed for their C, lignin and NPK contents throughout the composting process. Bayesian networks were used to assess the mechanisms controlling compost quality. The concentration effect, for C and lignin, and the initial blend quality, for NPK content, were the main factors affecting compost quality. Cattle manure composts presented the highest C and lignin contents, and poultry litter composts exhibited the highest NPK content. Co-composting improved quality by enhancing the concentration effect, which reduced the impact of C and nutrient losses. Vermicomposting did not improve compost quality; co-composting without earthworms thus appears to be a suitable stabilization method under the conditions of this study because it produced high quality composts and is easier to implement.

  5. Multivariate Analysis of the Determinants of the End-Product Quality of Manure-Based Composts and Vermicomposts Using Bayesian Network Modelling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Faverial, Julie; Cornet, Denis; Paul, Jacky; Sierra, Jorge

    2016-01-01

    Previous studies indicated that the quality of tropical composts is poorer than that of composts produced in temperate regions. The aim of this study was to test the type of manure, the use of co-composting with green waste, and the stabilization method for their ability to improve compost quality in the tropics. We produced 68 composts and vermicomposts that were analysed for their C, lignin and NPK contents throughout the composting process. Bayesian networks were used to assess the mechanisms controlling compost quality. The concentration effect, for C and lignin, and the initial blend quality, for NPK content, were the main factors affecting compost quality. Cattle manure composts presented the highest C and lignin contents, and poultry litter composts exhibited the highest NPK content. Co-composting improved quality by enhancing the concentration effect, which reduced the impact of C and nutrient losses. Vermicomposting did not improve compost quality; co-composting without earthworms thus appears to be a suitable stabilization method under the conditions of this study because it produced high quality composts and is easier to implement.

  6. Assessment for water quality by artificial neural network in Daya Bay, South China Sea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Mei-Lin; Wang, You-Shao; Gu, Ji-Dong

    2015-10-01

    In this study, artificial neural network such as a self-organizing map (SOM) was used to assess for the effects caused by climate change and human activities on the water quality in Daya Bay, South China Sea. SOM has identified the anthropogenic effects and seasonal characters of water quality. SOM grouped the four seasons as four groups (winter, spring, summer and autumn). The Southeast Asian monsoons, northeasterly from October to the next April and southwesterly from May to September have also an important influence on the water quality in Daya Bay. Spatial pattern is mainly related to anthropogenic activities and hydrodynamics conditions. In spatial characteristics, the water quality in Daya Bay was divided into two groups by chemometrics. The monitoring stations (S3, S8, S10 and S11) were in these area (Dapeng Ao, Aotou Harbor) and northeast parts of Daya Bay, which are areas of human activity. The thermal pollution has been observed near water body in Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant (S5). The rest of the monitoring sites were in the south, central and eastern parts of Daya Bay, which are areas that experience water exchanges from South China Sea. The results of this study may provide information on the spatial and temporal patterns in Daya Bay. Further research will be carry out more research concerning functional changes in the bay ecology with respect to changes in climatic factor, human activities and bay morphology in Daya Bay.

  7. Detection and evaluation of corrosion zones at high temperature in steam generators; Deteccion y evaluacion de zonas de corrosion en alta temperatura de generadoras de vapor

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Martinez Villafane, Alberto; Chacon Nava, Jose G; Huerta Espino, Mario; Mojica Calderon, Cecilio; Castillo Viveros, Antonio [Instituto de Investigaciones Electricas, Cuernavaca (Mexico)

    1991-12-31

    This paper presents the methodology for the detection and evaluation of high corrosion zones at high temperature. The results found up to now, show a critical zone in the Babcock Hitachi design, specifically in the high temperature reheater in the zone nearby the outlet header. In the normalized design CE (Mitsubishi) of 300 MW and CE (Canada) of 300 MW, the results found in recent years show small thickness reduction, therefore a good operation of these steam generators is recognized. [Espanol] En este trabajo se presenta la metodologia para la deteccion y evaluacion de zonas de corrosion en alta temperatura. Los resultados encontrados hasta el momento muestran una zona critica en el diseno Babcock Hitachi, especificamente en el recalentador de alta temperatura en la zona cercana al cabezal de salida. En el diseno normalizado CE (Mitsubishi) de 300 MW y CE (Canada) de 300 MW, los resultados encontrados en anos recientes muestran poca disminucion de espesor, por lo que se considera una buena operacion de estos generadores de vapor.

  8. Detection and evaluation of corrosion zones at high temperature in steam generators; Deteccion y evaluacion de zonas de corrosion en alta temperatura de generadoras de vapor

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Martinez Villafane, Alberto; Chacon Nava, Jose G.; Huerta Espino, Mario; Mojica Calderon, Cecilio; Castillo Viveros, Antonio [Instituto de Investigaciones Electricas, Cuernavaca (Mexico)

    1990-12-31

    This paper presents the methodology for the detection and evaluation of high corrosion zones at high temperature. The results found up to now, show a critical zone in the Babcock Hitachi design, specifically in the high temperature reheater in the zone nearby the outlet header. In the normalized design CE (Mitsubishi) of 300 MW and CE (Canada) of 300 MW, the results found in recent years show small thickness reduction, therefore a good operation of these steam generators is recognized. [Espanol] En este trabajo se presenta la metodologia para la deteccion y evaluacion de zonas de corrosion en alta temperatura. Los resultados encontrados hasta el momento muestran una zona critica en el diseno Babcock Hitachi, especificamente en el recalentador de alta temperatura en la zona cercana al cabezal de salida. En el diseno normalizado CE (Mitsubishi) de 300 MW y CE (Canada) de 300 MW, los resultados encontrados en anos recientes muestran poca disminucion de espesor, por lo que se considera una buena operacion de estos generadores de vapor.

  9. Tradeoff between User Quality-Of-Experience and Service Provider Profit in 5G Cloud Radio Access Network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mahbuba Afrin

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available In recent years, the Cloud Radio Access Network (CRAN has become a promising solution for increasing network capacity in terms of high data rates and low latencies for fifth-generation (5G cellular networks. In CRAN, the traditional base stations (BSs are decoupled into remote radio heads (RRHs and base band units (BBUs that are respectively responsible for radio and baseband functionalities. The RRHs are geographically proximated whereas the the BBUs are pooled in a centralized cloud named BBU pool. This virtualized architecture facilitates the system to offer high computation and communication loads from the impetuous rise of mobile devices and applications. Heterogeneous service requests from the devices to different RRHs are now sent to the BBUs to process centrally. Meeting the baseband processing of heterogeneous requests while keeping their Quality-of-Service (QoS requirements with the limited computational resources as well as enhancing service provider profit is a challenging multi-constraint problem. In this work, a multi-objective non-linear programming solution to the Quality-of-Experience (QoE and Profit-aware Resource Allocation problem is developed which makes a trade-off in between the two. Two computationally viable scheduling algorithms, named First Fit Satisfaction and First Fit Profit algorithms, are developed to focus on maximization of user QoE and profit, respectively, while keeping the minimum requirement level for the other one. The simulation environment is built on a relevant simulation toolkit. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed system outperforms state-of-the-art works well across the requests QoS, average waiting time, user QoE, and service provider profit.

  10. An online expert network for high quality information on occupational safety and health: cross-sectional study of user satisfaction and impact

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Rhebergen, Martijn D. F.; Lenderink, Annet F.; van Dijk, Frank J. H.; Hulshof, Carel T. J.

    2011-01-01

    Many people have difficulties finding information on health questions, including occupational safety and health (OSH) issues. One solution to alleviate these difficulties could be to offer questioners free-of-charge, online access to a network of OSH experts who provide tailored, high-quality

  11. Evaluation of Network Reliability for Computer Networks with Multiple Sources

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yi-Kuei Lin

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Evaluating the reliability of a network with multiple sources to multiple sinks is a critical issue from the perspective of quality management. Due to the unrealistic definition of paths of network models in previous literature, existing models are not appropriate for real-world computer networks such as the Taiwan Advanced Research and Education Network (TWAREN. This paper proposes a modified stochastic-flow network model to evaluate the network reliability of a practical computer network with multiple sources where data is transmitted through several light paths (LPs. Network reliability is defined as being the probability of delivering a specified amount of data from the sources to the sink. It is taken as a performance index to measure the service level of TWAREN. This paper studies the network reliability of the international portion of TWAREN from two sources (Taipei and Hsinchu to one sink (New York that goes through a submarine and land surface cable between Taiwan and the United States.

  12. Persistent homology of complex networks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Horak, Danijela; Maletić, Slobodan; Rajković, Milan

    2009-01-01

    Long-lived topological features are distinguished from short-lived ones (considered as topological noise) in simplicial complexes constructed from complex networks. A new topological invariant, persistent homology, is determined and presented as a parameterized version of a Betti number. Complex networks with distinct degree distributions exhibit distinct persistent topological features. Persistent topological attributes, shown to be related to the robust quality of networks, also reflect the deficiency in certain connectivity properties of networks. Random networks, networks with exponential connectivity distribution and scale-free networks were considered for homological persistency analysis

  13. An integrated control for overvoltage mitigation in the distribution network

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Viyathukattuva Mohamed Ali, M.M.; Nguyen, P.H.; Kling, W.L.

    2014-01-01

    Increasing share of distributed renewable energy sources (DRES) in the distribution network raises new operational and power quality challenges like overvoltage in the network feeders. Such power quality challenge limits the penetration of DRES in the distribution network. This paper addresses a

  14. computer networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N. U. Ahmed

    2002-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we construct a new dynamic model for the Token Bucket (TB algorithm used in computer networks and use systems approach for its analysis. This model is then augmented by adding a dynamic model for a multiplexor at an access node where the TB exercises a policing function. In the model, traffic policing, multiplexing and network utilization are formally defined. Based on the model, we study such issues as (quality of service QoS, traffic sizing and network dimensioning. Also we propose an algorithm using feedback control to improve QoS and network utilization. Applying MPEG video traces as the input traffic to the model, we verify the usefulness and effectiveness of our model.

  15. Survey on Wireless Sensor Network Technologies for Industrial Automation: The Security and Quality of Service Perspectives

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Delphine Christin

    2010-04-01

    Full Text Available Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs are gradually adopted in the industrial world due to their advantages over wired networks. In addition to saving cabling costs, WSNs widen the realm of environments feasible for monitoring. They thus add sensing and acting capabilities to objects in the physical world and allow for communication among these objects or with services in the future Internet. However, the acceptance of WSNs by the industrial automation community is impeded by open issues, such as security guarantees and provision of Quality of Service (QoS. To examine both of these perspectives, we select and survey relevant WSN technologies dedicated to industrial automation. We determine QoS requirements and carry out a threat analysis, which act as basis of our evaluation of the current state-of-the-art. According to the results of this evaluation, we identify and discuss open research issues.

  16. Identification of Homogeneous Stations for Quality Monitoring Network of Mashhad Aquifer Based on Nitrate Pollution

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Moslem Akbarzadeh

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: For water resources monitoring, Evaluation of groundwater quality obtained via detailed analysis of pollution data. The most fundamental analysis is to identify the exact measurement of dangerous zones and homogenous station identification in terms of pollution. In case of quality evaluation, the monitoring improvement could be achieved via identifying homogenous wells in terms of pollution. Presenting a method for clustering is essential in large amounts of quality data for aquifer monitoring and quality evaluation, including identification of homogeneous stations of monitoring network and their clustering based on pollution. In this study, with the purpose of Mashhad aquifer quality evaluation, clustering have been studied based on Euclidean distance and Entropy criteria. Cluster analysis is the task of grouping a set of objects in such a way that objects in the same group (called a cluster are more similar (in some sense or another to each other than to those in other groups (clusters. SNI as a combined entropy measure for clustering calculated from dividing mutual information of two values (pollution index values to the joint entropy. These measures apply as similar distance criteria for monitoring stations clustering. Materials and Methods: First, nitrate data (as pollution index and electrical conductivity (EC (as covariate collected from the related locational situation of 287 wells in statistical period 2002 to 2011. Having identified the outlying data and estimating non-observed points by spatial-temporal Kriging method and then standardizes them, the clustering process was carried out. A similar distance of wells calculated through a clustering process based on Euclidean distance and Entropy (SNI criteria. This difference explained by characteristics such as the location of wells (longitude & latitude and the pollution index (nitrate. Having obtained a similar distance of each well to others, the hierarchical clustering

  17. EFFECTS OF STEEL PLANTS WITH THREE-PHASE INDUCTION FURNACES ON POWER DISTRIBUTION QUALITY OF THE EXISTING 33 kV NETWORK IN NIGERIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Saheed Lekan Gbadamosi

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available This study aimed at evaluating and analyzing the voltage and current distortions on the introduction of a steel production plant in a typical 33 kV distribution system in Nigeria, with a view to assisting decisions made in the present system operation and planning effective service delivery in terms of quality. A three phase induction furnace was developed using MatLab Simulink software and the effects of steel plant loads on the quality of electric power system supply to electricity users on the same distribution network was analyzed in terms of total harmonic distortions of voltage and current. In order to evaluate voltage magnitude profile on the network, load flow computation and analyses were carried out on the 33 kV distribution network before and after the introduction of steel plant loads, using Successive Approximation Method. The results showed critical voltage magnitude profile below -5% of nominal voltage at the receiving end nodes. With the aid of the Matlab Simulink model, inadmissible voltage and current distortions of 15.47% and 10.35% were measured. Passive filter was proposed, designed and simulated, in order to mitigate these distortions caused by the steel production plant loads. By simulation, the installation of the designed passive filter gave a reduction of the distortions to permissible values. Further, for every 1 MW load increment when the steel plant is connected, network losses increased by 94%; however, for every of Mvar of filter capacity, loss reduction in the network is 5.1 MW.

  18. Evaluating the Quality of Evidence from a Network Meta-Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salanti, Georgia; Del Giovane, Cinzia; Chaimani, Anna; Caldwell, Deborah M.; Higgins, Julian P. T.

    2014-01-01

    Systematic reviews that collate data about the relative effects of multiple interventions via network meta-analysis are highly informative for decision-making purposes. A network meta-analysis provides two types of findings for a specific outcome: the relative treatment effect for all pairwise comparisons, and a ranking of the treatments. It is important to consider the confidence with which these two types of results can enable clinicians, policy makers and patients to make informed decisions. We propose an approach to determining confidence in the output of a network meta-analysis. Our proposed approach is based on methodology developed by the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) Working Group for pairwise meta-analyses. The suggested framework for evaluating a network meta-analysis acknowledges (i) the key role of indirect comparisons (ii) the contributions of each piece of direct evidence to the network meta-analysis estimates of effect size; (iii) the importance of the transitivity assumption to the validity of network meta-analysis; and (iv) the possibility of disagreement between direct evidence and indirect evidence. We apply our proposed strategy to a systematic review comparing topical antibiotics without steroids for chronically discharging ears with underlying eardrum perforations. The proposed framework can be used to determine confidence in the results from a network meta-analysis. Judgements about evidence from a network meta-analysis can be different from those made about evidence from pairwise meta-analyses. PMID:24992266

  19. Los efectos de los programas sociales en la salud de la población en condición de pobreza: Evidencias a partir de las evaluaciones de impacto del presupuesto por resultados a programas sociales en Perú

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Denice Cavero-Arguedas

    Full Text Available RESUMEN Este artículo describe la experiencia en la gestión de evaluaciones de impacto del Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas (MEF como uno de los instrumentos del presupuesto por resultados, y documenta el diseño de las evaluaciones de impacto a tres programas sociales emblemáticos y los resultados obtenidos, haciendo énfasis en aquellos vinculados a la salud de su población objetivo. Estos son el Servicio de Acompañamiento a Familias (SAF del Programa Nacional Cuna Más, el Programa Nacional de Apoyo Directo a los Más Pobres JUNTOS y el Programa Nacional de Asistencia Solidaria Pensión 65. Los resultados muestran que el SAF generó mejoras en el desarrollo cognitivo y de lenguaje en los niños mas no en las prácticas de cuidado infantil de las madres, ni en el estado nutricional de los niños. JUNTOS logró incrementos en el gasto per cápita, gasto en alimentos, disminución de la severidad de pobreza y mejoras en el logro educativo. Sin embargo, no se encontraron resultados significativos en la mayoría de indicadores de salud prenatal ni estado nutricional infantil. Pensión 65 mejoró la salud emocional del adulto mayor (depresión, autovaloración, pero no se evidenció aumentos en el uso de servicios de salud por parte de los adultos mayores ni mejoras en su salud física. Se recomienda que dichos programas fortalezcan sus diseños y acciones de articulación con el Ministerio de Salud y entre diferentes niveles de Gobierno, cuando corresponda, a fin de mejorar la oferta y contenidos de las prácticas saludables y optimizar la prestación de los servicios de salud.

  20. Video Quality Prediction over Wireless 4G

    KAUST Repository

    Lau, Chun Pong

    2013-04-14

    In this paper, we study the problem of video quality prediction over the wireless 4G network. Video transmission data is collected from a real 4G SCM testbed for investigating factors that affect video quality. After feature transformation and selection on video and network parameters, video quality is predicted by solving as regression problem. Experimental results show that the dominated factor on video quality is the channel attenuation and video quality can be well estimated by our models with small errors.

  1. Video Quality Prediction over Wireless 4G

    KAUST Repository

    Lau, Chun Pong; Zhang, Xiangliang; Shihada, Basem

    2013-01-01

    In this paper, we study the problem of video quality prediction over the wireless 4G network. Video transmission data is collected from a real 4G SCM testbed for investigating factors that affect video quality. After feature transformation and selection on video and network parameters, video quality is predicted by solving as regression problem. Experimental results show that the dominated factor on video quality is the channel attenuation and video quality can be well estimated by our models with small errors.

  2. Video over cognitive radio networks when quality of service meets spectrum

    CERN Document Server

    Mao, Shiwen

    2014-01-01

    This book focuses on the problem of video streaming over emerging cognitive radio (CR) networks. The book discusses the problems and techniques for scalable video streaming over cellular cognitive radio networks, ad hoc CR networks, cooperative CR networks, and femtocell CR networks. The author formulates these problems and proposes optimal algorithms to solve these problems. Also, the book analyzes the proposed algorithms and validates the algorithms with simulations.

  3. Analiza protokola kvaliteta usluga telekomunikacionih mreža / Analysis of quality of service protocols in telecommunication networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Milojko Jevtović

    2003-05-01

    Full Text Available Protokoli kvaliteta usluga (Quality of Service - QoS sadašnjih i budućih telekomunikacionih mreža razvijeni su, pored ostalog, sa ciljem da podrže različite klase usluga (Class of Service - CoS komunikaciju u realnom vremenu, kao i prenos multimedijalnih poruka preko paketskih IP (Internet Protocol mreža. U raduje dat pregled karakteristika tih protokola i ocena njihovih konkretnih mogućnosti u obezbeđenju kvaliteta usluga unutar sistema ('s vrha do dna', tj. vertikalno u OSI arhitekturi kao i 'horizontalno' odnosno s kraja na kraj veze, tj. između izvora i odredišta. / Today's and future telecommunication networks must enable transmission throughout heterogeneous environment, using different Quality of Service protocols, Quality of Service protocols use a variety of complementary mechanisms to enable deterministic end-to-end different data delivery. The analysis of these protocols and their efficiency in providing QoS and CoS has been given in this paper.

  4. Real Time Assessment of Potable Water Quality in Distribution Network based on Low Cost Multi-Sensor Array

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhardwaj, Jyotirmoy; Gupta, Karunesh K.; Khatri, Punit

    2018-03-01

    New concepts and techniques are replacing traditional methods of water quality parameters measurement systems. This paper proposed a new way of potable water quality assessment in distribution network using Multi Sensor Array (MSA). Extensive research suggests that following parameters i.e. pH, Dissolved Oxygen (D.O.), Conductivity, Oxygen Reduction Potential (ORP), Temperature and Salinity are most suitable to detect overall quality of potable water. Commonly MSA is not an integrated sensor array on some substrate, but rather comprises a set of individual sensors measuring simultaneously different water parameters all together. Based on research, a MSA has been developed followed by signal conditioning unit and finally, an algorithm for easy user interfacing. A dedicated part of this paper also discusses the platform design and significant results. The Objective of this proposed research is to provide simple, efficient, cost effective and socially acceptable means to detect and analyse water bodies regularly and automatically.

  5. Ensuring the Quality of Data Packages in the LTER Network Provenance Aware Synthesis Tracking Architecture Data Management System and Archive

    Science.gov (United States)

    Servilla, M. S.; O'Brien, M.; Costa, D.

    2013-12-01

    Considerable ecological research performed today occurs through the analysis of data downloaded from various repositories and archives, often resulting in derived or synthetic products generated by automated workflows. These data are only meaningful for research if they are well documented by metadata, lest semantic or data type errors may occur in interpretation or processing. The Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network now screens all data packages entering its long-term archive to ensure that each package contains metadata that is complete, of high quality, and accurately describes the structure of its associated data entity and the data are structurally congruent to the metadata. Screening occurs prior to the upload of a data package into the Provenance Aware Synthesis Tracking Architecture (PASTA) data management system through a series of quality checks, thus preventing ambiguously or incorrectly documented data packages from entering the system. The quality checks within PASTA are designed to work specifically with the Ecological Metadata Language (EML), the metadata standard adopted by the LTER Network to describe data generated by their 26 research sites. Each quality check is codified in Java as part of the ecological community-supported Data Manager Library, which is a resource of the EML specification and used as a component of the PASTA software stack. Quality checks test for metadata quality, data integrity, or metadata-data congruence. Quality checks are further classified as either conditional or informational. Conditional checks issue a 'valid', 'warning' or 'error' response. Only an 'error' response blocks the data package from upload into PASTA. Informational checks only provide descriptive content pertaining to a particular facet of the data package. Quality checks are designed by a group of LTER information managers and reviewed by the LTER community before deploying into PASTA. A total of 32 quality checks have been deployed to date

  6. Data Quality in Online Health Social Networks for Chronic Diseases

    Science.gov (United States)

    Venkatesan, Srikanth

    2017-01-01

    Can medical advice from other participants in online health social networks impact patient safety? What can we do alleviate this problem? How does the accuracy of information on such networks affect the patients?. There has been a significant increase , in recent years, in the use of online health social network sites as more patients seek to…

  7. Alpha spectral analysis via artificial neural networks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kangas, L.J.; Hashem, S.; Keller, P.E.; Kouzes, R.T.; Troyer, G.L.

    1994-10-01

    An artificial neural network system that assigns quality factors to alpha particle energy spectra is discussed. The alpha energy spectra are used to detect plutonium contamination in the work environment. The quality factors represent the levels of spectral degradation caused by miscalibration and foreign matter affecting the instruments. A set of spectra was labeled with a quality factor by an expert and used in training the artificial neural network expert system. The investigation shows that the expert knowledge of alpha spectra quality factors can be transferred to an ANN system

  8. Development of hybrid genetic-algorithm-based neural networks using regression trees for modeling air quality inside a public transportation bus.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kadiyala, Akhil; Kaur, Devinder; Kumar, Ashok

    2013-02-01

    The present study developed a novel approach to modeling indoor air quality (IAQ) of a public transportation bus by the development of hybrid genetic-algorithm-based neural networks (also known as evolutionary neural networks) with input variables optimized from using the regression trees, referred as the GART approach. This study validated the applicability of the GART modeling approach in solving complex nonlinear systems by accurately predicting the monitored contaminants of carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), nitric oxide (NO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), 0.3-0.4 microm sized particle numbers, 0.4-0.5 microm sized particle numbers, particulate matter (PM) concentrations less than 1.0 microm (PM10), and PM concentrations less than 2.5 microm (PM2.5) inside a public transportation bus operating on 20% grade biodiesel in Toledo, OH. First, the important variables affecting each monitored in-bus contaminant were determined using regression trees. Second, the analysis of variance was used as a complimentary sensitivity analysis to the regression tree results to determine a subset of statistically significant variables affecting each monitored in-bus contaminant. Finally, the identified subsets of statistically significant variables were used as inputs to develop three artificial neural network (ANN) models. The models developed were regression tree-based back-propagation network (BPN-RT), regression tree-based radial basis function network (RBFN-RT), and GART models. Performance measures were used to validate the predictive capacity of the developed IAQ models. The results from this approach were compared with the results obtained from using a theoretical approach and a generalized practicable approach to modeling IAQ that included the consideration of additional independent variables when developing the aforementioned ANN models. The hybrid GART models were able to capture majority of the variance in the monitored in-bus contaminants. The genetic

  9. Operation quality assessment model for video conference system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Du, Bangshi; Qi, Feng; Shao, Sujie; Wang, Ying; Li, Weijian

    2018-01-01

    Video conference system has become an important support platform for smart grid operation and management, its operation quality is gradually concerning grid enterprise. First, the evaluation indicator system covering network, business and operation maintenance aspects was established on basis of video conference system's operation statistics. Then, the operation quality assessment model combining genetic algorithm with regularized BP neural network was proposed, which outputs operation quality level of the system within a time period and provides company manager with some optimization advice. The simulation results show that the proposed evaluation model offers the advantages of fast convergence and high prediction accuracy in contrast with regularized BP neural network, and its generalization ability is superior to LM-BP neural network and Bayesian BP neural network.

  10. A water quality index model using stepwise regression and neural networks models for the Piabanha River basin in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Science.gov (United States)

    Villas Boas, M. D.; Olivera, F.; Azevedo, J. S.

    2013-12-01

    The evaluation of water quality through 'indexes' is widely used in environmental sciences. There are a number of methods available for calculating water quality indexes (WQI), usually based on site-specific parameters. In Brazil, WQI were initially used in the 1970s and were adapted from the methodology developed in association with the National Science Foundation (Brown et al, 1970). Specifically, the WQI 'IQA/SCQA', developed by the Institute of Water Management of Minas Gerais (IGAM), is estimated based on nine parameters: Temperature Range, Biochemical Oxygen Demand, Fecal Coliforms, Nitrate, Phosphate, Turbidity, Dissolved Oxygen, pH and Electrical Conductivity. The goal of this study was to develop a model for calculating the IQA/SCQA, for the Piabanha River basin in the State of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), using only the parameters measurable by a Multiparameter Water Quality Sonde (MWQS) available in the study area. These parameters are: Dissolved Oxygen, pH and Electrical Conductivity. The use of this model will allow to further the water quality monitoring network in the basin, without requiring significant increases of resources. The water quality measurement with MWQS is less expensive than the laboratory analysis required for the other parameters. The water quality data used in the study were obtained by the Geological Survey of Brazil in partnership with other public institutions (i.e. universities and environmental institutes) as part of the project "Integrated Studies in Experimental and Representative Watersheds". Two models were developed to correlate the values of the three measured parameters and the IQA/SCQA values calculated based on all nine parameters. The results were evaluated according to the following validation statistics: coefficient of determination (R2), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Akaike information criterion (AIC) and Final Prediction Error (FPE). The first model was a linear stepwise regression between three independent variables

  11. Trends in surface-water quality at selected National Stream Quality Accounting Network (NASQAN) stations, in Michigan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Syed, Atiq U.; Fogarty, Lisa R.

    2005-01-01

    To demonstrate the value of long-term, water-quality monitoring, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), initiated a study to evaluate potential trends in water-quality constituents for selected National Stream Quality Accounting Network (NASQAN) stations in Michigan. The goal of this study is to assist the MDEQ in evaluating the effectiveness of water-pollution control efforts and the identification of water-quality concerns. The study included a total of nine NASQAN stations in Michigan. Approximately 28 constituents were analyzed for trend tests. Station selection was based on data availability, land-use characteristics, and station priority for the MDEQ Water Chemistry Monitoring Project. Trend analyses were completed using the uncensored Seasonal Kendall Test in the computer program Estimate Trend (ESTREND), a software program for the detection of trends in water-quality data. The parameters chosen for the trend test had (1) at least a 5-year period of record (2) about 5 percent of the observations censored at a single reporting limit, and (3) 40 percent of the values within the beginning one-fifth and ending one-fifth of the selected period. In this study, a negative trend indicates a decrease in concentration of a particular constituent, which generally means an improvement in water quality; whereas a positive trend means an increase in concentration and possible degradation of water quality. The results of the study show an overall improvement in water quality at the Clinton River at Mount Clemens, Manistee River at Manistee, and Pigeon River near Caseville. The detected trend for these stations show decreases in concentrations of various constituents such as nitrogen compounds, conductance, sulfate, fecal coliform bacteria, and fecal streptococci bacteria. The negative trend may indicate an overall improvement in agricultural practices, municipal and industrial wastewater

  12. Data quality assurance in monitoring of wastewater quality: Univariate on-line and off-line methods

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Alferes, J.; Poirier, P.; Lamaire-Chad, C.

    To make water quality monitoring networks useful for practice, the automation of data collection and data validation still represents an important challenge. Efficient monitoring depends on careful quality control and quality assessment. With a practical orientation a data quality assurance proce...

  13. Evaluation of the weekly quality control of a digital mammography machine; Evaluacion del control de calidad semanal de un mamografo digital

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Angulo Pain, E.; Ramos Caballero, L. J.; Urena Llinares, A.; Iborra Oquendo, M. A.; Quinones Rodriguez, L. A.; Castro Ramirez, I.; Gonzalez Aquino, P.; Aguirre Huelga, M. J.

    2013-07-01

    In the new edition of the PCCRD (2011) has been established as weekly quality control testing for digital mammography equipment the analysis of artifacts from the team and defective items in the DR, the constancy of the functioning of the CAE, the accuracy of the thickness determined by the compression system, constancy in the uniformity and quality of the image. The objective of the study is to evaluate data collected during the first year of operation of the equipment. (Author)

  14. Adaptive Relay Activation in the Network Coding Protocols

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pahlevani, Peyman; Roetter, Daniel Enrique Lucani; Fitzek, Frank

    2015-01-01

    State-of-the-art Network coding based routing protocols exploit the link quality information to compute the transmission rate in the intermediate nodes. However, the link quality discovery protocols are usually inaccurate, and introduce overhead in wireless mesh networks. In this paper, we presen...

  15. Quality of Service Model on Data Link Layer for Mission Critical Traffic on IEEE 802.11g Networks in Infrastructure Mode

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gerald B. Fuenmayor-Rivadeneira

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available This article presents a synthesized review as state of the art of the study of QoS for mission-critical traffic in wireless local area networks that use the IEEE 802.11g protocol. This is to highlight previous research for their contribution will constitute a reference to guide a proposed new approach to ensuring the quality of service for this type of traffic using the above protocol. The review is based on academic and business items made during the current five years. As a result of this review it is evident that there have been many efforts to address the issue but there are still gaps in the characterization of mission-critical traffic and ensuring quality of service for the same, due the new applications and the large host of WiFi networks in business and government, which has led to increased demand for access channels and, therefore, a challenge to the progress already known, such as IEEE 802.1q.

  16. Los estudios de síntesis como base para las evaluaciones económicas: necesidad de la valoración de su calidad Synthesis studies as the basis for economic evaluations in health: the need for their quality appraisal

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rafael Bolaños-Díaz

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available Los estudios de síntesis (EDS: revisiones sistemáticas y metanálisis, son base para llevar a cabo las evaluaciones económicas en salud (EES. Los EDS, al permitir obtener parámetros para las probabilidades de estimación y de efectividad a partir de la combinación de resultados de estudios primarios y, al incluir en su metodología procesos de selección, evaluación, sistematización y síntesis, son considerados como el primer nivel de jerarquía en la evidencia científica. No obstante, pueden estar sometidos a sesgos y fallas metodológicas que afectan su validez. El presente artículo expone, inicialmente, la importancia de la aleatorización en la jerarquización de los diseños de investigación; luego se revisa los principales factores que afectan la validez de los EDS, incidiendo en el sesgo de publicación, la heterogeneidad y la inclusión de estudios primarios con objetivos principales distintos al del EDS; asimismo, se presenta a los estudios individuales como una alternativa válida para el desarrollo de una EES. Se concluye que uno de los aspectos claves en una EES es la selección adecuada de los tipos de estudio, sean estos primarios o secundarios.Synthesis studies (SS: systematic review and meta-analysis are the basis for developing Health Economic Evaluations (HEE. SS allow us to obtain parameters for estimating probabilities and effectiveness from the combination of the results of primary studies, and, as they include in their methodology the selection, evaluation, systematization and synthesis processes, they are considered the first level of hierarchy in scientific evidence. Nevertheless, they can be prone to bias and methodological failures that can affect the validity of their results. This article initially presents the relevance of the randomization in the hierarchic classification of research designs, then it reviews the main factors affecting the validity of the SS, emphasising the publication bias, the

  17. Cotton genotypes selection through artificial neural networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Júnior, E G Silva; Cardoso, D B O; Reis, M C; Nascimento, A F O; Bortolin, D I; Martins, M R; Sousa, L B

    2017-09-27

    Breeding programs currently use statistical analysis to assist in the identification of superior genotypes at various stages of a cultivar's development. Differently from these analyses, the computational intelligence approach has been little explored in genetic improvement of cotton. Thus, this study was carried out with the objective of presenting the use of artificial neural networks as auxiliary tools in the improvement of the cotton to improve fiber quality. To demonstrate the applicability of this approach, this research was carried out using the evaluation data of 40 genotypes. In order to classify the genotypes for fiber quality, the artificial neural networks were trained with replicate data of 20 genotypes of cotton evaluated in the harvests of 2013/14 and 2014/15, regarding fiber length, uniformity of length, fiber strength, micronaire index, elongation, short fiber index, maturity index, reflectance degree, and fiber quality index. This quality index was estimated by means of a weighted average on the determined score (1 to 5) of each characteristic of the HVI evaluated, according to its industry standards. The artificial neural networks presented a high capacity of correct classification of the 20 selected genotypes based on the fiber quality index, so that when using fiber length associated with the short fiber index, fiber maturation, and micronaire index, the artificial neural networks presented better results than using only fiber length and previous associations. It was also observed that to submit data of means of new genotypes to the neural networks trained with data of repetition, provides better results of classification of the genotypes. When observing the results obtained in the present study, it was verified that the artificial neural networks present great potential to be used in the different stages of a genetic improvement program of the cotton, aiming at the improvement of the fiber quality of the future cultivars.

  18. Prostate Cancer Biorepository Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-10-01

    AWARD NUMBER: W81XWH-14-2-0185 TITLE: Prostate Cancer Biorepository Network PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Jonathan Melamed, MD CONTRACTING ORGANIZATION...AND SUBTITLE 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER Prostate Cancer Biorepository Network 5b. GRANT NUMBER W81XWH-14-2-0185 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S...infrastructure and operations of the Prostate Cancer Biorepository Network (PCBN). The aim of the PCBN is to provide prostate researchers with high-quality

  19. High Electricity Demand in the Northeast U.S.: PJM Reliability Network and Peaking Unit Impacts on Air Quality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farkas, Caroline M; Moeller, Michael D; Felder, Frank A; Henderson, Barron H; Carlton, Annmarie G

    2016-08-02

    On high electricity demand days, when air quality is often poor, regional transmission organizations (RTOs), such as PJM Interconnection, ensure reliability of the grid by employing peak-use electric generating units (EGUs). These "peaking units" are exempt from some federal and state air quality rules. We identify RTO assignment and peaking unit classification for EGUs in the Eastern U.S. and estimate air quality for four emission scenarios with the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model during the July 2006 heat wave. Further, we population-weight ambient values as a surrogate for potential population exposure. Emissions from electricity reliability networks negatively impact air quality in their own region and in neighboring geographic areas. Monitored and controlled PJM peaking units are generally located in economically depressed areas and can contribute up to 87% of hourly maximum PM2.5 mass locally. Potential population exposure to peaking unit PM2.5 mass is highest in the model domain's most populated cities. Average daily temperature and national gross domestic product steer peaking unit heat input. Air quality planning that capitalizes on a priori knowledge of local electricity demand and economics may provide a more holistic approach to protect human health within the context of growing energy needs in a changing world.

  20. Analysis of Network Parameters Influencing Performance of Hybrid Multimedia Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dominik Kovac

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available Multimedia networks is an emerging subject that currently attracts the attention of research and industrial communities. This environment provides new entertainment services and business opportunities merged with all well-known network services like VoIP calls or file transfers. Such a heterogeneous system has to be able satisfy all network and end-user requirements which are increasing constantly. Therefore the simulation tools enabling deep analysis in order to find the key performance indicators and factors which influence the overall quality for specific network service the most are highly needed. This paper provides a study on the network parameters like communication technology, routing protocol, QoS mechanism, etc. and their effect on the performance of hybrid multimedia network. The analysis was performed in OPNET Modeler environment and the most interesting results are discussed at the end of this paper

  1. Network Ambivalence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patrick Jagoda

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available The language of networks now describes everything from the Internet to the economy to terrorist organizations. In distinction to a common view of networks as a universal, originary, or necessary form that promises to explain everything from neural structures to online traffic, this essay emphasizes the contingency of the network imaginary. Network form, in its role as our current cultural dominant, makes scarcely imaginable the possibility of an alternative or an outside uninflected by networks. If so many things and relationships are figured as networks, however, then what is not a network? If a network points towards particular logics and qualities of relation in our historical present, what others might we envision in the future? In  many ways, these questions are unanswerable from within the contemporary moment. Instead of seeking an avant-garde approach (to move beyond networks or opting out of networks (in some cases, to recover elements of pre-networked existence, this essay proposes a third orientation: one of ambivalence that operates as a mode of extreme presence. I propose the concept of "network aesthetics," which can be tracked across artistic media and cultural forms, as a model, style, and pedagogy for approaching interconnection in the twenty-first century. The following essay is excerpted from Network Ambivalence (Forthcoming from University of Chicago Press. 

  2. Visionary network 2030. Technology vision for future distribution network

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kumpulainen, L.; Laaksonen, H.; Komulainen, R.

    2006-11-01

    Objective of this research was to create the long term vision of a distribution network technology to be used for the near future rebuild and necessary R and D efforts. Present status of the grid was briefly handled and created scenarios for the operational environment changes and available technology International view was used for getting familiar with the present solutions and future expectations in other countries. Centralised power generation is supposed to form the majority, but also the distributed generation will play more and more important role, which is hard to predict due to the uncertainty of the development of the regulation. Higher reliability and safety in major faults are expected from the future network with the reasonable costs. Impact of the climate change and impregnant using restrictions cause difficulties especially for the overhead lines in the forests. In the rural network also the ageing is the problem. For the urban networks the land usage and environmental issues get more challenging and the network reinforcement is necessary due to the increased use of electricity. As a result several technical solutions are available. Additions to the technology today, several new solutions were introduced. Important solutions in the future network are supposed to be the wide range of underground cable, high degree utilisation of the communication and network automation solutions, considerable shorter protection zones and new layout solution. In a long run the islanding enabled by the distributed energy systems and totally new network structures and solutions based on power electronics are supposed to improve the power quality and profitability. Separate quality classes in network design principally are also supposed to be approved. Getting into the vision needs also the Roadmap project, which coordinates and focuses the development of the industry. So the limited national development resources can be effectively utilised. A coordinated national

  3. Hybrid Power Forecasting Model for Photovoltaic Plants Based on Neural Network with Air Quality Index

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Idris Khan

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available High concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has increased dependency on photovoltaic (PV power, but its random nature poses a challenge for system operators to precisely predict and forecast PV power. The conventional forecasting methods were accurate for clean weather. But when the PV plants worked under heavy haze, the radiation is negatively impacted and thus reducing PV power; therefore, to deal with haze weather, Air Quality Index (AQI is introduced as a parameter to predict PV power. AQI, which is an indication of how polluted the air is, has been known to have a strong correlation with power generated by the PV panels. In this paper, a hybrid method based on the model of conventional back propagation (BP neural network for clear weather and BP AQI model for haze weather is used to forecast PV power with conventional parameters like temperature, wind speed, humidity, solar radiation, and an extra parameter of AQI as input. The results show that the proposed method has less error under haze condition as compared to conventional model of neural network.

  4. Software Defined Coded Networking

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Di Paola, Carla; Roetter, Daniel Enrique Lucani; Palazzo, Sergio

    2017-01-01

    the quality of each link and even across neighbouring links and using simulations to show that an additional reduction of packet transmission in the order of 40% is possible. Second, to advocate for the use of network coding (NC) jointly with software defined networking (SDN) providing an implementation...

  5. Data Exchange Network

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Grau Larsen, Anton; Ellersgaard, Christoph

    2015-01-01

    This article presents the extensive Danish elite network. Collected during 2012 and 2013, the data comprises 56,536 positions within 5,079 affiliations, and connects 37,750 individuals. The network consists of the largest Danish corporations, state institutions, NGO’s, and other integrative...... networks such as social clubs or royal events. Data were gathered through an inclusion principle, adding all potentially interesting affiliations. Procedures of name-matching and quality control are presented. Finally, the data are introduced: made available through a package for R, which enables...

  6. Network modeling of PM10 concentration in Malaysia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Supian, Muhammad Nazirul Aiman Abu; Bakar, Sakhinah Abu; Razak, Fatimah Abdul

    2017-08-01

    Air pollution is not a new phenomenon in Malaysia. The Department of Environment (DOE) monitors the country's ambient air quality through a network of 51 stations. The air quality is measured using the Air Pollution Index (API) which is mainly recorded based on the concentration of particulate matter, PM10 readings. The Continuous Air Quality Monitoring (CAQM) stations are located in various places across the country. In this study, a network model of air quality based on PM10 concen tration for selected CAQM stations in Malaysia has been developed. The model is built using a graph formulation, G = (V, E) where vertex, V is a set of CAQM stations and edges, E is a set of correlation values for each pair of vertices. The network measurements such as degree distributions, closeness centrality, and betweenness centrality are computed to analyse the behaviour of the network. As a result, a rank of CAQM stations has been produced based on their centrality characteristics.

  7. Studying the Amount, Motivations and Perception of Consequences of Using the Social Networks Based on Quality of the Relationship between Attachment Styles with Perception of Parental Rejection and Control in Adolescents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    پریسا سادات سیدموسوی

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Due to the importance of user behavior in social networks especially in adolescents, the purpose of this study was investigating the amount, motivations and perception of consequences of using the social networks based on the quality of the relationship between attachment styles with perception of parental rejection and control in adole-scents. The population of the research included all of the 15-18 years old adolescents of Tehran from which 146 students (77 girls and 69 boys were chosen by cluster sampling and completed the Inventory of Parent & Peer Attachment, Parental Acceptance-Rejection and Control, and Social Network Using Checklist. The results showed that the quality of the relationship with parents has a key role in prediction of the amount and the way of using the social networks and in addition could affect the consequences of using these networks. In addition, increasing of the parental control unexpectedly could not decrease the using of social networks. According to the results, it seems that although most of the adolescents are using the social networks, the relationship with parents can be critical in predicting the motives of using these networks.

  8. [Quality indicators for the assessment of ST-segment elevation acute myocardial infarction (STEMI) networks. How hospital discharge records could be integrated with Emergency medical services data: the Emilia-Romagna STEMI network experience].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pavesi, Pier Camillo; Guastaroba, Paolo; Casella, Gianni; Berti, Elena; De Palma, Rossana; Di Bartolomeo, Stefano; Di Pasquale, Giuseppe

    2015-09-01

    The assessment of the regional network for ST-segment elevation acute myocardial infarction (STEMI) is fundamental for quality assurance. Since 2011 all Italian Health Authorities, in addition to hospital discharge records (HDR), must provide a standardized information flow (ERD) about emergency department (ED) and emergency medical system (EMS) activities. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether data integration of ERD with HDR may allow the development of appropriate quality indicators. Patients admitted to coronary care units (CCU) for STEMI between January 1 to December 31, 2013, were identified from the regional HDR database. All data were linked to those of the regional ERD database. Four quality indicators were defined: 1) rates of EMS activation, 2) rates of EMS direct transfer to the catheterization laboratory (Cath-lab), 3) transfer rates from a Spoke to a Hub hospital with angioplasty facilities, and 4) median time spent in ED. In 2013, 2793 patients with STEMI were admitted to the CCU. Of these, 1684 patients (60%) activated EMS and were transported to Spoke or Hub hospitals; 955 (57%) entered directly in CCU/Cath-lab; 677 were transferred directly to a Hub hospital ED without being admitted to a Spoke hospital. The median ED time in Hub hospital was 47 min (IQR 24-136) and in Spoke hospital 53 min (IQR 30-131). The integration among administrative data banks (i.e., HDR with ERD) allowed the assessment of the regional STEMI network and the identification of potentially useful quality indicators. Their easy availability should enable comparisons with local, national and international standards, and may favor quality improvement.

  9. MATIN: a random network coding based framework for high quality peer-to-peer live video streaming.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barekatain, Behrang; Khezrimotlagh, Dariush; Aizaini Maarof, Mohd; Ghaeini, Hamid Reza; Salleh, Shaharuddin; Quintana, Alfonso Ariza; Akbari, Behzad; Cabrera, Alicia Triviño

    2013-01-01

    In recent years, Random Network Coding (RNC) has emerged as a promising solution for efficient Peer-to-Peer (P2P) video multicasting over the Internet. This probably refers to this fact that RNC noticeably increases the error resiliency and throughput of the network. However, high transmission overhead arising from sending large coefficients vector as header has been the most important challenge of the RNC. Moreover, due to employing the Gauss-Jordan elimination method, considerable computational complexity can be imposed on peers in decoding the encoded blocks and checking linear dependency among the coefficients vectors. In order to address these challenges, this study introduces MATIN which is a random network coding based framework for efficient P2P video streaming. The MATIN includes a novel coefficients matrix generation method so that there is no linear dependency in the generated coefficients matrix. Using the proposed framework, each peer encapsulates one instead of n coefficients entries into the generated encoded packet which results in very low transmission overhead. It is also possible to obtain the inverted coefficients matrix using a bit number of simple arithmetic operations. In this regard, peers sustain very low computational complexities. As a result, the MATIN permits random network coding to be more efficient in P2P video streaming systems. The results obtained from simulation using OMNET++ show that it substantially outperforms the RNC which uses the Gauss-Jordan elimination method by providing better video quality on peers in terms of the four important performance metrics including video distortion, dependency distortion, End-to-End delay and Initial Startup delay.

  10. Distributed health data networks: a practical and preferred approach to multi-institutional evaluations of comparative effectiveness, safety, and quality of care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Jeffrey S; Holmes, John H; Shah, Kiran; Hall, Ken; Lazarus, Ross; Platt, Richard

    2010-06-01

    Comparative effectiveness research, medical product safety evaluation, and quality measurement will require the ability to use electronic health data held by multiple organizations. There is no consensus about whether to create regional or national combined (eg, "all payer") databases for these purposes, or distributed data networks that leave most Protected Health Information and proprietary data in the possession of the original data holders. Demonstrate functions of a distributed research network that supports research needs and also address data holders concerns about participation. Key design functions included strong local control of data uses and a centralized web-based querying interface. We implemented a pilot distributed research network and evaluated the design considerations, utility for research, and the acceptability to data holders of methods for menu-driven querying. We developed and tested a central, web-based interface with supporting network software. Specific functions assessed include query formation and distribution, query execution and review, and aggregation of results. This pilot successfully evaluated temporal trends in medication use and diagnoses at 5 separate sites, demonstrating some of the possibilities of using a distributed research network. The pilot demonstrated the potential utility of the design, which addressed the major concerns of both users and data holders. No serious obstacles were identified that would prevent development of a fully functional, scalable network. Distributed networks are capable of addressing nearly all anticipated uses of routinely collected electronic healthcare data. Distributed networks would obviate the need for centralized databases, thus avoiding numerous obstacles.

  11. Current Status of Groundwater Monitoring Networks in Korea

    OpenAIRE

    Jin-Yong Lee; Kideok D. Kwon

    2016-01-01

    Korea has been operating groundwater monitoring systems since 1996 as the Groundwater Act enacted in 1994 enforces nationwide monitoring. Currently, there are six main groundwater monitoring networks operated by different government ministries with different purposes: National Groundwater Monitoring Network (NGMN), Groundwater Quality Monitoring Network (GQMN), Seawater Intrusion Monitoring Network (SIMN), Rural Groundwater Monitoring Network (RGMN), Subsidiary Groundwater Monitoring Network ...

  12. Requirements for gas quality and gas appliances

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Levinsky, Howard; Gersen, Sander; Kiewiet, Bert

    2015-01-01

    Introduction The gas transmission network in the Netherlands transports two different qualities of gas, low-calorific gas known as G-gas or L-gas and, high calorific gas (H-gas). These two gas qualities are transported in separate networks, and are connected by means of five blending and conversion

  13. Improving outcomes for patients with type 2 diabetes using general practice networks: a quality improvement project in east London.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hull, Sally; Chowdhury, Tahseen A; Mathur, Rohini; Robson, John

    2014-02-01

    Structured diabetes care can improve outcomes and reduce risk of complications, but improving care in a deprived, ethnically diverse area can prove challenging. This report evaluates a system change to enhance diabetes care delivery in a primary care setting. All 35 practices in one inner London Primary Care Trust were geographically grouped into eight networks of four to five practices, each supported by a network manager, clerical staff and an educational budget. A multidisciplinary team developed a 'care package' for type 2 diabetes management, with financial incentives based on network achievement of targets. Monthly electronic performance dashboards enabled networks to track and improve performance. Network multidisciplinary team meetings including the diabetic specialist team supported case management and education. Key measures for improvement included the number of diabetes care plans completed, proportion of patients attending for digital retinal screen and proportions of patients achieving a number of biomedical indices (blood pressure, cholesterol, glycated haemoglobin). Between 2009 and 2012, completed care plans rose from 10% to 88%. The proportion of patients attending for digital retinal screen rose from 72% to 82.8%. The proportion of patients achieving a combination of blood pressure ≤ 140/80 mm Hg and cholesterol ≤ 4 mmol/L rose from 35.3% to 46.1%. Mean glycated haemoglobin dropped from 7.80% to 7.66% (62-60 mmol/mol). Investment of financial, organisational and education resources into primary care practice networks can achieve clinically important improvements in diabetes care in deprived, ethnically diverse communities. This success is predicated on collaborative working between practices, purposively designed high-quality information on network performance and engagement between primary and secondary care clinicians.

  14. Forecasting PM10 in metropolitan areas: Efficacy of neural networks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fernando, H.J.S.; Mammarella, M.C.; Grandoni, G.; Fedele, P.; Di Marco, R.; Dimitrova, R.; Hyde, P.

    2012-01-01

    Deterministic photochemical air quality models are commonly used for regulatory management and planning of urban airsheds. These models are complex, computer intensive, and hence are prohibitively expensive for routine air quality predictions. Stochastic methods are becoming increasingly popular as an alternative, which relegate decision making to artificial intelligence based on Neural Networks that are made of artificial neurons or ‘nodes’ capable of ‘learning through training’ via historic data. A Neural Network was used to predict particulate matter concentration at a regulatory monitoring site in Phoenix, Arizona; its development, efficacy as a predictive tool and performance vis-à-vis a commonly used regulatory photochemical model are described in this paper. It is concluded that Neural Networks are much easier, quicker and economical to implement without compromising the accuracy of predictions. Neural Networks can be used to develop rapid air quality warning systems based on a network of automated monitoring stations.Highlights: ► Neural Network is an alternative technique to photochemical modelling. ► Neutral Networks can be as effective as traditional air photochemical modelling. ► Neural Networks are much easier and quicker to implement in health warning system. - Neutral networks are as effective as photochemical modelling for air quality predictions, but are much easier, quicker and economical to implement in air pollution (or health) warning systems.

  15. Critical Quality Source Diagnosis for Dam Concrete Construction Based on Quality Gain-loss Function

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bo Wang

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available In dam concrete construction process, it not only has quality loss arising from quality fluctuation, but also gains quality compensation effect due to the mutual cooperation and adaptation coupling between working procedures (WPs. The calculation and transmission complexity of the quality loss and quality compensation affect the quality management of dam concrete construction. As the quality compensation effect existing in the production practice cannot be described by Taguchi quality loss function, the concept of quality gain-loss function was presented in this paper, which was based on endowing the constant term in the expansion of Taylor series with physical meaning—quality compensation. Based on quality gain-loss function theory, a new quality gain-loss transmission model of dam concrete construction based on GERT network was constructed and its effective algorithm was designed. WP quality gain-loss and its impact on the final product were reasonably measured, and the critical quality routes and critical quality WPs were detected and diagnosed in dam concrete construction network. Summer temperature-controlled concrete construction in the third phase of Three Gorges Project (TGP was taken as an example to carry out the study, and the calculation results showed the validity and practicability of the presented model and algorithm.

  16. Network analysis applications in hydrology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Price, Katie

    2017-04-01

    Applied network theory has seen pronounced expansion in recent years, in fields such as epidemiology, computer science, and sociology. Concurrent development of analytical methods and frameworks has increased possibilities and tools available to researchers seeking to apply network theory to a variety of problems. While water and nutrient fluxes through stream systems clearly demonstrate a directional network structure, the hydrological applications of network theory remain under­explored. This presentation covers a review of network applications in hydrology, followed by an overview of promising network analytical tools that potentially offer new insights into conceptual modeling of hydrologic systems, identifying behavioral transition zones in stream networks and thresholds of dynamical system response. Network applications were tested along an urbanization gradient in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Peachtree Creek and Proctor Creek. Peachtree Creek contains a nest of five long­term USGS streamflow and water quality gages, allowing network application of long­term flow statistics. The watershed spans a range of suburban and heavily urbanized conditions. Summary flow statistics and water quality metrics were analyzed using a suite of network analysis techniques, to test the conceptual modeling and predictive potential of the methodologies. Storm events and low flow dynamics during Summer 2016 were analyzed using multiple network approaches, with an emphasis on tomogravity methods. Results indicate that network theory approaches offer novel perspectives for understanding long­ term and event­based hydrological data. Key future directions for network applications include 1) optimizing data collection, 2) identifying "hotspots" of contaminant and overland flow influx to stream systems, 3) defining process domains, and 4) analyzing dynamic connectivity of various system components, including groundwater­surface water interactions.

  17. Network Traffic Prediction Based on Deep Belief Network and Spatiotemporal Compressive Sensing in Wireless Mesh Backbone Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laisen Nie

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Wireless mesh network is prevalent for providing a decentralized access for users and other intelligent devices. Meanwhile, it can be employed as the infrastructure of the last few miles connectivity for various network applications, for example, Internet of Things (IoT and mobile networks. For a wireless mesh backbone network, it has obtained extensive attention because of its large capacity and low cost. Network traffic prediction is important for network planning and routing configurations that are implemented to improve the quality of service for users. This paper proposes a network traffic prediction method based on a deep learning architecture and the Spatiotemporal Compressive Sensing method. The proposed method first adopts discrete wavelet transform to extract the low-pass component of network traffic that describes the long-range dependence of itself. Then, a prediction model is built by learning a deep architecture based on the deep belief network from the extracted low-pass component. Otherwise, for the remaining high-pass component that expresses the gusty and irregular fluctuations of network traffic, the Spatiotemporal Compressive Sensing method is adopted to predict it. Based on the predictors of two components, we can obtain a predictor of network traffic. From the simulation, the proposed prediction method outperforms three existing methods.

  18. 42 CFR 485.603 - Rural health network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Rural health network. 485.603 Section 485.603... Participation: Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) § 485.603 Rural health network. A rural health network is an... quality assurance with at least— (1) One hospital that is a member of the network when applicable; (2) One...

  19. Dosimetric evaluation of Radiotherapy units wit {sup 60}Co; Evaluacion dosimetrica de unidades de radioterapia con {sup 60}Co

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Leon, B. Salinas de; Tovar M, V.; Becerril V, A. [Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Nucleares, A.P. 18-1027, 11801 Mexico D.F. (Mexico)

    2000-07-01

    The SSDL network of the IAEA performs, every year, quality audit tests for radiotherapy services ({sup 60} Co units and linear accelerators), and for national SSDL as well. Because of the SSDL-Mexico results in these tests and due to our enthusiasm and confidence in our work, a parallel test has been done , which is described in this talk as well as the results. Nowadays, a second parallel test goes up, which could confirm our optimism and open the possibility to our country to start a national dosimetric audit of {sup 60} Co radiotherapy units. (Author)

  20. Contemporary Network Proteomics and Its Requirements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goh, Wilson Wen Bin; Wong, Limsoon; Sng, Judy Chia Ghee

    2013-01-01

    The integration of networks with genomics (network genomics) is a familiar field. Conventional network analysis takes advantage of the larger coverage and relative stability of gene expression measurements. Network proteomics on the other hand has to develop further on two critical factors: (1) expanded data coverage and consistency, and (2) suitable reference network libraries, and data mining from them. Concerning (1) we discuss several contemporary themes that can improve data quality, which in turn will boost the outcome of downstream network analysis. For (2), we focus on network analysis developments, specifically, the need for context-specific networks and essential considerations for localized network analysis. PMID:24833333

  1. Application of dispersion and dose assessment models to the solid and liquid wastes facilities of Ezeiza radioactive waste management area; Aplicacion de modelos de dispersion y evaluacion dosimetrica a los sistemas de semicontencion de residuos radiactivos solidos y liquidos del area gestion Ezeiza

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Amado, Valeria A; Lopez, Fabio O

    2007-07-01

    This paper provides a dose assessment of the critic group from the near surface facility for solid and liquid waste, located at Ezeiza Atomic Center in Argentina (Ezeiza Radioactive Waste Management Area-AGE). The calculations were made using several approaches about source term. The activities for each radionuclide and facility were taken from the National Atomic Energy Commission's Inventory that corresponds to the first trimester of 2005. The radioactive decay of each radionuclide was considered. The work was performed in two steps. In the first step, using the Nuclide Dispersion in Phreatic Aquifer Model (DRAF), the dispersion of the contaminants into the phreatic aquifer until the discharge point at a superficial water course was considered. In the second step, the Consequences of Releases to the Environment Assessment Methodology Program (PC CREAM) was used for the study of radionuclides dispersion in superficial water course and dose calculations. The results from this paper show that, for every studied radionuclide, the doses involved are significantly lower than the values established by current regulations. On the other hand, those results put in evidence the utility of simple models in estimating the order of magnitude of expected concentrations and doses. It is important to highlight that the obtained results can be used only in the context of the suppositions that were made. (author) [Spanish] En este trabajo se presenta una evaluacion de la dosis que recibiria el grupo critico, bajo ciertos supuestos, debido a la liberacion de radionucleidos contenidos en los Sistemas de Semicontencion de Residuos Radiactivos Solidos y Liquidos del Area de Gestion, del Centro Atomico Ezeiza. Para ello, se deben realizar algunas aproximaciones del termino fuente y se consideran los valores de actividades del Inventario de CNEA correspondiente al primer trimestre del 2005, teniendo en cuenta el periodo de semidesintegracion de cada radionucleido. La evaluacion se

  2. Ecological networks in urban landscapes

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Cook, E.A.

    2000-01-01

    This research focuses on the topic of ecological networks in urban landscapes. Analysis and planning of ecological networks is a relatively new phenomenon and is a response to fragmentation and deterioration of quality of natural systems. In agricultural areas and with existing nature

  3. Development and implementation of the quality control panel of RT-PCR and real-time RT-PCR for avian influenza A (H5N1 surveillance network in mainland China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wang Wei

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR and real time RT-PCR (rRT-PCR have been indispensable methods for influenza surveillance, especially for determination of avian influenza. The movement of testing beyond reference lab introduced the need of quality control, including the implementation of an evaluation system for validating personal training and sample proficiency testing. Methods We developed a panel with lysates of seasonal influenza virus (H1N1, H3N2 and B, serials of diluted H5N1 virus lysates, and in-vitro transcribed H5 hemaglutinin (HA and an artificial gene RNAs for RT-PCR and rRT-PCR quality control assessment. The validations of stability and reproducibility were performed on the panel. Additionally, the panel was implemented to assess the detection capability of Chinese human avian influenza networks. Results The panel has relatively high stability and good reproducibility demonstrated by kappa's tests. In the implementation of panel on Chinese human avian influenza networks, the results suggested that there were a relatively low number of discrepancies for both concise and reproducibility in Chinese avian influenza virus net works. Conclusions A quality control panel of RT-PCR and real-time RT-PCR for avian influenza A (H5N1 surveillance network was developed. An availably statistical data, which are used to assess the detection capability of networks on avian influenza virus (H5N1, can be obtained relatively easily through implementation of the panel on networks.

  4. Towards semen quality assessment using neural networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Linneberg, Christian; Salamon, P.; Svarer, C.

    1994-01-01

    The paper presents the methodology and results from a neural net based classification of human sperm head morphology. The methodology uses a preprocessing scheme in which invariant Fourier descriptors are lumped into “energy” bands. The resulting networks are pruned using optimal brain damage. Pe...

  5. Physical-layer Network Coding in Two-Way Heterogeneous Cellular Networks with Power Imbalance

    OpenAIRE

    Thampi, Ajay K; Liew, Soung Chang; Armour, Simon M D; Fan, Zhong; You, Lizhao; Kaleshi, Dritan

    2016-01-01

    The growing demand for high-speed data, quality of service (QoS) assurance and energy efficiency has triggered the evolution of 4G LTE-A networks to 5G and beyond. Interference is still a major performance bottleneck. This paper studies the application of physical-layer network coding (PNC), a technique that exploits interference, in heterogeneous cellular networks. In particular, we propose a rate-maximising relay selection algorithm for a single cell with multiple relays assuming the decode...

  6. Real time network traffic monitoring for wireless local area networks based on compressed sensing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balouchestani, Mohammadreza

    2017-05-01

    A wireless local area network (WLAN) is an important type of wireless networks which connotes different wireless nodes in a local area network. WLANs suffer from important problems such as network load balancing, large amount of energy, and load of sampling. This paper presents a new networking traffic approach based on Compressed Sensing (CS) for improving the quality of WLANs. The proposed architecture allows reducing Data Delay Probability (DDP) to 15%, which is a good record for WLANs. The proposed architecture is increased Data Throughput (DT) to 22 % and Signal to Noise (S/N) ratio to 17 %, which provide a good background for establishing high qualified local area networks. This architecture enables continuous data acquisition and compression of WLAN's signals that are suitable for a variety of other wireless networking applications. At the transmitter side of each wireless node, an analog-CS framework is applied at the sensing step before analog to digital converter in order to generate the compressed version of the input signal. At the receiver side of wireless node, a reconstruction algorithm is applied in order to reconstruct the original signals from the compressed signals with high probability and enough accuracy. The proposed algorithm out-performs existing algorithms by achieving a good level of Quality of Service (QoS). This ability allows reducing 15 % of Bit Error Rate (BER) at each wireless node.

  7. Estimations and remedies for quality of experience in multimedia streaming

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Menkovski, V.; Exarchakos, G.; Liotta, A.; Cuadra Sánchez, A.

    2010-01-01

    Managing multimedia network services in a User-centric manner provides for more delivered quality to the users, whilst maintaining a limited footprint on the network resources. For efficient User-centric management it is imperative to have a precise metric for perceived quality. Quality of

  8. Networking Technologies for Future Home Networks Using 60 GHz Radio

    OpenAIRE

    Wang, J.

    2010-01-01

    Networking technologies have been changing the life of people in their private residential space. With the arrival of high definition (HD) multimedia services and broadband communications into the living space, future home networks are expected to support high speed device-to-device connectivity with Quality-of-Service (QoS) provisioning. There is no prize for guessing that it has to be wireless communication which creates maximal freedom. Nevertheless, it is doubtful that today's home networ...

  9. Optimizing Low Speed VoIP Network for Rural Next Generation Network (R-NGN

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yoanes Bandung

    2007-11-01

    Full Text Available In this research, we propose an optimization method based-on E-Model for designing an efficient low speed VoIP network for Rural Next Generation Network (R-NGN. We are choosing 128 kbps and 256 kbps bandwidth as the typical community link to be used in the designing of R-NGN infrastructure. The method is based on selection of some VoIP network parameters such as voice coder, communication protocol, packet loss level, network utilization and resource allocation. We draw analytic approach for achieving rating value (R of E-model that represent level of quality of service. In this approach, we focus on delay and packet loss calculation to find the rating value. We state the rating value = 70 as minimum level of quality of service for each call, equivalent to 3.6 of Mean Opinion Score (MOS. In our experiments, either G.723.1 5.3 kbps or G.729 is chosen for maximizing the number of VoIP calls, it depends on link utilization and level of packet loss.

  10. Tinnitus: Network pathophysiology-network pharmacology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ana Belen eElgoyhen

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Tinnitus, the phantom perception of sound, is a prevalent disorder. One in 10 adults has clinically significant subjective tinnitus, and for 1 in 100, tinnitus severely affects their quality of life. Despite the significant unmet clinical need for a safe and effective drug targeting tinnitus relief, there is currently not a single FDA-approved drug on the market. The search for drugs that target tinnitus is hampered by the lack of a deep knowledge of the underlying neural substrates of this pathology. Recent studies are increasingly demonstrating that, as described for other central nervous system disorders, tinnitus is a pathology of brain networks. The application of graph theoretical analysis to brain networks has recently provided new information concerning their topology, their robustness and their vulnerability to attacks. Moreover, the philosophy behind drug design and pharmacotherapy in central nervous system pathologies is changing from that of magic bullets that target individual chemoreceptors or disease-causing genes into that of magic shotguns, promiscuous or dirty drugs that target disease-causing networks, also known as network pharmacology. In the present work we provide some insight into how this knowledge could be applied to tinnitus pathophysiology and pharmacotherapy.

  11. Tinnitus: network pathophysiology-network pharmacology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elgoyhen, Ana B; Langguth, Berthold; Vanneste, Sven; De Ridder, Dirk

    2012-01-01

    Tinnitus, the phantom perception of sound, is a prevalent disorder. One in 10 adults has clinically significant subjective tinnitus, and for one in 100, tinnitus severely affects their quality of life. Despite the significant unmet clinical need for a safe and effective drug targeting tinnitus relief, there is currently not a single Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drug on the market. The search for drugs that target tinnitus is hampered by the lack of a deep knowledge of the underlying neural substrates of this pathology. Recent studies are increasingly demonstrating that, as described for other central nervous system (CNS) disorders, tinnitus is a pathology of brain networks. The application of graph theoretical analysis to brain networks has recently provided new information concerning their topology, their robustness and their vulnerability to attacks. Moreover, the philosophy behind drug design and pharmacotherapy in CNS pathologies is changing from that of "magic bullets" that target individual chemoreceptors or "disease-causing genes" into that of "magic shotguns," "promiscuous" or "dirty drugs" that target "disease-causing networks," also known as network pharmacology. In the present work we provide some insight into how this knowledge could be applied to tinnitus pathophysiology and pharmacotherapy.

  12. From Data Quality to Big Data Quality

    OpenAIRE

    Batini, Carlo; Rula, Anisa; Scannapieco, Monica; Viscusi, Gianluigi

    2015-01-01

    This article investigates the evolution of data quality issues from traditional structured data managed in relational databases to Big Data. In particular, the paper examines the nature of the relationship between Data Quality and several research coordinates that are relevant in Big Data, such as the variety of data types, data sources and application domains, focusing on maps, semi-structured texts, linked open data, sensor & sensor networks and official statistics. Consequently a set of st...

  13. MATIN: a random network coding based framework for high quality peer-to-peer live video streaming.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Behrang Barekatain

    Full Text Available In recent years, Random Network Coding (RNC has emerged as a promising solution for efficient Peer-to-Peer (P2P video multicasting over the Internet. This probably refers to this fact that RNC noticeably increases the error resiliency and throughput of the network. However, high transmission overhead arising from sending large coefficients vector as header has been the most important challenge of the RNC. Moreover, due to employing the Gauss-Jordan elimination method, considerable computational complexity can be imposed on peers in decoding the encoded blocks and checking linear dependency among the coefficients vectors. In order to address these challenges, this study introduces MATIN which is a random network coding based framework for efficient P2P video streaming. The MATIN includes a novel coefficients matrix generation method so that there is no linear dependency in the generated coefficients matrix. Using the proposed framework, each peer encapsulates one instead of n coefficients entries into the generated encoded packet which results in very low transmission overhead. It is also possible to obtain the inverted coefficients matrix using a bit number of simple arithmetic operations. In this regard, peers sustain very low computational complexities. As a result, the MATIN permits random network coding to be more efficient in P2P video streaming systems. The results obtained from simulation using OMNET++ show that it substantially outperforms the RNC which uses the Gauss-Jordan elimination method by providing better video quality on peers in terms of the four important performance metrics including video distortion, dependency distortion, End-to-End delay and Initial Startup delay.

  14. Automatic Quality Assessment of Echocardiograms Using Convolutional Neural Networks: Feasibility on the Apical Four-Chamber View.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abdi, Amir H; Luong, Christina; Tsang, Teresa; Allan, Gregory; Nouranian, Saman; Jue, John; Hawley, Dale; Fleming, Sarah; Gin, Ken; Swift, Jody; Rohling, Robert; Abolmaesumi, Purang

    2017-06-01

    Echocardiography (echo) is a skilled technical procedure that depends on the experience of the operator. The aim of this paper is to reduce user variability in data acquisition by automatically computing a score of echo quality for operator feedback. To do this, a deep convolutional neural network model, trained on a large set of samples, was developed for scoring apical four-chamber (A4C) echo. In this paper, 6,916 end-systolic echo images were manually studied by an expert cardiologist and were assigned a score between 0 (not acceptable) and 5 (excellent). The images were divided into two independent training-validation and test sets. The network architecture and its parameters were based on the stochastic approach of the particle swarm optimization on the training-validation data. The mean absolute error between the scores from the ultimately trained model and the expert's manual scores was 0.71 ± 0.58. The reported error was comparable to the measured intra-rater reliability. The learned features of the network were visually interpretable and could be mapped to the anatomy of the heart in the A4C echo, giving confidence in the training result. The computation time for the proposed network architecture, running on a graphics processing unit, was less than 10 ms per frame, sufficient for real-time deployment. The proposed approach has the potential to facilitate the widespread use of echo at the point-of-care and enable early and timely diagnosis and treatment. Finally, the approach did not use any specific assumptions about the A4C echo, so it could be generalizable to other standard echo views.

  15. Neural Network Classifiers for Local Wind Prediction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kretzschmar, Ralf; Eckert, Pierre; Cattani, Daniel; Eggimann, Fritz

    2004-05-01

    This paper evaluates the quality of neural network classifiers for wind speed and wind gust prediction with prediction lead times between +1 and +24 h. The predictions were realized based on local time series and model data. The selection of appropriate input features was initiated by time series analysis and completed by empirical comparison of neural network classifiers trained on several choices of input features. The selected input features involved day time, yearday, features from a single wind observation device at the site of interest, and features derived from model data. The quality of the resulting classifiers was benchmarked against persistence for two different sites in Switzerland. The neural network classifiers exhibited superior quality when compared with persistence judged on a specific performance measure, hit and false-alarm rates.

  16. Assessment of the Atmospheric Suspended Particles Pollution in the Madrid Air Quality Networks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Salvador, P.; Artinano, B.

    2000-01-01

    Suspended particles are a very complex type of atmospheric pollution because of their chemical composition and size. In fact, there are a quite high number of particles sources which are linked to different physicochemical processes that determine their size. At present particles smaller than 10 μm are considered the most dangerous, as has been recently pointed out by numerous epidemiologic studies. In this way, more restrictive concentration limit values have been approved in the EU countries, so an assessment of present airborne concentration values and the sources apportionment in their most representative areas is needed. In the Madrid Community a first approaching of these and other aims, has been carried out from an analysis of the Madrid Air Quality networks data. This will contribute to the establishment of concentration levels abatement strategies. (Author) 111 refs

  17. USE OF INTELLECTUAL TECHNOLOGIES FOR QUALITY CONTROL OF CURD

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. M. Blagoveshchenskaya

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available In this article, we consider additional method of quality control of curds by organoleptic properties. Method consists in construction of neural network model to estimate quality of curds by input and output parameters. Quality control of curds by organoleptic properties is not necessary according to state standard specification, therefore we use exemplary 5-score scale for organoleptic estimation. Author gives an example of fundamental operation which is necessary for neural networks projection and gives recommendation for integrated hardware/software solution design. This method makes easier quality control of final product because operator can react on digression in the technological process in proper time (use data recommended by neural network, predict quality of final product in case when technological parameters deviate from the norm.

  18. Flow-based Networking and Quality of Service

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kleiberg, T.J.

    2009-01-01

    During the past two decades the Internet has been widely deployed and integrated into the society, radically altering the way people communicate and exchange information. Although the Internet was intended as a research network between few a institutions in the United States, it has grown to take a

  19. Modelling microbiological water quality in the Seine river drainage network: past, present and future situations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P. Servais

    2007-09-01

    Full Text Available The Seine river watershed is characterized by a high population density and intense agricultural activities. Data show low microbiological water quality in the main rivers (Seine, Marne, Oise of the watershed. Today, there is an increasing pressure from different social groups to restore microbiological water quality in order to both increase the safety of drinking water production and to restore the possible use of these rivers for bathing and rowing activities, as they were in the past. A model, appended to the hydro-ecological SENEQUE/Riverstrahler model describing the functioning of large river systems, was developed to describe the dynamics of faecal coliforms (FC, the most usual faecal contamination indicator. The model is able to calculate the distribution of FC concentrations in the whole drainage network resulting from land use and wastewater management in the watershed. The model was validated by comparing calculated FC concentrations with available field data for some well-documented situations in different river stretches of the Seine drainage network. Once validated, the model was used to test various predictive scenarios, as, for example, the impact of the modifications in wastewater treatment planned at the 2012 horizon in the Seine watershed in the scope of the implementation of the european water framework directive. The model was also used to investigate past situations. In particular, the variations of the microbiological water quality in the Parisian area due to population increase and modifications in wastewater management were estimated over the last century. It was shown that the present standards for bathing and other aquatic recreational activities are not met in the large tributaries upstream from Paris since the middle of the 1950's, and at least since the middle of the XIXth century in the main branch of the Seine river downstream from Paris. Efforts carried out for improving urban wastewater treatment in terms

  20. Wireless Sensor Network Quality of Service Improvement on Flooding Attack Condition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hartono, R.; Widyawan; Wibowo, S. B.; Purnomo, A.; Hartatik

    2018-03-01

    There are two methods of building communication using wireless media. The first method is building a base infrastructure as an intermediary between users. Problems that arise on this type of network infrastructure is limited space to build any network physical infrastructure and also the cost factor. The second method is to build an ad hoc network between users who will communicate. On ad hoc network, each user must be willing to send data from source to destination for the occurrence of a communication. One of network protocol in Ad Hoc, Ad hoc on demand Distance Vector (AODV), has the smallest overhead value, easier to adapt to dynamic network and has small control message. One AODV protocol’s drawback is route finding process’ security for sending the data. In this research, AODV protocol is optimized by determining Expanding Ring Search (ERS) best value. Random topology is used with variation in the number of nodes: 25, 50, 75, 100, 125 and 150 with node’s speed of 10m/s in the area of 1000m x 1000m on flooding network condition. Parameters measured are Throughput, Packet Delivery Ratio, Average Delay and Normalized Routing Load. From the test results of AODV protocol optimization with best value of Expanding Ring Search (ERS), throughput increased by 5.67%, packet delivery ratio increased by 5.73%, and as for Normalized Routing Load decreased by 4.66%. ERS optimal value for each node’s condition depending on the number of nodes on the network.

  1. Predictive model for determining the quality of a call

    Science.gov (United States)

    Voznak, M.; Rozhon, J.; Partila, P.; Safarik, J.; Mikulec, M.; Mehic, M.

    2014-05-01

    In this paper the predictive model for speech quality estimation is described. This model allows its user to gain the information about the speech quality in VoIP networks without the need of performing the actual call and the consecutive time consuming sound file evaluation. This rapidly increases usability of the speech quality measurement especially in high load networks, where the actual processing of all calls is rendered difficult or even impossible. This model can reach its results that are highly conformant with the PESQ algorithm only based on the network state parameters that are easily obtainable by the commonly used software tools. Experiments were carried out to investigate whether different languages (English, Czech) have an effect on perceived voice quality for the same network conditions and the language factor was incorporated directly into the model.

  2. Active Traffic Capture for Network Forensics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Slaviero, Marco; Granova, Anna; Olivier, Martin

    Network traffic capture is an integral part of network forensics, but current traffic capture techniques are typically passive in nature. Under heavy loads, it is possible for a sniffer to miss packets, which affects the quality of forensic evidence.

  3. The Contribution of GIS to Display and Analyze the Water Quality Data Collected by a Wireless Sensor Network: Case of Bouregreg Catchment, Morocco

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boubakri, S.; Rhinane, H.

    2017-11-01

    The monitoring of water quality is, in most cases, managed in the laboratory and not on real time bases. Besides this process being lengthy, it doesn't provide the required specifications to describe the evolution of the quality parameters that are of interest. This study presents the integration of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with wireless sensor networks (WSN) aiming to create a system able to detect the parameters like temperature, salinity and conductivity in a Moroccan catchment scale and transmit information to the support station. This Information is displayed and evaluated in a GIS using maps and spatial dashboard to monitor the water quality in real time.

  4. THE CONTRIBUTION OF GIS TO DISPLAY AND ANALYZE THE WATER QUALITY DATA COLLECTED BY A WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK: CASE OF BOUREGREG CATCHMENT, MOROCCO

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Boubakri

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available The monitoring of water quality is, in most cases, managed in the laboratory and not on real time bases. Besides this process being lengthy, it doesn’t provide the required specifications to describe the evolution of the quality parameters that are of interest. This study presents the integration of Geographic Information Systems (GIS with wireless sensor networks (WSN aiming to create a system able to detect the parameters like temperature, salinity and conductivity in a Moroccan catchment scale and transmit information to the support station. This Information is displayed and evaluated in a GIS using maps and spatial dashboard to monitor the water quality in real time.

  5. SON for LTE-WLAN access network selection : design and performance

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Willemen, P.; Laselva, D.; Wang, Y.; Kovács, I.; Djapic, R.; Moerman, I.

    2016-01-01

    Mobile network operators (MNOs) are deploying carrier-grade Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) as an important complementary system to cellular networks. Access network selection (ANS) between cellular and WLAN is an essential component to improve network performance and user quality-of-service

  6. IPv6 Network Administration

    CERN Document Server

    Murphy, Niall Richard

    2009-01-01

    This essential guide explains what works, what doesn't, and most of all, what's practical about IPv6--the next-generation Internet standard. A must-have for network administrators everywhere looking to fix their network's scalability and management problems. Also covers other IPv6 benefits, such as routing, integrated auto-configuration, quality-of-services (QoS), enhanced mobility, and end-to-end security.

  7. Incentives for Quality over Time

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Claussen, Jörg; Kretschmer, Tobias; Mayrhofer, Philip

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

  8. Tradeoffs between quality-of-control and quality-of-service in large-scale nonlinear networked control systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Borgers, D. P.; Geiselhart, R.; Heemels, W. P. M. H.

    2017-01-01

    In this paper we study input-to-state stability (ISS) of large-scale networked control systems (NCSs) in which sensors, controllers and actuators are connected via multiple (local) communication networks which operate asynchronously and independently of each other. We model the large-scale NCS as an

  9. When business networks “kill” social networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jackson, Laurel; Young, L.

    2016-01-01

    that considers the changes to a community's social network and the associated norms emerging from the growing influence of a microfinance providers' network. A case study reports the impact of microfinance on a particular Bangladesh rural community. We show there is a breakdown in traditional social networks...... in this and other poor rural villages brought about by the taking of micro loans when the families have no means of paying them back. This increased indebtedness to NGOs is perpetuating their poverty and diminishing the community's quality of life including their traditions of bounded solidarity, where families...... in the economic structure of rural Bangladesh and changing norms, in particular the changes to traditional forms of financial exchange and associated support and risk management. We conclude that public policy and a different business model that is more accountable and altruistic are needed to guide...

  10. Tracing disturbance impacts on water quantity and quality through a stream network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ross, Matthew; Nippgen, Fabian; McGlynn, Brian; Bernhardt, Emily

    2017-04-01

    By dismantling and redistributing 100s of meters of bedrock to mine coal from the surface, mountaintop mining with valley fills has dramatically changed catchment hydrology and biogeochemistry over more than 5,000 km2 in Central Appalachia. Throughout this expansive coal region, mining operators deposit tens of millions of m3 of crushed bedrock into headwater valleys, creating valley fills, which have substantial subsurface water storage potential. Streams draining mines have reduced peakflows, elevated baseflows, and lower event runoff ratios on average. The water stored in and percolating through valley fills drives the dissolution and oxidation of pyrite into sulfuric acid which reacts with carbonate-rich materials to rapidly weather out a suite of elements including Ca2+, Mg2+, K+, SO42-, HCO3-, and the pollutant Selenium. Together these ions increase the average specific conductance of mined streams from 60 to 1,500 µS/cm, 25-times higher than unmined streams, exporting 45-times more total dissolved solids. Together, the increased catchment storage, consequent elevated baseflow, and elevated weathering rates from mining have the potential to lower water quality throughout river networks in Central Appalachia, especially during the summer low flow period. To better understand the water quality impacts of mining at the river network scale, we used the paired catchment approach. Working in the Mud River, West Virginia, we instrumented a 4th order catchment 35 km2, that was 46% mined. Within the large catchment we instrumented 8 additional 1st-3rd order sub-catchments that varied in catchment size, mining cover, mine size, and mine age. At each site we measured stream discharge and specific conductance (SC). Using SC as a trace for mining we did simple hydrograph separations at our largest catchments, partitioning the hydrograph between mined and unmined water. Our results suggest that on an annual scale, mine water contributes a disproportionate percentage of

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

    Science.gov (United States)

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

    2011-01-01

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

  12. Local dependency in networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kudĕlka Miloš

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Many real world data and processes have a network structure and can usefully be represented as graphs. Network analysis focuses on the relations among the nodes exploring the properties of each network. We introduce a method for measuring the strength of the relationship between two nodes of a network and for their ranking. This method is applicable to all kinds of networks, including directed and weighted networks. The approach extracts dependency relations among the network’s nodes from the structure in local surroundings of individual nodes. For the tasks we deal with in this article, the key technical parameter is locality. Since only the surroundings of the examined nodes are used in computations, there is no need to analyze the entire network. This allows the application of our approach in the area of large-scale networks. We present several experiments using small networks as well as large-scale artificial and real world networks. The results of the experiments show high effectiveness due to the locality of our approach and also high quality node ranking comparable to PageRank.

  13. The FAO/IAEA Partnership for Food Security: Food Safety and Quality Networks in Latin America and the Caribbean, Mexico City, 3 March 2016

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sasanya, James; Maestroni, Britt

    2016-01-01

    The side event on “The FAO-IAEA Partnership for Food Security: Food Safety and Quality Networks in Latin America and the Caribbean” took place in Mexico City, on 3rd March 2016 on the occasion of the 34th FAO Regional Conference for Latin America (LAC). The side event helped raise the awareness of stakeholders and decision makers about the benefits of partnership between the FAO/IAEA and Member States in Latin America and the Caribbean to improve food safety and food security in the region. The IAEA and its Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture supports Member State laboratories and institutions in the area of food safety and quality in Latin America and the Caribbean. For instance, capacity is built and an analytical network of laboratories initiated by transferring relevant technologies, strengthening laboratory functionality and competence through the procurement and supply of relevant equipment, analytical standards, reference materials and the facilitation of proficiency tests.

  14. Opening the black box of quality improvement collaboratives: an Actor-Network theory approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Broer Tineke

    2010-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Quality improvement collaboratives are often labeled as black boxes because effect studies usually do not describe exactly how the results were obtained. In this article we propose a way of opening such a black box, by taking up a dynamic perspective based on Actor-Network Theory. We thereby analyze how the problematisation process and the measurement practices are constructed. Findings from this analysis may have consequences for future evaluation studies of collaboratives. Methods In an ethnographic design we probed two projects within a larger quality improvement collaborative on long term mental health care and care for the intellectually disabled. Ethnographic observations were made at nine national conferences. Furthermore we conducted six case studies involving participating teams. Additionally, we interviewed the two program leaders of the overall projects. Results In one project the problematisation seemed to undergo a shift of focus away from the one suggested by the project leaders. In the other we observed multiple roles of the measurement instrument used. The instrument did not only measure effects of the improvement actions but also changed these actions and affected the actors involved. Conclusions Effectiveness statistics ideally should be complemented with an analysis of the construction of the collaborative and the improvement practices. Effect studies of collaboratives could benefit from a mixed methods research design that combines quantitative and qualitative methods.

  15. Online social support networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mehta, Neil; Atreja, Ashish

    2015-04-01

    Peer support groups have a long history and have been shown to improve health outcomes. With the increasing familiarity with online social networks like Facebook and ubiquitous access to the Internet, online social support networks are becoming popular. While studies have shown the benefit of these networks in providing emotional support or meeting informational needs, robust data on improving outcomes such as a decrease in health services utilization or reduction in adverse outcomes is lacking. These networks also pose unique challenges in the areas of patient privacy, funding models, quality of content, and research agendas. Addressing these concerns while creating patient-centred, patient-powered online support networks will help leverage these platforms to complement traditional healthcare delivery models in the current environment of value-based care.

  16. Using and joining a franchised private sector provider network in Myanmar.

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Connell, Kathryn; Hom, Mo; Aung, Tin; Theuss, Marc; Huntington, Dale

    2011-01-01

    Quality is central to understanding provider motivations to join and remain within a social franchising network. Quality also appears as a key issue from the client's perspective, and may influence why a client chooses to use a franchised provider over another type of provider. The dynamic relationships between providers of social franchising clinics and clients who use these services have not been thoroughly investigated in the context of Myanmar, which has an established social franchising network. This study examines client motivations to use a Sun Quality Health network provider and provider motivations to join and remain in the Sun Quality Health network. Taken together, these two aims provide an opportunity to explore the symbiotic relationship between client satisfaction and provider incentives to increase the utilization of reproductive health care services. Results from a series of focus group discussions with clients of reproductive health services and franchised providers shows that women chose health services provided by franchised private sector general practitioners because of its perceived higher quality, associated with the availability of effective, affordable, drugs. A key finding of the study is associated with providers. Provider focus group discussions indicate that a principle determinate for joining and remaining in the Sun Quality Health Network was serving the poor.

  17. Using and joining a franchised private sector provider network in Myanmar.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kathryn O'Connell

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Quality is central to understanding provider motivations to join and remain within a social franchising network. Quality also appears as a key issue from the client's perspective, and may influence why a client chooses to use a franchised provider over another type of provider. The dynamic relationships between providers of social franchising clinics and clients who use these services have not been thoroughly investigated in the context of Myanmar, which has an established social franchising network. This study examines client motivations to use a Sun Quality Health network provider and provider motivations to join and remain in the Sun Quality Health network. Taken together, these two aims provide an opportunity to explore the symbiotic relationship between client satisfaction and provider incentives to increase the utilization of reproductive health care services. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Results from a series of focus group discussions with clients of reproductive health services and franchised providers shows that women chose health services provided by franchised private sector general practitioners because of its perceived higher quality, associated with the availability of effective, affordable, drugs. A key finding of the study is associated with providers. Provider focus group discussions indicate that a principle determinate for joining and remaining in the Sun Quality Health Network was serving the poor.

  18. Using and Joining a Franchised Private Sector Provider Network in Myanmar

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Connell, Kathryn; Hom, Mo; Aung, Tin; Theuss, Marc; Huntington, Dale

    2011-01-01

    Background Quality is central to understanding provider motivations to join and remain within a social franchising network. Quality also appears as a key issue from the client's perspective, and may influence why a client chooses to use a franchised provider over another type of provider. The dynamic relationships between providers of social franchising clinics and clients who use these services have not been thoroughly investigated in the context of Myanmar, which has an established social franchising network. This study examines client motivations to use a Sun Quality Health network provider and provider motivations to join and remain in the Sun Quality Health network. Taken together, these two aims provide an opportunity to explore the symbiotic relationship between client satisfaction and provider incentives to increase the utilization of reproductive health care services. Methods and Findings Results from a series of focus group discussions with clients of reproductive health services and franchised providers shows that women chose health services provided by franchised private sector general practitioners because of its perceived higher quality, associated with the availability of effective, affordable, drugs. A key finding of the study is associated with providers. Provider focus group discussions indicate that a principle determinate for joining and remaining in the Sun Quality Health Network was serving the poor. PMID:22180781

  19. Exploring the Relationship Between Online Social Network Site Usage and the Impact on Quality of Life for Older and Younger Users: An Interaction Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quinn, Darren; Chen, Liming; Mulvenna, Maurice D; Bond, Raymond

    2016-09-29

    Analyzing content generated by users of social network sites has been shown to be beneficial across a number of disciplines. Such analysis has revealed the precise behavior of users that details their distinct patterns of engagement. An issue is evident whereby without direct engagement with end users, the reasoning for anomalies can only be the subject of conjecture. Furthermore, the impact of engaging in social network sites on quality of life is an area which has received little attention. Of particular interest is the impact of online social networking on older users, which is a demographic that is specifically vulnerable to social isolation. A review of the literature reveals a lack of knowledge concerning the impact of these technologies on such users and even less is known regarding how this impact varies across different demographics. The objective of our study was to analyze user interactions and to survey the attitudes of social network users directly, capturing data in four key areas: (1) functional usage, (2) behavioral patterns, (3) technology, and (4) quality of life. An online survey was constructed, comprising 32 questions. Each question directly related to a research question. Respondents were recruited through a variety of methods including email campaigns, Facebook advertisements, and promotion from related organizations. In total, data was collected from 919 users containing 446 younger and 473 older users. In comparison to younger users, a greater proportion of older users (289/473, 61.1% older vs 218/446, 48.9% younger) (PFacebook had either a positive or huge impact on their quality of life. Furthermore, a greater percentage of older users strongly agreed that Facebook strengthened their relationship with other people (64/473, 13.5% older vs 40/446, 9.0%younger) (P=.02). In comparison to younger users, a greater proportion of older users had more positive emotions-classified as slightly better or very good-during their engagement with

  20. Evaluation of environmental sustainability in the construction and management of buildings in Mexico; Evaluacion de la sustentabilidad ambiental en la construccion y administracion de edificios en Mexico

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    De Buen Rodriguez, Odon [Energia, Tecnologia y Educacion, S.C., ENTE, S.C. (Mexico)

    2010-12-15

    international system of certification of environmental sustainability. In particular, it is recommended: 1) To suggest to CONUEE the integration of additional variables to its database, 2) To conduct a national survey of commercial buildings, 3) To review information on commercial buildings located in Mexico by international organizations. Likewise, besides the support of the CONUEE, it would be useful to carry out an study jointly with the Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE), the Secretaria de Energia (SENER) and the Fideicomiso para el Ahorro de Energia Electrica (FIDE), in order to share and generate information for common analytical needs. Also, it is suggested to establish contact with chambers, associations and companies operating primarily in buildings such as schools, hospitals, hotels, department stores, supermarkets and restaurants. [Spanish] Esta investigacion tuvo como objetivo desarrollar una metodologia para la evaluacion de la sustentabilidad de los edificios en Mexico que pueda ser estandarizada y equiparable con el resto de Norteamerica. Con este proposito se revisaron y analizaron tres sistemas de evaluacion de edificaciones sustentables en Norteamerica: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Living Building Challenge (LBC) y Energy Star for Buildings. Ademas, se incluyo en el analisis el sistema espanol Green Building Council Espana (GBCe) con el fin de tener un punto referencia distinto al norteamericano. Como resultado del analisis de los sistemas de evaluacion consultados se decidio utilizar Energy Star como sistema de referencia para el desarrollo de una metodologia propia por las siguientes razones: a) La metodologia de Energy Star permite la comparacion de consumos de energia, lo cual permitiria estimar emisiones de gas de efecto invernadero, b) Es el sistema que requiere de la descripcion mas sencilla del edificio (datos de area, de ocupacion y de demanda y consumo energeticos) y no requiere - a diferencia de los otros sistemas

  1. Evaluation of environmental sustainability in the construction and management of buildings in Mexico; Evaluacion de la sustentabilidad ambiental en la construccion y administracion de edificios en Mexico

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    De Buen Rodriguez, Odon [Energia, Tecnologia y Educacion, S.C., ENTE, S.C. (Mexico)

    2010-12-15

    fully international system of certification of environmental sustainability. In particular, it is recommended: 1) To suggest to CONUEE the integration of additional variables to its database, 2) To conduct a national survey of commercial buildings, 3) To review information on commercial buildings located in Mexico by international organizations. Likewise, besides the support of the CONUEE, it would be useful to carry out an study jointly with the Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE), the Secretaria de Energia (SENER) and the Fideicomiso para el Ahorro de Energia Electrica (FIDE), in order to share and generate information for common analytical needs. Also, it is suggested to establish contact with chambers, associations and companies operating primarily in buildings such as schools, hospitals, hotels, department stores, supermarkets and restaurants. [Spanish] Esta investigacion tuvo como objetivo desarrollar una metodologia para la evaluacion de la sustentabilidad de los edificios en Mexico que pueda ser estandarizada y equiparable con el resto de Norteamerica. Con este proposito se revisaron y analizaron tres sistemas de evaluacion de edificaciones sustentables en Norteamerica: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Living Building Challenge (LBC) y Energy Star for Buildings. Ademas, se incluyo en el analisis el sistema espanol Green Building Council Espana (GBCe) con el fin de tener un punto referencia distinto al norteamericano. Como resultado del analisis de los sistemas de evaluacion consultados se decidio utilizar Energy Star como sistema de referencia para el desarrollo de una metodologia propia por las siguientes razones: a) La metodologia de Energy Star permite la comparacion de consumos de energia, lo cual permitiria estimar emisiones de gas de efecto invernadero, b) Es el sistema que requiere de la descripcion mas sencilla del edificio (datos de area, de ocupacion y de demanda y consumo energeticos) y no requiere - a diferencia de los otros

  2. [RESAOLAB: West African network of laboratories to enhance the quality of clinical biology].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Delorme, L; Machuron, J L; Sow, I; Diagne, R; Sakandé, J; Nikiéma, A; Bougoudogo, F; Keita, A; Longuet, C

    2015-02-01

    The Fondation Mérieux, in partnership with the Ministries of Health of Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal, implemented for four years a project to reinforce the laboratory sector in the three participating countries: the RESAOLAB project (West African Network of Biomedical Analysis Laboratories).The objective of RESAOLAB project, in partnership with the WHO Office for West Africa and the West African Health Organization, was to strengthen the systems of biomedical laboratories to improve diagnostic services, access, monitoring and management of infectious diseases. Following the successful results achieved under the RESAOLAB project and due to the demand of the neighbour countries ministries, the RESAOLAB project is now extended to four other countries of the West African region: Benin, Guinea-Conakry, Niger and Togo. The RESAOLAB project has become the RESAOLAB programme, its purpose is to strengthen the quality of the medical biology services thanks to a regional and transversal approach.

  3. Mental Health, School Problems, and Social Networks: Modeling Urban Adolescent Substance Use

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mason, Michael J.

    2010-01-01

    This study tested a mediation model of the relationship with school problems, social network quality, and substance use with a primary care sample of 301 urban adolescents. It was theorized that social network quality (level of risk or protection in network) would mediate the effects of school problems, accounting for internalizing problems and…

  4. Quality of Security Service: Adaptive Security

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Levin, Timothy E; Irvine, Cynthia E; Spyropoulou, Evdoxia

    2004-01-01

    The premise of Quality of Security Service is that system and network management functions can be more effective if variable levels of security services and requirements can be presented to users or network tasks...

  5. Software network analyzer for computer network performance measurement planning over heterogeneous services in higher educational institutes

    OpenAIRE

    Ismail, Mohd Nazri

    2009-01-01

    In 21st century, convergences of technologies and services in heterogeneous environment have contributed multi-traffic. This scenario will affect computer network on learning system in higher educational Institutes. Implementation of various services can produce different types of content and quality. Higher educational institutes should have a good computer network infrastructure to support usage of various services. The ability of computer network should consist of i) higher bandwidth; ii) ...

  6. AN APPLE GRADING SYSTEM ACCORDING TO EUROPEAN FRUIT QUALITY STANDARDS USING GABOR FILTER AND ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    KEYVAN ASEFPOUR VAKILIAN

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available With the advent of applications of machine learning methods in food engineering in recent decades, several intelligent methods have been introduced in fruit grading technology. In this study, an apple grading system is presented using image’s textural features extraction and artificial intelligence. The objective of this study was to simplify the use of Gabor filter in classification of two varieties of apple fruits (Golden Delicious and Red Delicious in four categories according to the European fruit quality standards. Using this filter, neural network classifier was trained for four category grading of the fruits. Two textural parameters were extracted from each obtained image: mean and variance of energy values of obtained image representing image’s luminous intensity and contrast, respectively. Experimental results indicated that the training of extracted features of about 350 fruits enabled the network to classify the test samples with appropriate accuracy. Compared to the state-of-the-art, the proposed grading categories (‘Extra’, ‘Type 1’, ‘Type 2’ and ‘Rejected’ classes achieved acceptable recognition rates of about 89 % and 92 % overall accuracy for Golden Delicious and Red Delicious varieties, respectively. These experimental results show the appropriate application of proposed method in fast grading of apple fruits. Furthermore, proposed feature extraction and network training methods can be used efficiently in online applications.

  7. An Analysis of Quality of Service (QoS In Live Video Streaming Using Evolved HSPA Network Media

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Achmad Zakaria Azhar

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Evolved High Speed Packet Access (HSPA+ is a mobile telecommunication system technology and the evolution of HSPA technology. This technology has a packet data based service with downlink speeds up to 21.1 Mbps and uplink speed up to 11.5 Mbps on the bandwidth 5MHz. This technology is expected to fulfill and support the needs for information that involves all aspects of multimedia such as video and audio, especially live video streaming. By utilizing this technology it will facilitate communicating the information, for example to monitoring the situation of the house, the news coverage at some certain area, and other events in real time. This thesis aims to identify and test the Quality of Service (QoS performance on the network that is used for live video streaming with the parameters of throughput, delay, jitter and packet loss. The software used for monitoring the data traffic of the live video streaming network is wireshark network analyzer. From the test results it is obtained that the average throughput of provider B is 5,295 Kbps bigger than the provider A, the average delay of provider B is 0.618 ms smaller than the provider A, the average jitter of provider B is 0.420 ms smaller than the provider A and the average packet loss of provider B is 0.451% smaller than the provider A.

  8. A scored human protein-protein interaction network to catalyze genomic interpretation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Li, Taibo; Wernersson, Rasmus; Hansen, Rasmus B

    2017-01-01

    Genome-scale human protein-protein interaction networks are critical to understanding cell biology and interpreting genomic data, but challenging to produce experimentally. Through data integration and quality control, we provide a scored human protein-protein interaction network (InWeb_InBioMap,......Genome-scale human protein-protein interaction networks are critical to understanding cell biology and interpreting genomic data, but challenging to produce experimentally. Through data integration and quality control, we provide a scored human protein-protein interaction network (In...

  9. AmeriFlux Measurement Network: Science Team Research

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Law, B E

    2012-12-12

    Research involves analysis and field direction of AmeriFlux operations, and the PI provides scientific leadership of the AmeriFlux network. Activities include the coordination and quality assurance of measurements across AmeriFlux network sites, synthesis of results across the network, organizing and supporting the annual Science Team Meeting, and communicating AmeriFlux results to the scientific community and other users. Objectives of measurement research include (i) coordination of flux and biometric measurement protocols (ii) timely data delivery to the Carbon Dioxide Information and Analysis Center (CDIAC); and (iii) assurance of data quality of flux and ecosystem measurements contributed by AmeriFlux sites. Objectives of integration and synthesis activities include (i) integration of site data into network-wide synthesis products; and (ii) participation in the analysis, modeling and interpretation of network data products. Communications objectives include (i) organizing an annual meeting of AmeriFlux investigators for reporting annual flux measurements and exchanging scientific information on ecosystem carbon budgets; (ii) developing focused topics for analysis and publication; and (iii) developing data reporting protocols in support of AmeriFlux network goals.

  10. UMA/GAN network architecture analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Liang; Li, Wensheng; Deng, Chunjian; Lv, Yi

    2009-07-01

    This paper is to critically analyze the architecture of UMA which is one of Fix Mobile Convergence (FMC) solutions, and also included by the third generation partnership project(3GPP). In UMA/GAN network architecture, UMA Network Controller (UNC) is the key equipment which connects with cellular core network and mobile station (MS). UMA network could be easily integrated into the existing cellular networks without influencing mobile core network, and could provides high-quality mobile services with preferentially priced indoor voice and data usage. This helps to improve subscriber's experience. On the other hand, UMA/GAN architecture helps to integrate other radio technique into cellular network which includes WiFi, Bluetooth, and WiMax and so on. This offers the traditional mobile operators an opportunity to integrate WiMax technique into cellular network. In the end of this article, we also give an analysis of potential influence on the cellular core networks ,which is pulled by UMA network.

  11. A SAT-Based Analysis of a Calculus for Wireless Sensor Networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wu, Xi; Nielson, Hanne Riis; Zhu, Huibiao

    2015-01-01

    In viewing the common unreliability problem in wireless communications, the CWQ calculus (a Calculus for Wireless sensor networks from Quality perspective) was recently proposed for modeling and reasoning about WSNs(Wireless Sensor Networks) and their applications from a quality perspective...

  12. Service Differentiation in Residential Broadband Networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sigurdsson, Halldór Matthias

    2004-01-01

    As broadband gains widespread adoption with residential users, revenue generating voice- and video-services have not yet taken off. This slow uptake is often attributed to lack of Quality of Service management in residential broadband networks. To resolve this and induce service variety, network...... access providers are implementing service differentiation in their networks where voice and video gets prioritised before data. This paper discusses the role of network access providers in multipurpose packet based networks and the available migration strategies for supporting multimedia services...... in digital subscriber line (DSL) based residential broadband networks. Four possible implementation scenarios and their technical characteristics and effects are described. To conclude, the paper discusses how network access providers can be induced to open their networks for third party service providers....

  13. Information quality in dynamic networked business process management

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Rasouli, M.; Eshuis, H.; Trienekens, J.J.M.; Kusters, R.J.; Grefen, P.W.P.J.; Devruyne, C.; Panetto, H.; Meersman, R.; Dillon, T.; Weichhart, G.; An, Y.; Ardagna, C.A.

    2015-01-01

    The competition in globalized markets forces organizations to provide mass-customized integrated solutions for customers. Mass-customization of integrated solutions by business network requires adaptive interactions between parties to address emerging requirements of customers. These adaptive

  14. Wireless Sensor Network for Indoor Air Quality Monitoring

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jun Li

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Indoor air quality monitoring system consists of wireless sensor device, nRF24L01 wireless transceiver modules, C8051MCU, STM32103 remote monitoring platform, alarm device and data server. Distributed in the interior space of wireless sensors measure parameters of the local air quality, wireless transceiver module of the MCU to transmit data to the remote monitoring platform for analysis which displayed and stored field environment data or charts. The data collecting from wireless sensors to be send by wireless Access Point to the remote data server based on B/S architecture, intelligent terminals such as mobile phone, laptop, tablet PC on the Internet monitor indoor air quality in real-time. When site environment air quality index data exceeds the threshold in the monitoring device, the remote monitoring platform sends out the alarm SMS signal to inform user by GSM module. Indoor air quality monitoring system uses modular design method, has the portability and scalability has the low manufacture cost, real-time monitoring data and man-machine interaction.

  15. The university library in social networks: planning a quality presence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Estela Carmen Andrade Andrade

    2011-02-01

    Full Text Available Talks about the feasibility of participation of university libraries in social networking. We present the benefits and opportunities of Web 2.0 and online communities. Poses a set of guidelines aimed at developing a work plan that enables the implementation of site information in a social network. It highlights the capabilities of librarians to optimize this type of service.

  16. Sierra Stars Observatory Network: An Accessible Global Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, Richard; Beshore, Edward

    2011-03-01

    The Sierra Stars Observatory Network (SSON) is a unique partnership among professional observatories that provides its users with affordable high-quality calibrated image data. SSON comprises observatories in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere and is in the process of expanding to a truly global network capable of covering the entire sky 24 hours a day in the near future. The goal of SSON is to serve the needs of science-based projects and programs. Colleges, universities, institutions, and individuals use SSON for their education and research projects. The mission of SSON is to promote and expand the use of its facilities among the thousands of colleges and schools worldwide that do not have access to professional-quality automated observatory systems to use for astronomy education and research. With appropriate leadership and guidance educators can use SSON to help teach astronomy and do meaningful scientific projects. The relatively small cost of using SSON for this type of work makes it affordable and accessible for educators to start using immediately. Remote observatory services like SSON need to evolve to better support education and research initiatives of colleges, institutions and individual investigators. To meet these needs, SSON is developing a sophisticated interactive scheduling system to integrate among the nodes of the observatory network. This will enable more dynamic observations, including immediate priority interrupts, acquiring moving objects using ephemeris data, and more.

  17. Green heterogeneous wireless networks

    CERN Document Server

    Ismail, Muhammad; Nee, Hans-Peter; Qaraqe, Khalid A; Serpedin, Erchin

    2016-01-01

    This book focuses on the emerging research topic "green (energy efficient) wireless networks" which has drawn huge attention recently from both academia and industry. This topic is highly motivated due to important environmental, financial, and quality-of-experience (QoE) considerations. Specifically, the high energy consumption of the wireless networks manifests in approximately 2% of all CO2 emissions worldwide. This book presents the authors’ visions and solutions for deployment of energy efficient (green) heterogeneous wireless communication networks. The book consists of three major parts. The first part provides an introduction to the "green networks" concept, the second part targets the green multi-homing resource allocation problem, and the third chapter presents a novel deployment of device-to-device (D2D) communications and its successful integration in Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets). The book is novel in that it specifically targets green networking in a heterogeneous wireless medium, which re...

  18. Dynamic quality of service differentiation using fixed code weight in optical CDMA networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kakaee, Majid H.; Essa, Shawnim I.; Abd, Thanaa H.; Seyedzadeh, Saleh

    2015-11-01

    The emergence of network-driven applications, such as internet, video conferencing, and online gaming, brings in the need for a network the environments with capability of providing diverse Quality of Services (QoS). In this paper, a new code family of novel spreading sequences, called a Multi-Service (MS) code, has been constructed to support multiple services in Optical- Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system. The proposed method uses fixed weight for all services, however reducing the interfering codewords for the users requiring higher QoS. The performance of the proposed code is demonstrated using mathematical analysis. It shown that the total number of served users with satisfactory BER of 10-9 using NB=2 is 82, while they are only 36 and 10 when NB=3 and 4 respectively. The developed MS code is compared with variable-weight codes such as Variable Weight-Khazani Syed (VW-KS) and Multi-Weight-Random Diagonal (MW-RD). Different numbers of basic users (NB) are used to support triple-play services (audio, data and video) with different QoS requirements. Furthermore, reference to the BER of 10-12, 10-9, and 10-3 for video, data and audio, respectively, the system can support up to 45 total users. Hence, results show that the technique can clearly provide a relative QoS differentiation with lower value of basic users can support larger number of subscribers as well as better performance in terms of acceptable BER of 10-9 at fixed code weight.

  19. Link-quality measurement and reporting in wireless sensor networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chehri, Abdellah; Jeon, Gwanggil; Choi, Byoungjo

    2013-03-04

    Wireless Sensor networks (WSNs) are created by small hardware devices that possess the necessary functionalities to measure and exchange a variety of environmental data in their deployment setting. In this paper, we discuss the experiments in deploying a testbed as a first step towards creating a fully functional heterogeneous wireless network-based underground monitoring system. The system is mainly composed of mobile and static ZigBee nodes, which are deployed on the underground mine galleries for measuring ambient temperature. In addition, we describe the measured results of link characteristics such as received signal strength, latency and throughput for different scenarios.

  20. Link-Quality Measurement and Reporting in Wireless Sensor Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Byoungjo Choi

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available Wireless Sensor networks (WSNs are created by small hardware devices that possess the necessary functionalities to measure and exchange a variety of environmental data in their deployment setting. In this paper, we discuss the experiments in deploying a testbed as a first step towards creating a fully functional heterogeneous wireless network-based underground monitoring system. The system is mainly composed of mobile and static ZigBee nodes, which are deployed on the underground mine galleries for measuring ambient temperature. In addition, we describe the measured results of link characteristics such as received signal strength, latency and throughput for different scenarios.

  1. Using inferential sensors for quality control of Everglades Depth Estimation Network water-level data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Petkewich, Matthew D.; Daamen, Ruby C.; Roehl, Edwin A.; Conrads, Paul

    2016-09-29

    The Everglades Depth Estimation Network (EDEN), with over 240 real-time gaging stations, provides hydrologic data for freshwater and tidal areas of the Everglades. These data are used to generate daily water-level and water-depth maps of the Everglades that are used to assess biotic responses to hydrologic change resulting from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. The generation of EDEN daily water-level and water-depth maps is dependent on high quality real-time data from water-level stations. Real-time data are automatically checked for outliers by assigning minimum and maximum thresholds for each station. Small errors in the real-time data, such as gradual drift of malfunctioning pressure transducers, are more difficult to immediately identify with visual inspection of time-series plots and may only be identified during on-site inspections of the stations. Correcting these small errors in the data often is time consuming and water-level data may not be finalized for several months. To provide daily water-level and water-depth maps on a near real-time basis, EDEN needed an automated process to identify errors in water-level data and to provide estimates for missing or erroneous water-level data.The Automated Data Assurance and Management (ADAM) software uses inferential sensor technology often used in industrial applications. Rather than installing a redundant sensor to measure a process, such as an additional water-level station, inferential sensors, or virtual sensors, were developed for each station that make accurate estimates of the process measured by the hard sensor (water-level gaging station). The inferential sensors in the ADAM software are empirical models that use inputs from one or more proximal stations. The advantage of ADAM is that it provides a redundant signal to the sensor in the field without the environmental threats associated with field conditions at stations (flood or hurricane, for example). In the

  2. IP, ethernet and MPLS networks resource and fault management

    CERN Document Server

    Perez, André

    2013-01-01

    This book summarizes the key Quality of Service technologies deployed in telecommunications networks: Ethernet, IP, and MPLS. The QoS of the network is made up of two parts: fault and resource management. Network operation quality is among the functions to be fulfilled in order to offer QoS to the end user. It is characterized by four parameters: packet loss, delay, jitter or the variation of delay over time, and availability. Resource management employs mechanisms that enable the first three parameters to be guaranteed or optimized. Fault management aims to ensure continuity of service.

  3. Enabling framework for service-oriented collaborative networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Sargolzaei, M.

    2018-01-01

    In today's economy, collaboration and co-development among organizations has evolved from the traditional format of static supply chains to the dynamic formation of federated organization networks. Networking among business partners has proven to yield lower costs, higher quality, larger

  4. Ground-water-quality assessment of the Central Oklahoma aquifer, Oklahoma; hydrologic, water-quality, and quality-assurance data 1987-90

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferree, D.M.; Christenson, S.C.; Rea, A.H.; Mesander, B.A.

    1992-01-01

    This report presents data collected from 202 wells between June 1987 and September 1990 as part of the Central Oklahoma aquifer pilot study of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program. The report describes the sampling networks, the sampling procedures, and the results of the ground-water quality and quality-assurance sample analyses. The data tables consist of information about the wells sampled and the results of the chemical analyses of ground water and quality-assurance sampling. Chemical analyses of ground-water samples in four sampling networks are presented: A geochemical network, a low-density survey bedrock network, a low-density survey alluvium and terrace deposits network, and a targeted urban network. The analyses generally included physical properties, major ions, nutrients, trace substances, radionuclides, and organic constituents. The chemical analyses of the ground-water samples are presented in five tables: (1) Physical properties and concentrations of major ions, nutrients, and trace substances; (2) concentrations of radionuclides and radioactivities; (3) carbon isotope ratios and delta values (d-values) of selected isotopes; (4) concentrations of organic constituents; and (5) organic constituents not reported in ground-water samples. The quality of the ground water sampled varied substantially. The sum of constituents (dissolved solids) concentrations ranged from 71 to 5,610 milligrams per liter, with 38 percent of the wells sampled exceeding the Secondary Maximum Contaminant Level of 500 milligrams per liter established under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Values of pH ranged from 5.7 to 9.2 units with 20 percent of the wells outside the Secondary Maximum Contaminant Level of 6.5 to 8.5 units. Nitrite plus nitrate concentrations ranged from less than 0.1 to 85 milligrams per liter with 8 percent of the wells exceeding the proposed Maximum Contaminant Level of 10 milligrams per liter. Concentrations of trace substances were highly variable

  5. USE OF INTELLECTUAL TECHNOLOGIES FOR QUALITY CONTROL OF CURD

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. M. Blagoveshchenskaia

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Summary. Method of curds quality control, based on neural network model is introduced in the paper. It allows to give fair estimate of final product’s quality without use of professional degustators. Method consists in construction of neural network model to estimate quality of curds by input and output parameters. Hardware software complex of curds taste control is proposed to apply in industry for independent estimate of final product. Operation of neural network model based on usage of artificial neural networks, which is one of directions of artificial intelligence theory. Neural network model consists of several artificial neurons layers, which emulate nerve cells functioning. Feed forward network of MLP type was used in solving of curds taste control problem. Feature of this network is that signals passed from one layer’s neurons to next layer’s neurons only from input layer to output, not the other way. Neural network was trained for its correct operation by selection of optimal synaptic factors. Flow diagram of training algorithm is introduced in the paper. Algorithm of neural network tuning is described in the paper. Author proposed set of recommendations for software-hardware complex deployment. Experiment results show that this taste estimate method based on neural net works simplify a problem of final product control as allow to react to deviations in production process on proper time.

  6. Quality-Assured and Sociality-Enriched Multimedia Mobile Mashup

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhang Hongguang

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Mashups are getting more complex with the addition of rich-media and real-time services. The new research challenges will be how to guarantee the quality of the aggregated services, and how to share them in a collaborative manner. This paper presents a metadata-based mashup framework in Next Generation Wireless Network (NGWN, which guarantees the quality and supports social interactions. In contrast to existing quality-assured approaches, the proposed mashup model addresses the quality management issue from a new perspective through defining the Quality of Service (QoS metadata into two levels: fidelity (user perspective and modality (application perspective. The quality is assured from quality-aware service selection and quality-adaptable service delivery. Furthermore, the mashup model is extended for users to annotate services collaboratively. The annotation occurs in two ways, social tagging (e.g., rating and comments and QoS attributes (e.g., device type and access network, etc.. In order to apply this network-independent metadata model into NGWN architecture, we further introduce a new entity named Multimedia Mashup Engine (MME which enables seamlessly access to the services and Adaptation Decision Taking (ADT. Finally, our prototype system and the simulation results demonstrate the performance of the proposed work.

  7. A measurement-driven approach to assess power line telecommunication (PLT) network quality of service (QoS) performance parameters

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Betta, G; Capriglione, D; Ferrigno, L; Laracca, M

    2009-01-01

    Power line telecommunication (PLT) technology offers cheap and fast ways for providing in-home broadband services and local area networking. Its main advantage is due to the possibility of using the pre-existing electrical grid as a communication channel. Nevertheless, technical challenges arise from the difficulty of operating on a hostile medium, not designed for communication purposes, characterized by complex channel modeling and by varying time response. These aspects put practical problems for designers and testers in the assessment of network quality of service performance parameters such as the throughput, the latency, the jitter, and the reliability. The measurement of these parameters has not yet been standardized so that there do not exist reference test set-ups and measurement methodologies (i.e. the type of isolation from the ac main, the observation time and the number of experiments, the measurement uncertainty and so on). Consequently, experiments executed by adopting different methods may lead to incompatible measurement results, thus making it also impossible to have reliable comparisons of different PLT modems. Really, the development of standard procedures is a very difficult task because the scenarios in which the PLT modems can work are very wide and then the application of an exhaustive approach (in which all the parameters influencing the PLT performance should be considered) would be very complex and time consuming, thus making the modem characterization very expensive. In this paper, the authors propose a methodological approach to develop an efficient measurement procedure able to reliably assess the performance of PLT modems (in terms of network quality of service parameters) with a minimum number of experiments. It is based on both creating a reconfigurable grid to which real disturbing loads are connected and implementing an original design of the experiment technique based on the effects of the uncertainty of the measurement results

  8. On the Use of Information Quality in Stochastic Networked Control Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Olsen, Rasmus Løvenstein; Madsen, Jacob Theilgaard; Rasmussen, Jakob Gulddahl

    2017-01-01

    Networked control is challenged by stochastic delays that are caused by the communication networks as well as by the approach taken to exchange information about system state and set-points. Combined with stochastic changing information, there is a probability that information at the controller....... This is first analyzed in simulation models for the example system of a wind-farm controller. As simulation analysis is subject to stochastic variability and requires large computational effort, the paper develops a Markov model of a simplified networked control system and uses numerical results from the Markov...... is not matching the true system observation, which we call mismatch probability (mmPr). The hypothesis is that the optimization of certain parameters of networked control systems targeting mmPr is equivalent to the optimization targeting control performance, while the former is practically much easier to conduct...

  9. Optical broadband in-home networks for converged service delivery

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Shi, Y.

    2013-01-01

    Broadband access networks, and in particular fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks, are offering abundantly available bandwidth in the local loop with high quality of services. Under such broadband connectivity conditions, in-home networks should not represent the bottleneck for high capacity service

  10. Competitive Liner Shipping Network Design

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Karsten, Christian Vad

    .The contributions of this thesis cover modeling, methodology, and applications.The developed methods address operational (cargo routing), tactical (speed optimization and service selection), and strategic (network design) planning problems faced by liner shipping companies. Ultimately, the proposed methods help...... take the container transportation times that can be realized in the network nor the number of transshipments into consideration. This is mainly because the optimization problem is based on other transportation networks where these constraints are not decisive to the quality of the network. Furthermore......, the problem in itself is challenging to optimize due to its size and complexity. However, the field has seen crucial progress and is mature to include handling of competitiveness in the actual design of the network.As a liner shipping network is an organic entity, which is constantly changed to reflect...

  11. Behind the NAT??? A measurement based evaluation of cellular service quality

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kaup, F.; Michelinakis, F.; Bui, N.

    2015-01-01

    Mobile applications such as VoIP, (live) gaming, or video streaming have diverse QoS requirements ranging from low delay to high throughput. The optimization of the network quality experienced by end-users requires detailed knowledge of the expected network performance. Also, the achieved service...... quality is affected by a number of factors, including network operator and available technologies. However, most studies focusing on measuring the cellular network do not consider the performance implications of network configuration and management. To this end, this paper reports about an extensive data...

  12. The Colombia Seismological Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blanco Chia, J. F.; Poveda, E.; Pedraza, P.

    2013-05-01

    The latest seismological equipment and data processing instrumentation installed at the Colombia Seismological Network (RSNC) are described. System configuration, network operation, and data management are discussed. The data quality and the new seismological products are analyzed. The main purpose of the network is to monitor local seismicity with a special emphasis on seismic activity surrounding the Colombian Pacific and Caribbean oceans, for early warning in case a Tsunami is produced by an earthquake. The Colombian territory is located at the South America northwestern corner, here three tectonic plates converge: Nazca, Caribbean and the South American. The dynamics of these plates, when resulting in earthquakes, is continuously monitored by the network. In 2012, the RSNC registered in 2012 an average of 67 events per day; from this number, a mean of 36 earthquakes were possible to be located well. In 2010 the network was also able to register an average of 67 events, but it was only possible to locate a mean of 28 earthquakes daily. This difference is due to the expansion of the network. The network is made up of 84 stations equipped with different kind of broadband 40s, 120s seismometers, accelerometers and short period 1s sensors. The signal is transmitted continuously in real-time to the Central Recording Center located at Bogotá, using satellite, telemetry, and Internet. Moreover, there are some other stations which are required to collect the information in situ. Data is recorded and processed digitally using two different systems, EARTHWORM and SEISAN, which are able to process and share the information between them. The RSNC has designed and implemented a web system to share the seismological data. This innovative system uses tools like Java Script, Oracle and programming languages like PHP to allow the users to access the seismicity registered by the network almost in real time as well as to download the waveform and technical details. The coverage

  13. Stochastic water demand modelling for a better understanding of hydraulics in water distribution networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Blokker, E.J.M.

    2010-01-01

    In the water distribution network water quality process take place influenced by de flow velocity and residence time of the water in the network. In order to understand how the water quality changes in the water distribution network, a good understanding of hydraulics is required. Specifically in

  14. A performance based evaluation of SIP signalling across converged networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Oredope, A.; Liotta, A.

    2007-01-01

    As wireless networks evolves towards the 3G and 4G architectures the mobile core networks provides a platform for all-IP convergence of mobile and fixed networks allowing for better integration of the Internet and cellular networks, providing better quality of service, charging mechanisms and

  15. Optimal Traffic Allocation for Multi-Stream Aggregation in Heterogeneous Networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Popovska Avramova, Andrijana; Iversen, Villy Bæk

    2015-01-01

    nature of radio access networks are considered as important factors for performance improvement by multi-stream aggregation. Therefore, in our model, the networks are represented by different queueing systems in order to indicate networks with opposite quality of service provisioning, capacity and delay...... variations. Furthermore, services with different traffic characteristics in terms of quality of service requirements are considered. The simulation results show the advantages of our scheme with respect to efficient increase in data rate and delay performance compared to traditional schemes....

  16. The German Quality Network Sepsis: study protocol for the evaluation of a quality collaborative on decreasing sepsis-related mortality in a quasi-experimental difference-in-differences design.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schwarzkopf, Daniel; Rüddel, Hendrik; Gründling, Matthias; Putensen, Christian; Reinhart, Konrad

    2018-01-18

    While sepsis-related mortality decreased substantially in other developed countries, mortality of severe sepsis remained as high as 44% in Germany. A recent German cluster randomized trial was not able to improve guideline adherence and decrease sepsis-related mortality within the participating hospitals, partly based on lacking support by hospital management and lacking resources for documentation of prospective data. Thus, more pragmatic approaches are needed to improve quality of sepsis care in Germany. The primary objective of the study is to decrease sepsis-related hospital mortality within a quality collaborative relying on claims data. The German Quality Network Sepsis (GQNS) is a quality collaborative involving 75 hospitals. This study protocol describes the conduction and evaluation of the start-up period of the GQNS running from March 2016 to August 2018. Democratic structures assure participatory action, a study coordination bureau provides central support and resources, and local interdisciplinary quality improvement teams implement changes within the participating hospitals. Quarterly quality reports focusing on risk-adjusted hospital mortality in cases with sepsis based on claims data are provided. Hospitals committed to publish their individual risk-adjusted mortality compared to the German average. A complex risk-model is used to control for differences in patient-related risk factors. Hospitals are encouraged to implement a bundle of interventions, e.g., interdisciplinary case analyses, external peer-reviews, hospital-wide staff education, and implementation of rapid response teams. The effectiveness of the GQNS is evaluated in a quasi-experimental difference-in-differences design by comparing the change of hospital mortality of cases with sepsis with organ dysfunction from a retrospective baseline period (January 2014 to December 2015) and the intervention period (April 2016 to March 2018) between the participating hospitals and all other German

  17. Network performance analysis

    CERN Document Server

    Bonald, Thomas

    2013-01-01

    The book presents some key mathematical tools for the performance analysis of communication networks and computer systems.Communication networks and computer systems have become extremely complex. The statistical resource sharing induced by the random behavior of users and the underlying protocols and algorithms may affect Quality of Service.This book introduces the main results of queuing theory that are useful for analyzing the performance of these systems. These mathematical tools are key to the development of robust dimensioning rules and engineering methods. A number of examples i

  18. A Comparison of Power Quality Controllers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Petr Černek

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper focuses on certain types of FACTS (Flexibile AC Transmission System controllers, which can be used for improving the power quality at the point of connection with the power network. It focuses on types of controllers that are suitable for use in large buildings, rather than in transmission networks. The goal is to compare the features of the controllers in specific tasks, and to clarify which solution is best for a specific purpose. It is in some cases better and cheaper to use a combination of controllers than a single controller. The paper also presents the features of a shunt active harmonic compensator, which is a very modern power quality controller that can be used in many cases, or in combination with other controllers. The comparison was made using a matrix diagram that, resulted from mind mapsand other analysis tools. The paper should help engineers to choose the best solution for improving the power quality in a specific power network at distribution level.

  19. Quality of Service in Bluetooth networking - part I

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van der Zee, Martin; Heijenk, Geert

    The Quality of Service functions and procedures included in the Bluetooth 1.0 specification have been reviewed. Next issues associated with providing Quality of Service over a wireless link in general and Bluetooth in particular have been investigated. Allthough the Bluetooth 1.0 specification

  20. Real-time resource availability signalling in IMS-based networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ozcelebi, T.; Radovanovic, I.; Lukkien, J.J.

    2007-01-01

    The emerging converged IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) allows the use of unlicensed, nondedicated and nondeterministic computer access networks for delivering IP multimedia services. To provide end-to-end quality-of-service (QoS) over such networks combined with the IMS core network, for resource

  1. Predicting Software Suitability Using a Bayesian Belief Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beaver, Justin M.; Schiavone, Guy A.; Berrios, Joseph S.

    2005-01-01

    The ability to reliably predict the end quality of software under development presents a significant advantage for a development team. It provides an opportunity to address high risk components earlier in the development life cycle, when their impact is minimized. This research proposes a model that captures the evolution of the quality of a software product, and provides reliable forecasts of the end quality of the software being developed in terms of product suitability. Development team skill, software process maturity, and software problem complexity are hypothesized as driving factors of software product quality. The cause-effect relationships between these factors and the elements of software suitability are modeled using Bayesian Belief Networks, a machine learning method. This research presents a Bayesian Network for software quality, and the techniques used to quantify the factors that influence and represent software quality. The developed model is found to be effective in predicting the end product quality of small-scale software development efforts.

  2. Energy and exergy analysis of low temperature district heating network

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Li, Hongwei; Svendsen, Svend

    2012-01-01

    is designed to supply heating for 30 low energy detached residential houses. The network operational supply/return temperature is set as 55 °C/25 °C, which is in line with a pilot project carried out in Denmark. Two types of in-house substations are analyzed to supply the consumer domestic hot water demand...... energy/exergy losses and increase the quality match between the consumer heating demand and the district heating supply.......Low temperature district heating with reduced network supply and return temperature provides better match of the low quality building heating demand and the low quality heating supply from waste heat or renewable energy. In this paper, a hypothetical low temperature district heating network...

  3. Development of the Global Measles Laboratory Network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Featherstone, David; Brown, David; Sanders, Ray

    2003-05-15

    The routine reporting of suspected measles cases and laboratory testing of samples from these cases is the backbone of measles surveillance. The Global Measles Laboratory Network (GMLN) has developed standards for laboratory confirmation of measles and provides training resources for staff of network laboratories, reference materials and expertise for the development and quality control of testing procedures, and accurate information for the Measles Mortality Reduction and Regional Elimination Initiative. The GMLN was developed along the lines of the successful Global Polio Laboratory Network, and much of the polio laboratory infrastructure was utilized for measles. The GMLN has developed as countries focus on measles control activities following successful eradication of polio. Currently more than 100 laboratories are part of the global network and follow standardized testing and reporting procedures. A comprehensive laboratory accreditation process will be introduced in 2002 with six quality assurance and performance indicators.

  4. Large scale network management. Condition indicators for network stations, high voltage power conductions and cables

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Eggen, Arnt Ove; Rolfseng, Lars; Langdal, Bjoern Inge

    2006-02-01

    In the Strategic Institute Programme (SIP) 'Electricity Business enters e-business (eBee)' SINTEF Energy research has developed competency that can help the energy business employ ICT systems and computer technology in an improved way. Large scale network management is now a reality, and it is characterized by large entities with increasing demands on efficiency and quality. These are goals that can only be reached by using ICT systems and computer technology in a more clever way than what is the case today. At the same time it is important that knowledge held by experienced co-workers is consulted when formal rules for evaluations and decisions in ICT systems are developed. In this project an analytical concept for evaluation of networks based information in different ICT systems has been developed. The method estimating the indicators to describe different conditions in a network is general, and indicators can be made to fit different levels of decision and network levels, for example network station, transformer circuit, distribution network and regional network. Moreover, the indicators can contain information about technical aspects, economy and HSE. An indicator consists of an indicator name, an indicator value, and an indicator colour based on a traffic-light analogy to indicate a condition or a quality for the indicator. Values on one or more indicators give an impression of important conditions in the network, and make up the basis for knowing where more detailed evaluations have to be conducted before a final decision on for example maintenance or renewal is made. A prototype has been developed for testing the new method. The prototype has been developed in Excel, and especially designed for analysing transformer circuits in a distribution network. However, the method is a general one, and well suited for implementation in a commercial computer system (ml)

  5. The six dimensions of personality (HEXACO) and their associations with network layer size and emotional closeness to network members

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Molho, Catherine; Lis, Sam G.B.; de Vries, Reinout Everhard; Pollet, Thomas V.

    2016-01-01

    Previous work has examined how specific personality dimensions are associated with social network characteristics. However, it is unclear how the full range of personality traits relates to the quantity and quality of relationships at different network layers. This study (N = 525) investigates how

  6. Fast and accurate detection of spread source in large complex networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paluch, Robert; Lu, Xiaoyan; Suchecki, Krzysztof; Szymański, Bolesław K; Hołyst, Janusz A

    2018-02-06

    Spread over complex networks is a ubiquitous process with increasingly wide applications. Locating spread sources is often important, e.g. finding the patient one in epidemics, or source of rumor spreading in social network. Pinto, Thiran and Vetterli introduced an algorithm (PTVA) to solve the important case of this problem in which a limited set of nodes act as observers and report times at which the spread reached them. PTVA uses all observers to find a solution. Here we propose a new approach in which observers with low quality information (i.e. with large spread encounter times) are ignored and potential sources are selected based on the likelihood gradient from high quality observers. The original complexity of PTVA is O(N α ), where α ∈ (3,4) depends on the network topology and number of observers (N denotes the number of nodes in the network). Our Gradient Maximum Likelihood Algorithm (GMLA) reduces this complexity to O (N 2 log (N)). Extensive numerical tests performed on synthetic networks and real Gnutella network with limitation that id's of spreaders are unknown to observers demonstrate that for scale-free networks with such limitation GMLA yields higher quality localization results than PTVA does.

  7. Enhancing the Functional Content of Eukaryotic Protein Interaction Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pandey, Gaurav; Arora, Sonali; Manocha, Sahil; Whalen, Sean

    2014-01-01

    Protein interaction networks are a promising type of data for studying complex biological systems. However, despite the rich information embedded in these networks, these networks face important data quality challenges of noise and incompleteness that adversely affect the results obtained from their analysis. Here, we apply a robust measure of local network structure called common neighborhood similarity (CNS) to address these challenges. Although several CNS measures have been proposed in the literature, an understanding of their relative efficacies for the analysis of interaction networks has been lacking. We follow the framework of graph transformation to convert the given interaction network into a transformed network corresponding to a variety of CNS measures evaluated. The effectiveness of each measure is then estimated by comparing the quality of protein function predictions obtained from its corresponding transformed network with those from the original network. Using a large set of human and fly protein interactions, and a set of over GO terms for both, we find that several of the transformed networks produce more accurate predictions than those obtained from the original network. In particular, the measure and other continuous CNS measures perform well this task, especially for large networks. Further investigation reveals that the two major factors contributing to this improvement are the abilities of CNS measures to prune out noisy edges and enhance functional coherence in the transformed networks. PMID:25275489

  8. Network analysis on skype end-to-end video quality

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Exarchakos, Georgios; Druda, Luca; Menkovski, Vlado; Liotta, Antonio

    2015-01-01

    Purpose – This paper aims to argue on the efficiency of Quality of Service (QoS)-based adaptive streamingwith regards to perceived quality Quality of Experience (QoE). Although QoS parameters are extensivelyused even by high-end adaptive streaming algorithms, achieved QoE fails to justify their use

  9. Integrating biological indicators in a Soil Monitoring Network (SMN to improve soil quality diagnosis - a case study in Southern Belgium (Wallonia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Krüger, I.

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Description of the subject. Soil organisms and their activities are essential for soil ecosystem functioning and they can thus be used as pertinent indicators of soil quality. Recent efforts have been undertaken to include biological indicators of soil quality into regional/national monitoring networks. Objectives. The aim of this study was to provide a first dataset of six biological indicators and two eco-physiological quotients for two landscape units in Wallonia. These spatial units are characterized by homogeneous climate conditions, soil type, land-use and management (here, grasslands in the Ardennes, and croplands in the Loam Region. Method. Respiration potential, microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen, net nitrogen mineralization, metabolic potential of soil bacteria and earthworm abundance were measured at a total of 60 sites in two different landscape units (LSU. Variability within each LSU was studied. Data was synthesized through calculation of a comprehensive score and presentation as radar plots. Results. All selected biological indicators were significantly higher under grassland than under cropland soils, highlighting the biological indicators' power of discrimination between main land use types. Variability within LSU depended on the biological indicator and was generally higher in grassland than in cropland soils. Each site could unambiguously be assigned to its landscape unit based on its calculated comprehensive score. Radar plots allowed an assessment of the distribution of values within a landscape unit at a glance. Conclusions. The pilot-study defined the first baseline values for agricultural soils in Wallonia and laid the foundation for a monitoring network of biological soil quality.

  10. Upgrade Egyptian biogas to meet the natural gas network quality standard

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sameh Tawfik Abd Elfattah

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Biogas is one of the promising renewable energy sources in Egypt. The objective of this research was to treat the raw biogas in order to clean it from acidic gases CO2 and H2S to meet the standard of the natural gas network. The acidic gases treating plant of the biogas were built up and numerically simulated using Aspen HYSYS 8.6 and a proper design of the plant was performed. The main purpose of the simulation is to determine the optimum working pressure, which can achieve the methane purity of the Egyptian biogas comparable to natural gas quality. The biogas treating process was accomplished inside Pressure Swing Absorber (PSA where the feed sour gas enters the absorber at the CO2 contents of 0.25, H2S contents of 0.0004, a temperature of 30 °C, a pressure of 1.1 bars, a flow rate of 13 m3/h, Diethanolamine (DEA concentration of 0.3 and 20 stages PSA with a tray diameter of 1.7 m. it is found that a PSA working pressure of 5 bars is required to obtain a biogas with methane purity of 95%.

  11. Performance Analysis of IIUM Wireless Campus Network

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Latif, Suhaimi Abd; Masud, Mosharrof H; Anwar, Farhat

    2013-01-01

    International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) is one of the leading universities in the world in terms of quality of education that has been achieved due to providing numerous facilities including wireless services to every enrolled student. The quality of this wireless service is controlled and monitored by Information Technology Division (ITD), an ISO standardized organization under the university. This paper aims to investigate the constraints of wireless campus network of IIUM. It evaluates the performance of the IIUM wireless campus network in terms of delay, throughput and jitter. QualNet 5.2 simulator tool has employed to measure these performances of IIUM wireless campus network. The observation from the simulation result could be one of the influencing factors in improving wireless services for ITD and further improvement

  12. Representative Delay Measurements (RDM: Facing the Challenge of Modern Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joachim Fabini

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Network access technologies have evolved significantly in the last years. They deploy novel mechanisms like reactive capacity allocation and time-slotted operation to optimize overall network capacity. From a single node's perspective, such optimizations decrease network determinism and measurement repeatability. Evolving application fields like machine to machine (M2M communications or real-time gaming often have strict real-time requirements to operate correctly. Highly accurate delay measurements are necessary to monitor network compliance with application demands or to detect deviations of normal network behavior, which may be caused by network failures, misconfigurations or attacks. This paper analyzes factors that challenge active delay measurements in modern networks. It introduces the Representative Delay Measurement tool (RDM that addresses these factors and proposes solutions that conform to requirements of the recently published RFC7312. Delay measurement results acquired using RDM in live networks confirm that advanced measurement methods can significantly improve the quality of measurement samples by isolating systematic network behavior. The resulting high-quality samples are one prerequisite for accurate statistics that support proper operation of subsequent algorithms and applications.

  13. Creating a network of high-quality skilled nursing facilities: preliminary data on the postacute care quality improvement experiences of an accountable care organization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lage, Daniel E; Rusinak, Donna; Carr, Darcy; Grabowski, David C; Ackerly, D Clay

    2015-04-01

    Postacute care (PAC) is an important source of cost growth and variation in the Medicare program and is critical to accountable care organization (ACO) and bundled payment efforts to improve quality and value in the Medicare program, but ACOs must often look outside their walls to identify high-value external PAC partners, including skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). As a solution to this problem, the integrated health system, Partners HealthCare System (PHS) and its Pioneer ACO launched the PHS SNF Collaborative Network in October 2013 to identify and partner with high-quality SNFs. This study details the method by which PHS selected SNFs using minimum criteria based on public scores and secondary criteria based on self-reported measures, describes the characteristics of selected and nonselected SNFs, and reports SNF satisfaction with the collaborative. The selected SNFs (n = 47) had significantly higher CMS Five-Star scores than the nonselected SNFs (n = 93) (4.6 vs 3.2, P improving care in SNFs remain daunting, this approach can serve as a first step toward greater clinical collaboration between acute and postacute settings that will lead to better outcomes for frail older adults. © 2015, Copyright the Authors Journal compilation © 2015, The American Geriatrics Society.

  14. Transnational Research Networks in Chinese Scientific Production. An Investigation on Health-Industry Related Sectors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rubini, Lauretta; Pollio, Chiara; Di Tommaso, Marco R

    2017-08-29

    Transnational research networks (TRN) are becoming increasingly complex. Such complexity may have both positive and negative effects on the quality of research. Our work studies the evolution over time of Chinese TRN and the role of complexity on the quality of Chinese research, given the leading role this country has recently acquired in international science. We focus on the fields of geriatrics and gerontology. We build an original dataset of all scientific publications of China in these areas in 2009, 2012 and 2015, starting from the ISI Web of Knowledge (ISI WoK) database. Using Social Network Analysis (SNA), we analyze the change in scientific network structure across time. Second, we design indices to control for the different aspects of networks complexity (number of authors, country heterogeneity and institutional heterogeneity) and we perform negative binomial regressions to identify the main determinants of research quality. Our analysis shows that research networks in the field of geriatrics and gerontology have gradually become wider in terms of countries and have become more balanced. Furthermore, our results identify that different forms of complexity have different impacts on quality, including a reciprocal moderating effect. In particular, according to our analysis, research quality benefits from complex research networks both in terms of countries and of types of institutions involved, but that such networks should be "compact" in terms of number of authors. Eventually, we suggest that complexity should be carefully taken into account when designing policies aimed at enhancing the quality of research.

  15. Capacity enhancement and flexible operation of unified power quality conditioner in smart and microgrid network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shafiuzzaman Khan Khadem

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a new approach to design Unified Power Quality Conditioner (UPQC, termed as distributed UPQC (D-UPQC, for smart or microgrid network where capacity enhancement and flexible operation of UPQC are the important issues. This paper shows the possibility of capacity enhancement and operational flexibility of UPQC through a coordinated control of existing resources. This UPQC consists of a single unit series active power filter (APFse and multiple shunt APF (APFsh units in a distributed (parallel mode. These units can be connected with a common/separate dc linked capacitor(s. The requirement of capacity enhancement arises from the flexibility to cope up with the increased harmonic load demand at low voltage (LV distribution network. This can be accomplished by a coordinated control where multiple APFsh units are operated by utilizing the capacity of APFse while it is in idle/low mode using. Operational flexibility can be accomplished by compensating (i the reactive and harmonic current individually or (ii splitting the combined reactive and harmonic current/power among the APFsh units. Design and control issues have been discussed to identify the capacity enhancement limit with the possibility of operational flexibility. A system then has been simulated in MATLAB to show the effectiveness of D-UPQC in capacity enhancement and flexible operation by applying its existing resource utilization capability.

  16. Forecasting Urban Air Quality via a Back-Propagation Neural Network and a Selection Sample Rule

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yonghong Liu

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, based on a sample selection rule and a Back Propagation (BP neural network, a new model of forecasting daily SO2, NO2, and PM10 concentration in seven sites of Guangzhou was developed using data from January 2006 to April 2012. A meteorological similarity principle was applied in the development of the sample selection rule. The key meteorological factors influencing SO2, NO2, and PM10 daily concentrations as well as weight matrices and threshold matrices were determined. A basic model was then developed based on the improved BP neural network. Improving the basic model, identification of the factor variation consistency was added in the rule, and seven sets of sensitivity experiments in one of the seven sites were conducted to obtain the selected model. A comparison of the basic model from May 2011 to April 2012 in one site showed that the selected model for PM10 displayed better forecasting performance, with Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE values decreasing by 4% and R2 values increasing from 0.53 to 0.68. Evaluations conducted at the six other sites revealed a similar performance. On the whole, the analysis showed that the models presented here could provide local authorities with reliable and precise predictions and alarms about air quality if used at an operational scale.

  17. Behind the NAT – A Measurement Based Evaluation of Cellular Service Quality

    OpenAIRE

    Kaup, Fabian; Michelinakis, Foivos; Bui, Nicola; Widmer, Joerg; Wac, Katarzyna; Hausheer, David

    2015-01-01

    Abstract—Mobile applications such as VoIP, (live) gaming, or video streaming have diverse QoS requirements ranging from low delay to high throughput. The optimization of the network quality experienced by end-users requires detailed knowledge of the expected network performance. Also, the achieved service quality is affected by a number of factors, including network operator and available technologies. However, most studies focusing on measuring the cellular network do not consider the perfor...

  18. Optimal Design of Air Quality Monitoring Network and its Application in an Oil Refinery Plant: An Approach to Keep Health Satus of Workers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Khaled ZoroufchiBenis

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Background: Industrial air pollution is a growing challenge to humane health, especially in developing countries, where there is no systematic monitoring of air pollution. Given the importance of the availabil­ity of valid information on population exposure to air pollutants, it is important to design an optimal Air Quality Monitoring Network (AQMN for assessing population exposure to air pollution and predicting the magnitude of the health risks to the population. Methods: A multi-pollutant method (implemented as a MATLAB program was explored for configur­ing an AQMN to detect the highest level of pollution around an oil refinery plant. The method ranks potential monitoring sites (grids according to their ability to represent the ambient concentra­tion. The term of cluster of contiguous grids that exceed a threshold value was used to calculate the Station Dosage. Selection of the best configuration of AQMN was done based on the ratio of a sta­tion’s dosage to the total dosage in the network. Results: Six monitoring stations were needed to detect the pollutants concentrations around the study area for estimating the level and distribution of exposure in the population with total network effi­ciency of about 99%. An analysis of the design procedure showed that wind regimes have greatest effect on the location of monitoring stations. Conclusion: The optimal AQMN enables authorities to implement an effective program of air quality management for protecting human health.

  19. The Application of Social Network Analysis to Team Sports

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lusher, Dean; Robins, Garry; Kremer, Peter

    2010-01-01

    This article reviews how current social network analysis might be used to investigate individual and group behavior in sporting teams. Social network analysis methods permit researchers to explore social relations between team members and their individual-level qualities simultaneously. As such, social network analysis can be seen as augmenting…

  20. 6th International Conference on Network Analysis

    CERN Document Server

    Nikolaev, Alexey; Pardalos, Panos; Prokopyev, Oleg

    2017-01-01

    This valuable source for graduate students and researchers provides a comprehensive introduction to current theories and applications in optimization methods and network models. Contributions to this book are focused on new efficient algorithms and rigorous mathematical theories, which can be used to optimize and analyze mathematical graph structures with massive size and high density induced by natural or artificial complex networks. Applications to social networks, power transmission grids, telecommunication networks, stock market networks, and human brain networks are presented. Chapters in this book cover the following topics: Linear max min fairness Heuristic approaches for high-quality solutions Efficient approaches for complex multi-criteria optimization problems Comparison of heuristic algorithms New heuristic iterative local search Power in network structures Clustering nodes in random graphs Power transmission grid structure Network decomposition problems Homogeneity hypothesis testing Network analy...