Capacitated Hub Routing Problem in Hub-and-Feeder Network Design: Modeling and Solution Algorithm

OpenAIRE

Gelareh , Shahin; Neamatian Monemi , Rahimeh; Semet , Frédéric

2015-01-01

International audience; In this paper, we address the Bounded Cardinality Hub Location Routing with Route Capacity wherein eachhub acts as a transshipment node for one directed route. The number of hubs lies between a minimum anda maximum and the hub-level network is a complete subgraph. The transshipment operations take place atthe hub nodes and flow transfer time from a hub-level transporter to a spoke-level vehicle influences spoketo-hub allocations. We propose a mathematical model and a b...

THE ROLE OF AUTOMOBILE TRANSPORT IN HUBS SERVICE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kirill Iurievich Bely

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Article contains approaches to development and functioning of transport-logistic nodes – hubs – in modern conditions. There is hub classification and examples of them on different transport modes. An important component in providing reliability of hub work is automobile transport.

An Airlift Hub-and-Spoke Location-Routing Model with Time Windows: Case Study of the CONUS-to-Korea Airlift Problem

Science.gov (United States)

1998-03-01

a point of embarkation to a point of debarkation. This study develops an alternative hub-and-spoke combined location-routing integer linear...programming prototype model, and uses this model to determine what advantages a hub-and-spoke system offers, and in which scenarios it is better-suited than the...extension on the following works: the hierarchical model of Perl and Daskin (1983), time windows features of Chan (1991), combining subtour-breaking and range

Modelagem para localização de hubs no transporte de encomendas expressas Modelling for location hubs in the express cargo transport

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Javier Antonio Timaná Alamo

2006-12-01

Full Text Available Na presente pesquisa se propõe um modelo matemático de programação linear com variáveis binárias 0/1, para projetar a configuração de uma rede de distribuição de encomendas expressas, visando minimizar os custos e garantindo um bom nível de serviço. O modelo, que é uma modificação da formulação proposta por O’Kelly, define as posições dos hubs, a alocação deles às demais instalações físicas e a construção de roteiros com apenas uma parada intermediária, o que confere mais agilidade ao atendimento da demanda de transporte de carga. Considera-se a instalação de um único hub maior (Hub Principal, que serve como ponto de transbordo para os fluxos de carga entre as distintas regiões de um território, e um conjunto de terminais regionais (mini-hubs, servindo como ponto de conexão, unicamente, para os fluxos de carga existentes em um determinado raio de cobertura. Foram propostas extensões que incluem uma restrição da capacidade operacional do Hub Principal, para evitar seu congestionamento, e duas diferentes estratégias de induzir o aumento de fluxo de carga manipulado pelos mini-hubs. O modelo proposto e suas extensões foram aplicados ao estudo de um caso real, obtendo-se resultados consistentes e uma redução significativa no custo total da rede de distribuição da empresa analisada.This study proposes a mathematical model of linear programming with binary variables 0/1 to project the configuration of a distribution network for express cargo which aims to minimize costs and guarantee a high level of service. The model, which is a modification of the formulation proposed by O’Kelly, defines the position of the hubs, their allocation regarding the other physical installations, and the building of itineraries with only one intermediate stop, which increases agility in meeting the demand of cargo transport. It assumes the installation of a single, major hub (Main Hub, which serves as the transfer point for

Predicting the binding patterns of hub proteins: a study using yeast protein interaction networks.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carson M Andorf

Full Text Available Protein-protein interactions are critical to elucidating the role played by individual proteins in important biological pathways. Of particular interest are hub proteins that can interact with large numbers of partners and often play essential roles in cellular control. Depending on the number of binding sites, protein hubs can be classified at a structural level as singlish-interface hubs (SIH with one or two binding sites, or multiple-interface hubs (MIH with three or more binding sites. In terms of kinetics, hub proteins can be classified as date hubs (i.e., interact with different partners at different times or locations or party hubs (i.e., simultaneously interact with multiple partners.Our approach works in 3 phases: Phase I classifies if a protein is likely to bind with another protein. Phase II determines if a protein-binding (PB protein is a hub. Phase III classifies PB proteins as singlish-interface versus multiple-interface hubs and date versus party hubs. At each stage, we use sequence-based predictors trained using several standard machine learning techniques.Our method is able to predict whether a protein is a protein-binding protein with an accuracy of 94% and a correlation coefficient of 0.87; identify hubs from non-hubs with 100% accuracy for 30% of the data; distinguish date hubs/party hubs with 69% accuracy and area under ROC curve of 0.68; and SIH/MIH with 89% accuracy and area under ROC curve of 0.84. Because our method is based on sequence information alone, it can be used even in settings where reliable protein-protein interaction data or structures of protein-protein complexes are unavailable to obtain useful insights into the functional and evolutionary characteristics of proteins and their interactions.We provide a web server for our three-phase approach: http://hybsvm.gdcb.iastate.edu.

Joint Optimization of Star P-hub Median Problem and Seat Inventory Control Decisions Considering a Hybrid Routing Transportation System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hamid Tikani

2016-11-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we study the problem of integrated capacitated hub location problem and seat inventory control considering concept and techniques of revenue management. We consider an airline company maximizes its revenue by utilizing the best network topology and providing proper booking limits for all itineraries and fare classes. The transportation system arises in the form of a star/star network and includes both hub-stop and non-stop flights. This problem is formulated as a two-stage stochastic integer program with mixed-integer recourse. We solve various instances carried out from the Turkish network data set. Due to the NP-hardness of the problem, we propose a hybrid optimization method, consisting of an evolutionary algorithm based on genetic algorithm and exact solution. The quality of the solutions found by the proposed meta-heuristic is compared with the original version of GA and the mathematical programming model. The results obtained by the proposed model imply that integrating hub location and seat inventory control problem would help to increase the total revenue of airline companies. Also, in the case of serving non-stop flights, the model can provide more profit by employing less number of hubs.

Capacitated Bounded Cardinality Hub Routing Problem: Model and Solution Algorithm

OpenAIRE

Gelareha, Shahin; Monemic, Rahimeh Neamatian; Semetd, Frederic

2017-01-01

In this paper, we address the Bounded Cardinality Hub Location Routing with Route Capacity wherein each hub acts as a transshipment node for one directed route. The number of hubs lies between a minimum and a maximum and the hub-level network is a complete subgraph. The transshipment operations take place at the hub nodes and flow transfer time from a hub-level transporter to a spoke-level vehicle influences spoke- to-hub allocations. We propose a mathematical model and a branch-and-cut algor...

Experimental Investigation of a Helicopter Rotor Hub Wake

Science.gov (United States)

Reich, David; Elbing, Brian; Schmitz, Sven

2013-11-01

A scaled model of a notional helicopter rotor hub was tested in the 48'' Garfield Thomas Water Tunnel at the Applied Research Laboratory Penn State. The main objectives of the experiment were to understand the spatial- and temporal content of the unsteady wake downstream of a rotor hub up to a distance corresponding to the empennage. Primary measurements were the total hub drag and velocity measurements at three nominal downstream locations. Various flow structures were identified and linked to geometric features of the hub model. The most prominent structures were two-per-revolution (hub component: scissors) and four-per-revolution (hub component: main hub arms) vortices shed by the hub. Both the two-per-revolution and four-per-revolution structures persisted far downstream of the hub, but the rate of dissipation was greater for the four-per-rev structures. This work provides a dataset for enhanced understanding of the fundamental physics underlying rotor hub flows and serves as validation data for future CFD analyses.

Flow Structures within a Helicopter Rotor Hub Wake

Science.gov (United States)

Elbing, Brian; Reich, David; Schmitz, Sven

2015-11-01

A scaled model of a notional helicopter rotor hub was tested in the 48'' Garfield Thomas Water Tunnel at the Applied Research Laboratory Penn State. The measurement suite included total hub drag and wake velocity measurements (LDV, PIV, stereo-PIV) at three downstream locations. The main objective was to understand the spatiotemporal evolution of the unsteady wake between the rotor hub and the nominal location of the empennage (tail). Initial analysis of the data revealed prominent two- and four-per-revolution fluid structures linked to geometric hub features persisting into the wake far-field. In addition, a six-per-revolution fluid structure was observed in the far-field, which is unexpected due to the lack of any hub feature with the corresponding symmetry. This suggests a nonlinear interaction is occurring within the wake to generate these structures. This presentation will provide an overview of the experimental data and analysis with particular emphasis on these six-per-revolution structures.

Integrated technology rotor/flight research rotor hub concept definition

Science.gov (United States)

Dixon, P. G. C.

1983-01-01

Two variations of the helicopter bearingless main rotor hub concept are proposed as bases for further development in the preliminary design phase of the Integrated Technology Rotor/Flight Research Rotor (ITR/FRR) program. This selection was the result of an evaluation of three bearingless hub concepts and two articulated hub concepts with elastomeric bearings. The characteristics of each concept were evaluated by means of simplified methodology. These characteristics included the assessment of stability, vulnerability, weight, drag, cost, stiffness, fatigue life, maintainability, and reliability.

Reliability testing of failed fuel location system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vieru, G.

1996-01-01

This paper presents the experimental reliability tests performed in order to prove the reliability parameters for Failed Fuel Location System (FFLS), equipment used to detect in which channel of a particular heat transport loop a fuel failure is located, and to find in which channel what particular bundle pair is failed. To do so, D20 samples from each reactor channel are sequentially monitored to detect a comparatively high level of delayed neutron activity. 15 refs, 8 figs, 2 tabs

Liner Shipping Hub Network Design in a Competitive Environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gelareh, Shahin; Nickel, Stefan; Pisinger, David

A new mixed integer programming formulation is proposed for hub-and-spoke network design in a competitive environment. It addresses competition between a newcomer liner service provider and an alliance, both operating on hub-and-spoke networks. The newcomer company maximizes its market share...... — proportional to service time and transportation cost —by locating a predefined number of hubs at candidate ports and designing its network. While general-purpose solvers do not solve instances of even small size, an accelerated lagrangian method coupled with a primal heuristic obtains very good bounds. Our...

Transaction hubs: can tame energy market communications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hamilos, C.

2002-07-01

The nature and function of transaction hubs is described in view of their growing usefulness as electric industry deregulation takes hold and with it the urgent requirement for trading partners to exchange information quickly and efficiently. The paper stresses the many difficulties involved in communications between trading partners since each partner operates under a different set of business rules, with the result that there are 'language differences' to overcome, not to mention the sheer volume of data that must be handled. To make it all work, companies turn increasingly to products like communication hubs. They are able to overcome the fact that different companies have different systems, different data formats and different business rules, and are able to help companies to package, transmit, receive and process information. The principal advantage of a hub is that no one has to learn anyone else's interface. Everyone can continue to use their own data format and transaction models. The hub supplies the protocols and processing rules needed to work with any of the partners connected to the hub. In order to achieve the level of efficiency and reliability required in a hub, certain design principles must be satisfied. These are : scalability, facilities for load balancing, availability of standard routine services, ability to recognize a process as consisting of various transactions, and a transaction as belonging to a specific process, ability to allow the user to configure expiration times around the business processes according to market rules, facility to easily configure validation rules, ability to handle exceptions, ability to interoperate with many middle-ware products, and to manage work flow in a manner that is transparent to operating personnel.

Robust Energy Hub Management Using Information Gap Decision Theory

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Javadi, Mohammad Sadegh; Anvari-Moghaddam, Amjad; Guerrero, Josep M.

2017-01-01

This paper proposes a robust optimization framework for energy hub management. It is well known that the operation of energy systems can be negatively affected by uncertain parameters, such as stochastic load demand or generation. In this regard, it is of high significance to propose efficient...... tools in order to deal with uncertainties and to provide reliable operating conditions. On a broader scale, an energy hub includes diverse energy sources for supplying both electrical load and heating/cooling demands with stochastic behaviors. Therefore, this paper utilizes the Information Decision Gap...

Analysis of Food Hub Commerce and Participation Using Agent-Based Modeling: Integrating Financial and Social Drivers.

Science.gov (United States)

Krejci, Caroline C; Stone, Richard T; Dorneich, Michael C; Gilbert, Stephen B

2016-02-01

Factors influencing long-term viability of an intermediated regional food supply network (food hub) were modeled using agent-based modeling techniques informed by interview data gathered from food hub participants. Previous analyses of food hub dynamics focused primarily on financial drivers rather than social factors and have not used mathematical models. Based on qualitative and quantitative data gathered from 22 customers and 11 vendors at a midwestern food hub, an agent-based model (ABM) was created with distinct consumer personas characterizing the range of consumer priorities. A comparison study determined if the ABM behaved differently than a model based on traditional economic assumptions. Further simulation studies assessed the effect of changes in parameters, such as producer reliability and the consumer profiles, on long-term food hub sustainability. The persona-based ABM model produced different and more resilient results than the more traditional way of modeling consumers. Reduced producer reliability significantly reduced trade; in some instances, a modest reduction in reliability threatened the sustainability of the system. Finally, a modest increase in price-driven consumers at the outset of the simulation quickly resulted in those consumers becoming a majority of the overall customer base. Results suggest that social factors, such as desire to support the community, can be more important than financial factors. An ABM of food hub dynamics, based on human factors data gathered from the field, can be a useful tool for policy decisions. Similar approaches can be used for modeling customer dynamics with other sustainable organizations. © 2015, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

A collaborative scheduling model for the supply-hub with multiple suppliers and multiple manufacturers.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Guo; Lv, Fei; Guan, Xu

2014-01-01

This paper investigates a collaborative scheduling model in the assembly system, wherein multiple suppliers have to deliver their components to the multiple manufacturers under the operation of Supply-Hub. We first develop two different scenarios to examine the impact of Supply-Hub. One is that suppliers and manufacturers make their decisions separately, and the other is that the Supply-Hub makes joint decisions with collaborative scheduling. The results show that our scheduling model with the Supply-Hub is a NP-complete problem, therefore, we propose an auto-adapted differential evolution algorithm to solve this problem. Moreover, we illustrate that the performance of collaborative scheduling by the Supply-Hub is superior to separate decision made by each manufacturer and supplier. Furthermore, we also show that the algorithm proposed has good convergence and reliability, which can be applicable to more complicated supply chain environment.

How Big is Too Big for Hubs: Marginal Profitability in Hub-and-Spoke Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Ross, Leola B.; Schmidt, Stephen J.

1997-01-01

Increasing the scale of hub operations at major airports has led to concerns about congestion at excessively large hubs. In this paper, we estimate the marginal cost of adding spokes to an existing hub network. We observe entry/non-entry decisions on potential spokes from existing hubs, and estimate both a variable profit function for providing service in markets using that spoke as well as the fixed costs of providing service to the spoke. We let the fixed costs depend upon the scale of operations at the hub, and find the hub size at which spoke service costs are minimized.

Surface-micromachined rotatable member having a low-contact-area hub

Science.gov (United States)

Rodgers, M. Steven; Sniegowski, Jeffry J.; Krygowski, Thomas W.

2003-11-18

A surface-micromachined rotatable member formed on a substrate and a method for manufacturing thereof are disclosed. The surface-micromachined rotatable member, which can be a gear or a rotary stage, has a central hub, and an annulus connected to the central hub by an overarching bridge. The hub includes a stationary axle support attached to the substrate and surrounding an axle. The axle is retained within the axle support with an air-gap spacing therebetween of generally 0.3 .mu.m or less. The rotatable member can be formed by alternately depositing and patterning layers of a semiconductor (e.g. polysilicon or a silicon-germanium alloy) and a sacrificial material and then removing the sacrificial material, at least in part. The present invention has applications for forming micromechanical or microelectromechanical devices requiring lower actuation forces, and providing improved reliability.

Surface--micromachined rotatable member having a low-contact-area hub

Science.gov (United States)

Rodgers, M. Steven; Sniegowski, Jeffry J.

2002-01-01

A surface-micromachined rotatable member formed on a substrate and a method for manufacturing thereof are disclosed. The surface-micromachined rotatable member, which can be a gear or a rotary stage, has a central hub, and an annulus connected to the central hub by an overarching bridge. The hub includes a stationary axle support attached to the substrate and surrounding an axle. The axle is retained within the axle support with an air-gap spacing therebetween of generally 0.3 .mu.m or less. The rotatable member can be formed by alternately depositing and patterning layers of a semiconductor (e.g. polysilicon or a silicon-germanium alloy) and a sacrificial material and then removing the sacrificial material, at least in part. The present invention has applications for forming micromechanical or microelectromechanical devices requiring lower actuation forces, and providing improved reliability.

Dynamic hubs show competitive and static hubs non-competitive regulation of their interaction partners.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Apurv Goel

Full Text Available Date hub proteins have 1 or 2 interaction interfaces but many interaction partners. This raises the question of whether all partner proteins compete for the interaction interface of the hub or if the cell carefully regulates aspects of this process? Here, we have used real-time rendering of protein interaction networks to analyse the interactions of all the 1 or 2 interface hubs of Saccharomyces cerevisiae during the cell cycle. By integrating previously determined structural and gene expression data, and visually hiding the nodes (proteins and their edges (interactions during their troughs of expression, we predict when interactions of hubs and their partners are likely to exist. This revealed that 20 out of all 36 one- or two- interface hubs in the yeast interactome fell within two main groups. The first was dynamic hubs with static partners, which can be considered as 'competitive hubs'. Their interaction partners will compete for the interaction interface of the hub and the success of any interaction will be dictated by the kinetics of interaction (abundance and affinity and subcellular localisation. The second was static hubs with dynamic partners, which we term 'non-competitive hubs'. Regulatory mechanisms are finely tuned to lessen the presence and/or effects of competition between the interaction partners of the hub. It is possible that these regulatory processes may also be used by the cell for the regulation of other, non-cell cycle processes.

Using Metaheuristic Algorithms for Solving a Hub Location Problem: Application in Passive Optical Network Planning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Masoud Rabbani

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, fiber-optic due to having greater bandwidth and being more efficient compared with other similar technologies, are counted as one the most important tools for data transfer. In this article, an integrated mathematical model for a three-level fiber-optic distribution network with consideration of simultaneous backbone and local access networks is presented in which the backbone network is a ring and the access networks has a star-star topology. The aim of the model is to determine the location of the central offices and splitters, how connections are made between central offices, and allocation of each demand node to a splitter or central office in a way that the wiring cost of fiber optical and concentrator installation are minimized. Moreover, each user’s desired bandwidth should be provided efficiently. Then, the proposed model is validated by GAMS software in small-sized problems, afterwards the model is solved by two meta-heuristic methods including differential evolution (DE and genetic algorithm (GA in large-scaled problems and the results of two algorithms are compared with respect to computational time and objective function obtained value. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is provided. Keyword: Fiber-optic, telecommunication network, hub-location, passive splitter, three-level network.

A Collaborative Scheduling Model for the Supply-Hub with Multiple Suppliers and Multiple Manufacturers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guo Li

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates a collaborative scheduling model in the assembly system, wherein multiple suppliers have to deliver their components to the multiple manufacturers under the operation of Supply-Hub. We first develop two different scenarios to examine the impact of Supply-Hub. One is that suppliers and manufacturers make their decisions separately, and the other is that the Supply-Hub makes joint decisions with collaborative scheduling. The results show that our scheduling model with the Supply-Hub is a NP-complete problem, therefore, we propose an auto-adapted differential evolution algorithm to solve this problem. Moreover, we illustrate that the performance of collaborative scheduling by the Supply-Hub is superior to separate decision made by each manufacturer and supplier. Furthermore, we also show that the algorithm proposed has good convergence and reliability, which can be applicable to more complicated supply chain environment.

A Collaborative Scheduling Model for the Supply-Hub with Multiple Suppliers and Multiple Manufacturers

Science.gov (United States)

Lv, Fei; Guan, Xu

2014-01-01

This paper investigates a collaborative scheduling model in the assembly system, wherein multiple suppliers have to deliver their components to the multiple manufacturers under the operation of Supply-Hub. We first develop two different scenarios to examine the impact of Supply-Hub. One is that suppliers and manufacturers make their decisions separately, and the other is that the Supply-Hub makes joint decisions with collaborative scheduling. The results show that our scheduling model with the Supply-Hub is a NP-complete problem, therefore, we propose an auto-adapted differential evolution algorithm to solve this problem. Moreover, we illustrate that the performance of collaborative scheduling by the Supply-Hub is superior to separate decision made by each manufacturer and supplier. Furthermore, we also show that the algorithm proposed has good convergence and reliability, which can be applicable to more complicated supply chain environment. PMID:24892104

Optimization of Reliability Centered Maintenance Bassed on Maintenance Costs and Reliability with Consideration of Location of Components

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mahdi Karbasian

2011-03-01

Full Text Available The reliability of designing systems such as electrical and electronic circuits, power generation/ distribution networks and mechanical systems, in which the failure of a component may cause the whole system failure, and even the reliability of cellular manufacturing systems that their machines are connected to as series are critically important. So far approaches for improving the reliability of these systems have been mainly based on the enhancement of inherent reliability of any system component or increasing system reliability based on maintenance strategies. Also in some of the resources, only the influence of the location of systems' components on reliability is studied. Therefore, it seems other approaches have been rarely applied. In this paper, a multi criteria model has been proposed to perform a balance among a system's reliability, location costs, and its system maintenance. Finally, a numerical example has been presented and solved by the Lingo software.

Joint Hub Network Development

OpenAIRE

Cruijssen, F.C.A.M.; Borm, P.E.M.; Dullaert, W.; Hamers, H.J.M.

2007-01-01

This paper introduces a framework for joint hub network development. Building a joint physical hub for transhipment of goods is expensive and therefore involves considerable risks for the cooperating companies. In a practical setting, it is unlikely that an entire network will be built at once. Rather, the partners will have a more cautious attitude and build the hub facilities one-by-one. In the proposed framework, every time a new hub is introduced, partners will have the opportunity to dec...

Hub and Axis

OpenAIRE

Hansen, Gary Alan

2010-01-01

The project is for the central building of a community center used by the communities of Blacksburg and Christiansburg. The building is a space configured as a hub that uses axes to determine entering, exiting and vertical movement. The hub configuration of the building is in concentric rings around the atrium in both space and materials. As materials were brought into the building, they enhanced the strong axial configuration and emphasized the layers surrounding the central hub space of ...

Aircraft Propeller Hub Repair

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Muth, Thomas R [ORNL; Peter, William H [ORNL

2015-02-13

The team performed a literature review, conducted residual stress measurements, performed failure analysis, and demonstrated a solid state additive manufacturing repair technique on samples removed from a scrapped propeller hub. The team evaluated multiple options for hub repair that included existing metal buildup technologies that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has already embraced, such as cold spray, high velocity oxy-fuel deposition (HVOF), and plasma spray. In addition the team helped Piedmont Propulsion Systems, LLC (PPS) evaluate three potential solutions that could be deployed at different stages in the life cycle of aluminum alloy hubs, in addition to the conventional spray coating method for repair. For new hubs, a machining practice to prevent fretting with the steel drive shaft was recommended. For hubs that were refurbished with some material remaining above the minimal material condition (MMC), a silver interface applied by an electromagnetic pulse additive manufacturing method was recommended. For hubs that were at or below the MMC, a solid state additive manufacturing technique using ultrasonic welding (UW) of thin layers of 7075 aluminum to the hub interface was recommended. A cladding demonstration using the UW technique achieved mechanical bonding of the layers showing promise as a viable repair method.

Gas and LNG trading hubs, hub indexation and destination flexibility in East Asia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shi, Xunpeng; Padinjare Variam, Hari Malamakkavu

2016-01-01

In the East Asian gas markets, issues like gas trading hubs, hub indexed pricing, and destination flexibility are being debated. This paper examines the impact of a change in East Asia's pricing benchmark and contract flexibility on the regional and global gas markets. The paper uses the Nexant World Gas Model, a linear program with global cost minimization as the objective. To our knowledge, this study on hub competition, price benchmark change and contract flexibility improvement in East Asia will be the first in the literature and have real policy relevance. The results show that both price benchmark change and contract flexibility improvements will create an overall benefit for the world and East Asia importers, but the impacts are different among exporters and importers. However, there is no evidence of competition among different benchmark hubs and no evidence that destination restrictions cause the “Asia Premium”. It implies that removal of destination clauses has higher priority than the change to hub indexation for Japan, Korea and Chinese Taipei, but both should be treated equally in China. The study also suggests that East Asian importers should cooperate among themselves and with exporters to facilitate the hub creation and contract changes in East Asia. - Highlights: •Gas trading hubs in Japan and China are not mutually exclusive. •Both price benchmark changes and contract flexibility improvements are beneficial. •The “Asian Premium” is not caused by destination restriction. •Destination flexibility is much more important than hub indexation in East Asia except China. •Hub indexation is as important as destination flexibility in China due to pipeline imports.

Waves, currents and sediment transport modelling at the Wave Hub site

OpenAIRE

Gonzalez-Santamaria, Raul

2013-01-01

Primary supervisory team: Qingping Zou and Shunqi Pan This research project uses an integrated modelling system to investigate the effects of a wave farm on nearshore sediment transport at the Wave Hub site. The Wave Hub project is a large scale demonstration site for the development of the operation of arrays of wave energy generation devices located at the southwest coast of the UK where multiple field measurements took place. Particular attention of this study was paid to th...

Virtual Campus Hub technology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vercoulen, Frank; Badger, Merete; Monaco, Lucio

This deliverable briefly describes which technological components have been delivered for the Virtual Campus Hub and how they can be used. A detailed discussion of the technical details of the components, how they were realized and how they fit the VCH concept can be found in deliverables D5.......4. Virtual Campus Hub Technology Evaluation Report and D6.7 The Virtual Campus Hub Concept....

Experimental Investigation of Diffuser Hub Injection to Improve Centrifugal Compressor Stability

Science.gov (United States)

Skoch, Gary J.

2004-01-01

Results from a series of experiments to investigate whether centrifugal compressor stability could be improved by injecting air through the diffuser hub surface are reported. The research was conducted in a 4:1 pressure ratio centrifugal compressor configured with a vane-island diffuser. Injector nozzles were located just upstream of the leading edge of the diffuser vanes. Nozzle orientations were set to produce injected streams angled at 8, 0 and +8 degrees relative to the vane mean camber line. Several injection flow rates were tested using both an external air supply and recirculation from the diffuser exit. Compressor flow range did not improve at any injection flow rate that was tested. Compressor flow range did improve slightly at zero injection due to the flow resistance created by injector openings on the hub surface. Leading edge loading and semi-vaneless space diffusion showed trends similar to those reported earlier from shroud surface experiments that did improve compressor flow range. Opposite trends are seen for hub injection cases where compressor flow range decreased. The hub injection data further explain the range improvement provided by shroud-side injection and suggest that different hub-side techniques may produce range improvement in centrifugal compressors.

Reducing Time to Science: Unidata and JupyterHub Technology Using the Jetstream Cloud

Science.gov (United States)

Chastang, J.; Signell, R. P.; Fischer, J. L.

2017-12-01

Cloud computing can accelerate scientific workflows, discovery, and collaborations by reducing research and data friction. We describe the deployment of Unidata and JupyterHub technologies on the NSF-funded XSEDE Jetstream cloud. With the aid of virtual machines and Docker technology, we deploy a Unidata JupyterHub server co-located with a Local Data Manager (LDM), THREDDS data server (TDS), and RAMADDA geoscience content management system. We provide Jupyter Notebooks and the pre-built Python environments needed to run them. The notebooks can be used for instruction and as templates for scientific experimentation and discovery. We also supply a large quantity of NCEP forecast model results to allow data-proximate analysis and visualization. In addition, users can transfer data using Globus command line tools, and perform their own data-proximate analysis and visualization with Notebook technology. These data can be shared with others via a dedicated TDS server for scientific distribution and collaboration. There are many benefits of this approach. Not only is the cloud computing environment fast, reliable and scalable, but scientists can analyze, visualize, and share data using only their web browser. No local specialized desktop software or a fast internet connection is required. This environment will enable scientists to spend less time managing their software and more time doing science.

Hub River: A private power prototype

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sachs, J.L.

1992-01-01

This article examines the challenges of financing an independent power project in a developing country. The oil-fired plant is to be located on the Hub River in Baluchistan on the Arabian Sea coast. The topics of the article include a description of the team that put the project together, the financing plans, the risk in the face of political unrest and change of governments, and the beginning of construction of the project

Analysis of Sci-Hub downloads of computer science papers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andročec Darko

2017-07-01

Full Text Available The scientific knowledge is disseminated by research papers. Most of the research literature is copyrighted by publishers and avail- able only through paywalls. Recently, some websites offer most of the recent content for free. One of them is the controversial website Sci-Hub that enables access to more than 47 million pirated research papers. In April 2016, Science Magazine published an article on Sci-Hub activity over the period of six months and publicly released the Sci-Hub’s server log data. The mentioned paper aggregates the view that relies on all downloads and for all fields of study, but these findings might be hiding interesting patterns within computer science. The mentioned Sci-Hub log data was used in this paper to analyse downloads of computer science papers based on DBLP’s list of computer science publications. The top downloads of computer science papers were analysed, together with the geographical location of Sci-Hub users, the most downloaded publishers, types of papers downloaded, and downloads of computer science papers per publication year. The results of this research can be used to improve legal access to the most relevant scientific repositories or journals for the computer science field.

Natural Gas Market Hubs

Data.gov (United States)

Department of Homeland Security — A hub is a physical transfer point for natural gas where several pipelines are connected. A market center is a hub where the operator offers services that facilitate...

Modeling and optimization of a network of energy hubs to improve economic and emission considerations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maroufmashat, Azadeh; Elkamel, Ali; Fowler, Michael; Sattari, Sourena; Roshandel, Ramin; Hajimiragha, Amir; Walker, Sean; Entchev, Evgueniy

2015-01-01

Energy hubs that incorporate a variety of energy generation and energy transformation technologies can be used to provide the energy storage needed to enable the efficient operation of a ‘smart energy network’. When these hubs are combined as a network and allowed to exchange energy, they create efficiency advantages in both financial and environmental performance. Further, the interconnectedness of the energy network design provides an added layer of reliability. In this paper, a complex network of energy hubs is modeled and optimized under different scenarios to examine both the financial viability and potential reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Two case studies consisting of two and three energy hubs within a network are considered. The modeling Scenarios vary according to the consideration of distributed energy systems and energy interaction between energy hubs. In the case of a network of two energy hubs, there is no significant economic or emissions benefit with only a 0.5% reduction in total cost and 3% reduction in CO_2 emission. In the case of a network of three energy hubs, there is a significant economic benefit ranging from 11% to 29%, and 11% emission reduction benefit, as well as a 13% reduction in natural gas consumption. - Highlights: • The generic form of the modified energy hub concept with network model is presented. • Two case studies are presented to demonstrate the benefits of energy hub network. • Distributed energy is shown to provide economic and environmental advantages. • Multi criteria optimization of the economic and environmental performance is done.

Using the Contextual Hub Analysis Tool (CHAT) in Cytoscape to Identify Contextually Relevant Network Hubs.

Science.gov (United States)

Muetze, Tanja; Lynn, David J

2017-09-13

Highly connected nodes in biological networks are called network hubs. Hubs are topologically important to the structure of the network and have been shown to be preferentially associated with a range of phenotypes of interest. The relative importance of a hub node, however, can change depending on the biological context. Here, we provide a step-by-step protocol for using the Contextual Hub Analysis Tool (CHAT), an application within Cytoscape 3, which enables users to easily construct and visualize a network of interactions from a gene or protein list of interest, integrate contextual information, such as gene or protein expression data, and identify hub nodes that are more highly connected to contextual nodes than expected by chance. © 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Contextual Hub Analysis Tool (CHAT): A Cytoscape app for identifying contextually relevant hubs in biological networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Muetze, Tanja; Goenawan, Ivan H; Wiencko, Heather L; Bernal-Llinares, Manuel; Bryan, Kenneth; Lynn, David J

2016-01-01

Highly connected nodes (hubs) in biological networks are topologically important to the structure of the network and have also been shown to be preferentially associated with a range of phenotypes of interest. The relative importance of a hub node, however, can change depending on the biological context. Here, we report a Cytoscape app, the Contextual Hub Analysis Tool (CHAT), which enables users to easily construct and visualize a network of interactions from a gene or protein list of interest, integrate contextual information, such as gene expression or mass spectrometry data, and identify hub nodes that are more highly connected to contextual nodes (e.g. genes or proteins that are differentially expressed) than expected by chance. In a case study, we use CHAT to construct a network of genes that are differentially expressed in Dengue fever, a viral infection. CHAT was used to identify and compare contextual and degree-based hubs in this network. The top 20 degree-based hubs were enriched in pathways related to the cell cycle and cancer, which is likely due to the fact that proteins involved in these processes tend to be highly connected in general. In comparison, the top 20 contextual hubs were enriched in pathways commonly observed in a viral infection including pathways related to the immune response to viral infection. This analysis shows that such contextual hubs are considerably more biologically relevant than degree-based hubs and that analyses which rely on the identification of hubs solely based on their connectivity may be biased towards nodes that are highly connected in general rather than in the specific context of interest. CHAT is available for Cytoscape 3.0+ and can be installed via the Cytoscape App Store ( http://apps.cytoscape.org/apps/chat).

The development of gas hubs in Europe

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miriello, Caterina; Polo, Michele

2015-01-01

This paper investigates the development of wholesale markets for natural gas at the different stages of market liberalization. We identify three steps in the process: wholesale trade initially develops to cope with balancing needs when the shippers and suppliers segments become more fragmented; once the market becomes more liquid, it turns out to be a second source of gas procurement in alternative to long term contracts; finally, to manage price risk financial instruments are traded. We review in detail the different regulatory measures that must be introduced to create an efficient and functioning wholesale gas market. Finally, we analyze the evolution of gas hubs in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy in terms of market rules and market liquidity. We argue that each of these country cases can be easily located into the evolutionary path we have highlighted at the beginning, with the UK and the Netherlands leading the process, Germany and Italy constrained by limited supply; Italy is also showing an interesting counterfactual. -- Highlights: •The paper illustrates development paths for natural gas hubs in Europe. •Wholesale trade increases with competition. •The regulatory settings of UK, Netherlands, Germany and Italy are reviewed. •Each country is located into the evolutionary path highlighted in the analytical framework

Joint Hub Network Development

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cruijssen, F.C.A.M.; Borm, P.E.M.; Dullaert, W.; Hamers, H.J.M.

2007-01-01

This paper introduces a framework for joint hub network development. Building a joint physical hub for transhipment of goods is expensive and therefore involves considerable risks for the cooperating companies. In a practical setting, it is unlikely that an entire network will be built at once.

Development of passive-controlled HUB (teetered brake & damper mechanism) of horizontal axis wind turbine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shimizu, Yukimaru; Kamada, Yasunari; Maeda, Takao [Mie Univ. (Japan)

1997-12-31

For the purpose of the improvement of reliability of the Mega-Watt wind turbine, this paper indicates the development of an original mechanism for the passive-controlled hub, which has the effects of braking and damping on aerodynamic forces. This mechanism is useful for variable speed control of the large wind turbine. The passive-controlled hub is the combination of two mechanisms. One is the passive-teetered and damping mechanism, and the other is the passive-variable-pitch mechanism. These mechanism are carried out by the combination of the teetering and feathering motions. When the wind speed exceeds the rated wind speed, the blade is passively teetered in a downwind direction and, simultaneously, a feathering mechanism, which is linked to the teetering mechanism through a connecting rods, is activated. Testing of the model horizontal axis wind turbine in a wind tunnel showed that the passive-controlled hub mechanism can suppress the over-rotational speed of the rotor. By the application of the passive-controlled hub mechanism, the maximum rotor speed is reduced to about 60%.

Southwest Regional Climate Hub and California Subsidiary Hub assessment of climate change vulnerability and adaptation and mitigation strategies

Science.gov (United States)

Emile Elias; Caiti Steele; Kris Havstad; Kerri Steenwerth; Jeanne Chambers; Helena Deswood; Amber Kerr; Albert Rango; Mark Schwartz; Peter Stine; Rachel Steele

2015-01-01

This report is a joint effort of the Southwest Regional Climate Hub and the California Subsidiary Hub (Sub Hub). The Southwest Regional Climate Hub covers Arizona, California, Hawai‘i and the U.S. affiliated Pacific Islands, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah and contains vast areas of western rangeland, forests, and high-value specialty crops (Figure 1). The California Sub...

PolarHub: A Global Hub for Polar Data Discovery

Science.gov (United States)

Li, W.

2014-12-01

This paper reports the outcome of a NSF project in developing a large-scale web crawler PolarHub to discover automatically the distributed polar dataset in the format of OGC web services (OWS) in the cyberspace. PolarHub is a machine robot; its goal is to visit as many webpages as possible to find those containing information about polar OWS, extract this information and store it into the backend data repository. This is a very challenging task given huge data volume of webpages on the Web. Three unique features was introduced in PolarHub to make it distinctive from earlier crawler solutions: (1) a multi-task, multi-user, multi-thread support to the crawling tasks; (2) an extensive use of thread pool and Data Access Object (DAO) design patterns to separate persistent data storage and business logic to achieve high extendibility of the crawler tool; (3) a pattern-matching based customizable crawling algorithm to support discovery of multi-type geospatial web services; and (4) a universal and portable client-server communication mechanism combining a server-push and client pull strategies for enhanced asynchronous processing. A series of experiments were conducted to identify the impact of crawling parameters to the overall system performance. The geographical distribution pattern of all PolarHub identified services is also demonstrated. We expect this work to make a major contribution to the field of geospatial information retrieval and geospatial interoperability, to bridge the gap between data provider and data consumer, and to accelerate polar science by enhancing the accessibility and reusability of adequate polar data.

LocateP: Genome-scale subcellular-location predictor for bacterial proteins

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhou Miaomiao

2008-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In the past decades, various protein subcellular-location (SCL predictors have been developed. Most of these predictors, like TMHMM 2.0, SignalP 3.0, PrediSi and Phobius, aim at the identification of one or a few SCLs, whereas others such as CELLO and Psortb.v.2.0 aim at a broader classification. Although these tools and pipelines can achieve a high precision in the accurate prediction of signal peptides and transmembrane helices, they have a much lower accuracy when other sequence characteristics are concerned. For instance, it proved notoriously difficult to identify the fate of proteins carrying a putative type I signal peptidase (SPIase cleavage site, as many of those proteins are retained in the cell membrane as N-terminally anchored membrane proteins. Moreover, most of the SCL classifiers are based on the classification of the Swiss-Prot database and consequently inherited the inconsistency of that SCL classification. As accurate and detailed SCL prediction on a genome scale is highly desired by experimental researchers, we decided to construct a new SCL prediction pipeline: LocateP. Results LocateP combines many of the existing high-precision SCL identifiers with our own newly developed identifiers for specific SCLs. The LocateP pipeline was designed such that it mimics protein targeting and secretion processes. It distinguishes 7 different SCLs within Gram-positive bacteria: intracellular, multi-transmembrane, N-terminally membrane anchored, C-terminally membrane anchored, lipid-anchored, LPxTG-type cell-wall anchored, and secreted/released proteins. Moreover, it distinguishes pathways for Sec- or Tat-dependent secretion and alternative secretion of bacteriocin-like proteins. The pipeline was tested on data sets extracted from literature, including experimental proteomics studies. The tests showed that LocateP performs as well as, or even slightly better than other SCL predictors for some locations and outperforms

Hub exchange operations in intermodal hub-and spoke networks: A performance comparison of rail-rail exchange facilities

OpenAIRE

Bontekoning, Y.M.

2006-01-01

The implementation of hub-and-spoke networks in intermodal transport is suggested as one of the potential solutions for helping to increase the intermodal market share. Traditionally, trains are shunted at hubs; this is a time-consuming process. Since the early 1990s a new type of intermodal terminal, specifically designed for fast tran-shipment at nodes in hub-and-spoke networks, has been introduced in Europe. These hub terminals could replace this time-consuming shunting. Studies on the new...

MyGeoHub: A Collaborative Geospatial Research and Education Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Kalyanam, R.; Zhao, L.; Biehl, L. L.; Song, C. X.; Merwade, V.; Villoria, N.

2017-12-01

Scientific research is increasingly collaborative and globally distributed; research groups now rely on web-based scientific tools and data management systems to simplify their day-to-day collaborative workflows. However, such tools often lack seamless interfaces, requiring researchers to contend with manual data transfers, annotation and sharing. MyGeoHub is a web platform that supports out-of-the-box, seamless workflows involving data ingestion, metadata extraction, analysis, sharing and publication. MyGeoHub is built on the HUBzero cyberinfrastructure platform and adds general-purpose software building blocks (GABBs), for geospatial data management, visualization and analysis. A data management building block iData, processes geospatial files, extracting metadata for keyword and map-based search while enabling quick previews. iData is pervasive, allowing access through a web interface, scientific tools on MyGeoHub or even mobile field devices via a data service API. GABBs includes a Python map library as well as map widgets that in a few lines of code, generate complete geospatial visualization web interfaces for scientific tools. GABBs also includes powerful tools that can be used with no programming effort. The GeoBuilder tool provides an intuitive wizard for importing multi-variable, geo-located time series data (typical of sensor readings, GPS trackers) to build visualizations supporting data filtering and plotting. MyGeoHub has been used in tutorials at scientific conferences and educational activities for K-12 students. MyGeoHub is also constantly evolving; the recent addition of Jupyter and R Shiny notebook environments enable reproducible, richly interactive geospatial analyses and applications ranging from simple pre-processing to published tools. MyGeoHub is not a monolithic geospatial science gateway, instead it supports diverse needs ranging from just a feature-rich data management system, to complex scientific tools and workflows.

A new transport hub

CERN Multimedia

Corinne Pralavorio

2016-01-01

CERN’s new Mobility Centre, allowing you to switch easily from one mode of transport to another, has just been officially opened.   Inauguration of the CERN Mobility Centre by Martin Steinacher, Director for Finance and Human Resources, and Lluis Miralles, Head of the SMB department. CERN’s new Mobility Centre, on the car park next to the Globe of Science and Innovation was officially opened on Tuesday, 22 March. The centre brings together all of CERN’s transport options in a single location. "Our aim is to create an intermodal hub where CERN users and personnel can switch from one mode of transport to another, and from CERN transport to public transport," explains Lluis Miralles, head of the Site Management and Buildings (SMB) department. The Mobility Centre incorporates the CERN bike and car rental services, the self-service car- and bike-sharing schemes, and SIXT car rental facilities (for long-distance journeys). It is located right ne...

The evolution of the MasAgro hubs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Camacho-Villa, Tania Carolina; Almekinders, Conny; Hellin, Jon; Martinez-Cruz, Tania Eulalia; Rendon-Medel, Roberto; Guevara-Hernández, Francisco; Beuchelt, Tina D.; Govaerts, Bram

2016-01-01

<p>Purpose: Little is known about effective ways to operationalize agricultural innovation processes. We use the MasAgro program in Mexico (which aims to increase maize and wheat productivity, profitability and sustainability), and the experiences of middle level ‘hub managers’, to understand how

Synaptic Interactome Mining Reveals p140Cap as a New Hub for PSD Proteins Involved in Psychiatric and Neurological Disorders

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Annalisa Alfieri

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Altered synaptic function has been associated with neurological and psychiatric conditions including intellectual disability, schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder (ASD. Amongst the recently discovered synaptic proteins is p140Cap, an adaptor that localizes at dendritic spines and regulates their maturation and physiology. We recently showed that p140Cap knockout mice have cognitive deficits, impaired long-term potentiation (LTP and long-term depression (LTD, and immature, filopodia-like dendritic spines. Only a few p140Cap interacting proteins have been identified in the brain and the molecular complexes and pathways underlying p140Cap synaptic function are largely unknown. Here, we isolated and characterized the p140Cap synaptic interactome by co-immunoprecipitation from crude mouse synaptosomes, followed by mass spectrometry-based proteomics. We identified 351 p140Cap interactors and found that they cluster to sub complexes mostly located in the postsynaptic density (PSD. p140Cap interactors converge on key synaptic processes, including transmission across chemical synapses, actin cytoskeleton remodeling and cell-cell junction organization. Gene co-expression data further support convergent functions: the p140Cap interactors are tightly co-expressed with each other and with p140Cap. Importantly, the p140Cap interactome and its co-expression network show strong enrichment in genes associated with schizophrenia, autism, bipolar disorder, intellectual disability and epilepsy, supporting synaptic dysfunction as a shared biological feature in brain diseases. Overall, our data provide novel insights into the molecular organization of the synapse and indicate that p140Cap acts as a hub for postsynaptic complexes relevant to psychiatric and neurological disorders.

Composite hub/metal blade compressor rotor

Science.gov (United States)

Yao, S.

1978-01-01

A low cost compressor rotor was designed and fabricated for a small jet engine. The rotor hub and blade keepers were compression molded with graphite epoxy. Each pair of metallic blades was held in the hub by a keeper. All keepers were locked in the hub with circumferential windings. Feasibility of fabrication was demonstrated in this program.

Biaxial wheel/hub test facility. Proceedings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fischer, G.; Grubisic, V. [eds.

2000-07-01

The 4{sup th} meeting aims to exchange the experience and knowledge of engineers during several presentations and discussions about new developments required for a reliable, time and cost reducing validation of the wheel/hub assembly. Tremendous development of the wheel performance, described by the ratio of the rated load (kg) versus the wheel weight (kg) had taken place during the last 5000 years. Starting from the ratio of 3 for wooden 2-piece-disc-wheels in Mesopotamia it needed nearly 1000 years to increase the ratio to approx 5 at light-weight spoke wheels for fighting carriages, found in the grave of king Tutenchamon in Egypt. Modern light alloy wheels of commercial vehicles reach values up to 160 kg/kg. Additionally the comlex design of the modern systems for cars and commercial vehicles comprising wheel, brake, hub, bearing, spindle and hub carrier, including different materials and their treatment, fasteners, press-fits, require an appropriate testing procedure. The variable loading conditions, caused by operational wheel forces, brake and torque moments including heating, may result in changing tolerances and press-fits during operation and consequently in different damage mechanisms. This can be simulated in the Biaxial Wheel Test Machine, whereby corresponding load programs are necessary. An overview about all biaxial test machines in usage at the end of 1999 is shown in the introduction. The total number is 17 for cars, 7 for commercial vehicles and 1 for trains. The six presentations of this meeting were consequently concentrated on: (a) recommendations for a standardization of load programs of the German Wheel Committee, (b) the simulation of brake and torque events and (c) the possibility for a numerical stress analyses and fatigue life assessment. (orig./AKF)

Data Collection and Management with ENSITE HUB: ENSITE HUB Version 1.0

Science.gov (United States)

2017-08-01

ER D C/ CE RL S R- 17 -1 4 Engineer Site Identification for the Tactical Environment (ENSITE) Data Collection and Management with ENSITE...and Management with ENSITE HUB ENSITE HUB Version 1.0 Juliana M. Wilhoit, Natalie R. Myers, and George W. Calfas Construction Engineering Research...and standardized manner. With such a tool, CB planners (as well as designers, operators, and manag - ers) can rapidly assess possible current and

Experimental Investigation of a Helicopter Rotor Hub Flow

Science.gov (United States)

Reich, David

The rotor hub system is by far the largest contributor to helicopter parasite drag and a barrier to increasing helicopter forward-flight speed and range. Additionally, the hub sheds undesirable vibration- and instability-inducing unsteady flow over the empennage. The challenges associated with rotor hub flows are discussed, including bluff body drag, interactional aerodynamics, and the effect of the turbulent hub wake on the helicopter empennage. This study was conducted in three phases to quantify model-scale rotor hub flows in water tunnels at The Pennsylvania State University Applied research lab. The first phase investigated scaling and component interaction effects on a 1:17 scale rotor hub model in the 12-inch diameter water tunnel. Effects of Reynolds number, advance ratio, and hub geometry configuration on the drag and wake shed from the rotor hub were quantified using load cell measurements and particle-image velocimetry (PIV). The second phase focused on flow visualization and measurement on a rotor hub and rotor hub/pylon geometry in the 12-inch diameter water tunnel. Stereo PIV was conducted in a cross plane downstream of the hub and flow visualization was conducted using oil paint and fluorescent dye. The third phase concentrated on high accuracy load measurement and prediction up to full-scale Reynolds number on a 1:4.25 scale model in the 48-inch diameter water tunnel. Measurements include 6 degree of freedom loads on the hub and two-component laser-Doppler velocimetry in the wake. Finally, results and conclusions are discussed, followed by recommendations for future investigations.

Schools as Community Hubs: Policy Contexts, Educational Rationales, and Design Challenges

Science.gov (United States)

McShane, Ian; Watkins, Jerry; Meredyth, Denise

2012-01-01

There is increasing interest in making more effective use of schools as community hubs, both in Australia and internationally. Investment in shared facilities aims to engage parents and local communities in schooling, encourage civic participation, co-ordinate educational and community services and overcome disadvantages of location or service…

Soft hub for bearingless rotors

Science.gov (United States)

Dixon, Peter G. C.

1991-01-01

Soft hub concepts which allow the direct replacement of articulated rotor systems by bearingless types without any change in controllability or need for reinforcement to the drive shaft and/or transmission/fuselage attachments of the helicopter were studied. Two concepts were analyzed and confirmed for functional and structural feasibility against a design criteria and specifications established for this effort. Both systems are gimballed about a thrust carrying universal elastomeric bearing. One concept includes a set of composite flexures for drive torque transmittal from the shaft to the rotor, and another set (which is changeable) to impart hub tilting stiffness to the rotor system as required to meet the helicopter application. The second concept uses a composite bellows flexure to drive the rotor and to augment the hub stiffness provided by the elastomeric bearing. Each concept was assessed for weight, drag, ROM cost, and number of parts and compared with the production BO-105 hub.

A multi-state reliability evaluation model for P2P networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fan Hehong; Sun Xiaohan

2010-01-01

The appearance of new service types and the convergence tendency of the communication networks have endowed the networks more and more P2P (peer to peer) properties. These networks can be more robust and tolerant for a series of non-perfect operational states due to the non-deterministic server-client distributions. Thus a reliability model taking into account of the multi-state and non-deterministic server-client distribution properties is needed for appropriate evaluation of the networks. In this paper, two new performance measures are defined to quantify the overall and local states of the networks. A new time-evolving state-transition Monte Carlo (TEST-MC) simulation model is presented for the reliability analysis of P2P networks in multiple states. The results show that the model is not only valid for estimating the traditional binary-state network reliability parameters, but also adequate for acquiring the parameters in a series of non-perfect operational states, with good efficiencies, especially for highly reliable networks. Furthermore, the model is versatile for the reliability and maintainability analyses in that both the links and the nodes can be failure-prone with arbitrary life distributions, and various maintainability schemes can be applied.

Reliability in the Location of Hindlimb Motor Representations in Fischer-344 Rats

Science.gov (United States)

Frost, Shawn B.; Iliakova, Maria; Dunham, Caleb; Barbay, Scott; Arnold, Paul; Nudo, Randolph J.

2014-01-01

Object The purpose of the present study was to determine the feasibility of using a common laboratory rat strain for locating cortical motor representations of the hindlimb reliably. Methods Intracortical Microstimulation (ICMS) techniques were used to derive detailed maps of the hindlimb motor representations in six adult Fischer-344 rats. Results The organization of the hindlimb movement representation, while variable across individuals in topographic detail, displayed several commonalities. The hindlimb representation was positioned posterior to the forelimb motor representation and postero-lateral to the motor trunk representation. The areal extent of the hindlimb representation across the cortical surface averaged 2.00 +/− 0.50 mm2. Superimposing individual maps revealed an overlapping area measuring 0.35 mm2, indicating that the location of the hindlimb representation can be predicted reliably based on stereotactic coordinates. Across the sample of rats, the hindlimb representation was found 1.25–3.75 mm posterior to Bregma, with an average center location ~ 2.6 mm posterior to Bregma. Likewise, the hindlimb representation was found 1–3.25 mm lateral to the midline, with an average center location ~ 2 mm lateral to midline. Conclusions The location of the cortical hindlimb motor representation in Fischer-344 rats can be reliably located based on its stereotactic position posterior to Bregma and lateral to the longitudinal skull suture at midline. The ability to accurately predict the cortical localization of functional hindlimb territories in a rodent model is important, as such animal models are being used increasingly in the development of brain-computer interfaces for restoration of function after spinal cord injury. PMID:23725395

Abnormal hubs of white matter networks in the frontal-parieto circuit contribute to depression discrimination via pattern classification.

Science.gov (United States)

Qin, Jiaolong; Wei, Maobin; Liu, Haiyan; Chen, Jianhuai; Yan, Rui; Hua, Lingling; Zhao, Ke; Yao, Zhijian; Lu, Qing

2014-12-01

Previous studies had explored the diagnostic and prognostic value of the structural neuroimaging data of MDD and treated the whole brain voxels, the fractional anisotropy and the structural connectivity as classification features. To our best knowledge, no study examined the potential diagnostic value of the hubs of anatomical brain networks in MDD. The purpose of the current study was to provide an exploratory examination of the potential diagnostic and prognostic values of hubs of white matter brain networks in MDD discrimination and the corresponding impaired hub pattern via a multi-pattern analysis. We constructed white matter brain networks from 29 depressions and 30 healthy controls based on diffusion tensor imaging data, calculated nodal measures and identified hubs. Using these measures as features, two types of feature architectures were established, one only included hubs (HUB) and the other contained both hubs and non hubs. The support vector machine classifiers with Gaussian radial basis kernel were used after the feature selection. Moreover, the relative contribution of the features was estimated by means of the consensus features. Our results presented that the hubs (including the bilateral dorsolateral part of superior frontal gyrus, the left middle frontal gyrus, the bilateral middle temporal gyrus, and the bilateral inferior temporal gyrus) played an important role in distinguishing the depressions from healthy controls with the best accuracy of 83.05%. Moreover, most of the HUB consensus features located in the frontal-parieto circuit. These findings provided evidence that the hubs could be served as valuable potential diagnostic measure for MDD, and the hub-concentrated lesion distribution of MDD was primarily anchored within the frontal-parieto circuit. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Supervised hub-detection for brain connectivity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kasenburg, Niklas; Liptrot, Matthew George; Reislev, Nina Linde

2016-01-01

, but can smooth discriminative signals in the population, degrading predictive performance. We present a novel hub-detection optimized for supervised learning that both clusters network nodes based on population level variation in connectivity and also takes the learning problem into account. The found......A structural brain network consists of physical connections between brain regions. Brain network analysis aims to find features associated with a parameter of interest through supervised prediction models such as regression. Unsupervised preprocessing steps like clustering are often applied...... hubs are a low-dimensional representation of the network and are chosen based on predictive performance as features for a linear regression. We apply our method to the problem of finding age-related changes in structural connectivity. We compare our supervised hub-detection (SHD) to an unsupervised hub...

PASSENGER FLOWS PREDICTION IN MAJOR TRANSPORTATION HUBS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

O. O. Ozerova

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Purpose. An effective organization of passenger traffic, due to the reliability prediction of traffic flow in passenger transport hubs. In order to determine the parameters of prospective passenger transport areas it is essential to analyze the impact of various factors and determine the most influential ones. Methodology. The article presents the method of paired linear correlation for a more influential factors on passengers in intercity and commuter and possible use in predicting the linear regression equations. Passenger transport vessel areas and branches of industry are interconnected and are in the ratio of passengers and production. Findings. It is found that the coefficient of correlation is in complex dependence on the duration of the period of retrospective analysis. Evaluation of reliability correlation coefficients and coefficients of predictive models led to the conclusion that the population gives the most accurate prediction of passenger flows, providing account of changes in Ukraine during the period of transformation. Originality. Equations of dependence on the impact of macroeconomic indicators were obtained and the evaluation of the reliability results was received. Practical value. The results of analysis and calculations will make short-term forecasting of traffic flow.

Contextual Hub Analysis Tool (CHAT: A Cytoscape app for identifying contextually relevant hubs in biological networks [version 2; referees: 2 approved

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tanja Muetze

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Highly connected nodes (hubs in biological networks are topologically important to the structure of the network and have also been shown to be preferentially associated with a range of phenotypes of interest. The relative importance of a hub node, however, can change depending on the biological context. Here, we report a Cytoscape app, the Contextual Hub Analysis Tool (CHAT, which enables users to easily construct and visualize a network of interactions from a gene or protein list of interest, integrate contextual information, such as gene expression or mass spectrometry data, and identify hub nodes that are more highly connected to contextual nodes (e.g. genes or proteins that are differentially expressed than expected by chance. In a case study, we use CHAT to construct a network of genes that are differentially expressed in Dengue fever, a viral infection. CHAT was used to identify and compare contextual and degree-based hubs in this network. The top 20 degree-based hubs were enriched in pathways related to the cell cycle and cancer, which is likely due to the fact that proteins involved in these processes tend to be highly connected in general. In comparison, the top 20 contextual hubs were enriched in pathways commonly observed in a viral infection including pathways related to the immune response to viral infection. This analysis shows that such contextual hubs are considerably more biologically relevant than degree-based hubs and that analyses which rely on the identification of hubs solely based on their connectivity may be biased towards nodes that are highly connected in general rather than in the specific context of interest.   Availability: CHAT is available for Cytoscape 3.0+ and can be installed via the Cytoscape App Store (http://apps.cytoscape.org/apps/chat.

Development of Europe's gas hubs: Implications for East Asia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xunpeng Shi

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Gas trading hubs have been initially developed in the US in 1980s, UK in 1990s, more recently in European in the 2000s and mulled in East Asia now. Due to its freshness and diversification in nationality, governance and culture, the European hub experience can offer valuable lessons for East Asia. This paper seeks to advance understanding of gas hub development in Europe and provide lessons for East Asia. The European experience highlights that market liberalization and transition of gas pricing mechanism are necessary in creating the competitive markets that are needed for functional gas hubs. Political will and regulations further safeguard the competition environment needed for hub development. Natural factors, such as significant domestic production and culture could have a significant impact on the hub development and transition of pricing mechanism. In East Asia, the path to gas trading hubs might be more difficult than in Europe but a growing market creates an opportunity to start new terms with new contracts. Nevertheless, East Asian needs to work hard to development its indigenous gas or LNG trading hubs.

Strategic analysis on establishing a natural gas trading hub in China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaoguang Tong

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Since 2010, the LNG importing price premium in the Asia–Pacific markets has become increasingly high, generating great effects on the economic development in China. In addition, the natural gas dependence degree is expanding continuously, making it extremely urgent to establish a natural gas trading hub in China, with the aim to ensure national energy security, to gain the pricing power, and to build the regional benchmark prices. Through a comparative analysis of internal strength/weakness and external competitiveness, we concluded that with intensively-issued supporting policies on the natural gas sector, the initiation of spot and futures markets, the rapid growth of gas production and highly-improved infrastructures, as well as Shanghai's advantageous location, China has more advantages in establishing an Asian Natural Gas Trading Hub than other counties like Singapore, Japan and Malaysia. Moreover, based on the SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity and threat and the marketization process analysis, the following strategies were presented: to impel the establishment of a natural gas trading hub depending on the gas supply condition, to follow the policies to complete the gas storage system, to form regional communities by taking comparative advantages, and to reinforce the marketization reform and regulation system establishment with foreign experiences for reference. This study rationalized the necessity and practicality of establishing a natural gas trading hub in China and will help China make a proper decision and find a periodical strategic path in this sector.

Virtual Campus Hub technical evaluation report

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vercoulen, Frank; Badger, Merete; Monaco, Lucio

This report describes and discusses the technical achievements of the Virtual Campus Hub project and formulates a brief agenda for the future.......This report describes and discusses the technical achievements of the Virtual Campus Hub project and formulates a brief agenda for the future....

Multiple-Localization and Hub Proteins

Science.gov (United States)

Ota, Motonori; Gonja, Hideki; Koike, Ryotaro; Fukuchi, Satoshi

2016-01-01

Protein-protein interactions are fundamental for all biological phenomena, and protein-protein interaction networks provide a global view of the interactions. The hub proteins, with many interaction partners, play vital roles in the networks. We investigated the subcellular localizations of proteins in the human network, and found that the ones localized in multiple subcellular compartments, especially the nucleus/cytoplasm proteins (NCP), the cytoplasm/cell membrane proteins (CMP), and the nucleus/cytoplasm/cell membrane proteins (NCMP), tend to be hubs. Examinations of keywords suggested that among NCP, those related to post-translational modifications and transcription functions are the major contributors to the large number of interactions. These types of proteins are characterized by a multi-domain architecture and intrinsic disorder. A survey of the typical hub proteins with prominent numbers of interaction partners in the type revealed that most are either transcription factors or co-regulators involved in signaling pathways. They translocate from the cytoplasm to the nucleus, triggered by the phosphorylation and/or ubiquitination of intrinsically disordered regions. Among CMP and NCMP, the contributors to the numerous interactions are related to either kinase or ubiquitin ligase activity. Many of them reside on the cytoplasmic side of the cell membrane, and act as the upstream regulators of signaling pathways. Overall, these hub proteins function to transfer external signals to the nucleus, through the cell membrane and the cytoplasm. Our analysis suggests that multiple-localization is a crucial concept to characterize groups of hub proteins and their biological functions in cellular information processing. PMID:27285823

Googling Service Boundaries for Endovascular Clot Retrieval Hub Hospitals in a Metropolitan Setting: Proof-of-Concept Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Phan, Thanh G; Beare, Richard; Chen, Jian; Clissold, Benjamin; Ly, John; Singhal, Shaloo; Ma, Henry; Srikanth, Velandai

2017-05-01

There is great interest in how endovascular clot retrieval hubs provide services to a population. We applied a computational method to objectively generate service boundaries for such endovascular clot retrieval hubs, defined by traveling time to hub. Stroke incidence data merged with population census to estimate numbers of stroke in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. Traveling time from randomly generated addresses to 4 endovascular clot retrieval-capable hubs (Royal Melbourne Hospital [RMH], Monash Medical Center [MMC], Alfred Hospital [ALF], and Austin Hospital [AUS]) estimated using Google Map application program interface. Boundary maps generated based on traveling time at various times of day for combinations of hubs. In a 2-hub model, catchment was best distributed when RMH was paired with MMC (model 1a, RMH 1765 km 2 and MMC 1164 km 2 ) or with AUS (model 1c, RMH 1244 km 2 and AUS 1685 km 2 ), with no statistical difference between models ( P =0.20). Catchment was poorly distributed when RMH was paired with ALF (model 1b, RMH 2252 km 2 and ALF 676 km 2 ), significantly different from both models 1a and 1c (both P AUS was superior to that of RMH, MMC, and ALF in catchment distribution and travel time. The method was also successfully applied to the city of Adelaide demonstrating wider applicability. We provide proof of concept for a novel computational method to objectively designate service boundaries for endovascular clot retrieval hubs. © 2017 American Heart Association, Inc.

Competition and coordination in the U.S. airline hub-to-hub markets: An industry pre-merger case study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Prasun Bhattacharjee

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Purpose: This paper investigates the nature of conduct that existed in the U.S. airline hub-to-hub markets prior to the recent merger wave of the legacy carriers. We explore the strategic importance of network carrier hubs in form of “spheres of influence” on airline market conduct. We also simultaneously recognize the overgrowing role played by Low Cost Carriers (LCC over the years by estimating two conduct parameters - one in markets where LCCs directly compete head-to-head with legacy carriers and the other for markets which LCCs do not serve but has presence in the hub airports or adjacent airports comprising the market endpoints. Thus our supply side framework also sheds some light on the issue of perfect contestability in airline industry. Design/methodology/approach: We estimate a structural oligopoly model for differentiated products with competitive interactions using DB1B data for first quarter of 2004. Findings: Our results imply that the nature of competition is more aggressive relative to Bertrand behavior in hub-to-hub markets and that these markets are less than perfectly contestable. Originality/value: This paper adds to the empirical literature of airline competition by enabling estimation of the actual conduct parameter assuming firm price setting behavior in presence of product differentiation. Contrary to existing literature on airline competition, a structural model enables us to systematically separate out effects of demand, cost and strategic factors on observed airline prices.

Numerical study of hub taper angle on podded propeller performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Islam, M.F.; Veitch, B.; Bose, N.; Liu, P.

2005-01-01

Presently, the majority of podded propulsion systems are of the pulling type, because this type provides better hydrodynamic efficiency than the pushing type. There are several possible explanations for the better overall performance of a puller type podded propulsor. One is related to the difference in hub shape. Puller and pusher propellers have opposite hub taper angles, hence different hub and blade root shape. These differences cause changes in the flow condition and possibly influence the overall performance. The current study focuses on the variation in performance of pusher and puller propellers with the same blade sections, but different hub taper angles. A hyperboloidal low order source doublet steady/unsteady time domain panel method code was modified and used to evaluate effects of hub taper angle on the open water propulsive performance of some fixed pitch screw propellers used in podded propulsion systems. The modified code was first validated against measurements of two model propellers in terms of average propulsive performance and good agreement was found. Major findings include significant effects of hub taper angle on propulsive performance of tapered hub propellers and noticeable effects of hub taper angle on sectional pressure distributions of tapered hub propeller blades. (author)

Interpatch foraging in honeybees-rational decision making at secondary hubs based upon time and motivation.

Science.gov (United States)

Najera, Daniel A; McCullough, Erin L; Jander, Rudolf

2012-11-01

For honeybees, Apis mellifera, the hive has been well known to function as a primary decision-making hub, a place from which foragers decide among various directions, distances, and times of day to forage efficiently. Whether foraging honeybees can make similarly complex navigational decisions from locations away from the hive is unknown. To examine whether or not such secondary decision-making hubs exist, we trained bees to forage at four different locations. Specifically, we trained honeybees to first forage to a distal site "CT" 100 m away from the hive; if food was present, they fed and then chose to go home. If food was not present, the honeybees were trained to forage to three auxiliary sites, each at a different time of the day: A in the morning, B at noon, and C in the afternoon. The foragers learned to check site CT for food first and then efficiently depart to the correct location based upon the time of day if there was no food at site CT. Thus, the honeybees were able to cognitively map motivation, time, and five different locations (Hive, CT, A, B, and C) in two spatial dimensions; these are the contents of the cognitive map used by the honeybees here. While at site CT, we verified that the honeybees could choose between 4 different directions (to A, B, C, and the Hive) and thus label it as a secondary decision-making hub. The observed decision making uncovered here is inferred to constitute genuine logical operations, involving a branched structure, based upon the premises of motivational state, and spatiotemporal knowledge.

Reliability in the location of hindlimb motor representations in Fischer-344 rats: laboratory investigation.

Science.gov (United States)

Frost, Shawn B; Iliakova, Maria; Dunham, Caleb; Barbay, Scott; Arnold, Paul; Nudo, Randolph J

2013-08-01

The purpose of the present study was to determine the feasibility of using a common laboratory rat strain for reliably locating cortical motor representations of the hindlimb. Intracortical microstimulation techniques were used to derive detailed maps of the hindlimb motor representations in 6 adult Fischer-344 rats. The organization of the hindlimb movement representation, while variable across individual rats in topographic detail, displayed several commonalities. The hindlimb representation was positioned posterior to the forelimb motor representation and posterolateral to the motor trunk representation. The areal extent of the hindlimb representation across the cortical surface averaged 2.00 ± 0.50 mm(2). Superimposing individual maps revealed an overlapping area measuring 0.35 mm(2), indicating that the location of the hindlimb representation can be predicted reliably based on stereotactic coordinates. Across the sample of rats, the hindlimb representation was found 1.25-3.75 mm posterior to the bregma, with an average center location approximately 2.6 mm posterior to the bregma. Likewise, the hindlimb representation was found 1-3.25 mm lateral to the midline, with an average center location approximately 2 mm lateral to the midline. The location of the cortical hindlimb motor representation in Fischer-344 rats can be reliably located based on its stereotactic position posterior to the bregma and lateral to the longitudinal skull suture at midline. The ability to accurately predict the cortical localization of functional hindlimb territories in a rodent model is important, as such animal models are being increasingly used in the development of brain-computer interfaces for restoration of function after spinal cord injury.

Developmental Changes in Brain Network Hub Connectivity in Late Adolescence.

Science.gov (United States)

Baker, Simon T E; Lubman, Dan I; Yücel, Murat; Allen, Nicholas B; Whittle, Sarah; Fulcher, Ben D; Zalesky, Andrew; Fornito, Alex

2015-06-17

The human brain undergoes substantial development throughout adolescence and into early adulthood. This maturational process is thought to include the refinement of connectivity between putative connectivity hub regions of the brain, which collectively form a dense core that enhances the functional integration of anatomically distributed, and functionally specialized, neural systems. Here, we used longitudinal diffusion magnetic resonance imaging to characterize changes in connectivity between 80 cortical and subcortical anatomical regions over a 2 year period in 31 adolescents between the ages of 15 and 19 years. Connectome-wide analysis indicated that only a small subset of connections showed evidence of statistically significant developmental change over the study period, with 8% and 6% of connections demonstrating decreased and increased structural connectivity, respectively. Nonetheless, these connections linked 93% and 90% of the 80 regions, respectively, pointing to a selective, yet anatomically distributed pattern of developmental changes that involves most of the brain. Hub regions showed a distinct tendency to be highly connected to each other, indicating robust "rich-club" organization. Moreover, connectivity between hubs was disproportionately influenced by development, such that connectivity between subcortical hubs decreased over time, whereas frontal-subcortical and frontal-parietal hub-hub connectivity increased over time. These findings suggest that late adolescence is characterized by selective, yet significant remodeling of hub-hub connectivity, with the topological organization of hubs shifting emphasis from subcortical hubs in favor of an increasingly prominent role for frontal hub regions. Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/359078-10$15.00/0.

Logistics hubs: an integration of transport infrastructure

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Botha, M

2008-07-01

Full Text Available " that have jumped on the band wagon pushing for logistics hubs to be established in their regions or within their areas of jurisdiction. The feasibility of a logistics hub is dependent on a number of criteria with access to ideally more than two...

Learning Graphical Models With Hubs.

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, Kean Ming; London, Palma; Mohan, Karthik; Lee, Su-In; Fazel, Maryam; Witten, Daniela

2014-10-01

We consider the problem of learning a high-dimensional graphical model in which there are a few hub nodes that are densely-connected to many other nodes. Many authors have studied the use of an ℓ 1 penalty in order to learn a sparse graph in the high-dimensional setting. However, the ℓ 1 penalty implicitly assumes that each edge is equally likely and independent of all other edges. We propose a general framework to accommodate more realistic networks with hub nodes, using a convex formulation that involves a row-column overlap norm penalty. We apply this general framework to three widely-used probabilistic graphical models: the Gaussian graphical model, the covariance graph model, and the binary Ising model. An alternating direction method of multipliers algorithm is used to solve the corresponding convex optimization problems. On synthetic data, we demonstrate that our proposed framework outperforms competitors that do not explicitly model hub nodes. We illustrate our proposal on a webpage data set and a gene expression data set.

Lean GHTorrent : GitHub data on demand

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gousios, G.; Vasilescu, B.N.; Serebrenik, A.; Zaidman, A.

2014-01-01

In recent years, GitHub has become the largest code host in the world, with more than 5M developers collaborating across 10M repositories. Numerous popular open source projects (such as Ruby on Rails, Homebrew, Bootstrap, Django or jQuery) have chosen GitHub as their host and have migrated their

Identification of promising Twin Hub networks : Report of Work Package 1 of the Intermodal rail freight Twin hub Network Northwest Europe - project (final report)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kreutzberger, E.D.; Konings, J.W.; Meijer, S.; Witteveen, C.; Meijers, B.M.; Pekin, E.; Macharis, C.; Kiel, J.; Kawabata, Y.; Vos, W.

2014-01-01

This report is the first deliverable of the project Intermodal Rail Freight Twin Hub Network Northwest Europe. We call its subject Twin hub network and the organisational entity to carry out the actions the Twin hub project. The project is funded by INTERREG NWE (programme IVb). Its work started in

Altered cortical hubs in functional brain networks in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Xujing; Zhang, Jiuquan; Zhang, Youxue; Chen, Heng; Li, Rong; Wang, Jian; Chen, Huafu

2015-11-01

Cortical hubs are highly connected nodes in functional brain networks that play vital roles in the efficient transfer of information across brain regions. Although altered functional connectivity has been found in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the changing pattern in functional network hubs in ALS remains unknown. In this study, we applied a voxel-wise method to investigate the changing pattern of cortical hubs in ALS. Through resting-state fMRI, we constructed whole-brain voxel-wise functional networks by measuring the temporal correlations of each pair of brain voxels and identified hubs using the graph theory method. Specifically, a functional connectivity strength (FCS) map was derived from the data on 20 patients with ALS and 20 healthy controls. The brain regions with high FCS values were regarded as functional network hubs. Functional hubs were found mainly in the bilateral precuneus, parietal cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, and in several visual regions and temporal areas in both groups. Within the hub regions, the ALS patients exhibited higher FCS in the prefrontal cortex compared with the healthy controls. The FCS value in the significantly abnormal hub regions was correlated with clinical variables. Results indicated the presence of altered cortical hubs in the ALS patients and could therefore shed light on the pathophysiology mechanisms underlying ALS.

Optimum hub height of a wind turbine for maximizing annual net profit

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Jaehwan; Kim, Dong Rip; Lee, Kwan-Soo

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Annual Net Profit was proposed to optimize the hub height of a wind turbine. • Procedures of the hub height optimization method were introduced. • Effect of local wind speed characteristics on optimum hub height was illustrated. • Effect of rated power on optimum hub height was negligible in the range 0.75–3 MW. • Rated speed and cut-out speed had great effects on optimum hub height. - Abstract: The optimization method of the hub height, which can ensure the economic feasibility of the wind turbine, is proposed in this study. Annual Net Profit is suggested as an objective function and the optimization procedure is developed. The effects of local wind speed and wind turbine power characteristics on the optimum hub height are investigated. The optimum hub height decreased as the mean wind speed and wind shear exponent increased. Rated power had little effect on optimum hub height; it follows that the economies of scale are negligible in the rated power range of 0.75–3 MW. Among the wind turbine power characteristics, rated speed and cut-out speed most strongly affected the optimum hub height

Report on survey on international hub

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ebisawa, Hirobumi; Hoshino, Junko; Hashimoto, Kazuichiro; Okada, Sohei

2011-06-01

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) is promoting initiative to form an international hub in line with its aim to accept more researchers/engineers from all over the world. Establishment of 'the Committee for JAEA Internationalization Initiative' was planned in 2010 so as to intensify this initiative, and in February, 2010, we visited research institutions in Europe, which include European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the construction site of ITER in Cadarache, and Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), with the intention to survey and learn their advanced activities and systems in regard to the International Hub, so that the committee will be able to make fruitful discussion. This report describes strategy taken in each institution for an International Hub, and the state of each institution regarding acceptance and management of overseas researchers and engineers, research environment, living environment/health and welfare, and PR activities/coexistence with the local community. (author)

The reliability of measuring pain distribution and location using body pain diagrams in patients with acute whiplash-associated disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Southerst, Danielle; Stupar, Maja; Côté, Pierre; Mior, Silvano; Stern, Paula

2013-09-01

The objective of this study was to measure the interexaminer reliability of scoring pain distribution using paper and electronic body pain diagrams in patients with acute whiplash-associated disorder and to assess the intermethod reliability of measuring pain distribution and location using paper and electronic diagrams. We conducted an interexaminer reliability study on 80 participants recruited from a randomized controlled trial on the conservative management of acute grade I/II whiplash-associated disorder. Participants were assessed for inclusion/exclusion criteria by an experienced clinician. As part of the baseline assessment, participants independently completed paper and electronic pain diagrams. Diagrams were scored independently by 2 examiners using the body region method. Interexaminer and intermethod reliability was computed using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) for pain distribution and κ coefficient for pain location. We used Bland-Altman plots to compute limits of agreement. The interexaminer reliability was ICC = 0.925 for paper and ICC = 0.997 for the electronic body pain diagram. The intermethod reliability for measuring pain distribution ranged from ICC = 0.63 to ICC = 0.93. For pain location, the intermethod reliability varied from κ = 0.23 (posterior neck) to κ = 0.90 (right side of the face). We found good to excellent interexaminer reliability for scoring 2 versions of the body pain diagram. Pain distribution and pain location were reliably and consistently measured on body pain diagrams using paper and electronic methods; therefore, clinicians and researchers may choose either medium when using body pain diagrams. Copyright © 2013 National University of Health Sciences. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Communication and logging hub for rapid prototyping of environmental sensors: presenting the Smartphone.

Science.gov (United States)

Hut, R.

2017-12-01

When desiging prototype sensors for environmental variables a critical step is a comparison campaign where the new sensor is compared to current state of the art sensors. In this step one of the headaches for researchers can be connecting their sensor to a logging or communication device. I present a simple solution: to use smartphone that scans for Bluetooth Low Energy transmissions and uploads any measurement to a data server. In this way the prototype sensor only has to transmit its measurement values over BLE, which can be done using off-the-shelf components. The sensors don't have to be physically connected to the phone, allowing for very rapid deployment of sensors in locations that have a communication hub (ie. phone) installed. The communication and logging hub consists of nothing more than a low cost Android smartphone running a dedicated app. The phone is encased in a waterproof box with a large powerbank and a solar panel. I will demonstrate this live at the Fall Meeting. By installing these phones along permanent WMO certified station locations, comparisons campaigns can use the "golden standard" from the WMO without much problems.

Numerical investigation of hub clearance flow in a Kaplan turbine

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, H.; Feng, J. J.; Wu, G. K.; Luo, X. Q.

2012-11-01

In this paper, the flow field considering the hub clearance flow in a Kaplan turbine has been investigated through using the commercial CFD code ANSYS CFX based on high-quality structured grids generated by ANSYS ICEM CFD. The turbulence is simulated by k-ω based shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model together with automatic near wall treatments. Four kinds of simulations have been conducted for the runner geometry without hub clearance, with only the hub front clearance, with only the rear hub clearance, and with both front and rear clearance. The analysis of the obtained results is focused on the flow structure of the hub clearance flow, the effect on the turbine performance including hydraulic efficiency and cavitation performance, which can improve the understanding on the flow field in a Kaplan turbine.

Numerical investigation of hub clearance flow in a Kaplan turbine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, H; Feng, J J; Wu, G K; Luo, X Q

2012-01-01

In this paper, the flow field considering the hub clearance flow in a Kaplan turbine has been investigated through using the commercial CFD code ANSYS CFX based on high-quality structured grids generated by ANSYS ICEM CFD. The turbulence is simulated by k-ω based shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model together with automatic near wall treatments. Four kinds of simulations have been conducted for the runner geometry without hub clearance, with only the hub front clearance, with only the rear hub clearance, and with both front and rear clearance. The analysis of the obtained results is focused on the flow structure of the hub clearance flow, the effect on the turbine performance including hydraulic efficiency and cavitation performance, which can improve the understanding on the flow field in a Kaplan turbine.

Assessing inspection sensitivity as it relates to damage tolerance in composite rotor hubs

Science.gov (United States)

Roach, Dennis P.; Rackow, Kirk

2001-08-01

Increasing niche applications, growing international markets, and the emergence of advanced rotorcraft technology are expected to greatly increase the population of helicopters over the next decade. In terms of fuselage fatigue, helicopters show similar trends as fixed-wing aircraft. The highly unsteady loads experienced by rotating wings not only directly affect components in the dynamic systems but are also transferred to the fixed airframe structure. Expanded use of rotorcraft has focused attention on the use of new materials and the optimization of maintenance practices. The FAA's Airworthiness Assurance Center (AANC) at Sandia National Labs has joined with Bell Helicopter andother agencies in the rotorcraft industry to evaluate nondestructive inspection (NDI) capabilities in light of the damage tolerance of assorted rotorcraft structure components. Currently, the program's emphasis is on composite rotor hubs. The rotorcraft industry is constantly evaluating new types of lightweight composite materials that not only enhance the safety and reliability of rotor components but also improve performance and extended operating life as well. Composite rotor hubs have led to the use of bearingless rotor systems that are less complex and require less maintenance than their predecessors. The test facility described in this paper allows the structural stability and damage tolerance of composite hubs to be evaluated using realistic flight load spectrums of centrifugal force and bending loads. NDI was integrated into the life-cycle fatigue tests in order to evaluate flaw detection sensitivity simultaneously wiht residual strength and general rotor hub peformance. This paper will describe the evolving use of damage tolerance analysis (DTA) to direct and improve rotorcraft maintenance along with the related use of nondestructive inspections to manage helicopter safety. OVeralll, the data from this project will provide information to improve the producibility, inspectability

A versatile framework for cooperative hub network development

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cruijssen, F.C.A.M.; Borm, P.; Dullaert, W.; Hamers, H.

2010-01-01

This paper introduces a framework for cooperative hub network development. Building a joint physical hub for the transshipment of goods is expensive and, therefore, involves considerable risks for cooperating companies. In a practical setting, it is unlikely that an entire network will be built at

A versatile framework for cooperative hub network development

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cruijssen, Frans; Borm, Peter; Dullaert, Wout; Hamers, Herbert

This paper introduces a framework for cooperative hub network development. Building a joint physical hub for the transshipment of goods is expensive and, therefore, involves considerable risks for cooperating companies. In a practical setting, it is unlikely that an entire network will be built at

When Is Hub Gene Selection Better than Standard Meta-Analysis?

Science.gov (United States)

Langfelder, Peter; Mischel, Paul S.; Horvath, Steve

2013-01-01

Since hub nodes have been found to play important roles in many networks, highly connected hub genes are expected to play an important role in biology as well. However, the empirical evidence remains ambiguous. An open question is whether (or when) hub gene selection leads to more meaningful gene lists than a standard statistical analysis based on significance testing when analyzing genomic data sets (e.g., gene expression or DNA methylation data). Here we address this question for the special case when multiple genomic data sets are available. This is of great practical importance since for many research questions multiple data sets are publicly available. In this case, the data analyst can decide between a standard statistical approach (e.g., based on meta-analysis) and a co-expression network analysis approach that selects intramodular hubs in consensus modules. We assess the performance of these two types of approaches according to two criteria. The first criterion evaluates the biological insights gained and is relevant in basic research. The second criterion evaluates the validation success (reproducibility) in independent data sets and often applies in clinical diagnostic or prognostic applications. We compare meta-analysis with consensus network analysis based on weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA) in three comprehensive and unbiased empirical studies: (1) Finding genes predictive of lung cancer survival, (2) finding methylation markers related to age, and (3) finding mouse genes related to total cholesterol. The results demonstrate that intramodular hub gene status with respect to consensus modules is more useful than a meta-analysis p-value when identifying biologically meaningful gene lists (reflecting criterion 1). However, standard meta-analysis methods perform as good as (if not better than) a consensus network approach in terms of validation success (criterion 2). The article also reports a comparison of meta-analysis techniques applied to

When is hub gene selection better than standard meta-analysis?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Langfelder

Full Text Available Since hub nodes have been found to play important roles in many networks, highly connected hub genes are expected to play an important role in biology as well. However, the empirical evidence remains ambiguous. An open question is whether (or when hub gene selection leads to more meaningful gene lists than a standard statistical analysis based on significance testing when analyzing genomic data sets (e.g., gene expression or DNA methylation data. Here we address this question for the special case when multiple genomic data sets are available. This is of great practical importance since for many research questions multiple data sets are publicly available. In this case, the data analyst can decide between a standard statistical approach (e.g., based on meta-analysis and a co-expression network analysis approach that selects intramodular hubs in consensus modules. We assess the performance of these two types of approaches according to two criteria. The first criterion evaluates the biological insights gained and is relevant in basic research. The second criterion evaluates the validation success (reproducibility in independent data sets and often applies in clinical diagnostic or prognostic applications. We compare meta-analysis with consensus network analysis based on weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA in three comprehensive and unbiased empirical studies: (1 Finding genes predictive of lung cancer survival, (2 finding methylation markers related to age, and (3 finding mouse genes related to total cholesterol. The results demonstrate that intramodular hub gene status with respect to consensus modules is more useful than a meta-analysis p-value when identifying biologically meaningful gene lists (reflecting criterion 1. However, standard meta-analysis methods perform as good as (if not better than a consensus network approach in terms of validation success (criterion 2. The article also reports a comparison of meta-analysis techniques

When is hub gene selection better than standard meta-analysis?

Science.gov (United States)

Langfelder, Peter; Mischel, Paul S; Horvath, Steve

2013-01-01

Since hub nodes have been found to play important roles in many networks, highly connected hub genes are expected to play an important role in biology as well. However, the empirical evidence remains ambiguous. An open question is whether (or when) hub gene selection leads to more meaningful gene lists than a standard statistical analysis based on significance testing when analyzing genomic data sets (e.g., gene expression or DNA methylation data). Here we address this question for the special case when multiple genomic data sets are available. This is of great practical importance since for many research questions multiple data sets are publicly available. In this case, the data analyst can decide between a standard statistical approach (e.g., based on meta-analysis) and a co-expression network analysis approach that selects intramodular hubs in consensus modules. We assess the performance of these two types of approaches according to two criteria. The first criterion evaluates the biological insights gained and is relevant in basic research. The second criterion evaluates the validation success (reproducibility) in independent data sets and often applies in clinical diagnostic or prognostic applications. We compare meta-analysis with consensus network analysis based on weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA) in three comprehensive and unbiased empirical studies: (1) Finding genes predictive of lung cancer survival, (2) finding methylation markers related to age, and (3) finding mouse genes related to total cholesterol. The results demonstrate that intramodular hub gene status with respect to consensus modules is more useful than a meta-analysis p-value when identifying biologically meaningful gene lists (reflecting criterion 1). However, standard meta-analysis methods perform as good as (if not better than) a consensus network approach in terms of validation success (criterion 2). The article also reports a comparison of meta-analysis techniques applied to

International Education Hubs: Collaboration for Competitiveness and Sustainability

Science.gov (United States)

Knight, Jane

2014-01-01

This chapter focuses on the development of education hubs, a recent phenomenon in international higher education. Three models of hubs are examined in relation to the forces, risks, and opportunities of globalization and how local and international collaborations are essential for both global competitiveness and sustainability.

Development of an improved low profile hub seal refurbishment tool

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wagg, L.

1997-01-01

The hub seal area of a fuel channel feeder coupling can be exposed to oxygen in the atmosphere if protective measures are not taken during maintenance outages. Exposure to oxygen can lead to pitting of the hub seal area. Although this is a rare occurrence, the resulting possibility of the feeder coupling leakage led to the development of a feeder hub refurbishment tool. To reduce time and man-rem exposure during feeder hub seal refurbishment, an improved low profile hub seat refurbishing tool has been developed. The improved tool design will allow for quick and controlled removal of material, and the restoration of a roll-burnished finish equivalent to the original requirements. The new tool can be used in maintenance operations, with the end fitting present, as well as under retube-type circumstances, with the end fitting removed. (author)

E-hubs: the new B2B (business-to-business) marketplaces.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaplan, S; Sawhney, M

2000-01-01

Electronic hubs--Internet-based intermediaries that host electronic marketplaces and mediate transactions among businesses--are generating a lot of interest. Companies like Ariba, Chemdex, and Commerce One have already attained breathtaking stock market capitalizations. Venture capitalists are pouring money into more business-to-business start-ups. Even industrial stalwarts like GM and Ford are making plans to set up their own Web markets. As new entrants with new business models pour into the business-to-business space, it's increasingly difficult to make sense of the landscape. This article provides a blueprint of the e-hub arena. The authors start by looking at the two dimensions of purchasing: what businesses buy--manufacturing inputs or operating inputs--and how they buy--through systematic sourcing or spot sourcing. They classify B2B e-hubs into four categories: MRO hubs, yield managers, exchanges, and catalog hubs, and they discuss each type in detail. Drilling deeper into this B2B matrix, the authors look at how e-hubs create value--through aggregation and matching--and explain when each mechanism works best. They also examine the biases of e-hubs. Although many e-hubs are neutral--they're operated by independent third parties--some favor the buyers or sellers. The authors explain the differences and discuss the pros and cons of each position. The B2B marketplace is changing rapidly. This framework helps buyers, sellers, and market makers navigate the landscape by explaining what the different hubs do and how they add the most value.

Sci-Hub provides access to nearly all scholarly literature.

Science.gov (United States)

Himmelstein, Daniel S; Romero, Ariel Rodriguez; Levernier, Jacob G; Munro, Thomas Anthony; McLaughlin, Stephen Reid; Greshake Tzovaras, Bastian; Greene, Casey S

2018-03-01

The website Sci-Hub enables users to download PDF versions of scholarly articles, including many articles that are paywalled at their journal's site. Sci-Hub has grown rapidly since its creation in 2011, but the extent of its coverage has been unclear. Here we report that, as of March 2017, Sci-Hub's database contains 68.9% of the 81.6 million scholarly articles registered with Crossref and 85.1% of articles published in toll access journals. We find that coverage varies by discipline and publisher, and that Sci-Hub preferentially covers popular, paywalled content. For toll access articles, we find that Sci-Hub provides greater coverage than the University of Pennsylvania, a major research university in the United States. Green open access to toll access articles via licit services, on the other hand, remains quite limited. Our interactive browser at https://greenelab.github.io/scihub allows users to explore these findings in more detail. For the first time, nearly all scholarly literature is available gratis to anyone with an Internet connection, suggesting the toll access business model may become unsustainable. © 2018, Himmelstein et al.

Multi-Item Distribution Policies with Supply Hub and Lateral Transshipment

OpenAIRE

Zhong Jin-Hong; Jiang Rui-Xuan; Zheng Gui

2015-01-01

Supply Hub is defined as the horizontal coordination among the suppliers while lateral transshipment is a horizontal coordination policy among the retailers. By considering the Supply Hub and lateral transshipment simultaneously, ones can reduce the total cost of the supply chain system and improve the response to customer requirement and the customers’ satisfaction. We investigate the distribution policies for the supply chain which consists of multisuppliers, single Supply Hub, and multidis...

Revisiting date and party hubs: novel approaches to role assignment in protein interaction networks.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sumeet Agarwal

2010-06-01

Full Text Available The idea of "date" and "party" hubs has been influential in the study of protein-protein interaction networks. Date hubs display low co-expression with their partners, whilst party hubs have high co-expression. It was proposed that party hubs are local coordinators whereas date hubs are global connectors. Here, we show that the reported importance of date hubs to network connectivity can in fact be attributed to a tiny subset of them. Crucially, these few, extremely central, hubs do not display particularly low expression correlation, undermining the idea of a link between this quantity and hub function. The date/party distinction was originally motivated by an approximately bimodal distribution of hub co-expression; we show that this feature is not always robust to methodological changes. Additionally, topological properties of hubs do not in general correlate with co-expression. However, we find significant correlations between interaction centrality and the functional similarity of the interacting proteins. We suggest that thinking in terms of a date/party dichotomy for hubs in protein interaction networks is not meaningful, and it might be more useful to conceive of roles for protein-protein interactions rather than for individual proteins.

Classification of gene expression data: A hubness-aware semi-supervised approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Buza, Krisztian

2016-04-01

Classification of gene expression data is the common denominator of various biomedical recognition tasks. However, obtaining class labels for large training samples may be difficult or even impossible in many cases. Therefore, semi-supervised classification techniques are required as semi-supervised classifiers take advantage of unlabeled data. Gene expression data is high-dimensional which gives rise to the phenomena known under the umbrella of the curse of dimensionality, one of its recently explored aspects being the presence of hubs or hubness for short. Therefore, hubness-aware classifiers have been developed recently, such as Naive Hubness-Bayesian k-Nearest Neighbor (NHBNN). In this paper, we propose a semi-supervised extension of NHBNN which follows the self-training schema. As one of the core components of self-training is the certainty score, we propose a new hubness-aware certainty score. We performed experiments on publicly available gene expression data. These experiments show that the proposed classifier outperforms its competitors. We investigated the impact of each of the components (classification algorithm, semi-supervised technique, hubness-aware certainty score) separately and showed that each of these components are relevant to the performance of the proposed approach. Our results imply that our approach may increase classification accuracy and reduce computational costs (i.e., runtime). Based on the promising results presented in the paper, we envision that hubness-aware techniques will be used in various other biomedical machine learning tasks. In order to accelerate this process, we made an implementation of hubness-aware machine learning techniques publicly available in the PyHubs software package (http://www.biointelligence.hu/pyhubs) implemented in Python, one of the most popular programming languages of data science. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Genome-Wide Association Study and Complex Network Identify Four Core Hub Genes in Bipolar Disorder

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zengyan Xie

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Bipolar disorder is a common and severe mental illness with unsolved pathophysiology. A genome-wide association study (GWAS has been used to find a number of risk genes, but it is difficult for a GWAS to find genes indirectly associated with a disease. To find core hub genes, we introduce a network analysis after the GWAS was conducted. Six thousand four hundred fifty eight single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs with p < 0.01 were sifted out from Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (WTCCC dataset and mapped to 2045 genes, which are then compared with the protein–protein network. One hundred twelve genes with a degree >17 were chosen as hub genes from which five significant modules and four core hub genes (FBXL13, WDFY2, bFGF, and MTHFD1L were found. These core hub genes have not been reported to be directly associated with BD but may function by interacting with genes directly related to BD. Our method engenders new thoughts on finding genes indirectly associated with, but important for, complex diseases.

Liner shipping hub network design in a competitive environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gelareh, Shahin; Nickel, Stefan; Pisinger, David

2010-01-01

A mixed integer programming formulation is proposed for hub-and-spoke network design in a competitive environment. It addresses the competition between a newcomer liner service provider and an existing dominating operator, both operating on hub-and-spoke networks. The newcomer company maximizes i...

Flow Merging and Hub Route Optimization in Collaborative Transportation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kerui Weng

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This paper studies the optimal hub routing problem of merged tasks in collaborative transportation. This problem allows all carriers’ transportation tasks to reach the destinations optionally passing through 0, 1, or 2 hubs within limited distance, while a cost discount on arcs in the hub route could be acquired after paying fixed charges. The problem arises in the application of logistics, postal services, airline transportation, and so forth. We formulate the problem as a mixed-integer programming model, and provide two heuristic approaches, respectively, based on Lagrangian relaxation and Benders decomposition. Computational experiments show that the algorithms work well.

Climate programs update: USDA Southwest Regional Climate Hub update

Science.gov (United States)

PROGRAM OVERVIEW: The overarching goal of the USDA SW Climate Hub is to assist farmers, ranchers and foresters in addressing the effects of climate change including prolonged drought, increased insect outbreaks and severe wildfires. In the first year of operations, the SW Climate Hub (est. Februa...

Hub Status and Indexation of Container Ports

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yong-An Park

2015-06-01

This study develops two sub-indexes of port classification and capacity, and combines cases of these two sub-indexes into various types in order to find a proper port hub index. The paper demonstrates how different types of port hub index are useful measurements for evaluating outputs and inputs of container ports. In a case analysis we show that the indexes of period variables and lagged variables have more explanatory power with regard to changes of port throughputs and high correlation with inputs.

Rigid-flexible coupling dynamics of three-dimensional hub-beams system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu Jinyang; Lu Hao

2007-01-01

In the previous research of the coupling dynamics of a hub-beam system, coupling between the rotational motion of hub and the torsion deformation of beam is not taken into account since the system undergoes planar motion. Due to the small longitudinal deformation, coupling between the rotational motion of hub and the longitudinal deformation of beam is also neglected. In this paper, rigid-flexible coupling dynamics is extended to a hub-beams system with three-dimensional large overall motion. Not only coupling between the large overall motion and the bending deformation, but also coupling between the large overall motion and the torsional deformation are taken into account. In case of temperature increase, the longitudinal deformation caused by the thermal expansion is significant, such that coupling between the large overall motion and the longitudinal deformation is also investigated. Combining the characteristics of the hybrid coordinate formulation and the absolute nodal coordinate formulation, the system generalized coordinates include the relative nodal displacement and the slope of each beam element with respect to the body-fixed frame of the hub, and the variables related to the spatial large overall motion of the hub and beams. Based on precise strain-displacement relation, the geometric stiffening effect is taken into account, and the rigid-flexible coupling dynamic equations are derived using velocity variational principle. Finite element method is employed for discretization. Simulation of a hub-beams system is used to show the coupling effect between the large overall motion and the torsional deformation as well as the longitudinal deformation. Furthermore, conservation of energy in case of free motion is shown to verify the formulation

The 'Hub Disruption Index', a reliable index sensitive to the brain networks reorganization. A study of the contralesional hemisphere in stroke

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maite Termenon

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Stroke, resulting in focal structural damage, induces changes in brain function at both local and global levels. Following stroke, cerebral networks present structural and functional reorganization to compensate for the dysfunctioning provoked by the lesion itself and its remote effects. As some recent studies underlined the role of the contralesional hemisphere during recovery, we studied its role %of the contralesional hemispherein the reorganization of brain function of stroke patients using resting state fMRI and graph theory. We explored this reorganization using the 'hub disruption index' (kappa, a global index sensitive to the reorganization of nodes within the graph. For a given graph metric, kappa of a subject corresponds to the slope of the linear regression model between the mean local network measures of a reference group, and the difference between that reference and the subject under study. In order to translate the use of kappa in clinical context, a prerequisite to achieve meaningful results is to investigate the reliability of this index. In a preliminary part, we studied the reliability of kappa by computing the intraclass correlation coefficient in a cohort of 100 subjects from the Human Connectome Project. Then, we measured intra-hemispheric kappa index in the contralesional hemisphere of 20 subacute stroke patients compared to 20 age-matched healthy controls. Finally, due to the small number of patients, we tested the robustness of our results repeating the experiment 1000 times by bootstrapping on the Human Connectome Project database. Statistical analysis showed a significant reduction of kappa for the contralesional hemisphere of right stroke patients compared to healthy controls. Similar results were observed for the right contralesional hemisphere of left stroke patients. We showed that kappa, is more reliable than global graph metrics and more sensitive to detect differences between groups of patients as compared to

Fixed-axis electric sail deployment dynamics analysis using hub-mounted momentum control

Science.gov (United States)

Fulton, JoAnna; Schaub, Hanspeter

2018-03-01

The deployment dynamics of a spin stabilized electric sail (E-sail) with a hub-mounted control actuator are investigated. Both radial and tangential deployment mechanisms are considered to take the electric sail from a post-launch stowed configuration to a fully deployed configuration. The tangential configuration assumes the multi-kilometer tethers are wound up on the exterior of the spacecraft hub, similar to yo-yo despinner configurations. The deployment speed is controlled through the hub rate. The radial deployment configuration assumes each tether is on its own spool. Here both the hub and spool rate are control variables. The sensitivity of the deployment behavior to E-sail length, maximum rate and tension parameters is investigated. A constant hub rate deployment is compared to a time varying hub rate that maintains a constant tether tension condition. The deployment time can be reduced by a factor of 2 or more by using a tension controlled deployment configuration.

Nonlinear analysis of the GFRP material wheel hub

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dong Yun-Feng

2015-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper, the current bicycle wheel was replaced by the ones which composed by the wheel hub with Glassfiber Reinforced Plastic (alkali free thin-walled cylinder material, hereinafter referred to as GFRP material and the protective components made up of rubber outer pneumatic pad. With the help of the basic theory of elastic-plastic mechanics, the finite element “Nonlinear buckling” analysis of the wheel was carried out. The results show that the maximum elastic deformation of the wheel hub and the critical value of buckling failure load were restricted by the elasticity under the condition of external loads. Considering with the tensile strength and elastic modulus of the GFRP value of the material, it is demonstrated that the material is feasible to be used for wheel hub.

On the Predictability of Hub Height Winds

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Draxl, Caroline

Wind energy is a major source of power in over 70 countries across the world, and the worldwide share of wind energy in electricity consumption is growing. The introduction of signicant amounts of wind energy into power systems makes accurate wind forecasting a crucial element of modern electrical...... grids. These systems require forecasts with temporal scales of tens of minutes to a few days in advance at wind farm locations. Traditionally these forecasts predict the wind at turbine hub heights; this information is then converted by transmission system operators and energy companies into predictions...... of power output at wind farms. Since the power available in the wind is proportional to the wind speed cubed, even small wind forecast errors result in large power prediction errors. Accurate wind forecasts are worth billions of dollars annually; forecast improvements will result in reduced costs...

Managing effective and efficient hub operations : a study of ground time management

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Yunita, Theresia

2009-01-01

This Logistics Design Project was carried out at KLM Aircraft Services (AS), from February 2008 - April 2009. The project focuses on ideal description of KLM operational controls for daily executions at the hub and within the AS processes. The daily execution at the hub is managed by the Hub Control

Mechanical Design, Analysis, and Testing of a Two-Bladed Wind Turbine Hub

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cotrell, J.

2002-06-01

Researchers at the National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) in Golden, Colorado, began performing the Unsteady Aerodynamics Experiment in 1993 to better understand the unsteady aerodynamics and structural responses of horizontal-axis wind turbines. The experiment consists of an extensively instrumented, downwind, three-bladed, 20-kilowatt wind turbine. In May 1995, I received a request from the NWTC to design a two-bladed hub for the experiment. For my thesis, I present the results of the mechanical design, analysis, and testing of the hub. The hub I designed is unique because it runs in rigid, teetering, or independent blade-flapping modes. In addition, the design is unusual because it uses two servomotors to pitch the blades independently. These features are used to investigate new load reduction, noise reduction, blade pitch optimization, and yaw control techniques for two-bladed turbines. I used a methodology by G. Phal and W. Bietz to design the hub. The hub meets all the performance specifications except that it achieves only 90% of the specified teeter range. In my thesis, I focus on the analysis and testing of the hub body. I performed solid-mechanics calculations, ran a finite-element analysis simulation, and experimentally investigated the structural integrity of the hub body.

SUN HUB – ENERGY HUB FOR OUTDOOR TABLES

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Poulsen, Peter Behrensdorff; Benatto, Gisele Alves dos Reis; Riedel, Nicholas

2017-01-01

connections, providing opportunity to stream music via Bluetooth and play it from a handheld device to the table and lastly to provide LED lighting on the table during the dark hours. 3 prototypes of the system was built and tested at the Roskilde Festival 2017. Electrical logger units were built into the 3...... on festivals where people camps for several days it can be hard to have your portable units charged. In this this work we report a solar powered hub, as an add-on to a table in the urban environment for charging mobile phones and tablets and other handheld devices through USBs, charging laptops through AC...

Multiple Hub Network Choice in the Liberalized European Market

Science.gov (United States)

Berechman, Joseph; deWit, Jaap

1997-01-01

A key question that so far has received relatively little attention in the germane literature is that of the changes at various airports as a result of the EU liberalization policies. That is, presently, most major European airports still benefit from the so-called home-carrier phenomenon where the country's publicly or semi-publicly owned carrier uses the country's main airport as its gateway hub and, consequently, the home-carrier is also the principal user of this airport (in terms of proportion of total aircraft movements, number of passengers transported, connections, slots ownership, etc.). The country's main airport has substantially benefited from these monopoly conditions of airline captivity, strongly determined by the bilateral system of international air transport regulation. Therefore, European major airports were used to operate in essentially different markets, compared to the increasingly competitive markets of their home based carriers. This partly explains relative stability of transport volumes and financial results of European major airports compared to the relatively volatile financial results of most European national airlines. However, the liberalization of European aviation is likely to change this situation. Market access is open now to all community carriers, i.e. carriers with majority ownership and effective control in the hands of EU citizens. Ticket prices are free, governments can only intervene in case of dumping or excessive pricing. A community airline can choose its seat in any of the 15 member states. Licensing procedures are harmonized between member states. In the last few months community carriers have had unrestricted route access within the EU. Most probably this development will be extended to countries inside and outside Europe. Last year the European Commission got the mandate to start negotiations with 10 other European countries. In the meantime the EC has also started negotiations with the USA on so-called soft rights

Predicting highly-connected hubs in protein interaction networks by QSAR and biological data descriptors

Science.gov (United States)

Hsing, Michael; Byler, Kendall; Cherkasov, Artem

2009-01-01

Hub proteins (those engaged in most physical interactions in a protein interaction network (PIN) have recently gained much research interest due to their essential role in mediating cellular processes and their potential therapeutic value. It is straightforward to identify hubs if the underlying PIN is experimentally determined; however, theoretical hub prediction remains a very challenging task, as physicochemical properties that differentiate hubs from less connected proteins remain mostly uncharacterized. To adequately distinguish hubs from non-hub proteins we have utilized over 1300 protein descriptors, some of which represent QSAR (quantitative structure-activity relationship) parameters, and some reflect sequence-derived characteristics of proteins including domain composition and functional annotations. Those protein descriptors, together with available protein interaction data have been processed by a machine learning method (boosting trees) and resulted in the development of hub classifiers that are capable of predicting highly interacting proteins for four model organisms: Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Drosophila melanogaster and Homo sapiens. More importantly, through the analyses of the most relevant protein descriptors, we are able to demonstrate that hub proteins not only share certain common physicochemical and structural characteristics that make them different from non-hub counterparts, but they also exhibit species-specific characteristics that should be taken into account when analyzing different PINs. The developed prediction models can be used for determining highly interacting proteins in the four studied species to assist future proteomics experiments and PIN analyses. Availability The source code and executable program of the hub classifier are available for download at: http://www.cnbi2.ca/hub-analysis/ PMID:20198194

Microfluidic hubs, systems, and methods for interface fluidic modules

Science.gov (United States)

Bartsch, Michael S; Claudnic, Mark R; Kim, Hanyoup; Patel, Kamlesh D; Renzi, Ronald F; Van De Vreugde, James L

2015-01-27

Embodiments of microfluidic hubs and systems are described that may be used to connect fluidic modules. A space between surfaces may be set by fixtures described herein. In some examples a fixture may set substrate-to-substrate spacing based on a distance between registration surfaces on which the respective substrates rest. Fluidic interfaces are described, including examples where fluid conduits (e.g. capillaries) extend into the fixture to the space between surfaces. Droplets of fluid may be introduced to and/or removed from microfluidic hubs described herein, and fluid actuators may be used to move droplets within the space between surfaces. Continuous flow modules may be integrated with the hubs in some examples.

North West Surrey's locality hubs - delivering integrated care

OpenAIRE

Compton, Lisa; Wilkinson, Peter; Lawn, Liz

2017-01-01

Introduction: North West Surrey CCG (NWSCCG) is establishing Locality Hubs – physical buildings offering a fully integrated GP-led, multi-disciplinary ‘one-stop-shop’ services in the community for a defined cohort of frail elderly patients with multiple core morbidities. Hubs will ultimately deliver proactive and reactive care, available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.The key drivers are;Ageing population, people living longer & more people living with chronic conditionsCost & demand...

Measurement of acoustic properties of the composite materials constituting the main rotor hub of the Agusta-Westland helicopter EH-101 (civil version)

Science.gov (United States)

Tenti, L.; Denis, R.; Lakestani, F.

1991-10-01

The acoustic properties of the EH-101 helicopter rotor hub are tested by characterizing the ultrasonic propagation phenomena in the main directions of the composite materials. The carbon fiber and epoxy resin that make up the rotor hub are measured to determine the attenuation coefficient, phase propagation at normal incidence, and phase propagation as a function of angle of incidence. The speeds are measured for external box and filler samples, and strap samples are discussed separately because of their anisotropic nature and structural importance. Deviations angles of 5 deg cause refraction angles of 10 deg in the deviation of the phase propagation; therefore planar defects with an angle of 10 deg relative to the fiber direction can be easily detected. The method presented is useful in characterizing and locating defects in the composite materials that make up the main rotor hub of helicopters.

DigitalHub: A Repository Focused on the Future.

Science.gov (United States)

Ilik, Violeta; Hebal, Piotr; Olson, Anton; Wishnetsky, Susan; Pastva, Joelen; Kubilius, Ramune; Shank, Jonathan; Gutzman, Karen; Chung, Margarita; Holmes, Kristi

2018-01-01

The DigitalHub scholarly repository was developed and launched at the Galter Health Sciences Library for the Feinberg School of Medicine and the greater Northwestern Medicine community. The repository was designed to allow scholars the ability to create, share, and preserve a range of citable digital outputs. This article traces the evolution of DigitalHub's development and engagement activities, highlighting project challenges, innovations, success stories, and the team-based approach that was employed to successfully achieve project goals.

Incremental Optimization of Hub and Spoke Network for the Spokes’ Numbers and Flow

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yanfeng Wang

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Hub and spoke network problem is solved as part of a strategic decision making process which may have a profound effect on the future of enterprises. In view of the existing network structure, as time goes on, the number of spokes and the flow change because of different sources of uncertainty. Hence, the incremental optimization of hub and spoke network problem is considered in this paper, and the policy makers should adopt a series of strategies to cope with the change, such as setting up new hubs, adjusting the capacity level of original hubs, or closing some original hubs. The objective is to minimize the total cost, which includes the setup costs for the new hubs, the closure costs, and the adjustment costs for the original hubs as well as the flow routing costs. Two mixed-integer linear programming formulations are proposed and analyzed for this problem. China Deppon Logistics as an example is performed to present computational analysis, and we analyze the changes in the solutions driven by the number of spokes and the flow. The tests also allow an analysis to consider the effect of variation in parameters on network.

Client and event driven data hub system at CDF

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kilminster, Ben; McFarland, Kevin; Vaiciulis, Tony; Matsunaga, Hiroyuki; Shimojima, Makoto

2001-01-01

The Consumer-Server Logger (CSL) system at the Collider Detector at Fermilab is a client and event driven data hub capable of receiving physics events from multiple connections, and logging them to multiple streams while distributing them to multiple online analysis programs (consumers). Its multiple-partitioned design allows data flowing through different paths of the detector sub-systems to be processed separately. The CSL system, using a set of internal memory buffers and message queues mapped to the location of events within its programs, and running on an SGI 2200 Server, is able to process at least the required 20 MB/s of constant event logging (75 Hz of 250 KB events) while also filtering up to 10 MB/s to consumers requesting specific types of events

Sci-Hub: What Librarians Should Know and Do about Article Piracy.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoy, Matthew B

2017-01-01

The high cost of journal articles has driven many researchers to turn to a new way of getting access: "pirate" article sites. Sci-Hub, the largest and best known of these sites, currently offers instant access to more than 58 million journal articles. Users attracted by the ease of use and breadth of the collection may not realize that these articles are often obtained using stolen credentials and downloading them may be illegal. This article will briefly describe Sci-Hub and how it works, the legal and ethical issues it raises, and the problems it may cause for librarians. Librarians should be aware of Sci-Hub and the ways it may change their patrons' expectations. They should also understand the risks Sci-Hub can pose to their patrons and their institutions.

Zoning Districts - Volusia County HUB Zones

Data.gov (United States)

NSGIC Local Govt | GIS Inventory — Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) Zones in Volusia County. Go to http://www.sba.gov/hubzone or contact the Department of Economic Development (386) 248-8048...

Transport of pollutants and sediment in the area of the Wave Hub (Celtic Sea)

Science.gov (United States)

Shapiro, Georgy; Huntley, David

2010-05-01

Ocean waves are a sustainable source of alternative energy that, if properly developed, will provide a quarter of current electricity demand and contribute to lowering the UK's reliance on fossil fuels. The UK government has given planning approval for a pilot power plant called the Wave Hub located in the eastern Celtic Sea off the Cornish north coast. The impact of a small number of devices on the physical environment is expected to be subtle outside the exclusion zone. However, such pilot projects are considered as the launching pad in the UK's ambitious programme to create a new wave energy industry. Large scale off-shore industrial activity can interact with the physical environment of the shelf sea in a two-fold manner: (i) the wave farm is affected by the waves, currents, variation in temperature and movements of sediment, and (ii) it can impact on the marine environment via a number of ways including release of dissolved and suspended matter during construction, operational and decommission stages of the project. These changes in the physical environment can then be translated into changes of the ecosystem and corresponding human activities. The Celtic Sea has a highly variable and complex thermal structure. In the spring and summer the water column becomes stratified due to solar heating of the surface layer, particularly in the areas of greater depth and/or low currents, where the turbulence is insufficient to mix the entire water column. Fronts form at the junctions of stratified and mixed water columns and these fronts generate currents which flow along the fronts. These frontal currents are subject to baroclinic instability and generate a whole set of mesoscale (i.e. comparable with the baroclinic Rossby radius) features such as eddies, filaments and mushroom currents, which are clearly seen on satellite images. Ecosystems are particularly concentrated in the vicinity of fronts so changes in frontal strength or location can have significant biological

City Hub : a cloud based IoT platform for Smart Cities

OpenAIRE

Lea, Rodger; Blackstock, Michael

2014-01-01

Cloud based Smart City hubs are an attractive approach to addressing some of the complex issues faced when deploying PaaS infrastructure for Smart Cities. In this paper we introduce the general notion of IoT hubs and then discusses our work to generalize our IoT hub as a Smart City PaaS. Two key issues are identified, support for hybrid public/private cloud and interoperability. We briefly describe our approach to these issues and discuss our experiences deploying two cloud-based Smart City h...

Idea Hubs as Nexus of Collective Creativity in Digital Innovation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ciriello, Raffaele; Richter, Alexander

2015-01-01

Digital innovation radically transforms the nature of corporate innovation practices, implying a growing need for deeper understanding its origins and outcomes. In this paper, we conceptualize the focal points of social networking in digital innovation as idea hubs. We focus our analysis...... on instances of idea hubs in two multinational European software companies, where we conducted a case study over a two-year period, and collected data in form of interviews, digital documents, and participant observations. In doing so, we identify a set of social networking practices in which idea hubs serve...... of digital artifacts individuals can choose from, offline interaction still plays a major role in facilitating digital innovation....

Connectome hubs at resting state in children and adolescents: Reproducibility and psychopathological correlation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

João Ricardo Sato

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Functional brain hubs are key integrative regions in brain networks. Recently, brain hubs identified through resting-state fMRI have emerged as interesting targets to increase understanding of the relationships between large-scale functional networks and psychopathology. However, few studies have directly addressed the replicability and consistency of the hub regions identified and their association with symptoms. Here, we used the eigenvector centrality (EVC measure obtained from graph analysis of two large, independent population-based samples of children and adolescents (7–15 years old; total N = 652; 341 subjects for site 1 and 311 for site 2 to evaluate the replicability of hub identification. Subsequently, we tested the association between replicable hub regions and psychiatric symptoms. We identified a set of hubs consisting of the anterior medial prefrontal cortex and inferior parietal lobule/intraparietal sulcus (IPL/IPS. Moreover, lower EVC values in the right IPS were associated with psychiatric symptoms in both samples. Thus, low centrality of the IPS was a replicable sign of potential vulnerability to mental disorders in children. The identification of critical and replicable hubs in functional cortical networks in children and adolescents can foster understanding of the mechanisms underlying mental disorders.

Climate change and the water cycle: A new southwest regional climate hub curriculum unit for 6th-12th grade students

Science.gov (United States)

As climate change intensifies, increased temperatures and altered precipitation will make water, a limited resource in the arid southwestern United States, even scarcer in many locations. The USDA Southwest Regional Climate Hub (SWRCH) developed Climate Change and the Water Cycle, an engaging and sc...

Spatial spread of an epidemic through public transportation systems with a hub.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Fei; Connell McCluskey, C; Cressman, Ross

2013-11-01

This article investigates an epidemic spreading among several locations through a transportation system, with a hub connecting these locations. Public transportation is not only a bridge through which infections travel from one location to another but also a place where infections occur since individuals are typically in close proximity to each other due to the limited space in these systems. A mathematical model is constructed to study the spread of an infectious disease through such systems. A variant of the next generation method is proposed and used to provide upper and lower bounds of the basic reproduction number for the model. Our investigation indicates that increasing transportation efficiency, and improving sanitation and ventilation of the public transportation system decrease the chance of an outbreak occurring. Moreover, discouraging unnecessary travel during an epidemic also decreases the chance of an outbreak. However, reducing travel by infectives while allowing susceptibles to travel may not be enough to avoid an outbreak. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Hub Matrix Theory and Applications to Wireless Communications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kung HT

2007-01-01

Full Text Available This paper considers communications and network systems whose properties are characterized by the gaps of the leading eigenvalues of for a matrix . It is shown that a sufficient and necessary condition for a large eigen-gap is that is a "hub" matrix in the sense that it has dominant columns. Some applications of this hub theory in multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO wireless systems are presented.

The Virtual Campus Hub Concept

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Badger, Merete; Prag, Sidsel-Marie Winther; Monaco, Lucio

of Technology in Sweden, Politecnico di Torino in Italy, and Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. The project is partially funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme (project no. RI-283746). This report describes the final concept of Virtual Campus Hub. It gives...

Soft Power and Cultural Diplomacy: Emerging Education Hubs in Asia

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Jack T.

2015-01-01

Several education hubs have emerged in Asia and the Middle East in recent years with a specific focus on cross-border higher education. Through considerable efforts in policy planning and generous funding, these hubs aim to transform a country or city into an eminent destination for education, research, and training. The inherent design of these…

Single Allocation Hub-and-spoke Networks Design Based on Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yang Pingle

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Capacitated single allocation hub-and-spoke networks can be abstracted as a mixed integer linear programming model equation with three variables. Introducing an improved ant colony algorithm, which has six local search operators. Meanwhile, introducing the "Solution Pair" concept to decompose and optimize the composition of the problem, the problem can become more specific and effectively meet the premise and advantages of using ant colony algorithm. Finally, location simulation experiment is made according to Australia Post data to demonstrate this algorithm has good efficiency and stability for solving this problem.

Using hybrid latent class model for city-HUBs´users behaviour analysis

OpenAIRE

Di Ciommo, Floridea; Monzón de Cáceres, Andrés; Oña, Rocío de; Oña López, Juan de; Hernández del Olmo, Sara

2014-01-01

Data from an attitudinal survey and stated preference ranking experiment conducted in two urban European interchanges (i.e. City-HUBs) in Madrid (Spain) and Thessaloniki (Greece) show that the importance that City-HUBs users attach to the intermodal infrastructure varies strongly as a function of their perceptions of time spent in the interchange (i.e.intermodal transfer and waiting time). A principal components analysis allocates respondents (i.e. city-HUB users) to two classes with substant...

The BioHub Knowledge Base: Ontology and Repository for Sustainable Biosourcing.

Science.gov (United States)

Read, Warren J; Demetriou, George; Nenadic, Goran; Ruddock, Noel; Stevens, Robert; Winter, Jerry

2016-06-01

The motivation for the BioHub project is to create an Integrated Knowledge Management System (IKMS) that will enable chemists to source ingredients from bio-renewables, rather than from non-sustainable sources such as fossil oil and its derivatives. The BioHubKB is the data repository of the IKMS; it employs Semantic Web technologies, especially OWL, to host data about chemical transformations, bio-renewable feedstocks, co-product streams and their chemical components. Access to this knowledge base is provided to other modules within the IKMS through a set of RESTful web services, driven by SPARQL queries to a Sesame back-end. The BioHubKB re-uses several bio-ontologies and bespoke extensions, primarily for chemical feedstocks and products, to form its knowledge organisation schema. Parts of plants form feedstocks, while various processes generate co-product streams that contain certain chemicals. Both chemicals and transformations are associated with certain qualities, which the BioHubKB also attempts to capture. Of immediate commercial and industrial importance is to estimate the cost of particular sets of chemical transformations (leading to candidate surfactants) performed in sequence, and these costs too are captured. Data are sourced from companies' internal knowledge and document stores, and from the publicly available literature. Both text analytics and manual curation play their part in populating the ontology. We describe the prototype IKMS, the BioHubKB and the services that it supports for the IKMS. The BioHubKB can be found via http://biohub.cs.manchester.ac.uk/ontology/biohub-kb.owl .

Features analysis for identification of date and party hubs in protein interaction network of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Araabi Babak N

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background It has been understood that biological networks have modular organizations which are the sources of their observed complexity. Analysis of networks and motifs has shown that two types of hubs, party hubs and date hubs, are responsible for this complexity. Party hubs are local coordinators because of their high co-expressions with their partners, whereas date hubs display low co-expressions and are assumed as global connectors. However there is no mutual agreement on these concepts in related literature with different studies reporting their results on different data sets. We investigated whether there is a relation between the biological features of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae's proteins and their roles as non-hubs, intermediately connected, party hubs, and date hubs. We propose a classifier that separates these four classes. Results We extracted different biological characteristics including amino acid sequences, domain contents, repeated domains, functional categories, biological processes, cellular compartments, disordered regions, and position specific scoring matrix from various sources. Several classifiers are examined and the best feature-sets based on average correct classification rate and correlation coefficients of the results are selected. We show that fusion of five feature-sets including domains, Position Specific Scoring Matrix-400, cellular compartments level one, and composition pairs with two and one gaps provide the best discrimination with an average correct classification rate of 77%. Conclusions We study a variety of known biological feature-sets of the proteins and show that there is a relation between domains, Position Specific Scoring Matrix-400, cellular compartments level one, composition pairs with two and one gaps of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae's proteins, and their roles in the protein interaction network as non-hubs, intermediately connected, party hubs and date hubs. This study also confirms the

Sharing environmental models: An Approach using GitHub repositories and Web Processing Services

Science.gov (United States)

Stasch, Christoph; Nuest, Daniel; Pross, Benjamin

2016-04-01

accordingly. The admin tool of the 52°North WPS was extended to support automated retrieval and deployment of computational models from GitHub repositories. Once the R code is available in the GitHub repo, the contained process can be easily deployed and executed by simply defining the GitHub repository URL in the WPS admin tool. We illustrate the usage of the approach by sharing and running a model for land use system archetypes developed by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ, see Vaclavik et al.). The original R code was extended and published in the 52°North WPS using both, public and non-public datasets (Nüst et al., see also https://github.com/52North/glues-wps). Hosting the analysis in a Git repository now allows WPS administrators, client developers, and modelers to easily work together on new versions or completely new web processes using the powerful GitHub collaboration platform. References: Hinz, M. et. al. (2013): Spatial Statistics on the Geospatial Web. In: The 16th AGILE International Conference on Geographic Information Science, Short Papers. http://www.agile-online.org/Conference_Paper/CDs/agile_2013/Short_Papers/SP_S3.1_Hinz.pdf Nüst, D. et. al.: (2015): Open and reproducible global land use classification. In: EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts . Vol. 17. European Geophysical Union, 2015, p. 9125, http://meetingorganizer.copernicus. org/EGU2015/EGU2015- 9125.pdf Vaclavik, T., et. al. (2013): Mapping global land system archetypes. Global Environmental Change 23(6): 1637-1647. Online available: October 9, 2013, DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.09.004

Functional Hubs in Mild Cognitive Impairment

Science.gov (United States)

Navas, Adrián; Papo, David; Boccaletti, Stefano; Del-Pozo, F.; Bajo, Ricardo; Maestú, Fernando; Martínez, J. H.; Gil, Pablo; Sendiña-Nadal, Irene; Buldú, Javier M.

We investigate how hubs of functional brain networks are modified as a result of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a condition causing a slight but noticeable decline in cognitive abilities, which sometimes precedes the onset of Alzheimer's disease. We used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to investigate the functional brain networks of a group of patients suffering from MCI and a control group of healthy subjects, during the execution of a short-term memory task. Couplings between brain sites were evaluated using synchronization likelihood, from which a network of functional interdependencies was constructed and the centrality, i.e. importance, of their nodes was quantified. The results showed that, with respect to healthy controls, MCI patients were associated with decreases and increases in hub centrality respectively in occipital and central scalp regions, supporting the hypothesis that MCI modifies functional brain network topology, leading to more random structures.

Epidemics in Complex Networks: The Diversity of Hubs

Science.gov (United States)

Kitsak, Maksim; Gallos, Lazaros K.; Havlin, Shlomo; Stanley, H. Eugene; Makse, Hernan A.

2009-03-01

Many complex systems are believed to be vulnerable to spread of viruses and information owing to their high level of interconnectivity. Even viruses of low contagiousness easily proliferate the Internet. Rumors, fads, and innovation ideas are prone to efficient spreading in various social systems. Another commonly accepted standpoint is the importance of the most connected elements (hubs) in the spreading processes. We address following questions. Do all hubs conduct epidemics in the same manner? How does the epidemics spread depend on the structure of the network? What is the most efficient way to spread information over the system? We analyze several large-scale systems in the framework of of the susceptible/infective/removed (SIR) disease spread model which can also be mapped to the problem of rumor or fad spreading. We show that hubs are often ineffective in the transmission of virus or information owing to the highly heterogeneous topology of most networks. We also propose a new tool to evaluate the efficiency of nodes in spreading virus or information.

Comparison of the effectiveness of analytical wake models for wind farm with constant and variable hub heights

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Longyan; Tan, Andy C.C.; Cholette, Michael; Gu, Yuantong

2016-01-01

Highlights: • The effectiveness of three analytical wake models is studied. • The results of the analytical wake models are compared with the CFD simulations. • The results of CFD simulation are verified by comparison to the offshore wind farm observation data. • The onshore wind farm with both constant and different hub height turbines are analyzed. • PARK model is able to predict the total wind farm power production well with tuned surface roughness value. - Abstract: Extensive power losses of wind farm have been witnessed due to the wake interactions between wind turbines. By applying analytical wake models which describe the wind speed deficits in the wake quantitatively, the power losses can be regained to a large extent through wind farm layout optimization, and this has been extensively reported in literature. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of the analytical wake models in predicting the wind farm power production have rarely been studied and compared for wind farm with both constant and variable wind turbine hub heights. In this study, the effectiveness of three different analytical wake models (PARK model, Larsen model and B-P model) is thoroughly compared over a wide range of wake properties. After the validation with the observation data from offshore wind farm, CFD simulations are used to verify the effectiveness of the analytical wake models for an onshore wind farm. The results show that when using the PARK model the surface roughness value (z 0 ) must be carefully tuned to achieve good performance in predicting the wind farm power production. For the other two analytical wake models, their effectiveness varies depending on the situation of wind farm (offshore or onshore) and the wind turbine hub heights (constant or variable). It was found that the results of B-P model agree well with the CFD simulations for offshore wind farm, but not for the onshore wind farm. The Larsen model is more accurate for the wind farm with variable wind turbine

Looking Into Pandora's Box: The Content Of Sci-Hub And Its Usage

OpenAIRE

Greshake, Bastian

2017-01-01

Despite the growth of Open Access, potentially illegally circumventing paywalls to access scholarly publications is becoming a more mainstream phenomenon. The web service Sci-Hub is amongst the biggest facilitators of this, offering free access to around 62 million publications. So far it is not well studied how and why its users are accessing publications through Sci-Hub. By utilizing the recently released corpus of Sci-Hub and comparing it to the data of  ~28 million downloads done through ...

Influence of Hub Parameters on Joining Forces and Torque Transmission Output of Plastically-Joined Shaft-Hub-Connections with a Knurled Contact Surface

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lukáš Suchý

2018-04-01

Full Text Available A knurled interference fit is a machine part connection made by a plastic joining, which includes the advantages of commonly-used shaft-hub-connections. The combination of the friction and form fit, which are responsible for torque transmission, results in a higher power density than conventional connections. In this paper, parameter gaps are bridged with the aim of enhance the design calculation of the knurled interference fit. Experimental investigations on the shaft chamfer angle (100Cr6 and hub-diameter-ratio (AlSi1MgMn were performed. The analytical approaches are developed for calculating the joining force and maximal torque capacity by accounting for experimentally investigated loss of load transmission at high hub-diameter-ratios and high shaft chamfer angles. The presented calculation approach is an accurate tool for the assessment of early machine designs of the knurled interference fit and helps to save from having to perform time-extensive tests.

Economic Impact of the Dutch Gas Hub Strategy on the Netherlands

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harris, D.; Bazelon, C.; Humphreys, B.; Dickson, P.

2010-09-01

Since the discovery of the Groningen gas field in 1959, the Netherlands has been a key player in the European gas market. The Netherlands has built up a large onshore and offshore Exploration and Production sector, it has a highly developed gas transmission and distribution network, and is a major exporter of gas to other EU Member States. The Netherlands has considerable expertise in all parts of the gas supply chain, and is a world centre for Research and development in natural gas supply and use. More recently construction has begun on terminals to allow the import of Liquid Natural Gas to the Netherlands. However, Dutch gas reserves are now in decline, and the Netherlands will become a net importer of gas around 2025. The Dutch government wishes to capitalise on the existing industry and skills and sustain the Netherlands' place in the European gas industry beyond the life of the existing gas fields. In November 2009 the Minister of Economic Affairs published a paper describing the strategy of turning the Netherlands into a 'Gas Hub' or 'gas roundabout' for north-west Europe. The Dutch government intends that the gas hub would capitalise on the existing skills and industry, increase competition and security of supply in the Dutch gas market, create employment and make a significant contribution to the Dutch economy. The Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation has commissioned The Brattle Group to perform an analysis of the economic impact of the gas hub concept. The study has several aims including: To analyse the current contribution of the Dutch gas sector to the economy; To assess the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats associated with the gas hub strategy; To quantify the benefits of the gas hub strategy to the Dutch economy. Note that the aim of the study is to define in more detail what a successful Dutch gas hub strategy would look like, to assess the strengths and weakness of the Dutch gas sector in achieving a

The Banana Genome Hub

Science.gov (United States)

Droc, Gaëtan; Larivière, Delphine; Guignon, Valentin; Yahiaoui, Nabila; This, Dominique; Garsmeur, Olivier; Dereeper, Alexis; Hamelin, Chantal; Argout, Xavier; Dufayard, Jean-François; Lengelle, Juliette; Baurens, Franc-Christophe; Cenci, Alberto; Pitollat, Bertrand; D’Hont, Angélique; Ruiz, Manuel; Rouard, Mathieu; Bocs, Stéphanie

2013-01-01

Banana is one of the world’s favorite fruits and one of the most important crops for developing countries. The banana reference genome sequence (Musa acuminata) was recently released. Given the taxonomic position of Musa, the completed genomic sequence has particular comparative value to provide fresh insights about the evolution of the monocotyledons. The study of the banana genome has been enhanced by a number of tools and resources that allows harnessing its sequence. First, we set up essential tools such as a Community Annotation System, phylogenomics resources and metabolic pathways. Then, to support post-genomic efforts, we improved banana existing systems (e.g. web front end, query builder), we integrated available Musa data into generic systems (e.g. markers and genetic maps, synteny blocks), we have made interoperable with the banana hub, other existing systems containing Musa data (e.g. transcriptomics, rice reference genome, workflow manager) and finally, we generated new results from sequence analyses (e.g. SNP and polymorphism analysis). Several uses cases illustrate how the Banana Genome Hub can be used to study gene families. Overall, with this collaborative effort, we discuss the importance of the interoperability toward data integration between existing information systems. Database URL: http://banana-genome.cirad.fr/ PMID:23707967

Maritime Domain Awareness Architecture Management Hub Strategy

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

2008-01-01

This document provides an initial high level strategy for carrying out the responsibilities of the national Maritime Domain Awareness Architecture Management Hub to deliver a standards based service...

HIV protein sequence hotspots for crosstalk with host hub proteins.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mahdi Sarmady

Full Text Available HIV proteins target host hub proteins for transient binding interactions. The presence of viral proteins in the infected cell results in out-competition of host proteins in their interaction with hub proteins, drastically affecting cell physiology. Functional genomics and interactome datasets can be used to quantify the sequence hotspots on the HIV proteome mediating interactions with host hub proteins. In this study, we used the HIV and human interactome databases to identify HIV targeted host hub proteins and their host binding partners (H2. We developed a high throughput computational procedure utilizing motif discovery algorithms on sets of protein sequences, including sequences of HIV and H2 proteins. We identified as HIV sequence hotspots those linear motifs that are highly conserved on HIV sequences and at the same time have a statistically enriched presence on the sequences of H2 proteins. The HIV protein motifs discovered in this study are expressed by subsets of H2 host proteins potentially outcompeted by HIV proteins. A large subset of these motifs is involved in cleavage, nuclear localization, phosphorylation, and transcription factor binding events. Many such motifs are clustered on an HIV sequence in the form of hotspots. The sequential positions of these hotspots are consistent with the curated literature on phenotype altering residue mutations, as well as with existing binding site data. The hotspot map produced in this study is the first global portrayal of HIV motifs involved in altering the host protein network at highly connected hub nodes.

Energy flow modeling and optimal operation analysis of the micro energy grid based on energy hub

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ma, Tengfei; Wu, Junyong; Hao, Liangliang

2017-01-01

Highlights: • Design a novel architecture for energy hub integrating power hub, cooling hub and heating hub. • The micro energy grid based on energy hub is introduced and its advantages are discussed. • Propose a generic modeling method for the energy flow of micro energy grid. • Propose an optimal operation model for micro energy grid with considering demand response. • The roles of renewable energy, energy storage devices and demand response are discussed separately. - Abstract: The energy security and environmental problems impel people to explore a more efficient, environment friendly and economical energy utilization pattern. In this paper, the coordinated operation and optimal dispatch strategies for multiple energy system are studied at the whole Micro Energy Grid level. To augment the operation flexibility of energy hub, the innovation sub-energy hub structure including power hub, heating hub and cooling hub is put forward. Basing on it, a generic energy hub architecture integrating renewable energy, combined cooling heating and power, and energy storage devices is developed. Moreover, a generic modeling method for the energy flow of micro energy grid is proposed. To minimize the daily operation cost, a day-ahead dynamic optimal operation model is formulated as a mixed integer linear programming optimization problem with considering the demand response. Case studies are undertaken on a community Micro Energy Grid in four different scenarios on a typical summer day and the roles of renewable energy, energy storage devices and demand response are discussed separately. Numerical simulation results indicate that the proposed energy flow modeling and optimal operation method are universal and effective over the entire energy dispatching horizon.

Report on survey on international Hub

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ebisawa, Hirobumi; Hoshino, Junko; Hashimoto, Kazuichiro; Okada, Sohei

2011-03-01

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) is promoting initiative to form an international Center of Excellence in line with its aim to accept more researchers/engineers from all over the world. Establishment of 'the Committee for JAEA Internationalization Initiative' was planned in 2010 so as to intensify this initiative, and in February, 2010, we visited research institutions in Europe, which include European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the construction site of ITER in Cadarache, and Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), with the intention to survey and learn their advanced activities and systems in regard to the International Hub, so that the committee will be able to make fruitful discussion. This report describes strategy taken in each institution for an International Hub, and the state of each institution regarding acceptance and management of overseas researchers and engineers, research environment, living environment/health and welfare, and PR activities/coexistence with the local community. (author)

Disrupted Nodal and Hub Organization Account for Brain Network Abnormalities in Parkinson's Disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Koshimori, Yuko; Cho, Sang-Soo; Criaud, Marion; Christopher, Leigh; Jacobs, Mark; Ghadery, Christine; Coakeley, Sarah; Harris, Madeleine; Mizrahi, Romina; Hamani, Clement; Lang, Anthony E; Houle, Sylvain; Strafella, Antonio P

2016-01-01

The recent application of graph theory to brain networks promises to shed light on complex diseases such as Parkinson's disease (PD). This study aimed to investigate functional changes in sensorimotor and cognitive networks in Parkinsonian patients, with a focus on inter- and intra-connectivity organization in the disease-associated nodal and hub regions using the graph theoretical analyses. Resting-state functional MRI data of a total of 65 participants, including 23 healthy controls (HCs) and 42 patients, were investigated in 120 nodes for local efficiency, betweenness centrality, and degree. Hub regions were identified in the HC and patient groups. We found nodal and hub changes in patients compared with HCs, including the right pre-supplementary motor area (SMA), left anterior insula, bilateral mid-insula, bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and right caudate nucleus. In general, nodal regions within the sensorimotor network (i.e., right pre-SMA and right mid-insula) displayed weakened connectivity, with the former node associated with more severe bradykinesia, and impaired integration with default mode network regions. The left mid-insula also lost its hub properties in patients. Within the executive networks, the left anterior insular cortex lost its hub properties in patients, while a new hub region was identified in the right caudate nucleus, paralleled by an increased level of inter- and intra-connectivity in the bilateral DLPFC possibly representing compensatory mechanisms. These findings highlight the diffuse changes in nodal organization and regional hub disruption accounting for the distributed abnormalities across brain networks and the clinical manifestations of PD.

Fatigue based design and analysis of wheel hub for Student formula car by Simulation Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Gowtham, V.; Ranganathan, A. S.; Satish, S.; Alexis, S. John; Siva kumar, S.

2016-09-01

In the existing design of Wheel hub used for Student formula cars, the brake discs cannot be removed easily since the disc is mounted in between the knuckle and hub. In case of bend or any other damage to the disc, the replacement of the disc becomes difficult. Further using OEM hub and knuckle that are used for commercial vehicles will result in increase of unsprung mass, which should be avoided in Student formula cars for improving the performance. In this design the above mentioned difficulties have been overcome by redesigning the hub in such a way that the brake disc could be removed easily by just removing the wheel and the caliper and also it will have reduced weight when compared to existing OEM hub. A CAD Model was developed based on the required fatigue life cycles. The forces acting on the hub were calculated and linear static structural analysis was performed on the wheel hub for three different materials using ANSYS Finite Element code V 16.2. The theoretical fatigue strength was compared with the stress obtained from the structural analysis for each material.

Strategies for contracting gas storage and hub services

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Auld, J.

1996-01-01

The many efficiencies that can be gained by the natural gas industry in effectively using storage, were demonstrated. The circumstances under which the natural gas industry uses storage and how Market Centres or Hub Services can be strategically used in offering companies the highest flexibility in a tough marketplace, were explained. For example, in North America, storage played an important role during the winter of 95/96, which will be remembered for its extreme cold. That year provided the first true opportunity to test the natural gas delivery system since deregulation in 1985. The fact that natural gas supplies continued to be delivered throughout the entire winter was attributed to the use of stored gas held in reserves to meet the severe demand. The companies that did well, relied on storage and also on the services offered by Hub Services which increased margins for all players in the natural gas industry. Using storage, companies can ensure that field deliveries of gas are kept constant by having storage facilities absorb the swings in market demand. The companies that learn to use storage effectively can create competitive edges over their competition and provide more value to their customers. The three main categories of hub services were also described. These are parking (interruptible storage), gas loans (stored gas can be offered to customers on a term basis for low daily rates), and title exchange (the transfer of gas between buyer and seller). The strategic use of parking, loaned gas, title exchange, direct connections, and InterHub Services can provide customers even greater benefits than are provided by storage-based services. 6 figs

Systems biology approach to transplant tolerance: proof of concept experiments using RNA interference (RNAi) to knock down hub genes in Jurkat and HeLa cells in vitro.

Science.gov (United States)

Lwin, Wint Wah; Park, Ken; Wauson, Matthew; Gao, Qin; Finn, Patricia W; Perkins, David; Khanna, Ajai

2012-07-01

Systems biology is gaining importance in studying complex systems such as the functional interconnections of human genes [1]. To investigate the molecular interactions involved in T cell immune responses, we used databases of physical gene-gene interactions to constructed molecular interaction networks (interconnections) with R language algorithms. This helped to identify highly interconnected "hub" genes AT(1)P5C1, IL6ST, PRKCZ, MYC, FOS, JUN, and MAPK1. We hypothesized that suppression of these hub genes in the gene network would result in significant phenotypic effects on T cells and examined this in vitro. The molecular interaction networks were then analyzed and visualized with Cytoscape. Jurkat and HeLa cells were transfected with siRNA for the selected hub genes. Cell proliferation was measured using ATP luminescence and BrdU labeling, which were measured 36, 72, and 96 h after activation. Following T cell stimulation, we found a significant decrease in ATP production (P cells. However, HeLa cells showed a significant (P cell proliferation when the genes MAPK1, IL6ST, ATP5C1, JUN, and FOS were knocked down. In both Jurkat and HeLa cells, targeted gene knockdown using siRNA showed decreased cell proliferation and ATP production in both Jurkat and HeLa cells. However, Jurkat T cells and HELA cells use different hub genes to regulate activation responses. This experiment provides proof of principle of applying siRNA knockdown of T cell hub genes to evaluate their proliferative capacity and ATP production. This novel concept outlines a systems biology approach to identify hub genes for targeted therapeutics. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Matrix logistics indicators assessment of distributed transport hub

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Igor Arefyev

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Background: The paper is devoted to the distributed transport hub substantiation and assessment. The paper  was an example of the technique and form an array of logistical factors as variables that determine this condition. Experience in organizing multimodal transport showed that the "bottleneck" of transport logistics are items of cargo handling ports, terminals, freight stations and warehouses. At the core of the solution of these problems is the problem of estimating the variables determine the Multi-purpose Hubs. The aim is to develop a method of forming the system of logistical multiplying factors determine the role of each of the types in the technologiacal process of distributed Multi-purpose Hubs. Methods: The assessment model for the formation of Distributed Transport Units  can be based on formal methods to predict the behavior of complex systems engineering complexes. Then one of the approaches to the solution of the problem may be the matrix method of technological factors. Results and conclusions: The proposed methodology of the selection and validation of logistic coefficients has the practical importance in the models development for assessing the condition and behavior of Distributed Transport.

A note on hierarchical hubbing for a generalization of the VPN problem

NARCIS (Netherlands)

N.K. Olver (Neil)

2016-01-01

textabstractRobust network design refers to a class of optimization problems that occur when designing networks to efficiently handle variable demands. In this context, Fréchette et al. (2013) recently explored hierarchical hubbing: a routing strategy involving a multiplicity of "hubs" connected to

A note on hierarchical hubbing for a generalization of the VPN problem

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Olver, Neil

2016-01-01

Robust network design refers to a class of optimization problems that occur when designing networks to efficiently handle variable demands. In this context, Fréchette et al. (2013) recently explored hierarchical hubbing: a routing strategy involving a multiplicity of "hubs" connected to terminals

Centrifugal Compressor Surge Margin Improved With Diffuser Hub Surface Air Injection

Science.gov (United States)

Skoch, Gary J.

2002-01-01

Aerodynamic stability is an important parameter in the design of compressors for aircraft gas turbine engines. Compression system instabilities can cause compressor surge, which may lead to the loss of an aircraft. As a result, engine designers include a margin of safety between the operating line of the engine and the stability limit line of the compressor. The margin of safety is typically referred to as "surge margin." Achieving the highest possible level of surge margin while meeting design point performance objectives is the goal of the compressor designer. However, performance goals often must be compromised in order to achieve adequate levels of surge margin. Techniques to improve surge margin will permit more aggressive compressor designs. Centrifugal compressor surge margin improvement was demonstrated at the NASA Glenn Research Center by injecting air into the vaned diffuser of a 4:1-pressure-ratio centrifugal compressor. Tests were performed using injector nozzles located on the diffuser hub surface of a vane-island diffuser in the vaneless region between the impeller trailing edge and the diffuser-vane leading edge. The nozzle flow path and discharge shape were designed to produce an air stream that remained tangent to the hub surface as it traveled into the diffuser passage. Injector nozzles were located near the leading edge of 23 of the 24 diffuser vanes. One passage did not contain an injector so that instrumentation located in that passage would be preserved. Several orientations of the injected stream relative to the diffuser vane leading edge were tested over a range of injected flow rates. Only steady flow (nonpulsed) air injection was tested. At 100 percent of the design speed, a 15-percent improvement in the baseline surge margin was achieved with a nozzle orientation that produced a jet that was bisected by the diffuser vane leading edge. Other orientations also improved the baseline surge margin. Tests were conducted at speeds below the

Innovation Hub How-To

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Berger, Andreas; Brem, Alexander

2016-01-01

in establishing an innovative environment: carefully considering the decision to set up such a center, hiring the right people, designing a framework for effective output, creating a buffer from bureaucratic distractions, securing a leader to champion the effort, focusing on business outcomes, fostering...... disruptive over incremental innovation, and being patient. Regardless of where an innovation hub is established, the key to success lies in hiring creative, intrinsically motivated staff and then giving them the freedom to do what they do best....

Exploring hubness in Regional Trade Agreements

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vaal, A. de

2016-01-01

In the plethora of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) some countries take in a more central position than others in the sense that some countries are much more engaged with other countries through RTAs. Furthermore, the position of some countries is that of a hub: they have (many) trade

Optimal Structural Reliability of Offshore Wind Turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, John Dalsgaard; Tarp-Johansen, N.J.

2005-01-01

The main failure modes of modern large wind turbines are fatigue failure of wings, hub, shaft and main tower, local buckling of main tower, and failure of the foundation. This paper considers reliability-based optimal design of wind turbines. Compared to onshore wind turbines and building...... structures, humans spent little time in the vicinity of offshore wind turbines and the probability of human injury during storm conditions is small. Further environmental pollution will also in general be small in case of failure. One could therefore argue that the reliability level of offshore wind turbines...... can be lower than for onshore wind turbines and other civil engineering structures and can be assessed by reliability-based cost-optimization. Specifically this paper considers the main tower and foundation. Both fatigue and ultimate strength failure modes are included. Different formulations...

Gas and LNG pricing and trading hub in East Asia: An introduction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xunpeng Shi

2016-10-01

Full Text Available This paper summarizes the four papers in the special issues on ‘Gas and LNG pricing and trading hub in East Asia’. The papers examine lessons and experience from European hub development, other commodity, the Japanese history on developing of futures markets and inter-fuel substitution in East Asia. The papers finds that liquid futures market is the key to formulate benchmark prices while a well-developed spot market is the foundation; political will and strong leadership are required to overcome the power of incumbents and to restructure the gas market that impede the the development of competitive markets; and East Asia needs to develop its indigenous gas or LNG trading hubs even in low oil prices period and its developing market allows easier changes in new contracts than in existing ones. This hub development requires governments to go through tough domestic market reforms, including liberalization and cooperation with each other and with gas exporters.

Replacement of Chromium Electroplating on C-2, E-2, P-3 and C-130 Propeller Hub Components Using HVOF Thermal Spray Coatings

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Sartwell, Bruce

2004-01-01

.... This document constitutes the final report on a project to qualify high-velocity oxygen-fuel (HVOF) thermal spray coatings as a replacement for hard chrome plating on propeller hub components from various military aircraft...

Medium-term energy hub management subject to electricity price and wind uncertainty

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Najafi, Arsalan; Falaghi, Hamid; Contreras, Javier; Ramezani, Maryam

2016-01-01

Highlights: • A new model for medium-term energy hub management is proposed. • Risk aversion is considered in medium-term energy hub management. • Stochastic programing is used to solve the medium-term energy hub management problem. • Electricity price and wind uncertainty are considered. - Abstract: Energy hubs play an important role in implementing multi-carrier energy systems. More studies are required in both their modeling and operating aspects. In this regard, this paper attempts to develop medium-term management of an energy hub in restructured power systems. A model is presented to manage an energy hub which has electrical energy and natural gas as inputs and electrical and heat energy as outputs. Electricity is procured in various ways, either purchasing it from a pool-based market and bilateral contracts, or producing it from a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) unit, a diesel generator unit and Wind Turbine Generators (WTGs). Pool prices and wind turbine production are subject to uncertainty, which makes energy management a complex puzzle. Heat demand is also procured by a furnace and a CHP unit. Energy hub managers should make decisions whether to purchase electricity from the electricity market and gas from the gas network or to produce electricity using a set of generators to meet the electrical and heat demands in the presence of uncertainties. The energy management objective is to minimize the total cost subject to several technical constraints using stochastic programming. Conditional Value at Risk (CVaR), a well-known risk measure, is used to reduce the unfavorable risk of costs. In doing so, the proposed model is illustrated using a sample test case with actual prices, load and wind speed data. The results show that the minimum cost is obtained by the best decisions involving the electricity market and purchasing natural gas for gas facilities. Considering risk also increases the total expected cost and decreases the CVaR.

Hub network design for sparse travel demand within the African aviation industry

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Ssamula, B

2007-07-01

Full Text Available and analysed to reveal that the best option for a hub network is the so-called geo-political network. A geo-political network is where hubs are created in the North, South, East and West of Africa, at airports with strong political influence, high passenger...

Design and Analysis of Wind Turbine Blade Hub using Aluminium Alloy AA 6061-T6

Science.gov (United States)

Ravikumar, S.; Jaswanthvenkatram, V.; Sai kumar, Y. J. N. V.; Sohaib, S. Md.

2017-05-01

This work presents the design and analysis of horizontal axis wind turbine blade hub using different material. The hub is very crucial part of the wind turbine, which experience the loads from the blades and the loads were transmitted to the main shaft. At present wind turbine is more expensive and weights more than a million pounds, with the nacelle, rotor hub and blades accounting for most of the weight. In this work Spheroidal graphite cast iron GGG 40.3 is replaced by aluminium alloy 6061-T6 to enhance the casting properties and also to improve the strength-weight ratio. This transition of material leads to reduction in weight of the wind turbine. All the loads caused by wind and extreme loads on the blades are transferred to the hub. Considering the IEC 61400-1 standard for defining extreme loads on the hub the stress and deflection were calculated on the hub by using Finite element Analysis. Result obtained from ANSYS is compared and discussed with the existing design.

KINEMATIC ANALYSES OF THE GOLF SWING HUB PATH AND ITS ROLE IN GOLFER/CLUB KINETIC TRANSFERS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Steven M. Nesbit

2009-06-01

Full Text Available This study analyzed the fundamental geometric and kinematic characteristics of the swing hub path of the golf shot for four diverse subjects. In addition, the role of the hub path geometry in transferring the kinetic quantities from the golfer to the club were investigated. The hub path was found to have a complex geometry with significantly changing radii, and a constantly moving center-of-curvature during the downswing for all subjects. While the size and shape of the hub path differed considerably among the subjects, a three phase radius-based pattern was revealed that aligned with distinct stages of the downswing. Artificially controlling and optimizing the hub path of the better golfer in the group indicated that a non-circular hub path was superior to a constant radius path in minimizing the kinetic loading while generating the highest possible club head velocity. The shape and purpose of the hub path geometry appears to result from a complex combination of achieving equilibrium between the golfer and the club, and a purposeful configuring of the path to control the outward movement of the club while minimizing the kinetic loading on the golfer yet transferring the maximum kinetic quantities to the club. Describing the downswing relative to the hub path phasing is presented and was found to be informative since the phases align with significant swing, kinetic and kinematic markers. These findings challenge golf swing modeling methodologies which fix the center-of-curvature of the hub path thus constraining it to constant radius motion

TYPE PROJECTS HUB - AN INTERNATIONAL MODEL OF DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENTREPRENEURIAL ENVIRONMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rozalia Nistor

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Impact Hub is a global network of local spaces and communities designed to facilitate sustainable impact through collaboration. Local Impact Hubs are autonomous companies that offer co-working spaces, programming, events platforms, and communities of individuals and organizations with ideas to build a better world. Hub was established in 2005 in London with the aim of creating a space dedicated to inspire, connect and enable people to achieve a sustainable entrepreneurial idea. The idea was simple: There are a lot of people with good ideas for a "better world". What seem to be missing are places to help these people to move from intent to action and to find like-minded for a greater impact. In Romania about four years ago, first opened in Bucharest office space hubs in Romania (for entrepreneurs in technology and business where teams from different companies could collaborate. The idea to open a hub in Bucharest focused on social innovation and entrepreneurship appeared some time ago in the context in which part of the team now has worked since 2010 at the initiation and growth of a community to support social entrepreneurship. In all this diversity, there is a common mission: “we can create if we put all our innovation capacity in the common goal to create a positive impact through our work?”

Disrupted nodal and hub organization account for brain network abnormalities in Parkinson’s disease

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuko Koshimori

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The recent application of graph theory to brain networks promises to shed light on complex diseases such as Parkinson’s disease. This study aimed to investigate functional changes in sensorimotor and cognitive networks in parkinsonian patients, with a focus on inter- and intra-connectivity organization in the disease-associated nodal and hub regions using the graph theoretical analyses. Resting-state functional MRI data of a total of 65 participants, including 23 healthy controls and 42 patients, were investigated in 120 nodes for local efficiency, betweenness centrality, and degree. Hub regions were identified in the healthy control and patient groups. We found nodal and hub changes in patients compared with healthy controls, including the right pre-supplementary motor area, left anterior insula, bilateral mid-insula, bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and right caudate nucleus. In general, nodal regions within the sensorimotor network (i.e. right pre-supplementary motor area and right mid-insula displayed weakened connectivity, with the former node associated with more severe bradykinesia, and impaired integration with default mode network regions. The left mid-insula also lost its hub properties in patients. Within the executive networks, the left anterior insular cortex lost its hub properties in patients, while a new hub region was identified in the right caudate nucleus, paralleled by an increased level of inter- and intra-connectivity in the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex possibly representing compensatory mechanisms. These findings highlight the diffuse changes in nodal organization and regional hub disruption accounting for the distributed abnormalities across brain networks and the clinical manifestations of Parkinson’s disease.

Analysis and Modeling of Ground Operations at Hub Airports

Science.gov (United States)

Atkins, Stephen (Technical Monitor); Andersson, Kari; Carr, Francis; Feron, Eric; Hall, William D.

2000-01-01

Building simple and accurate models of hub airports can considerably help one understand airport dynamics, and may provide quantitative estimates of operational airport improvements. In this paper, three models are proposed to capture the dynamics of busy hub airport operations. Two simple queuing models are introduced to capture the taxi-out and taxi-in processes. An integer programming model aimed at representing airline decision-making attempts to capture the dynamics of the aircraft turnaround process. These models can be applied for predictive purposes. They may also be used to evaluate control strategies for improving overall airport efficiency.

The FUTUREVOLC Supersite's e-Infrastructure - A multidisciplinary data hub and data service for Icelandic Volcanoes

Science.gov (United States)

Vogfjörd, Kristín S.; Sigmundsson, Freysteinn; Sverrisson, Sverrir Th.; Sigurdsson, Sigurdur F.; Ófeigsson, Benedikt G.; Arnarsson, Ólafur S.; Kristinsson, Ingvar; Ilyinskaya, Evgenia; Oddsdóttir, Thorarna Ýr; Bergsveinsson, Sölvi Th.; Hjartansson, Kristján R.

2014-05-01

The FUTUREVOLC volanological supersite will establish a data hub and dataservice, where researchers, hazard managers and other stake holders can freely obtain access to multidisciplinary data and products on activity, unrest and eruptions at Icelandic volcanoes. The supersite is firmly founded on close interaction between the main Icelandic volcanological research and monitoring institutions, in coordination with expertise from European researchers participating in FUTUREVOLC. The hub is located at the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO), an institution responsible for monitoring and archiving data on all natural hazards in Iceland and, which also has a mandate as the state volcano observatory. This association will ensure a long-term sustainable data service. The data accessible at the hub include in-situ and space-based observations, products and models from all the relevant disciplines contributing to volcanological research and local as well as cross-border hazard management, i.e. Earth sciences, atmospheric science, hydrology, remote sensing and space science. Access to the data will be in compliance with the access policy of the GEO (Group on Earth Observations), providing registered users with easy and timely access to data and products of documented quality. This commitment has already led to the acceptance of FUTUREVOLC as a permanent geohazard supersite by CEOS (Committee on Earth Observation Satellites), which will ensure access to additional satellite data and products on Icelandic volcanoes. To facilitate services to seismological data at the supersite hub, the IMO is reconstructing its existing data base and utilizing the SeisComp3 software to manage waveform and parameter data. The accompanying ArcLink component will be used to provide access to event data and waveforms. Access to GPS data will be provided by the GSAC web service which has been installed at the IMO through collaboration with UNAVCO. If appropriate, the format and data base

Application of hydraulically assembled shaft coupling hubs to large agitators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Murray, W.E.; Anderson, T.D.; Bethmann, H.K.

1991-01-01

This paper describes the basis for and implementation of hydraulically assembled shaft coupling hubs for large tank-mounted agitators. This modification to the original design was intended to minimize maintenance personnel exposure to ionizing radiation and also provide for disassembly capability without damage to shafts or hubs. In addition to realizing these objectives, test confirmed that the modified couplings reduced agitator shaft end runouts approximately 65%, thereby reducing bearing loads and increasing service life, a significant enhancement for a nuclear facility. 5 refs

Why do European companies have Innovation Hubs in Silicon Valley

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Berger, Andreas; Brem, Alexander

2017-01-01

Innovation hubs are gaining high attention in recent years, especially from European companies. Silicon Valley has been deemed as one of the most attractive and successful environments for establishing innovation hubs. This article highlights examples of companies from Europe that made the step...... to California—namely, Volkswagen, Swisscom, BMW, Axel Springer, Munich Re, and Innogy SE (RWE Group). Based on these companies’ experiences, recommendations are given on how companies might approach a setup in Silicon Valley for long-term success....

Comparative efficiency of wind turbines with different heights of rotor hubs: performance evaluation for Latvia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bezrukovs, V P; Zacepins, A J; Bezrukovs, V V

2014-01-01

Performance evaluation of wind turbines (WT) for different heights of the rotor hub is made based on the wind speed and direction data obtained in 2009–2013 on-shore in the north of Latvia using a LOGGER 9200 Symphonie measurement system mounted on a 60 m mast. Based on the measurement analysis results, wind speed distribution curves have been modelled for heights of up to 200 m using power and logarithmic (log) law approximation methods. The curves for the modelled Weibull's parameters are plotted in dependence on height. The efficiency comparison is made for different WT types taking into account the distribution of the wind energy potential in height in the Latvian territory. The annual electric energy production was calculated for the WTs with different heights of rotor hubs. In the calculations the technical data on the following WT types were used: E-3120 (50 kW, hub height 20.5/30.5/36.5/42.7 m), E-33 (330 kW, hub height 37/44/49/50 m), E-48 (800 kW, hub height 50/60/75 m) and E-82 (2.3 MW, hub height of 78/85/98/108/138 m)

Puertos, espacio y globalización: el desarrollo de hubs en México

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlos Daniel Martner Peyrelongue

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Los puertos hubs se presentan como el nuevo paradigma de desarrollo del transporte y el comercio marítimo internacional en la globalización. Prácticamente todos los países latinoamericanos anuncian megaproyectos para el desarrollo de puertos hubs en sus litorales, generando grandes expectativas de desarrollo regional, con un débil sustento tanto teórico como empírico. En este sentido, el presente trabajo busca contribuir a la caracterización del modelo de puertos hubs en países periféricos dentro de la economíamundo capitalista, aludiendo, en especial, al caso mexicano. Se trata de aportar elementos de análisis para reconocer, a grandes rasgos, las posibilidades del desarrollo de hubs en los litorales mexicanos, desde la perspectiva de los estudios regionales y la geografía del transporte.

Portable Desktop Apps with GitHub Electron

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2016-01-01

Wouldn't it be nice if you could develop applications that work everywhere, regardless of Operating System or Platform? Even better, what if you could employ the same front-end technologies you use for your web/mobile apps? Meet GitHub Electron.

A novel method to identify hub pathways of rheumatoid arthritis based on differential pathway networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Shi-Tong; Sun, Yong-Hua; Zong, Shi-Hua

2017-09-01

The aim of the current study was to identify hub pathways of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) using a novel method based on differential pathway network (DPN) analysis. The present study proposed a DPN where protein‑protein interaction (PPI) network was integrated with pathway‑pathway interactions. Pathway data was obtained from background PPI network and the Reactome pathway database. Subsequently, pathway interactions were extracted from the pathway data by building randomized gene‑gene interactions and a weight value was assigned to each pathway interaction using Spearman correlation coefficient (SCC) to identify differential pathway interactions. Differential pathway interactions were visualized using Cytoscape to construct a DPN. Topological analysis was conducted to identify hub pathways that possessed the top 5% degree distribution of DPN. Modules of DPN were mined according to ClusterONE. A total of 855 pathways were selected to build pathway interactions. By filtrating pathway interactions of weight values >0.7, a DPN with 312 nodes and 791 edges was obtained. Topological degree analysis revealed 15 hub pathways, such as heparan sulfate/heparin‑glycosaminoglycan (HS‑GAG) degradation, HS‑GAG metabolism and keratan sulfate degradation for RA based on DPN. Furthermore, hub pathways were also important in modules, which validated the significance of hub pathways. In conclusion, the proposed method is a computationally efficient way to identify hub pathways of RA, which identified 15 hub pathways that may be potential biomarkers and provide insight to future investigation and treatment of RA.

Role of governance in creating a commodity hub: A comparative analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M.P. Haris

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The body of work on natural gas hubs has been expanding rapidly in recent years, with most of the current work examining the creation of gas hubs focusing on either the European experience or the North American experience. In this paper, we adopt a different perspective and place the focus on experience of hub building from other international commodities. We analyse three commodities - crude oil, iron ore and coal, and draw experience on the role of governance in development of hub based prices. In particular, we propose that the role of governance is different at different stages of the pricing transition to market based pricing. Governance could play an important role at the initial stage, building the relevant soft and physical infrastructure which facilitates the reaping of first mover advantage. As the market develops, private sector players may prefer less involvement of governance, which may distort markets. With market stabilization, governance should be focused on maintaining stable rules and regulation for private sector development, as well as monitoring for further changes in global trends. To facilitate the building of a benchmark price, the public sector should adopt a long-term and overarching view on industry growth.

Excitatory Neuronal Hubs Configure Multisensory Integration of Slow Waves in Association Cortex

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Satoshi Kuroki

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Summary: Multisensory integration (MSI is a fundamental emergent property of the mammalian brain. During MSI, perceptual information encoded in patterned activity is processed in multimodal association cortex. The systems-level neuronal dynamics that coordinate MSI, however, are unknown. Here, we demonstrate intrinsic hub-like network activity in the association cortex that regulates MSI. We engineered calcium reporter mouse lines based on the fluorescence resonance energy transfer sensor yellow cameleon (YC2.60 expressed in excitatory or inhibitory neurons. In medial and parietal association cortex, we observed spontaneous slow waves that self-organized into hubs defined by long-range excitatory and local inhibitory circuits. Unlike directional source/sink-like flows in sensory areas, medial/parietal excitatory and inhibitory hubs had net-zero balanced inputs. Remarkably, multisensory stimulation triggered rapid phase-locking mainly of excitatory hub activity persisting for seconds after the stimulus offset. Therefore, association cortex tends to form balanced excitatory networks that configure slow-wave phase-locking for MSI. Video Abstract: : Kuroki et al. performed cell-type-specific, wide-field FRET-based calcium imaging to visualize cortical network activity induced by multisensory inputs. They observed phase-locking of cortical slow waves in excitatory neuronal hubs in association cortical areas that may underlie multisensory integration. Keywords: wide-field calcium imaging, multisensory integration, cortical slow waves, association cortex, phase locking, fluorescence resonance energy transfer, spontaneous activity, excitatory neuron, inhibitory neuron, mouse

Extraversion modulates functional connectivity hubs of resting-state brain networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Pang, Yajing; Cui, Qian; Duan, Xujun; Chen, Heng; Zeng, Ling; Zhang, Zhiqiang; Lu, Guangming; Chen, Huafu

2017-09-01

Personality dimension extraversion describes individual differences in social behaviour and socio-emotional functioning. The intrinsic functional connectivity patterns of the brain are reportedly associated with extraversion. However, whether or not extraversion is associated with functional hubs warrants clarification. Functional hubs are involved in the rapid integration of neural processing, and their dysfunction contributes to the development of neuropsychiatric disorders. In this study, we employed the functional connectivity density (FCD) method for the first time to distinguish the energy-efficient hubs associated with extraversion. The resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data of 71 healthy subjects were used in the analysis. Short-range FCD was positively correlated with extraversion in the left cuneus, revealing a link between the local functional activity of this region and extraversion in risk-taking. Long-range FCD was negatively correlated with extraversion in the right superior frontal gyrus and the inferior frontal gyrus. Seed-based resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) analyses revealed that a decreased long-range FCD in individuals with high extraversion scores showed a low long-range functional connectivity pattern between the medial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, middle temporal gyrus, and anterior cingulate cortex. This result suggests that decreased RSFC patterns are responsible for self-esteem, self-evaluation, and inhibitory behaviour system that account for the modulation and shaping of extraversion. Overall, our results emphasize specific brain hubs, and reveal long-range functional connections in relation to extraversion, thereby providing a neurobiological basis of extraversion. © 2015 The British Psychological Society.

PERSEUS-HUB: Interactive and Collective Exploration of Large-Scale Graphs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Di Jin

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Graphs emerge naturally in many domains, such as social science, neuroscience, transportation engineering, and more. In many cases, such graphs have millions or billions of nodes and edges, and their sizes increase daily at a fast pace. How can researchers from various domains explore large graphs interactively and efficiently to find out what is ‘important’? How can multiple researchers explore a new graph dataset collectively and “help” each other with their findings? In this article, we present Perseus-Hub, a large-scale graph mining tool that computes a set of graph properties in a distributed manner, performs ensemble, multi-view anomaly detection to highlight regions that are worth investigating, and provides users with uncluttered visualization and easy interaction with complex graph statistics. Perseus-Hub uses a Spark cluster to calculate various statistics of large-scale graphs efficiently, and aggregates the results in a summary on the master node to support interactive user exploration. In Perseus-Hub, the visualized distributions of graph statistics provide preliminary analysis to understand a graph. To perform a deeper analysis, users with little prior knowledge can leverage patterns (e.g., spikes in the power-law degree distribution marked by other users or experts. Moreover, Perseus-Hub guides users to regions of interest by highlighting anomalous nodes and helps users establish a more comprehensive understanding about the graph at hand. We demonstrate our system through the case study on real, large-scale networks.

Synergizing two NWP models to improve hub-height wind speed forecasts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liu, H. [Ortech International, Mississauga, ON (Canada); Taylor, P. [York Univ., Toronto, ON (Canada)

2010-07-01

This PowerPoint presentation discussed some of the methods used to optimize hub-height wind speed forecasts. Statistical and physical forecast paradigms were considered. Forecast errors are often dictated by phase error, while refined NWP modelling is limited by data availability. A nested meso-scale NWP model was combined with a physical model to predict wind and power forecasts. Maps of data sources were included as well as equations used to derive predictions. Data from meteorological masts located near the Great Lakes were used to demonstrate the model. The results were compared with other modelling prediction methods. Forecasts obtained using the modelling approach can help operators in scheduling and trading procedures. Further research is being conducted to determine if the model can be used to improve ramp forecasts. tabs., figs.

76 FR 10328 - Grant of Authority for Subzone Status; Vestas Nacelles America, Inc. (Wind Turbine Nacelles, Hubs...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-02-24

... Status; Vestas Nacelles America, Inc. (Wind Turbine Nacelles, Hubs, Blades and Towers), Brighton, Denver...-purpose subzone at the wind turbine nacelle, hub, blade and tower manufacturing and warehousing facilities... status for activity related to the manufacturing and warehousing of wind turbine nacelles, hubs, blades...

78 FR 20314 - Jefferson Island Storage & Hub, L.L.C.; Notice of Filing

Science.gov (United States)

2013-04-04

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [Docket No. PR13-44-000] Jefferson Island Storage & Hub, L.L.C.; Notice of Filing Take notice that on March 28, 2013, Jefferson Island Storage & Hub, L.L.C. filed to revise its Statement of Operating Conditions to among others, update...

Wave Transformation for International Hub Port Planning (Transformasi Gelombang untuk Perencanaan Pelabuhan Hub Internasional

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Denny Nugroho Sugianto

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Indonesia merupakan salah satu negara kepulauan terbesar di dunia sehingga peran pelabuhan sangat vital dalam pembangunan ekonomi. Pelabuhan bukan hanya sekedar sebagai pelengkap infrastruktur, melainkan harus direncanakan dan dikelola dengan baik serta memperhatikan fenomena dinamika perairan laut seperti pola gelombang laut. Data gelombang laut menjadi faktor penting dalam perencanaan tata letak dan tipe bangunan pantai karena dipengaruhi oleh tinggi gelombang signifikan, tunggang pasang surut dan transformasi gelombang. Penelitian ini mengalisis karaketristrik dan bentuk transformasi gelombang untuk perencanaan Pelabuhan Hub Internasional, sebagai studi kasus adalah pelabuhan di Kuala Tanjung, Kabupaten Batu Bara. Pelabuhan di Kuala Tanjung merupakan salah satu dari 2 pelabuhan hub internasional yang direncanakan akan dibangun oleh pemerintah Indonesia. Metode yang digunakan adalah metode kuantitatif yang dilakukan dengan perhitungan statistik dan pemodelan matematik dengan modul hydrodinamic dan spectral wave untuk mengetahui arah penjalaran dan transformasi gelombang. Hasil dari data ECMWF selama 1999–Juni 2014, diketahui tinggi gelombang signifikan (Hs maksimum mencapai 1,69 m dan periode maksimum 8 detik. Karakteristik gelombang termasuk klasifikasi gelombang laut transisi dengan nilai d.L-1 berkisar anrata 0,27–0,48 dan berdasarkan periodenya diklasifikasikan sebagai gelombang gravitasi.Transformasi gelombang terjadi akibat pendangkalan dengan koefesian pendangkalan Ks 0,93–0,98 dan proses refraksi gelombang dengan koefesien Kr 0,97–0,99. Tinggi gelombang pecah Hb sebesar 1,24 meter dengan kedalaman gelombang pecah db sebesar 1,82 meter. Efektifitas desain bangunan terminal di Pelabuhan Kuala Tanjung secara keseluruhan untuk sepanjang musim sebesar 79,8% atau dapat dikatakan cukup efektif dalam meredam gelombang. Kata kunci: transformasi gelombang, tinggi dan periode gelombang, pelabuhan Indonesia is one of the largest

The East African Resilience Innovation Hub | IDRC - International ...

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

Project leadership The Resilience Innovation Hub will be housed within a ... Region at the Levy Mwanawasa Regional Centre, Lusaka -Conflict Early Warning and ... Authority on Development, Addis Ababa This initiative will support innovative ...

Virtual Hubs for facilitating access to Open Data

Science.gov (United States)

Mazzetti, Paolo; Latre, Miguel Á.; Ernst, Julia; Brumana, Raffaella; Brauman, Stefan; Nativi, Stefano

2015-04-01

In October 2014 the ENERGIC-OD (European NEtwork for Redistributing Geospatial Information to user Communities - Open Data) project, funded by the European Union under the Competitiveness and Innovation framework Programme (CIP), has started. In response to the EU call, the general objective of the project is to "facilitate the use of open (freely available) geographic data from different sources for the creation of innovative applications and services through the creation of Virtual Hubs". In ENERGIC-OD, Virtual Hubs are conceived as information systems supporting the full life cycle of Open Data: publishing, discovery and access. They facilitate the use of Open Data by lowering and possibly removing the main barriers which hampers geo-information (GI) usage by end-users and application developers. Data and data services heterogeneity is recognized as one of the major barriers to Open Data (re-)use. It imposes end-users and developers to spend a lot of effort in accessing different infrastructures and harmonizing datasets. Such heterogeneity cannot be completely removed through the adoption of standard specifications for service interfaces, metadata and data models, since different infrastructures adopt different standards to answer to specific challenges and to address specific use-cases. Thus, beyond a certain extent, heterogeneity is irreducible especially in interdisciplinary contexts. ENERGIC-OD Virtual Hubs address heterogeneity adopting a mediation and brokering approach: specific components (brokers) are dedicated to harmonize service interfaces, metadata and data models, enabling seamless discovery and access to heterogeneous infrastructures and datasets. As an innovation project, ENERGIC-OD will integrate several existing technologies to implement Virtual Hubs as single points of access to geospatial datasets provided by new or existing platforms and infrastructures, including INSPIRE-compliant systems and Copernicus services. ENERGIC OD will deploy a

Emerging Education Hubs: The Case of Singapore

Science.gov (United States)

Sidhu, Ravinder; Ho, K.-C.; Yeoh, Brenda

2011-01-01

In anticipation of a globalising post-Fordist political economy, countries and universities are increasingly pursuing strategic transnational education and research alliances. This article analyses the Global Schoolhouse, a key education policy platform that aims to transform Singapore into a knowledge and innovation hub by establishing networks…

Location-Aided Reliable Routing for Opportunistic Networks

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Yong Yang; Zhi Ren; Jibi Li

2012-01-01

In our study, we investigate the problem of location-based routing in opportunistic networks. Due to the uncertainty of end-to-end paths between sources and destinations, the classical location-based ad hoc routing protocols cannot adapt to the environment of opportunistic networks, which leads to the decrease of the delivery rate of data. To address it, we propose in this paper a novel location-aided routing protocol which is suitable for opportunistic networks. In our protocol, a node can send location information on demand by using prediction mechanism, and when sending a data packet, the node chooses multiple neighbors which are closer to the destination as next hops. If the candidate neighbors do not exist, the node carries the data till it meets a proper neighbor or the destination. Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that our proposed protocol outperforms DREAM (Distance Routing Effect Protocol Mobility) and one of its improved versions, BFDREAM (Boundary Forwarding DREAM), in terms of the delivery rate and overhead.

Hubs and spokes in Regional Trade Agreements

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vaal, A. de

2017-01-01

In the plethora of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) some countries are involved in much more RTAs than others. Furthermore, some countries take in a position as a hub: they have trade agreements with many other countries, while their partner countries are much less involved in RTA relations. Even

Impact of Tidal Level Variations on Wave Energy Absorption at Wave Hub

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Valeria Castellucci

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The energy absorption of the wave energy converters (WEC characterized by a limited stroke length —like the point absorbers developed at Uppsala University—depends on the sea level variation at the deployment site. In coastal areas characterized by high tidal ranges, the daily energy production of the generators is not optimal. The study presented in this paper quantifies the effects of the changing sea level at the Wave Hub test site, located at the south-west coast of England. This area is strongly affected by tides: the tidal height calculated as the difference between the Mean High Water Spring and the Mean Low Water Spring in 2014 was about 6.6 m. The results are obtained from a hydro-mechanic model that analyzes the behaviour of the point absorber at the Wave Hub, taking into account the sea state occurrence scatter diagram and the tidal time series at the site. It turns out that the impact of the tide decreases the energy absorption by 53%. For this reason, the need for a tidal compensation system to be included in the design of the WEC becomes compelling. The economic advantages are evaluated for different scenarios: the economic analysis proposed within the paper allows an educated guess to be made on the profits. The alternative of extending the stroke length of the WEC is investigated, and the gain in energy absorption is estimated.

Bedside ultrasound reliability in locating catheter and detecting complications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Payman Moharamzadeh

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Central venous catheterization is one of the most common medical procedures and is associated with such complications as misplacement and pneumothorax. Chest X-ray is among good ways for evaluation of these complications. However, due to patient’s excessive exposure to radiation, time consumption and low diagnostic value in detecting pneumothorax in the supine patient, the present study intends to examine bedside ultrasound diagnostic value in locating tip of the catheter and pneumothorax. Materials and methods: In the present cross-sectional study, all referred patients requiring central venous catheterization were examined. Central venous catheterization was performed by a trained emergency medicine specialist, and the location of catheter and the presence of pneumothorax were examined and compared using two modalities of ultrasound and x-ray (as the reference standard. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predicting values were reported. Results: A total of 200 non-trauma patients were included in the study (58% men. Cohen’s Kappa consistency coefficients for catheterization and diagnosis of pneumothorax were found as 0.49 (95% CI: 0.43-0.55, 0.89 (P<0.001, (95% CI: 97.8-100, respectively. Also, ultrasound sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing pneumothorax were 75% (95% CI: 35.6-95.5, and 100% (95% CI: 97.6-100, respectively. Conclusion: The present study results showed low diagnostic value of ultrasound in determining catheter location and in detecting pneumothorax. With knowledge of previous studies, the search still on this field.   Keywords: Central venous catheterization; complications; bedside ultrasound; radiography;

Reliable Location-Based Services from Radio Navigation Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Per Enge

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Loran is a radio-based navigation system originally designed for naval applications. We show that Loran-C’s high-power and high repeatable accuracy are fantastic for security applications. First, we show how to derive a precise location tag—with a sensitivity of about 20 meters—that is difficult to project to an exact location. A device can use our location tag to block or allow certain actions, without knowing its precise location. To ensure that our tag is reproducible we make use of fuzzy extractors, a mechanism originally designed for biometric authentication. We build a fuzzy extractor specifically designed for radio-type errors and give experimental evidence to show its effectiveness. Second, we show that our location tag is difficult to predict from a distance. For example, an observer cannot predict the location tag inside a guarded data center from a few hundreds of meters away. As an application, consider a location-aware disk drive that will only work inside the data center. An attacker who steals the device and is capable of spoofing Loran-C signals, still cannot make the device work since he does not know what location tag to spoof. We provide experimental data supporting our unpredictability claim.

Publishing and sharing of hydrologic models through WaterHUB

Science.gov (United States)

Merwade, V.; Ruddell, B. L.; Song, C.; Zhao, L.; Kim, J.; Assi, A.

2011-12-01

Most hydrologists use hydrologic models to simulate the hydrologic processes to understand hydrologic pathways and fluxes for research, decision making and engineering design. Once these tasks are complete including publication of results, the models generally are not published or made available to the public for further use and improvement. Although publication or sharing of models is not required for journal publications, sharing of models may open doors for new collaborations, and avoids duplication of efforts if other researchers are interested in simulating a particular watershed for which a model already exists. For researchers, who are interested in sharing models, there are limited avenues to publishing their models to the wider community. Towards filling this gap, a prototype cyberinfrastructure (CI), called WaterHUB, is developed for sharing hydrologic data and modeling tools in an interactive environment. To test the utility of WaterHUB for sharing hydrologic models, a system to publish and share SWAT (Soil Water Assessment Tool) is developed. Users can utilize WaterHUB to search and download existing SWAT models, and also upload new SWAT models. Metadata such as the name of the watershed, name of the person or agency who developed the model, simulation period, time step, and list of calibrated parameters also published with individual model.

Mapping the changed hubs and corresponding functional connectivity in idiopathic restless legs syndrome.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Chunyan; Wang, Jiaojian; Hou, Yue; Qi, Zhigang; Wang, Li; Zhan, Shuqin; Wang, Rong; Wang, Yuping

2018-05-01

The hubs of the brain network play a key role in integrating and transferring information between different functional modules. However, whether the changed pattern in functional network hubs contributes to the onset of leg discomfort symptoms in restless legs syndrome (RLS) patients remains unclear. Using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) and graph theory methods, we investigated whether alterations of hubs can be detected in RLS. First, we constructed the whole-brain voxelwise functional connectivity and calculated a functional connectivity strength (FCS) map in each of 16 drug-naive idiopathic RLS patients and 26 gender- and age-matched healthy control (HC) subjects. Next, a two-sample t test was applied to compare the FCS maps between HC and RLS patients, and to identify significant changes in FCS in RLS patients. To further elucidate the corresponding changes in the functional connectivity patterns of the aberrant hubs in RLS patients, whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity analyses for the hub areas were performed. The hub analysis revealed decreased FCS in the cuneus, fusiform gyrus, paracentral lobe, and precuneus, and increased FCS in the superior frontal gyrus and thalamus in idiopathic drug-naive RLS patients. Subsequent functional connectivity analyses revealed decreased functional connectivity in sensorimotor and visual processing networks and increased functional connectivity in the affective cognitive network and cerebellar-thalamic circuit. Furthermore, the mean FCS value in the superior frontal gyrus was significantly correlated with Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale scores in RLS patients, and the mean FCS value in the fusiform gyrus was significantly correlated with Hamilton Depression Rating Scale scores. These findings may provide novel insight into the pathophysiology of RLS. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Altered network hub connectivity after acute LSD administration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Felix Müller

Full Text Available LSD is an ambiguous substance, said to mimic psychosis and to improve mental health in people suffering from anxiety and depression. Little is known about the neuronal correlates of altered states of consciousness induced by this substance. Limited previous studies indicated profound changes in functional connectivity of resting state networks after the administration of LSD. The current investigation attempts to replicate and extend those findings in an independent sample. In a double-blind, randomized, cross-over study, 100 μg LSD and placebo were orally administered to 20 healthy participants. Resting state brain activity was assessed by functional magnetic resonance imaging. Within-network and between-network connectivity measures of ten established resting state networks were compared between drug conditions. Complementary analysis were conducted using resting state networks as sources in seed-to-voxel analyses. Acute LSD administration significantly decreased functional connectivity within visual, sensorimotor and auditory networks and the default mode network. While between-network connectivity was widely increased and all investigated networks were affected to some extent, seed-to-voxel analyses consistently indicated increased connectivity between networks and subcortical (thalamus, striatum and cortical (precuneus, anterior cingulate cortex hub structures. These latter observations are consistent with findings on the importance of hubs in psychopathological states, especially in psychosis, and could underlay therapeutic effects of hallucinogens as proposed by a recent model. Keywords: LSD, fMRI, Functional connectivity, Networks, Hubs

Pinoy Nutrition Hub: The Philippine Experience in Addressing Moderate Malnutrition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ramos, Arlo; Fuentes, Eureka; Duque, Yvonette; Soriano, Nezer; Gomez, Marijo

2014-01-01

Full text: • Objective: Malnutrition is a persistent problem in the Philippines. The 2011 survey of the Food and Nutrition Research Institute reported that 3 out of 10 children are malnourished. Data shows 20.2% of children 0-47 months are underweight while 33.6% are stunted. This rate is higher in depressed areas in the country. PD Hearth is a time and tested effective program model to address malnutrition. But the PDH has minimum standards that need to be followed in the program implementation. However, a developing country like the Philippines has limitations in its resources and implementations. This paper aims to share the Philippine experience in addressing moderate malnutrition through a contextualized and modified PD Hearth approach. The specific objectives of this paper are: - to describe the challenges in implementing PD Hearth in the context of the Philippines; - to describe the innovations and modifications in the PD Hearth; - and, to illustrate the successful intervention of the PNH program against malnourished children in the community. • Methods: The Pinoy Nutrition Hub model is an innovation of PD Hearth approach. The first step was the participatory approach evaluation of existing programs on MNCHN in the communities. The next step was for the stakeholders to identify the gaps and address them. This was followed by gathering lessons learned and good practices that arose from implementing PD Hearth. Innovations were adopted to address restrictions and maximize learning in its implementation. The contextualized approach was called Pinoy Nutrition Hub (PNH). • Outcomes: - The PNH was piloted in three Area Development Programs (ADP) that represent the three island groups of the Philippines. All three ADPs reported improvement in the weight of the malnourished children enrolled in the program. Below is an illustration of the how the actual weight of children in the Visayas ADP increased. Figure 1 (Display Omitted). Average Weight of Malnourished

Reliability and Validity of Bedside Version of Persian WAB (P-WAB-1).

Science.gov (United States)

Nilipour, Reza; Pourshahbaz, Abbas; Ghoreyshi, Zahra Sadat

2014-10-01

In this study, we reported the reliability and validity of Bedside version of Persian WAB (P-WAB-1) adapted from Western Aphasia Battery (WAB-R) (1,2). P-WAB-1 is a clinical linguistic measuring tool to determine severity and type of aphasia in brain damaged patients based on Aphasia Quotient (AQ) as a functional measure. For the purposes of a quick clinical screening of aphasia in Persian, we adapted the bedside version of WAB-R to assess the performance of Persian aphasic patients. The data we reported on adaptation, validity and reliability of P-WAB-1 are based on faithful translation and criterion validity ratio (CVR) taken from the expert panel and the performance of 60 consecutive brain damaged patients referred to different university clinics for rehabilitation and 30 healthy subjects as norms and 40 age-matched epileptic patients as the control group. Based on the results of this study, P-WAB-1 has internal consistency (a=0.71) and test-retest reliability (r=.65 PPersian speaking brain damaged patients. This study is the initial step on adaptation of different versions of WAB-R to measure the severity of aphasia using AQ, LQ and CQ as operational measures and to classify Persian speaking aphasic patients into different types.

A State Cyber Hub Operations Framework

Science.gov (United States)

2016-06-01

current and future decision support. Finally, the Hub operations team must track and report key performance indictors ( KPIs ) (established by the state...Region); then mutually agreed-upon core KPIs should be identified and reported at this time. The goal of the Act Element is to implement the decision...Force Headquarters Page 58 JIE Joint Information Environment JMC JIE Management Construct KPI Key Performance Indicator LEA Law Enforcement

The deep-sea hub of the ANTARES neutrino telescope

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Anghinolfi, M. [INFN Sezione di Genova, Via Dodecaneso 33, I-16146 Genova (Italy); Calzas, A. [Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille (CNRS/IN2P3), Universite de la Mediterranee, 13288 Marseille (France); Dinkespiler, B. [Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille (CNRS/IN2P3), Universite de la Mediterranee, 13288 Marseille (France); Cuneo, S. [INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Via S. Sofia 44, I-95123 Catania (Italy); Favard, S. [Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille (CNRS/IN2P3), Universite de la Mediterranee, 13288 Marseille (France); Hallewell, G. [Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille (CNRS/IN2P3), Universite de la Mediterranee, 13288 Marseille (France)]. E-mail: gregh@cppm.in2p3.fr; Jaquet, M. [Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille (CNRS/IN2P3), Universite de la Mediterranee, 13288 Marseille (France); Musumeci, M. [INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Via S. Sofia 44, I-95123 Catania (Italy); Papaleo, R. [INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Via S. Sofia 44, I-95123 Catania (Italy); Raia, G. [INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Via S. Sofia 44, I-95123 Catania (Italy); Valdy, P. [IFREMER - Institut francais de recherche pour l' exploitation de la mer, Centre de La Seyne, 83500 La Seyne sur mer (France); Vernin, P. [DSM-DAPNIA, CEA SACLAY, 91191 Gif sur Yvette Cedex (France)

2006-11-15

The ANTARES neutrino telescope, currently under construction at 2500 m depth off the French Mediterranean coast, will contain 12 detection lines, powered and read out through a deep-sea junction box (JB) hub. Electrical energy from the shore station is distributed through a transformer with multiple secondary windings and a plugboard with 16 deep sea-mateable electro-optic connectors. Connections are made to the JB outputs using manned or remotely operated submersible vehicles. The triply redundant power management and slow control system is based on two identical AC-powered systems, communicating with the shore through 160 Mb/s fibre G-links and a third battery-powered system using a slower link. We describe the power and slow control systems of the underwater hub.

The deep-sea hub of the ANTARES neutrino telescope

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anghinolfi, M.; Calzas, A.; Dinkespiler, B.; Cuneo, S.; Favard, S.; Hallewell, G.; Jaquet, M.; Musumeci, M.; Papaleo, R.; Raia, G.; Valdy, P.; Vernin, P.

2006-01-01

The ANTARES neutrino telescope, currently under construction at 2500 m depth off the French Mediterranean coast, will contain 12 detection lines, powered and read out through a deep-sea junction box (JB) hub. Electrical energy from the shore station is distributed through a transformer with multiple secondary windings and a plugboard with 16 deep sea-mateable electro-optic connectors. Connections are made to the JB outputs using manned or remotely operated submersible vehicles. The triply redundant power management and slow control system is based on two identical AC-powered systems, communicating with the shore through 160 Mb/s fibre G-links and a third battery-powered system using a slower link. We describe the power and slow control systems of the underwater hub

Gravity drives the evolution of infrared dark hubs: JVLA observations of SDC13

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, G. M.; Peretto, N.; Avison, A.; Duarte-Cabral, A.; Fuller, G. A.

2018-05-01

Context. Converging networks of interstellar filaments, that is hubs, have been recently linked to the formation of stellar clusters and massive stars. Understanding the relationship between the evolution of these systems and the formation of cores and stars inside them is at the heart of current star formation research. Aims: The goal is to study the kinematic and density structure of the SDC13 prototypical hub at high angular resolution to determine what drives its evolution and fragmentation. Methods: We have mapped SDC13, a 1000 M⊙ infrared dark hub, in NH3(1,1) and NH3(2,2) emission lines, with both the Jansky Very Large Array and Green Bank Telescope. The high angular resolution achieved in the combined dataset allowed us to probe scales down to 0.07 pc. After fitting the ammonia lines, we computed the integrated intensities, centroid velocities and line widths, along with gas temperatures and H2 column densities. Results: The mass-per-unit-lengths of all four hub filaments are thermally super-critical, consistent with the presence of tens of gravitationally bound cores identified along them. These cores exhibit a regular separation of 0.37 ± 0.16 pc suggesting gravitational instabilities running along these super-critical filaments are responsible for their fragmentation. The observed local increase of the dense gas velocity dispersion towards starless cores is believed to be a consequence of such fragmentation process. Using energy conservation arguments, we estimate that the gravitational to kinetic energy conversion efficiency in the SDC13 cores is 35%. We see velocity gradient peaks towards 63% of cores as expected during the early stages of filament fragmentation. Another clear observational signature is the presence of the most massive cores at the filaments' junction, where the velocity dispersion is largest. We interpret this as the result of the hub morphology generating the largest acceleration gradients near the hub centre. Conclusions: We

nanoHUB.org: Experiences and Challenges in Software Sustainability for a Large Scientific Community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lynn Zentner

2014-07-01

Full Text Available The science gateway nanoHUB.org, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF, serves a large scientific community dedicated to research and education in nanotechnology with community-contributed simulation codes as well as a vast repository of other materials such as recorded presentations, teaching materials, and workshops and courses. Nearly 330,000 users annually access over 4400 items of content on nanoHUB, including 343 simulation tools. Arguably the largest nanotechnology facility in the world, nanoHUB has led the way not only in providing open access to scientific code in the nanotechnology community, but also in lowering barriers to the use of that code, by providing a platform where developers are able to easily and quickly deploy code written in a variety of languages with user-friendly graphical user interfaces and where users can run the latest versions of codes transparently on the grid or other powerful resources without ever having to download or update code. Being a leader in open access code deployment provides nanoHUB with opportunities and challenges as it meets the current and future needs of its community. This paper discusses the experiences of nanoHUB in addressing and adapting to the changing landscape of scientific software in ways that best serve its community and meet the needs of the largest portion of its user base.

On the reliability evaluation of communication equipment for SMART using FMEA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, D. H.; Suh, Y. S.; Koo, I. S.; Song, Ki Sang; Han, Byung Rae

2000-07-01

This report describes the reliability analysis method for communication equipment using FMEA and FTA. The major equipments to be applicable for SMART communication networks are repeater, bridge, router and gateway and we can apply the FMEA or FTA technique. In the FMEA process, analysis of tagged system, decision of the level of analysis of the target system, drawing reliability block diagram according to the function, decision of failure mode, writing the fault reasons, writing on the FMEA sheet and FMEA level decision are included. Also, the FTA, it is possible to figure out top event reasons and system reliability. We have considered these in mind and we did the FMEA and FTA for NIC, hub, client server and router. Also, we suggested and integrated network model for nuclear power plant and we have shown the reliability analysis procedure according to FTA. If any proprietary communication device is developed, the reliability can be easily determined with proposed procedures

On the reliability evaluation of communication equipment for SMART using FMEA

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, D. H.; Suh, Y. S.; Koo, I. S.; Song, Ki Sang; Han, Byung Rae

2000-07-01

This report describes the reliability analysis method for communication equipment using FMEA and FTA. The major equipments to be applicable for SMART communication networks are repeater, bridge, router and gateway and we can apply the FMEA or FTA technique. In the FMEA process, analysis of tagged system, decision of the level of analysis of the target system, drawing reliability block diagram according to the function, decision of failure mode, writing the fault reasons, writing on the FMEA sheet and FMEA level decision are included. Also, the FTA, it is possible to figure out top event reasons and system reliability. We have considered these in mind and we did the FMEA and FTA for NIC, hub, client server and router. Also, we suggested and integrated network model for nuclear power plant and we have shown the reliability analysis procedure according to FTA. If any proprietary communication device is developed, the reliability can be easily determined with proposed procedures.

Addressing congestion on single allocation hub-and-spoke networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ricardo Saraiva de Camargo

2012-12-01

Full Text Available When considering hub-and-spoke networks with single allocation, the absence of alternative routes makes this kind of systems specially vulnerable to congestion effects. In order to improve the design of such networks, congestion costs must be addressed. This article deploys two different techniques for addressing congestion on single allocation hub-and-spoke networks: the Generalized Benders Decomposition and the Outer Approximation method. Both methods are able to solve large scale instances. Computational experiments show how the adoption of advanced solution strategies, such as Pareto-optimal cut generation on the Master Problem branch-and-bound tree, may be decisive. They also demonstrate that the solution effort is not only associated with the size of the instances, but also with their combination of the installation and congestion costs.

Gas and LNG pricing and trading hub in East Asia: An introduction

OpenAIRE

Shi, Xunpeng

2017-01-01

This paper summarizes the four papers in the special issues on ‘Gas and LNG pricing and trading hub in East Asia’. The papers examine lessons and experience from European hub development, other commodity, the Japanese history on developing of futures markets and inter-fuel substitution in East Asia. The papers finds that liquid futures market is the key to formulate benchmark prices while a well-developed spot market is the foundation; political will and strong leadership are required to over...

FEM analysis of hollow hub forming in rolling extrusion process

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Bartnicki

2014-10-01

Full Text Available In this paper are presented the results of numerical calculations of rolling extrusion process of a hollow hub. As the flanges manufacturing at both sides of the product is required, in the analyzed process of rolling extrusion, a rear bumper was implemented as additional tool limiting axial metal flow. Numerical calculations of the hub forming process were conducted basing on finite element method, applying software Deform3D and Simufact in conditions of three dimensional state of strain. The obtained satisfactory results show that it is possible to conduct the further research works of experimental character, with the application of a modernized aggregate for the rolling extrusion process PO-2.

Continuous Integration for Concurrent MOOSE Framework and Application Development on GitHub

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrew E. Slaughter

2015-11-01

Full Text Available For the past several years, Idaho National Laboratory’s MOOSE framework team has employed modern software engineering techniques (continuous integration, joint application/framework source code repos- itories, automated regression testing, etc. in developing closed-source multiphysics simulation software (Gaston et al., 'Journal of Open Research Software' vol. 2, article e10, 2014. In March 2014, the MOOSE framework was released under an open source license on GitHub, significantly expanding and diversifying the pool of current active and potential future contributors on the project. Despite this recent growth, the same philosophy of concurrent framework and application development continues to guide the project’s development roadmap. Several specific practices, including techniques for managing multiple repositories, conducting automated regression testing, and implementing a cascading build process are discussed in this short paper. Special attention is given to describing the manner in which these practices naturally synergize with the GitHub API and GitHub-specific features such as issue tracking, Pull Requests, and project forks.

Characteristics of steady vibration in a rotating hub-beam system

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Zhen; Liu, Caishan; Ma, Wei

2016-02-01

A rotating beam features a puzzling character in which its frequencies and modal shapes may vary with the hub's inertia and its rotating speed. To highlight the essential nature behind the vibration phenomena, we analyze the steady vibration of a rotating Euler-Bernoulli beam with a quasi-steady-state stretch. Newton's law is used to derive the equations governing the beam's elastic motion and the hub's rotation. A combination of these equations results in a nonlinear partial differential equation (PDE) that fully reflects the mutual interaction between the two kinds of motion. Via the Fourier series expansion within a finite interval of time, we reduce the PDE into an infinite system of a nonlinear ordinary differential equation (ODE) in spatial domain. We further nondimensionalize the ODE and discretize it via a difference method. The frequencies and modal shapes of a general rotating beam are then determined numerically. For a low-speed beam where the ignorance of geometric stiffening is feasible, the beam's vibration characteristics are solved analytically. We validate our numerical method and the analytical solutions by comparing with either the past experiments or the past numerical findings reported in existing literature. Finally, systematic simulations are performed to demonstrate how the beam's eigenfrequencies vary with the hub's inertia and rotating speed.

Coffee Shops, Classrooms and Conversations: public engagement and outreach in a large interdisciplinary research Hub

Science.gov (United States)

Holden, Jennifer A.

2014-05-01

Public engagement and outreach activities are increasingly using specialist staff for co-ordination, training and support for researchers, they are also becoming expected for large investments. Here, the experience of public engagement and outreach a large, interdisciplinary Research Hub is described. dot.rural, based at the University of Aberdeen UK, is a £11.8 million Research Councils UK Rural Digital Economy Hub, funded as part of the RCUK Digital Economy Theme (2009-2015). Digital Economy research aims to realise the transformational impact of digital technologies on aspects of the environment, community life, cultural experiences, future society, and the economy. The dot.rural Hub involves 92 researchers from 12 different disciplines, including Geography, Hydrology and Ecology. Public Engagement and Outreach is embedded in the dot.rural Digital Economy Hub via an Outreach Officer. Alongside this position, public engagement and outreach activities are compulsory part of PhD student contracts. Public Engagement and Outreach activities at the dot.rural Hub involve individuals and groups in both formal and informal settings organised by dot.rural and other organisations. Activities in the realms of Education, Public Engagement, Traditional and Social Media are determined by a set of Underlying Principles designed for the Hub by the Outreach Officer. The underlying Engagement and Outreach principles match funding agency requirements and expectations alongside researcher demands and the user-led nature of Digital Economy Research. All activities include researchers alongside the Outreach Officer are research informed and embedded into specific projects that form the Hub. Successful public engagement activities have included participation in Café Scientifique series, workshops in primary and secondary schools, and online activities such as I'm a Scientist Get Me Out of Here. From how to engage 8 year olds with making hydrographs more understandable to members of

Network performance, hub connectivity potential, and competitive position of primary airports in Asia/Pacific region

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Matsumoto, H.; Veldhuis, J.; de Wit, J.; Burghouwt, G.

2008-01-01

Recently, hub-and-spoke network configurations are more and more developed in the Asia/Pacific region. In this paper, it is argued that the measurement of network performance in hub-and-spoke systems should take into account the quantity and quality of both direct and indirect connections. The

Review of research on AFPM hub motor

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jianguo DAI

2018-02-01

Full Text Available The industrialization of new energy vehicles is an important way to promote the sustainable development of automobile industry, and it is also the key measure to solve the problems of energy and environment. As an important type of new energy vehicles, electric vehicles will play an important role in the future competition in the automotive industry, especially in the field of electric vehicle driven by wheel. With the advantages of compact structure, high power density, low working noise and good heat dissipation performance, the AFPM motor has gradually become the preferred object of the hub driving device. Based on the statement of the technical development and research status about AFPM motor, this paper mainly analyzes the engineering application and technical problems of AFPM motor in hub drive, especially the matching of AFPM motor with other systems and the problem of heat dissipation at high load conditions, and looks forward to the key role in the future development of the automotive industry. This paper will play a certain reference and guiding role in the application of AFPM motor in the field of new energy vehicles.

GeoTrust Hub: A Platform For Sharing And Reproducing Geoscience Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Malik, T.; Tarboton, D. G.; Goodall, J. L.; Choi, E.; Bhatt, A.; Peckham, S. D.; Foster, I.; Ton That, D. H.; Essawy, B.; Yuan, Z.; Dash, P. K.; Fils, G.; Gan, T.; Fadugba, O. I.; Saxena, A.; Valentic, T. A.

2017-12-01

Recent requirements of scholarly communication emphasize the reproducibility of scientific claims. Text-based research papers are considered poor mediums to establish reproducibility. Papers must be accompanied by "research objects", aggregation of digital artifacts that together with the paper provide an authoritative record of a piece of research. We will present GeoTrust Hub (http://geotrusthub.org), a platform for creating, sharing, and reproducing reusable research objects. GeoTrust Hub provides tools for scientists to create `geounits'--reusable research objects. Geounits are self-contained, annotated, and versioned containers that describe and package computational experiments in an efficient and light-weight manner. Geounits can be shared on public repositories such as HydroShare and FigShare, and also using their respective APIs reproduced on provisioned clouds. The latter feature enables science applications to have a lifetime beyond sharing, wherein they can be independently verified and trust be established as they are repeatedly reused. Through research use cases from several geoscience laboratories across the United States, we will demonstrate how tools provided from GeoTrust Hub along with Hydroshare as its public repository for geounits is advancing the state of reproducible research in the geosciences. For each use case, we will address different computational reproducibility requirements. Our first use case will be an example of setup reproducibility which enables a scientist to set up and reproduce an output from a model with complex configuration and development environments. Our second use case will be an example of algorithm/data reproducibility, where in a shared data science model/dataset can be substituted with an alternate one to verify model output results, and finally an example of interactive reproducibility, in which an experiment is dependent on specific versions of data to produce the result. Toward this we will use software and data

Finding Influential Spreaders from Human Activity beyond Network Location.

Science.gov (United States)

Min, Byungjoon; Liljeros, Fredrik; Makse, Hernán A

2015-01-01

Most centralities proposed for identifying influential spreaders on social networks to either spread a message or to stop an epidemic require the full topological information of the network on which spreading occurs. In practice, however, collecting all connections between agents in social networks can be hardly achieved. As a result, such metrics could be difficult to apply to real social networks. Consequently, a new approach for identifying influential people without the explicit network information is demanded in order to provide an efficient immunization or spreading strategy, in a practical sense. In this study, we seek a possible way for finding influential spreaders by using the social mechanisms of how social connections are formed in real networks. We find that a reliable immunization scheme can be achieved by asking people how they interact with each other. From these surveys we find that the probabilistic tendency to connect to a hub has the strongest predictive power for influential spreaders among tested social mechanisms. Our observation also suggests that people who connect different communities is more likely to be an influential spreader when a network has a strong modular structure. Our finding implies that not only the effect of network location but also the behavior of individuals is important to design optimal immunization or spreading schemes.

Stochastic optimization of energy hub operation with consideration of thermal energy market and demand response

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vahid-Pakdel, M.J.; Nojavan, Sayyad; Mohammadi-ivatloo, B.; Zare, Kazem

2017-01-01

Highlights: • Studying heating market impact on energy hub operation considering price uncertainty. • Investigating impact of implementation of heat demand response on hub operation. • Presenting stochastic method to consider wind generation and prices uncertainties. - Abstract: Multi carrier energy systems or energy hubs has provided more flexibility for energy management systems. On the other hand, due to mutual impact of different energy carriers in energy hubs, energy management studies become more challengeable. The initial patterns of energy demands from grids point of view can be modified by optimal scheduling of energy hubs. In this work, optimal operation of multi carrier energy system has been studied in the presence of wind farm, electrical and thermal storage systems, electrical and thermal demand response programs, electricity market and thermal energy market. Stochastic programming is implemented for modeling the system uncertainties such as demands, market prices and wind speed. It is shown that adding new source of heat energy for providing demand of consumers with market mechanism changes the optimal operation point of multi carrier energy system. Presented mixed integer linear formulation for the problem has been solved by executing CPLEX solver of GAMS optimization software. Simulation results shows that hub’s operation cost reduces up to 4.8% by enabling the option of using thermal energy market for meeting heat demand.

Penentuan Pelabuhan Hub untuk Crude Palm Oil (CPO Ekspor di Indonesia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eko Andi Haranto

2013-03-01

Full Text Available CPO (Crude Palm Oil merupakan salah satu komoditi ekspor terbesar di Indonesia. Moda angkut darat dan sungai menjadi pilihan untuk didistribusikan menuju calon pelabuhan hub. Tugas Akhir ini bertujuan untuk merencanakan pola operasi armada pengangkut CPO, dan penentuan pelabuhan hub untuk ekspor CPO. Metode Transportasi digunakan untuk memilih pabrik pengolahan CPO sebagai pemasok utama. Dari hasil analisis didapatkan bahwa penggunaan moda darat menggunakan truk lebih optimal dibandingkan menggunakan tongkang hal ini dikarenakan kondisi sungai di Kalimantan Tengah yang dangkal. Dengan menggunakan metode transportasi didapatkan empat lokasi pabrik pengolahan minyak kelapa sawit. Pelabuhan hub yang terpilih berlokasi di Bagendang dan Bumi Harjo. Kedua titik tersebut dipilih karena sudah memiliki tangki timbun dan dermaga untuk ekspor CPO, selain itu pemilihan berdasarkan hasil analisa didapatkan biaya dari Pabrik PT. ATLANTIS ke Pelabuhan Bagendang dengan truk berukuran 10 ton memerlukan biaya sebesar Rp. 333.016,25/TRIP/TRUK. Pabrik PT. ATLANTIS II ke Pelabuhan Bagendang Rp. 237.868,75/TRIP/TRUK. Pabrik PT. TIGER ke Pelabuhan Bumi Harjo Rp. 475.737,50/TRIP/TRUK. PT. TIGER II merupakan pabrik yang dapat melakukan pengiriman langsung menggunakan tongkang berukuran 1800 DWT melewati sungai Barito, dengan biaya Rp.123.007.828,27,- /voyage.

Final Report for Project: Impacts of stratification and non-equilibrium winds and waves on hub-height winds

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Patton, Edward G. [Univ. Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)

2015-07-14

This project used a combination of turbulence-resolving large-eddy simulations, single-column modeling (where turbulence is parameterized), and currently available observations to improve, assess, and develop a parameterization of the impact of non-equilibrium wave states and stratification on the buoy-observed winds to establish reliable wind data at the turbine hub-height level. Analysis of turbulence-resolving simulations and observations illuminates the non-linear coupling between the atmosphere and the undulating sea surface. This analysis guides modification of existing boundary layer parameterizations to include wave influences for upward extrapolation of surface-based observations through the turbine layer. Our surface roughness modifications account for the interaction between stratification and the effects of swell’s amplitude and wavelength as well as swell’s relative motion with respect to the mean wind direction. The single-column version of the open source Weather and Research Forecasting (WRF) model (Skamarock et al., 2008) serves as our platform to test our proposed planetary boundary layer parameterization modifications that account for wave effects on marine atmospheric boundary layer flows. WRF has been widely adopted for wind resource analysis and forecasting. The single column version is particularly suitable to development, analysis, and testing of new boundary layer parameterizations. We utilize WRF’s single-column version to verify and validate our proposed modifications to the Mellor-Yamada-Nakanishi-Niino (MYNN) boundary layer parameterization (Nakanishi and Niino, 2004). We explore the implications of our modifications for two-way coupling between WRF and wave models (e.g.,Wavewatch III). The newly implemented parameterization accounting for marine atmospheric boundary layer-wave coupling is then tested in three-dimensional WRF simulations at grid sizes near 1 km. These simulations identify the behavior of simulated winds at the

DAVINC3I: moving towards responsive hub network designs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ossevoort, R.; Keizer, de M.; Vorst, van der J.G.A.J.; Wenink, E.

2013-01-01

The Dutch floricultural sector is generally appreciated for its world leadership; the Netherlands is the flower trading hub for the European market. There are two trends affecting this position. First, virtualisation makes trade flows relatively footloose and flexible. Moreover, it enables the use

Research dedusting efficiency of the inertial hub with adjustable parameters

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sharapov Rashid

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Production of construction materials every year production increases, thus increasing emissions pollutants into the atmosphere subjected to cleaning. At the enterprises of building materials production equipment becoming outdated both morally and physically exhausted their useful life. Technological design standards in the operation of purification equipment has undergone a number of changes. There are a large number of works devoted to the theory of cyclone separation. They examined calculation method and to determine the minimum size of particles is separated completely from the air stream in a cyclone. In theory, the high efficiency cyclones are relatively small separation of particles from the air stream. The experiments show that certain fractions of full capture occurs from the cyclones and out relatively large particles. Designed dust device hubs. They capture dust particles with low specific density and smaller than 5–10 microns. Rational use of hubs is achieved in the aspiration systems high performance. They are placed in front of or between the filter and the cyclone filter. Hub much reduces the amount of dust-laden air directed onto a thin cleaning. This reduces energy consumption for manufacturing as a whole, as well as, due to a possible decrease in performance fine filters, reducing their initial cost, metal consumption, maintenance costs and reduce the area occupied by them.

Real-Time Monitoring and Fault Diagnosis of a Low Power Hub Motor Using Feedforward Neural Network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mehmet Şimşir

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Low power hub motors are widely used in electromechanical systems such as electrical bicycles and solar vehicles due to their robustness and compact structure. Such systems driven by hub motors (in wheel motors encounter previously defined and undefined faults under operation. It may inevitably lead to the interruption of the electromechanical system operation; hence, economic losses take place at certain times. Therefore, in order to maintain system operation sustainability, the motor should be precisely monitored and the faults are diagnosed considering various significant motor parameters. In this study, the artificial feedforward backpropagation neural network approach is proposed to real-time monitor and diagnose the faults of the hub motor by measuring seven main system parameters. So as to construct a necessary model, we trained the model, using a data set consisting of 4160 samples where each has 7 parameters, by the MATLAB environment until the best model is obtained. The results are encouraging and meaningful for the specific motor and the developed model may be applicable to other types of hub motors. The prosperous model of the whole system was embedded into Arduino Due microcontroller card and the mobile real-time monitoring and fault diagnosis system prototype for hub motor was designed and manufactured.

Dopant site location in dual-implanted GaP using (111) planar channeling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parikh, N.R.; Kao, C.T.; Lee, D.R.; Muse, J.; Swanson, M.L.; Venkatasubramanian, R.; Timmons, M.

1990-01-01

Previous studies have indicated that dual implantation can efficiently introduce group IV dopant onto selected sub-lattice sites in III--V compound semiconductors, thus enhancing electrical activation. The authors have studied this phenomenon in GaP using Rutherford Backscattering Spectroscopy (RBS) to determine the lattice location of Sn atoms. The authors used single crystals of GaP (100) which had been implanted at 400 degrees C with 120 Sn + following previously implanted 69 Ga + or 31 P + . Energies were selected for equivalent projected ranges, and all species were implanted with doses of 1 x 10 15 atoms/cm 2 . Asymmetry in the angular scan of the {111} planar channel was then used to determine the sub-lattice location of the implanted Sn. RBS results indicated that for all implants Sn atoms were substituting Ga and P sites equally. However, Hall effect measurements gave p type conduction for GaP implanted with Sn alone, while those with prior implants of Ga or P resulted in n-type conduction. RBS and Hall effect results are explained by a vacancy complex model

The influence of hubs in the structure of a neuronal network during an epileptic seizure

Science.gov (United States)

Rodrigues, Abner Cardoso; Cerdeira, Hilda A.; Machado, Birajara Soares

2016-02-01

In this work, we propose changes in the structure of a neuronal network with the intention to provoke strong synchronization to simulate episodes of epileptic seizure. Starting with a network of Izhikevich neurons we slowly increase the number of connections in selected nodes in a controlled way, to produce (or not) hubs. We study how these structures alter the synchronization on the spike firings interval, on individual neurons as well as on mean values, as a function of the concentration of connections for random and non-random (hubs) distribution. We also analyze how the post-ictal signal varies for the different distributions. We conclude that a network with hubs is more appropriate to represent an epileptic state.

On the resolution of ECG acquisition systems for the reliable analysis of the P-wave

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Censi, Federica; Calcagnini, Giovanni; Mattei, Eugenio; Triventi, Michele; Bartolini, Pietro; Corazza, Ivan; Boriani, Giuseppe

2012-01-01

The analysis of the P-wave on surface ECG is widely used to assess the risk of atrial arrhythmias. In order to provide reliable results, the automatic analysis of the P-wave must be precise and reliable and must take into account technical aspects, one of those being the resolution of the acquisition system. The aim of this note is to investigate the effects of the amplitude resolution of ECG acquisition systems on the P-wave analysis. Starting from ECG recorded by an acquisition system with a less significant bit (LSB) of 31 nV (24 bit on an input range of 524 mVpp), we reproduced an ECG signal as acquired by systems with lower resolution (16, 15, 14, 13 and 12 bit). We found that, when the LSB is of the order of 128 µV (12 bit), a single P-wave is not recognizable on ECG. However, when averaging is applied, a P-wave template can be extracted, apparently suitable for the P-wave analysis. Results obtained in terms of P-wave duration and morphology revealed that the analysis of ECG at lowest resolutions (from 12 to 14 bit, LSB higher than 30 µV) could lead to misleading results. However, the resolution used nowadays in modern electrocardiographs (15 and 16 bit, LSB <10 µV) is sufficient for the reliable analysis of the P-wave. (note)

Post-Travel Consultations in a Regional Hub City Hospital, Japan.

Science.gov (United States)

Yaita, Kenichiro; Sakai, Yoshiro; Iwahashi, Jun; Masunaga, Kenji; Hamada, Nobuyuki; Watanabe, Hiroshi

2016-01-01

To clarify the characteristics of post-travel consultation services in Japan, particularly in the provinces, we analyzed our post-travel patients in the travel clinic of Kurume University Hospital located in Kurume City (a regional hub City in southwestern Japan). Sixty post-travel patients visited our clinic between April 2008 and October 2014 and participated in this study: 55 were Japanese and five were foreign. We summarized and compared the characteristics of the patients after dividing the Japanese participants into long-term travelers (>14 days) and short-term travelers (≤14 days). The foreign travelers were described in a separate analysis. Of the 55 Japanese travelers, the mean age (± standard deviation) was 37.3 ± 16.3 years, and 36 patients (65%) were men. Southeast Asia was the major destination (30/55, 55%), and business was stated as the major reason for travel (16/55, 29%). Post-exposure rabies prophylaxis (16/55, 29%) was the most common purpose for the consultations. There were 34 participants (62%) who were classified as short-term travelers. Fewer of the short-term travelers stated receiving pre-travel consultations compared with long-term travelers (11% vs. 79%, p=0.0002). The five foreign travelers included one dengue fever patient and two malaria patients. Most post-travel Japanese patients visited our clinic were short-term travelers who had not received any pre-travel consultation. One of the most common complaints, post-exposure rabies prophylaxis, could have been avoided to some extent by appropriate pre-travel consultations. The results of this study suggest that pre-travel consultations should therefore be encouraged for both long- and short-term travelers.

Virtual Replication of IoT Hubs in the Cloud: A Flexible Approach to Smart Object Management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Simone Cirani

2018-03-01

Full Text Available In future years, the Internet of Things is expected to interconnect billions of highly heterogeneous devices, denoted as “smart objects”, enabling the development of innovative distributed applications. Smart objects are constrained sensor/actuator-equipped devices, in terms of computational power and available memory. In order to cope with the diverse physical connectivity technologies of smart objects, the Internet Protocol is foreseen as the common “language” for full interoperability and as a unifying factor for integration with the Internet. Large-scale platforms for interconnected devices are required to effectively manage resources provided by smart objects. In this work, we present a novel architecture for the management of large numbers of resources in a scalable, seamless, and secure way. The proposed architecture is based on a network element, denoted as IoT Hub, placed at the border of the constrained network, which implements the following functions: service discovery; border router; HTTP/Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP and CoAP/CoAP proxy; cache; and resource directory. In order to protect smart objects (which cannot, because of their constrained nature, serve a large number of concurrent requests and the IoT Hub (which serves as a gateway to the constrained network, we introduce the concept of virtual IoT Hub replica: a Cloud-based “entity” replicating all the functions of a physical IoT Hub, which external clients will query to access resources. IoT Hub replicas are constantly synchronized with the physical IoT Hub through a low-overhead protocol based on Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT. An experimental evaluation, proving the feasibility and advantages of the proposed architecture, is presented.

Optimal Scheduling of a Multi-Carrier Energy Hub Supplemented By Battery Energy Storage Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Javadi, Mohammad Sadegh; Anvari-Moghaddam, Amjad; Guerrero, Josep M.

2017-01-01

This paper introduces a management model for optimal scheduling of a multi-carrier energy hub. In the proposed hub, three types of assets are considered: dispersed generating systems (DGs) such as micro-combined heat and power (mCHP) units, storage devices such as battery-based electrical storage...... systems (ESSs), and heating/cooling devices such as electrical heater, heat-pumps and absorption chillers. The optimal scheduling and management of the examined energy hub assets in line with electrical transactions with distribution network is modeled as a mixed-integer non-linear optimization problem....... In this regard, optimal operating points of DG units as well as ESSs are calculated based on a cost-effective strategy. Degradation cost of ESSs is also taken into consideration for short-term scheduling. Simulation results demonstrate that including well-planned energy storage options together with optimal...

WHAT IS CONTROLLING THE FRAGMENTATION IN THE INFRARED DARK CLOUD G14.225–0.506?: DIFFERENT LEVELS OF FRAGMENTATION IN TWIN HUBS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Busquet, Gemma; Girart, Josep Miquel [Institut de Ciències de l’Espai (CSIC-IEEC), Campus UAB, Carrer de Can Magrans, S/N, E-08193, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Catalunya (Spain); Estalella, Robert [Departament d’Astronomia i Meteorologia, Institut de Ciències del Cosmos (ICC), Universitat de Barcelona (IEEC-UB), Martí i Franquès, 1, E-08028 Barcelona, Catalunya (Spain); Palau, Aina [Instituto de Radioastronomía y Astrofísica, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, P.O. Box 3-72, 58090 Morelia, Michoacán, México (Mexico); Liu, Hauyu Baobab; Ho, Paul T. P. [Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Taipei, Taiwan (China); Zhang, Qizhou [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); De Gregorio-Monsalvo, Itziar [European Southern Observatory (ESO), Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, D-85748 Garching (Germany); Pillai, Thushara [Max Planck Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, D-53121 Bonn (Germany); Anglada, Guillem, E-mail: busquet@ice.cat [Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, CSIC, Glorieta de la Astronomía, s/n, E-18008, Granada (Spain)

2016-03-20

We present observations of the 1.3 mm continuum emission toward hub-N and hub-S of the infrared dark cloud G14.225–0.506 carried out with the Submillimeter Array, together with observations of the dust emission at 870 and 350 μm obtained with APEX and CSO telescopes. The large-scale dust emission of both hubs consists of a single peaked clump elongated in the direction of the associated filament. At small scales, the SMA images reveal that both hubs fragment into several dust condensations. The fragmentation level was assessed under the same conditions and we found that hub-N presents 4 fragments while hub-S is more fragmented, with 13 fragments identified. We studied the density structure by means of a simultaneous fit of the radial intensity profile at 870 and 350 μm and the spectral energy distribution adopting a Plummer-like function to describe the density structure. The parameters inferred from the model are remarkably similar in both hubs, suggesting that density structure could not be responsible for determining the fragmentation level. We estimated several physical parameters, such as the level of turbulence and the magnetic field strength, and we found no significant differences between these hubs. The Jeans analysis indicates that the observed fragmentation is more consistent with thermal Jeans fragmentation compared with a scenario in which turbulent support is included. The lower fragmentation level observed in hub-N could be explained in terms of stronger UV radiation effects from a nearby H ii region, evolutionary effects, and/or stronger magnetic fields at small scales, a scenario that should be further investigated.

WHAT IS CONTROLLING THE FRAGMENTATION IN THE INFRARED DARK CLOUD G14.225–0.506?: DIFFERENT LEVELS OF FRAGMENTATION IN TWIN HUBS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Busquet, Gemma; Girart, Josep Miquel; Estalella, Robert; Palau, Aina; Liu, Hauyu Baobab; Ho, Paul T. P.; Zhang, Qizhou; De Gregorio-Monsalvo, Itziar; Pillai, Thushara; Anglada, Guillem

2016-01-01

We present observations of the 1.3 mm continuum emission toward hub-N and hub-S of the infrared dark cloud G14.225–0.506 carried out with the Submillimeter Array, together with observations of the dust emission at 870 and 350 μm obtained with APEX and CSO telescopes. The large-scale dust emission of both hubs consists of a single peaked clump elongated in the direction of the associated filament. At small scales, the SMA images reveal that both hubs fragment into several dust condensations. The fragmentation level was assessed under the same conditions and we found that hub-N presents 4 fragments while hub-S is more fragmented, with 13 fragments identified. We studied the density structure by means of a simultaneous fit of the radial intensity profile at 870 and 350 μm and the spectral energy distribution adopting a Plummer-like function to describe the density structure. The parameters inferred from the model are remarkably similar in both hubs, suggesting that density structure could not be responsible for determining the fragmentation level. We estimated several physical parameters, such as the level of turbulence and the magnetic field strength, and we found no significant differences between these hubs. The Jeans analysis indicates that the observed fragmentation is more consistent with thermal Jeans fragmentation compared with a scenario in which turbulent support is included. The lower fragmentation level observed in hub-N could be explained in terms of stronger UV radiation effects from a nearby H ii region, evolutionary effects, and/or stronger magnetic fields at small scales, a scenario that should be further investigated

Dynamically Allocated Hub in Task-Evoked Network Predicts the Vulnerable Prefrontal Locus for Contextual Memory Retrieval in Macaques.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Takahiro Osada

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Neuroimaging and neurophysiology have revealed that multiple areas in the prefrontal cortex (PFC are activated in a specific memory task, but severity of impairment after PFC lesions is largely different depending on which activated area is damaged. The critical relationship between lesion sites and impairments has not yet been given a clear mechanistic explanation. Although recent works proposed that a whole-brain network contains hubs that play integrative roles in cortical information processing, this framework relying on an anatomy-based structural network cannot account for the vulnerable locus for a specific task, lesioning of which would bring impairment. Here, we hypothesized that (i activated PFC areas dynamically form an ordered network centered at a task-specific "functional hub" and (ii the lesion-effective site corresponds to the "functional hub," but not to a task-invariant "structural hub." To test these hypotheses, we conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments in macaques performing a temporal contextual memory task. We found that the activated areas formed a hierarchical hub-centric network based on task-evoked directed connectivity, differently from the anatomical network reflecting axonal projection patterns. Using a novel simulated-lesion method based on support vector machine, we estimated severity of impairment after lesioning of each area, which accorded well with a known dissociation in contextual memory impairment in macaques (impairment after lesioning in area 9/46d, but not in area 8Ad. The predicted severity of impairment was proportional to the network "hubness" of the virtually lesioned area in the task-evoked directed connectivity network, rather than in the anatomical network known from tracer studies. Our results suggest that PFC areas dynamically and cooperatively shape a functional hub-centric network to reallocate the lesion-effective site depending on the cognitive processes, apart from

The East African Resilience Innovation Hub | CRDI - Centre de ...

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

The hub will explore several research streams to examine why interventions succeed or fail, and how individuals, communities, and states can cope with and overcome conflict and violence. Researchers will also look at how to support peacemaking processes and increase disaster prevention efforts. Their work will respond ...

Brokered virtual hubs for facilitating access and use of geospatial Open Data

Science.gov (United States)

Mazzetti, Paolo; Latre, Miguel; Kamali, Nargess; Brumana, Raffaella; Braumann, Stefan; Nativi, Stefano

2016-04-01

Open Data is a major trend in current information technology scenario and it is often publicised as one of the pillars of the information society in the near future. In particular, geospatial Open Data have a huge potential also for Earth Sciences, through the enablement of innovative applications and services integrating heterogeneous information. However, open does not mean usable. As it was recognized at the very beginning of the Web revolution, many different degrees of openness exist: from simple sharing in a proprietary format to advanced sharing in standard formats and including semantic information. Therefore, to fully unleash the potential of geospatial Open Data, advanced infrastructures are needed to increase the data openness degree, enhancing their usability. In October 2014, the ENERGIC OD (European NEtwork for Redistributing Geospatial Information to user Communities - Open Data) project, funded by the European Union under the Competitiveness and Innovation framework Programme (CIP), has started. In response to the EU call, the general objective of the project is to "facilitate the use of open (freely available) geographic data from different sources for the creation of innovative applications and services through the creation of Virtual Hubs". The ENERGIC OD Virtual Hubs aim to facilitate the use of geospatial Open Data by lowering and possibly removing the main barriers which hampers geo-information (GI) usage by end-users and application developers. Data and services heterogeneity is recognized as one of the major barriers to Open Data (re-)use. It imposes end-users and developers to spend a lot of effort in accessing different infrastructures and harmonizing datasets. Such heterogeneity cannot be completely removed through the adoption of standard specifications for service interfaces, metadata and data models, since different infrastructures adopt different standards to answer to specific challenges and to address specific use-cases. Thus

Abnormal intrinsic functional hubs in alcohol dependence: evidence from a voxelwise degree centrality analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luo X

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Xiaoping Luo,1,2 Linghong Guo,1 Xi-Jian Dai,3 Qinglai Wang,2 Wenzhong Zhu,2 Xinjun Miao,2 Honghan Gong1 1Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nangchang, Jiangxi, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Radiology, Wenzhou Chinese Medicine Hospital, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Medical Imaging, Jinling Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China Objective: To explore the abnormal intrinsic functional hubs in alcohol dependence using voxelwise degree centrality analysis approach, and their relationships with clinical features.Materials and methods: Twenty-four male alcohol dependence subjects free of medicine (mean age, 50.21±9.62 years and 24 age- and education-matched male healthy controls (mean age, 50.29±8.92 years were recruited. The alcohol use disorders identification test and the severity of alcohol dependence questionnaire (SADQ were administered to assess the severity of alcohol craving. Voxelwise degree centrality approach was used to assess the abnormal intrinsic functional hubs features in alcohol dependence. Simple linear regression analysis was performed to investigate the relationships between the clinical features and abnormal intrinsic functional hubs.Results: Compared with healthy controls, alcohol dependence subjects exhibited significantly different degree centrality values in widespread left lateralization brain areas, including higher degree centrality values in the left precentral gyrus (BA 6, right hippocampus (BA 35, 36, and left orbitofrontal cortex (BA 11 and lower degree centrality values in the left cerebellum posterior lobe, bilateral secondary visual network (BA 18, and left precuneus (BA 7, 19. SADQ revealed a negative linear correlation with the degree centrality value in the left precentral gyrus (R2=0.296, P=0.006.Conclusion: The specific abnormal intrinsic functional hubs appear

The Screening Test for Emotional Problems-Parent Report (STEP-P): Studies of Reliability and Validity

Science.gov (United States)

Erford, Bradley T.; Alsamadi, Silvana C.

2012-01-01

Score reliability and validity of parent responses concerning their 10- to 17-year-old students were analyzed using the Screening Test for Emotional Problems-Parent Report (STEP-P), which assesses a variety of emotional problems classified under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act. Score reliability, convergent, and…

Nonlinear model of a rotating hub-beams structure: Equations of motion

Science.gov (United States)

Warminski, Jerzy

2018-01-01

Dynamics of a rotating structure composed of a rigid hub and flexible beams is presented in the paper. A nonlinear model of a beam takes into account bending, extension and nonlinear curvature. The influence of geometric nonlinearity and nonconstant angular velocity on dynamics of the rotating structure is presented. The exact equations of motion and associated boundary conditions are derived on the basis of the Hamilton's principle. The simplification of the exact nonlinear mathematical model is proposed taking into account the second order approximation. The reduced partial differential equations of motion together with associated boundary conditions can be used to study natural or forced vibrations of a rotating structure considering constant or nonconstant angular speed of a rigid hub and an arbitrary number of flexible blades.

Automatic picker of P & S first arrivals and robust event locator

Science.gov (United States)

Pinsky, V.; Polozov, A.; Hofstetter, A.

2003-12-01

We report on further development of automatic all distances location procedure designed for a regional network. The procedure generalizes the previous "loca l" (R ratio of two STAs, calculated in two consecutive and equal time windows (instead of previously used Akike Information Criterion). "Teleseismic " location is split in two stages: preliminary and final one. The preliminary part estimates azimuth and apparent velocity by fitting a plane wave to the P automatic pickings. The apparent velocity criterion is used to decide about strategy of the following computations: teleseismic or regional. The preliminary estimates of azimuth and apparent velocity provide starting value for the final teleseismic and regional location. Apparent velocity is used to get first a pproximation distance to the source on the basis of the P, Pn, Pg travel-timetables. The distance estimate together with the preliminary azimuth estimate provides first approximations of the source latitude and longitude via sine and cosine theorems formulated for the spherical triangle. Final location is based on robust grid-search optimization procedure, weighting the number of pickings that simultaneously fit the model travel times. The grid covers initial location and becomes finer while approaching true hypocenter. The target function is a sum of the bell-shaped characteristic functions, used to emphasize true pickings and eliminate outliers. The final solution is a grid point that provides maximum to the target function. The procedure was applied to a list of ML > 4 earthquakes recorded by the Israel Seismic Network (ISN) in the 1999-2002 time period. Most of them are badly constrained relative the network. However, the results of location with average normalized error relative bulletin solutions e=dr/R of 5% were obtained, in each of the distance ranges. The first version of the procedure was incorporated in the national Early Warning System in 2001. Recently, we started to send automatic Early

Reliability of the seismic characteristics in the nuclear power plant location; Pouzdanost seizmickih karakteristika pri lociranju nuklearne elektrane

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Marsicanin, B [Institut za Nuklearne Nauke Boris Kidric, Belgrade (Yugoslavia)

1982-07-01

Seismic characteristics for a nuclear power plant location are partly obtained from the analysis of past earthquakes. Data from older history concern damages, the newer data are in the form of seismic records. These two sources are often had to correlate, and the data dissipation is very large. Therefore these, rather unreliable data are not a convenient base for the precise anti-seismic analysis. A redistribution of efforts in order to get more reliable basic data seems necessary. (author)

Lattice location of diffused Zn atoms in GaAs and InP single crystals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chan, L.Y.; Yu, K.M.; Ben-Tzur, M.; Haller, E.E.; Jaklevic, J.M.; Walukiewicz, W.; Hanson, C.M.

1991-01-01

We have investigated the saturation phenomenon of the free carrier concentration in p-type GaAs and InP single crystals doped by zinc diffusion. The free hole saturation occurs at 10 20 cm -3 for GaAs, but the maximum concentration for InP appears at mid 10 18 cm -3 . The difference in the saturation hole concentrations for these materials is investigated by studying the incorporation and the lattice location of the impurity zinc, an acceptor when located on a group III atom site. Zinc is diffused into the III-V wafers in a sealed quartz ampoule. Particle-induced x-ray emission with ion-channeling techniques are employed to determine the exact lattice location of the zinc atoms. We have found that over 90% of all zinc atoms occupy Ga sites in the diffused GaAs samples, while for the InP case, the zinc substitutionality is dependent on the cooling rate of the sample after high-temperature diffusion. For the slowly cooled sample, a large fraction (∼90%) of the zinc atoms form random precipitates of Zn 3 P 2 and elemental Zn. However, when rapidly cooled only 60% of the zinc forms such precipitates while the rest occupies specific sites in the InP. We analyze our results in terms of the amphoteric native defect model. We show that the difference in the electrical activity of the Zn atoms in GaAs and InP is a consequence of the different location of the Fermi level stabilization energy in these two materials

Electric wheel hub motor; Elektrischer Radnabenmotor

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Groeninger, Michael; Kock, Alexander [IFAM Bremen (Germany); Horch, Felix [IFAM Bremen (Germany). Komponentenentwicklung; Pleteit, Hermann [IFAM Bremen (Germany). Abt. Giessereitechnologie und Komponentenentwicklung

2012-02-15

The bundled competences of the participating Fraunhofer Institutes have made it possible to develop a wheel hub motor that has essentially overcome currently existing technical hurdles, enabling its use in a vehicle. In addition to direct technical challenges such as sealing against external influences, high bearing stiffness requirements, necessary high torque densities and simple integration in the chassis, the safety aspects required by modern vehicles were also taken into account. A drive system that guarantees safe driving states, even in the case of malfunction, was developed through the combination of recuperative braking with a classic mechanical braking system and redundant motor design. (orig.)

Using hub technology to facilitate information system integration in a health-care enterprise.

Science.gov (United States)

Gendler, S M; Friedman, B A; Henricks, W H

1996-04-01

The deployment and maintenance of multiple point-to-point interfaces between a clinical information system, such as a laboratory information system, and other systems within a healthcare enterprise is expensive and time consuming. Moreover, the demand for such interfaces is increasing as hospitals consolidate and clinical laboratories participate in the development of regional laboratory networks and create host-to-host links with laboratory outreach clients. An interface engine, also called a hub, is an evolving technology that could replace multiple point-to-point interfaces from a laboratory information system with a single interface to the hub, preferably HL7 based. The hub then routes and translates laboratory information to other systems within the enterprise. Changes in application systems in an enterprise where a centralized interface engine has been implemented then amount to thorough analysis, an update of the enterprise's data dictionary, purchase of a single new vendor-supported interface, and table-based parameter changes on the hub. Two other features of an interface engine, support for structured query language and information store-and-forward, will facilitate the development of clinical data repositories and provide flexibility when interacting with other host systems. This article describes the advantages and disadvantages of an interface engine and lists some problems not solved by the technology. Finally, early developmental experience with an interface engine at the University of Michigan Medical Center and the benefits of the project on system integration efforts are described, not the least of which has been the enthusiastic adoption of the HL7 standard for all future interface projects.

Spectral Analysis of the Wake behind a Helicopter Rotor Hub

Science.gov (United States)

Petrin, Christopher; Reich, David; Schmitz, Sven; Elbing, Brian

2016-11-01

A scaled model of a notional helicopter rotor hub was tested in the 48" Garfield Thomas Water Tunnel at the Applied Research Laboratory Penn State. LDV and PIV measurements in the far-wake consistently showed a six-per-revolution flow structure, in addition to stronger two- and four-per-revolution structures. These six-per-revolution structures persisted into the far-field, and have no direct geometric counterpart on the hub model. The current study will examine the Reynolds number dependence of these structures and present higher-order statistics of the turbulence within the wake. In addition, current activity using the EFPL Large Water Tunnel at Oklahoma State University will be presented. This effort uses a more canonical configuration to identify the source for these six-per-revolution structures, which are assumed to be a non-linear interaction between the two- and four-per-revolution structures.

Finding Influential Spreaders from Human Activity beyond Network Location.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Byungjoon Min

Full Text Available Most centralities proposed for identifying influential spreaders on social networks to either spread a message or to stop an epidemic require the full topological information of the network on which spreading occurs. In practice, however, collecting all connections between agents in social networks can be hardly achieved. As a result, such metrics could be difficult to apply to real social networks. Consequently, a new approach for identifying influential people without the explicit network information is demanded in order to provide an efficient immunization or spreading strategy, in a practical sense. In this study, we seek a possible way for finding influential spreaders by using the social mechanisms of how social connections are formed in real networks. We find that a reliable immunization scheme can be achieved by asking people how they interact with each other. From these surveys we find that the probabilistic tendency to connect to a hub has the strongest predictive power for influential spreaders among tested social mechanisms. Our observation also suggests that people who connect different communities is more likely to be an influential spreader when a network has a strong modular structure. Our finding implies that not only the effect of network location but also the behavior of individuals is important to design optimal immunization or spreading schemes.

On the interconnection of stable protein complexes: inter-complex hubs and their conservation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Homo sapiens networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Guerra, Concettina

2015-01-01

Protein complexes are key molecular entities that perform a variety of essential cellular functions. The connectivity of proteins within a complex has been widely investigated with both experimental and computational techniques. We developed a computational approach to identify and characterise proteins that play a role in interconnecting complexes. We computed a measure of inter-complex centrality, the crossroad index, based on disjoint paths connecting proteins in distinct complexes and identified inter-complex hubs as proteins with a high value of the crossroad index. We applied the approach to a set of stable complexes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and in Homo sapiens. Just as done for hubs, we evaluated the topological and biological properties of inter-complex hubs addressing the following questions. Do inter-complex hubs tend to be evolutionary conserved? What is the relation between crossroad index and essentiality? We found a good correlation between inter-complex hubs and both evolutionary conservation and essentiality.

Pharyngeal pH alone is not reliable for the detection of pharyngeal reflux events: A study with oesophageal and pharyngeal pH-impedance monitoring

Science.gov (United States)

Desjardin, Marie; Roman, Sabine; des Varannes, Stanislas Bruley; Gourcerol, Guillaume; Coffin, Benoit; Ropert, Alain; Mion, François

2013-01-01

Background Pharyngeal pH probes and pH-impedance catheters have been developed for the diagnosis of laryngo-pharyngeal reflux. Objective To determine the reliability of pharyngeal pH alone for the detection of pharyngeal reflux events. Methods 24-h pH-impedance recordings performed in 45 healthy subjects with a bifurcated probe for detection of pharyngeal and oesophageal reflux events were reviewed. Pharyngeal pH drops to below 4 and 5 were analysed for the simultaneous occurrence of pharyngeal reflux, gastro-oesophageal reflux, and swallows, according to impedance patterns. Results Only 7.0% of pharyngeal pH drops to below 5 identified with impedance corresponded to pharyngeal reflux, while 92.6% were related to swallows and 10.2 and 13.3% were associated with proximal and distal gastro-oesophageal reflux events, respectively. Of pharyngeal pH drops to below 4, 13.2% were related to pharyngeal reflux, 87.5% were related to swallows, and 18.1 and 21.5% were associated with proximal and distal gastro-oesophageal reflux events, respectively. Conclusions This study demonstrates that pharyngeal pH alone is not reliable for the detection of pharyngeal reflux and that adding distal oesophageal pH analysis is not helpful. The only reliable analysis should take into account impedance patterns demonstrating the presence of pharyngeal reflux event preceded by a distal and proximal reflux event within the oesophagus. PMID:24917995

Modelling energy demand for a fleet of hydrogen-electric vehicles interacting with a clean energy hub

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Syed, F.; Fowler, M.; Wan, D.; Maniyali, Y.

2009-01-01

This paper details the development of an energy demand model for a hydrogen-electric vehicle fleet and the modelling of the fleet interactions with a clean energy hub. The approach taken is to model the architecture and daily operation of every individual vehicle in the fleet. A generic architecture was developed based on understanding gained from existing detailed models used in vehicle powertrain design, with daily operation divided into two periods: charging and travelling. During the charging period, the vehicle charges its Electricity Storage System (ESS) and refills its Hydrogen Storage System (HSS), and during the travelling period, the vehicle depletes the ESS and HSS based on distance travelled. Daily travel distance is generated by a stochastic model and is considered an input to the fleet model. The modelling of a clean energy hub is also presented. The clean energy hub functions as an interface between electricity supply and the energy demand (i.e. hydrogen and electricity) of the vehicle fleet. Finally, a sample case is presented to demonstrate the use of the fleet model and its implications on clean energy hub sizing. (author)

Design and Analysis of a Novel Speed-Changing Wheel Hub with an Integrated Electric Motor for Electric Bicycles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yi-Chang Wu

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to present an innovative electromechanical device which integrates a brushless DC (BLDC hub motor with a speed-changing wheel hub stored on the rear wheel of an electric bicycle. It combines a power source and a speed-changing mechanism to simultaneously provide functions of power generation and transmission for electric bicycles. As part of the proposed integrated device, the wheel hub consists of a basic planetary gear train providing three forward speeds including a low-speed gear, a direct drive, and a high-speed gear. Each gear is manually controlled by the shift control sleeve to selectively engage or disengage four pawl-and-ratchet clutches based on its clutching sequence table. The number of gear teeth of each gear element of the wheel hub is synthesized. The BLDC hub motor is an exterior-rotor-type permanent-magnet synchronous motor. Two-dimensional finite-element analysis (FEA software is employed to facilitate the motor design and performance analysis. An analysis of the power transmission path at each gear is provided to verify the validity of the proposed design. The results of this work are beneficial to the embodiment, design, and development of novel electromechanical devices for the power and transmission systems of electric bicycles.

A framework for creating an ICT knowledge hub in Zimbabwe: A holistic approach in fostering economic growth

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gilbert Mahlangu

2018-01-01

Full Text Available ICT knowledge hubs are important resources for a country to grow towards an innovative economy. Their growth has been viewed as a node point for techno-prenuership development and economic sustainability by many countries. The purpose of this study was to establish how Zimbabwe as a developing country should move towards the creation of an ICT knowledge hub that will promote economic growth in line with the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZimAsset economic blueprint crafted in 2013. A qualitative research design was used whereby literature was conducted to establish models for ICT Knowledge hub creation while two focus group discussions were held with academia, research agents and software developers to achieve face validity and in-depth interviews were held with officials from The Ministry of ICT Postal and Courier services. The consensus was reached on the need for creating a focal point which will act as a cyber-port where ICT driven solutions can be obtained based on the industry needs. The focus group discussions settled for four components in creating an ICT knowledge hub. These are planning function, development function, management function and co-ordinating function. The research also established that the Ministry of ICT and Courier services in Zimbabwe has set up an innovation fund to encourage and reward innovation and craftsmanship in Zimbabwe mainly targeted at the youths. The government acquired the high-performance computing facility which is stationed at the University of Zimbabwe. The ICT hub should be used to facilitate access and use of this resource. Every country should therefore strive to create its own centre of innovation which enables it to gain maximum utility from its indigenous people in order to fully utilise ICTs for industry development and spearhead economic growth. The study recommends that there is need for establishing an ICT Knowledge hub in the country.

Channel Bonding in Linux Ethernet Environment using Regular Switching Hub

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chih-wen Hsueh

2004-06-01

Full Text Available Bandwidth plays an important role for quality of service in most network systems. There are many technologies developed to increase host bandwidth in a LAN environment. Most of them need special hardware support, such as switching hub that supports IEEE Link Aggregation standard. In this paper, we propose a Linux solution to increase the bandwidth between hosts with multiple network adapters connected to a regular switching hub. The approach is implemented as two Linux kernel modules in a LAN environment without modification to the hardware and operating systems on host machines. Packets are dispatched to bonding network adapters for transmission. The proposed approach is backward compatible, flexible and transparent to users and only one IP address is needed for multiple bonding network adapters. Evaluation experiments in TCP and UDP transmission are shown with bandwidth gain proportionally to the number of network adapters. It is suitable for large-scale LAN systems with high bandwidth requirement, such as clustering systems.

Managing the cellular redox hub in photosynthetic organisms.

Science.gov (United States)

Foyer, Christine H; Noctor, Graham

2012-02-01

Light-driven redox chemistry is a powerful source of redox signals that has a decisive input into transcriptional control within the cell nucleus. Like photosynthetic electron transport pathways, the respiratory electron transport chain exerts a profound control over gene function, in order to balance energy (reductant and ATP) supply with demand, while preventing excessive over-reduction or over-oxidation that would be adversely affect metabolism. Photosynthetic and respiratory redox chemistries are not merely housekeeping processes but they exert a controlling influence over every aspect of plant biology, participating in the control of gene transcription and translation, post-translational modifications and the regulation of assimilatory reactions, assimilate partitioning and export. The number of processes influenced by redox controls and signals continues to increase as do the components that are recognized participants in the associated signalling pathways. A step change in our understanding of the overall importance of the cellular redox hub to plant cells has occurred in recent years as the complexity of the management of the cellular redox hub in relation to metabolic triggers and environmental cues has been elucidated. This special issue describes aspects of redox regulation and signalling at the cutting edge of current research in this dynamic and rapidly expanding field. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

P-MartCancer–Interactive Online Software to Enable Analysis of Shotgun Cancer Proteomic Datasets

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Webb-Robertson, Bobbie-Jo M.; Bramer, Lisa M.; Jensen, Jeffrey L.; Kobold, Markus A.; Stratton, Kelly G.; White, Amanda M.; Rodland, Karin D.

2017-10-31

P-MartCancer is a new interactive web-based software environment that enables biomedical and biological scientists to perform in-depth analyses of global proteomics data without requiring direct interaction with the data or with statistical software. P-MartCancer offers a series of statistical modules associated with quality assessment, peptide and protein statistics, protein quantification and exploratory data analyses driven by the user via customized workflows and interactive visualization. Currently, P-MartCancer offers access to multiple cancer proteomic datasets generated through the Clinical Proteomics Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC) at the peptide, gene and protein levels. P-MartCancer is deployed using Azure technologies (http://pmart.labworks.org/cptac.html), the web-service is alternatively available via Docker Hub (https://hub.docker.com/r/pnnl/pmart-web/) and many statistical functions can be utilized directly from an R package available on GitHub (https://github.com/pmartR).

Advancing nanoelectronic device modeling through peta-scale computing and deployment on nanoHUB

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haley, Benjamin P; Luisier, Mathieu; Klimeck, Gerhard; Lee, Sunhee; Ryu, Hoon; Bae, Hansang; Saied, Faisal; Clark, Steve

2009-01-01

Recent improvements to existing HPC codes NEMO 3-D and OMEN, combined with access to peta-scale computing resources, have enabled realistic device engineering simulations that were previously infeasible. NEMO 3-D can now simulate 1 billion atom systems, and, using 3D spatial decomposition, scale to 32768 cores. Simulation time for the band structure of an experimental P doped Si quantum computing device fell from 40 minutes to 1 minute. OMEN can perform fully quantum mechanical transport calculations for real-word UTB FETs on 147,456 cores in roughly 5 minutes. Both of these tools power simulation engines on the nanoHUB, giving the community access to previously unavailable research capabilities.

Deconstructing Hub Drag. Part 2. Computational Development and Anaysis

Science.gov (United States)

2013-09-30

leveraged a Vertical Lift Consortium ( VLC )-funded hub drag scaling research effort. To confirm this objective, correlations are performed with the...Technology™ Demonstrator aircraft using an unstructured computational solver. These simpler faired elliptical geome- tries can prove to be challenging ...possible. However, additional funding was obtained from the Vertical Lift Consortium ( VLC ) to perform this study. This analysis is documented in

Human factors related to time-dependent infection control measures: "Scrub the hub" for venous catheters and feeding tubes.

Science.gov (United States)

Caspari, Lindsay; Epstein, Elizabeth; Blackman, Amy; Jin, Li; Kaufman, David A

2017-06-01

The use of catheter hub decontamination protocols is a common practice to reduce central line-associated bloodstream infections. However, few data exist on the most effective disinfection procedure prior to hub access accounting for human factors and time-dependent practices in real time in the clinical setting. An observational design with a multimodal intervention was used in this study in a neonatal intensive care unit. Direct observations on nurse compliance of scrub times with decontamination when accessing of venous catheter and feeding tube hubs were conducted during 3 phases: (1) baseline period prior to any interventions; (2) during an educational intervention phase; and (3) during a timer intervention period when using a timing device, either an actual timer or music button. Overall, both education and the timing device interventions increased the mean scrub time ± SD of venous catheter hubs. Mean baseline scrub times of 10 ± 5 seconds were lower compared with 23 ± 12 seconds after educational intervention (P music button use (P observed with scrub times of feeding tubes. Time-based infection control measures, such as scrubbing the hub, must be implemented with aids that qualify specific times to account for human factors, to ensure adherence to time-dependent measures aimed at decreasing nosocomial infections. Copyright © 2017 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cortical hubs form a module for multisensory integration on top of the hierarchy of cortical networks

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Gorka Zamora-López

2010-03-01

Full Text Available Sensory stimuli entering the nervous system follow particular paths of processing, typically separated (segregated from the paths of other modal information. However, sensory perception, awareness and cognition emerge from the combination of information (integration. The corticocortical networks of cats and macaque monkeys display three prominent characteristics: (i modular organisation (facilitating the segregation, (ii abundant alternative processing paths and (iii the presence of highly connected hubs. Here, we study in detail the organisation and potential function of the cortical hubs by graph analysis and information theoretical methods. We find that the cortical hubs form a spatially delocalised, but topologically central module with the capacity to integrate multisensory information in a collaborative manner. With this, we resolve the underlying anatomical substrate that supports the simultaneous capacity of the cortex to segregate and to integrate multisensory information.

SHMF: Interest Prediction Model with Social Hub Matrix Factorization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chaoyuan Cui

2017-01-01

Full Text Available With the development of social networks, microblog has become the major social communication tool. There is a lot of valuable information such as personal preference, public opinion, and marketing in microblog. Consequently, research on user interest prediction in microblog has a positive practical significance. In fact, how to extract information associated with user interest orientation from the constantly updated blog posts is not so easy. Existing prediction approaches based on probabilistic factor analysis use blog posts published by user to predict user interest. However, these methods are not very effective for the users who post less but browse more. In this paper, we propose a new prediction model, which is called SHMF, using social hub matrix factorization. SHMF constructs the interest prediction model by combining the information of blogs posts published by both user and direct neighbors in user’s social hub. Our proposed model predicts user interest by integrating user’s historical behavior and temporal factor as well as user’s friendships, thus achieving accurate forecasts of user’s future interests. The experimental results on Sina Weibo show the efficiency and effectiveness of our proposed model.

Dimensional consistency achieved in high-performance synchronizing hubs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Garcia, P.; Campos, M.; Torralba, M.

2013-01-01

The tolerances of parts produced for the automotive industry are so tight that any small process variation may mean that the product does not fulfill them. As dimensional tolerances decrease, the material properties of parts are expected to be improved. Depending on the dimensional and material requirements of a part, different production routes are available to find robust processes, minimizing cost and maximizing process capability. Dimensional tolerances have been reduced in recent years, and as a result, the double pressing-double sintering production via ( 2 P2S ) has again become an accurate way to meet these increasingly narrow tolerances. In this paper, it is shown that the process parameters of the first sintering have great influence on the following production steps and the dimensions of the final parts. The roles of factors other than density and the second sintering process in defining the final dimensions of product are probed. All trials were done in a production line that produces synchronizer hubs for manual transmissions, allowing the maintenance of stable conditions and control of those parameters that are relevant for the product and process. (Author) 21 refs.

The WaterHub at Emory University: Campus Resiliency through Decentralized Reuse.

Science.gov (United States)

Allison, Daniel; Lohan, Eric; Baldwin, Tim

2018-02-01

  In the spring of 2015, Emory University in Atlanta, GA, commissioned an innovative campuswide water reclamation and reuse system known as the WaterHub®. Treating up to 400,000 gallons each day, the system can recycle the equivalent of two-thirds of the University's wastewater production and reduce the campus water footprint by up to 40 percent.One of the first district-scale water reuse systems in North America, the WaterHub mines wastewater from the campus sewer system and repurposes it for beneficial reuse on campus. In its first year of operation, the facility has treated more than 80 million gallons of campus wastewater and is expected to save millions of dollars in utility costs for the University over the next 20 years. The system represents a new age in commercial-scale water management in which onsite, urban water reclamation facilities may be a new norm.

Giant hub Src and Syk tyrosine kinase thermodynamic profiles recapitulate evolution

Science.gov (United States)

Phillips, J. C.

2017-10-01

Thermodynamic scaling theory, previously applied mainly to small proteins, here analyzes quantitative evolution of the titled functional network giant hub enzymes. The broad domain structure identified homologically is confirmed hydropathically using amino acid sequences only. The most surprising results concern the evolution of the tyrosine kinase globular surface roughness from avians to mammals, which is first order, compared to the evolution within mammals from rodents to humans, which is second order. The mystery of the unique amide terminal region of proto oncogene tyrosine protein kinase is resolved by the discovery there of a rare hydroneutral septad targeting cluster, which is paralleled by an equally rare octad catalytic cluster in tyrosine kinase in humans and a few other species (cat and dog). These results, which go far towards explaining why these proteins are among the largest giant hubs in protein interaction networks, use no adjustable parameters.

Electrical hubs: An effective way to integrate non-dispatchable renewable energy sources with minimum impact to the grid

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Perera, A.T.D.; Nik, Vahid M.; Mauree, Dasaraden; Scartezzini, Jean-Louis

2017-01-01

Highlights: • A novel method introduced to optimize Electrical Hubs. • Novel dispatch based on fuzzy control and finite state machines. • Evaluating sensitivity of three performance indices for system autonomy. • Multi objective optimization considering system autonomy-cost. • Electrical Hubs can cover above 60% of the demand using wind and Solar PV. - Abstract: A paradigm change in energy system design tools, energy market, and energy policy is required to attain the target levels in renewable energy integration and in minimizing pollutant emissions in power generation. Integrating non-dispatchable renewable energy sources such as solar and wind energy is vital in this context. Distributed generation has been identified as a promising method to integrate Solar PV (SPV) and wind energy into grid in recent literature. Distributed generation using grid-tied electrical hubs, which consist of Internal Combustion Generator (ICG), non-dispatchable energy sources (i.e., wind turbines and SPV panels) and energy storage for providing the electricity demand in Sri Lanka is considered in this study. A novel dispatch strategy is introduced to address the limitations in the existing methods in optimizing grid-integrated electrical hubs considering real time pricing of the electricity grid and curtailments in grid integration. Multi-objective optimization is conducted for the system design considering grid integration level and Levelized Energy Cost (LEC) as objective functions to evaluate the potential of electrical hubs to integrate SPV and wind energy. The sensitivity of grid curtailments, energy market, price of wind turbines and SPV panels on Pareto front is evaluated subsequently. Results from the Pareto analysis demonstrate the potential of electrical hubs to cover more than 60% of the annual electricity demand from SPV and wind energy considering stringent grid curtailments. Such a share from SPV and wind energy is quite significant when compared to direct grid

CER Hub: An informatics platform for conducting comparative effectiveness research using multi-institutional, heterogeneous, electronic clinical data.

Science.gov (United States)

Hazlehurst, Brian L; Kurtz, Stephen E; Masica, Andrew; Stevens, Victor J; McBurnie, Mary Ann; Puro, Jon E; Vijayadeva, Vinutha; Au, David H; Brannon, Elissa D; Sittig, Dean F

2015-10-01

Comparative effectiveness research (CER) requires the capture and analysis of data from disparate sources, often from a variety of institutions with diverse electronic health record (EHR) implementations. In this paper we describe the CER Hub, a web-based informatics platform for developing and conducting research studies that combine comprehensive electronic clinical data from multiple health care organizations. The CER Hub platform implements a data processing pipeline that employs informatics standards for data representation and web-based tools for developing study-specific data processing applications, providing standardized access to the patient-centric electronic health record (EHR) across organizations. The CER Hub is being used to conduct two CER studies utilizing data from six geographically distributed and demographically diverse health systems. These foundational studies address the effectiveness of medications for controlling asthma and the effectiveness of smoking cessation services delivered in primary care. The CER Hub includes four key capabilities: the ability to process and analyze both free-text and coded clinical data in the EHR; a data processing environment supported by distributed data and study governance processes; a clinical data-interchange format for facilitating standardized extraction of clinical data from EHRs; and a library of shareable clinical data processing applications. CER requires coordinated and scalable methods for extracting, aggregating, and analyzing complex, multi-institutional clinical data. By offering a range of informatics tools integrated into a framework for conducting studies using EHR data, the CER Hub provides a solution to the challenges of multi-institutional research using electronic medical record data. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Changed hub and corresponding functional connectivity of subgenual anterior cingulate cortex in major depressive disorder

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Huawang Wu

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Major depressive disorder (MDD is one of the most prevalent mental disorders. In the brain, the hubs of the brain network play a key role in integrating and transferring information between different functional modules. However, whether the changed pattern in functional network hubs contributes to the onset of MDD remains unclear. Using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and graph theory methods, we investigated whether alterations of hubs can be detected in MDD. First, we constructed the whole-brain voxel-wise functional networks and calculated a functional connectivity strength (FCS map in each subject in 34 MDD patients and 34 gender-, age-, and education level-matched healthy controls (HC. Next, the two-sample t-test was applied to compare the FCS maps between HC and MDD patients and identified significant decreased FCS in subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC in MDD patients. Subsequent functional connectivity analyses of sgACC showed disruptions in functional connectivity with posterior insula, middle and inferior temporal gyrus, lingual gyrus, and cerebellum in MDD patients. Furthermore, the changed FCS of sgACC and functional connections to sgACC were significantly correlated with the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS scores in MDD patients. The results of the present study revealed the abnormal hub of sgACC and its corresponding disrupted frontal-limbic-visual cognitive-cerebellum functional networks in MDD. These findings may provide a new insight for the diagnosis and treatment of MDD.

Using the CER Hub to ensure data quality in a multi-institution smoking cessation study.

Science.gov (United States)

Walker, Kari L; Kirillova, Olga; Gillespie, Suzanne E; Hsiao, David; Pishchalenko, Valentyna; Pai, Akshatha Kalsanka; Puro, Jon E; Plumley, Robert; Kudyakov, Rustam; Hu, Weiming; Allisany, Art; McBurnie, MaryAnn; Kurtz, Stephen E; Hazlehurst, Brian L

2014-01-01

Comparative effectiveness research (CER) studies involving multiple institutions with diverse electronic health records (EHRs) depend on high quality data. To ensure uniformity of data derived from different EHR systems and implementations, the CER Hub informatics platform developed a quality assurance (QA) process using tools and data formats available through the CER Hub. The QA process, implemented here in a study of smoking cessation services in primary care, used the 'emrAdapter' tool programmed with a set of quality checks to query large samples of primary care encounter records extracted in accord with the CER Hub common data framework. The tool, deployed to each study site, generated error reports indicating data problems to be fixed locally and aggregate data sharable with the central site for quality review. Across the CER Hub network of six health systems, data completeness and correctness issues were prevalent in the first iteration and were considerably improved after three iterations of the QA process. A common issue encountered was incomplete mapping of local EHR data values to those defined by the common data framework. A highly automated and distributed QA process helped to ensure the correctness and completeness of patient care data extracted from EHRs for a multi-institution CER study in smoking cessation. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Measuring Outcomes for Dysphagia: Validity and Reliability of the European Portuguese Eating Assessment Tool (P-EAT-10).

Science.gov (United States)

Nogueira, Dália Santos; Ferreira, Pedro Lopes; Reis, Elizabeth Azevedo; Lopes, Inês Sousa

2015-10-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the validity and the reliability of the European Portuguese version of the EAT-10 (P-EAT-10). This research was conducted in three phases: (i) cultural and linguistic adaptation; (ii) feasibility and reliability test; and (iii) validity tests. The final sample was formed by a cohort of 520 subjects. The P-EAT-10 index was compared for socio-demographic and clinic variables. It was also compared for both dysphagic and non-dysphagic groups as well as for the results of the 3Oz wst. Lastly, the P-EAT-10 scores were correlated with the EuroQol Group Portuguese EQ-5D index. The Cronbach's α obtained for the P-EAT-10 scale was 0.952 and it remained excellent even if any item was deleted. The item-total and the intraclass correlation coefficients were very good. The P-EAT-10 mean of the non-dysphagic cohort was 0.56 and that of the dysphagic cohort was 14.26, the mean comparison between the 3Oz wst groups and the P-EAT-10 scores were significant. A significant higher perception of QoL was also found among the non-dysphagic subjects. P-EAT-10 is a valid and reliable measure that may be used to document dysphagia which makes it useful both for screening in clinical practice and in research.

From hub proteins to hub modules: the relationship between essentiality and centrality in the yeast interactome at different scales of organization.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jimin Song

Full Text Available Numerous studies have suggested that hub proteins in the S. cerevisiae physical interaction network are more likely to be essential than other proteins. The proposed reasons underlying this observed relationship between topology and functioning have been subject to some controversy, with recent work suggesting that it arises due to the participation of hub proteins in essential complexes and processes. However, do these essential modules themselves have distinct network characteristics, and how do their essential proteins differ in their topological properties from their non-essential proteins? We aimed to advance our understanding of protein essentiality by analyzing proteins, complexes and processes within their broader functional context and by considering physical interactions both within and across complexes and biological processes. In agreement with the view that essentiality is a modular property, we found that the number of intracomplex or intraprocess interactions that a protein has is a better indicator of its essentiality than its overall number of interactions. Moreover, we found that within an essential complex, its essential proteins have on average more interactions, especially intracomplex interactions, than its non-essential proteins. Finally, we built a module-level interaction network and found that essential complexes and processes tend to have higher interaction degrees in this network than non-essential complexes and processes; that is, they exhibit a larger amount of functional cross-talk than their non-essential counterparts.

From “Comprehensive Transportation Hub” to “City New Sitting Room”---Overall the design about Jinan East district comprehensive transportation hub

Science.gov (United States)

Lv, Jie; Guo, Jianmin; Li, Jin

2017-08-01

integrated transport hub or high-speed rail station often talked about, often known as the “city portal” and the title of “city window”, so the comprehensive transportation hub or the high-speed rail station of a city is very important to a region or a provincial. At the same time, it reflects that the managers and users of a city only focus on the comprehensive transportation hub of transportation service function and ignore her cities attributes and functions. Jinan east district comprehensive transportation hub in the beginning of design is given a feature that it has to serve both the traffic and city. We are trying to build a new center for Jinan east new town, the window to welcome people, the city hall of hospitality.

National Geothermal Data System Hub Deployment Timeline (Appendix E-1-d)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Caudill, Christy [Executive Office of the State of Arizona (Arizona Geological Survey)

2015-12-20

Excel spreadsheet describing activity, spending, and development for the four data hubs (Arizona Geoloical Survey, Kentucky Geological Survey, Illinois Geological Survey, and Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology) serving data for the National Geothermal Data System under the State Contributions to the National Geothermal Data System Project.

Reliability Approach of a Compressor System using Reliability Block ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

pc

2018-03-05

Mar 5, 2018 ... This paper presents a reliability analysis of such a system using reliability ... Keywords-compressor system, reliability, reliability block diagram, RBD .... the same structure has been kept with the three subsystems: air flow, oil flow and .... and Safety in Engineering Design", Springer, 2009. [3] P. O'Connor ...

Analysis of 2D Torus and Hub Topologies of 100Mb/s Ethernet for the Whitney Commodity Computing Testbed

Science.gov (United States)

Pedretti, Kevin T.; Fineberg, Samuel A.; Kutler, Paul (Technical Monitor)

1997-01-01

A variety of different network technologies and topologies are currently being evaluated as part of the Whitney Project. This paper reports on the implementation and performance of a Fast Ethernet network configured in a 4x4 2D torus topology in a testbed cluster of 'commodity' Pentium Pro PCs. Several benchmarks were used for performance evaluation: an MPI point to point message passing benchmark, an MPI collective communication benchmark, and the NAS Parallel Benchmarks version 2.2 (NPB2). Our results show that for point to point communication on an unloaded network, the hub and 1 hop routes on the torus have about the same bandwidth and latency. However, the bandwidth decreases and the latency increases on the torus for each additional route hop. Collective communication benchmarks show that the torus provides roughly four times more aggregate bandwidth and eight times faster MPI barrier synchronizations than a hub based network for 16 processor systems. Finally, the SOAPBOX benchmarks, which simulate real-world CFD applications, generally demonstrated substantially better performance on the torus than on the hub. In the few cases the hub was faster, the difference was negligible. In total, our experimental results lead to the conclusion that for Fast Ethernet networks, the torus topology has better performance and scales better than a hub based network.

Evaluating a European knowledge hub on climate change in agriculture: Are we building a better connected community?

Science.gov (United States)

Saetnan, Eli Rudinow; Kipling, Richard Philip

In order to maintain food security and sustainability of production under climate change, interdisciplinary and international collaboration in research is essential. In the EU, knowledge hubs are important funding instruments for the development of an interconnected European Research Area. Here, network analysis was used to assess whether the pilot knowledge hub MACSUR has affected interdisciplinary collaboration, using co-authorship of peer reviewed articles as a measure of collaboration. The broad community of all authors identified as active in the field of agriculture and climate change was increasingly well connected over the period studied. Between knowledge hub members, changes in network parameters suggest an increase in collaborative interaction beyond that expected due to network growth, and greater than that found in the broader community. Given that interdisciplinary networks often take several years to have an impact on research outputs, these changes within the relatively new MACSUR community provide evidence that the knowledge hub structure has been effective in stimulating collaboration. However, analysis showed that knowledge hub partners were initially well-connected, suggesting that the initiative may have gathered together researchers with particular resources or inclinations towards collaborative working. Long term, consistent funding and ongoing reflection to improve networking structures may be necessary to sustain the early positive signs from MACSUR, to extend its success to a wider community of researchers, or to repeat it in less connected fields of science. Tackling complex challenges such as climate change will require research structures that can effectively support and utilise the diversity of talents beyond the already well-connected core of scientists at major research institutes. But network research shows that this core, well-connected group are vital brokers in achieving wider integration.

Virtual Campus Hub: A single sign-on system for cross-border collaboration

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Badger, Merete; Vercoulen, F.; Monaco, L.

2013-01-01

laboratory exercises, examination tools, courses, collaboration tools, and tools to support the incubation of new small or medium size enterprises (SMEs). All of the applications serve as use cases for the demonstration of how the technology behind Virtual Campus Hub works. They can be accessed via...... in connection with joint educational programs and courses. These experiences are gained through a series of virtual events where users from the partners are invited to test each other’s applications. So far, testing of remote laboratory exercises, examination tools and an online course in wind energy has shown......Four technical universities in Europe work together in the EU-funded project Virtual Campus Hub (FP7 RI-283746, www.virtualcampushub.eu) to lower the technical barriers for cross-border collaboration. Universities have many connections to the outside world (e.g. to other universities, to joint...

Control networks and hubs.

Science.gov (United States)

Gratton, Caterina; Sun, Haoxin; Petersen, Steven E

2018-03-01

Executive control functions are associated with frontal, parietal, cingulate, and insular brain regions that interact through distributed large-scale networks. Here, we discuss how fMRI functional connectivity can shed light on the organization of control networks and how they interact with other parts of the brain. In the first section of our review, we present convergent evidence from fMRI functional connectivity, activation, and lesion studies that there are multiple dissociable control networks in the brain with distinct functional properties. In the second section, we discuss how graph theoretical concepts can help illuminate the mechanisms by which control networks interact with other brain regions to carry out goal-directed functions, focusing on the role of specialized hub regions for mediating cross-network interactions. Again, we use a combination of functional connectivity, lesion, and task activation studies to bolster this claim. We conclude that a large-scale network perspective provides important neurobiological constraints on the neural underpinnings of executive control, which will guide future basic and translational research into executive function and its disruption in disease. © 2017 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

How to Park Freight Trains on Rail-Rail Transshipment Yards: The Train Location Problem

OpenAIRE

Michael Kellner; Nils Boysen; Malte Fliedner

2010-01-01

In modern rail-rail transshipment yards huge gantry cranes spanning all railway tracks allow for an efficent transshipment of containers between different freight trains. This way, multiple trains loaded with cargo for varying destinations can be consolidated to a reduced number of homogeneous trains, which is an essential requirement of hub-and-spoke railway systems. An important problem during the daily operations of such a transshipment yard is the train location problem, which assigns eac...

Perceptions of Quality Life in Hamilton's Neighbourhood Hubs: A Qualitative Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Eby, Jeanette; Kitchen, Peter; Williams, Allison

2012-01-01

This paper examines perceptions of quality of life in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada from the perspective of residents and key community stakeholders. A series of eight focus groups were conducted. Six sessions were held with residents of neighbourhood "hubs", areas characterized by high levels of poverty. The following themes were…

Design and Development of an Integrated Workstation Automation Hub

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Weber, Andrew; Ghatikar, Girish; Sartor, Dale; Lanzisera, Steven

2015-03-30

Miscellaneous Electronic Loads (MELs) account for one third of all electricity consumption in U.S. commercial buildings, and are drivers for a significant energy use in India. Many of the MEL-specific plug-load devices are concentrated at workstations in offices. The use of intelligence, and integrated controls and communications at the workstation for an Office Automation Hub – offers the opportunity to improve both energy efficiency and occupant comfort, along with services for Smart Grid operations. Software and hardware solutions are available from a wide array of vendors for the different components, but an integrated system with interoperable communications is yet to be developed and deployed. In this study, we propose system- and component-level specifications for the Office Automation Hub, their functions, and a prioritized list for the design of a proof-of-concept system. Leveraging the strength of both the U.S. and India technology sectors, this specification serves as a guide for researchers and industry in both countries to support the development, testing, and evaluation of a prototype product. Further evaluation of such integrated technologies for performance and cost is necessary to identify the potential to reduce energy consumptions in MELs and to improve occupant comfort.

Beta cell 5'-shifted isomiRs are candidate regulatory hubs in type 2 diabetes.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jeanette Baran-Gale

Full Text Available Next-generation deep sequencing of small RNAs has unveiled the complexity of the microRNA (miRNA transcriptome, which is in large part due to the diversity of miRNA sequence variants ("isomiRs". Changes to a miRNA's seed sequence (nucleotides 2-8, including shifted start positions, can redirect targeting to a dramatically different set of RNAs and alter biological function. We performed deep sequencing of small RNA from mouse insulinoma (MIN6 cells (widely used as a surrogate for the study of pancreatic beta cells and developed a bioinformatic analysis pipeline to profile isomiR diversity. Additionally, we applied the pipeline to recently published small RNA-seq data from primary human beta cells and whole islets and compared the miRNA profiles with that of MIN6. We found that: (1 the miRNA expression profile in MIN6 cells is highly correlated with those of primary human beta cells and whole islets; (2 miRNA loci can generate multiple highly expressed isomiRs with different 5'-start positions (5'-isomiRs; (3 isomiRs with shifted start positions (5'-shifted isomiRs are highly expressed, and can be as abundant as their unshifted counterparts (5'-reference miRNAs. Finally, we identified 10 beta cell miRNA families as candidate regulatory hubs in a type 2 diabetes (T2D gene network. The most significant candidate hub was miR-29, which we demonstrated regulates the mRNA levels of several genes critical to beta cell function and implicated in T2D. Three of the candidate miRNA hubs were novel 5'-shifted isomiRs: miR-375+1, miR-375-1 and miR-183-5p+1. We showed by in silico target prediction and in vitro transfection studies that both miR-375+1 and miR-375-1 are likely to target an overlapping, but distinct suite of beta cell genes compared to canonical miR-375. In summary, this study characterizes the isomiR profile in beta cells for the first time, and also highlights the potential functional relevance of 5'-shifted isomiRs to T2D.

Expert Locator: Immunologists

Science.gov (United States)

... tour guide — the Mayor — can help you find what you need. Site Credits Designed by: Built by: menu JMF Headquarters Our Story ... SPIRIT ® Analyzer Tool Internet Café Social Hub Vicki's Voice ...

Regional Hub port development : the case of Montevideo, Uruguay

OpenAIRE

Wilmsmeier, Gordon; Martínez Zarzoso, Inmaculada; Fiess, Norbert

2011-01-01

This paper reflects on port development in Uruguay in an environment of trilateral interport competition. The regional characteristics of port development in terms of their geographical, functional and operational characteristics are discussed by analysing the port system’s evolution. The case of Montevideo as the success or failure of a regional hub port development strategy is analysed in detail. Particular attention is given to the evolution and impact of the liner shipping service network...

Lowering the barriers for accessing distributed geospatial big data to advance spatial data science: the PolarHub solution

Science.gov (United States)

Li, W.

2017-12-01

Data is the crux of science. The widespread availability of big data today is of particular importance for fostering new forms of geospatial innovation. This paper reports a state-of-the-art solution that addresses a key cyberinfrastructure research problem—providing ready access to big, distributed geospatial data resources on the Web. We first formulate this data-access problem and introduce its indispensable elements, including identifying the cyber-location, space and time coverage, theme, and quality of the dataset. We then propose strategies to tackle each data-access issue and make the data more discoverable and usable for geospatial data users and decision makers. Among these strategies is large-scale web crawling as a key technique to support automatic collection of online geospatial data that are highly distributed, intrinsically heterogeneous, and known to be dynamic. To better understand the content and scientific meanings of the data, methods including space-time filtering, ontology-based thematic classification, and service quality evaluation are incorporated. To serve a broad scientific user community, these techniques are integrated into an operational data crawling system, PolarHub, which is also an important cyberinfrastructure building block to support effective data discovery. A series of experiments were conducted to demonstrate the outstanding performance of the PolarHub system. We expect this work to contribute significantly in building the theoretical and methodological foundation for data-driven geography and the emerging spatial data science.

Environmental and self-sufficiency assessment of the energy metabolism of tourist hubs on Mediterranean Islands: The case of Menorca (Spain)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sanyé-Mengual, Esther; Romanos, Héctor; Molina, Catalina; Oliver, M. Antònia; Ruiz, Núria; Pérez, Marta; Carreras, David; Boada, Martí; Garcia-Orellana, Jordi; Duch, Jordi; Rieradevall, Joan

2014-01-01

Energy performance of island tourism has been analyzed in the literature. However, tourist services tend to concentrate in tourist hubs, especially where mass tourism predominates (e.g., Mediterranean), and the energy metabolism of these systems has not yet been assessed. The present paper models and estimates the energy metabolism of tourist hubs in the Menorca Island (Spain) by integrating social, geographical and environmental methods. Mobility (both external and internal) and consumption of lodging services were characterized through surveys to users (tourists) and business managers. An environmental assessment evaluated CO 2 emissions, and energy self-sufficiency potential was estimated via GIS data. The results indicate that, on average, a tourist consumes 4756 MJ with associated emissions of 277 kg of CO 2 per stay (20 days on average). Of all the energy flows, external mobility contributes the most to total emissions (77%). For every day spent in a tourist hub, a tourist consumes between 29 MJ and 93 MJ in lodging services, consumption that could be 100% satisfied by photovoltaic systems, and these systems would result in positive effects for the island. Sustainable tourism management might focus on promoting environmentally friendly transportation, energy efficient practices, and environmental communication through ecolabeling. - Highlights: • We modeled the entire energy metabolism of tourist hubs in islands. • Results showed that a tourist in Menorca consumes from 4000 to 6000 MJ per trip. • External mobility (trip to the island) accounts for 77% of the total CO 2 emissions. • Photovoltaic systems could provide enough power to achieve self-sufficiency. • Tourists at hotel hubs have higher energy consumption than other types of hubs

A note on hierarchical hubbing for a generalization of the VPN problem

NARCIS (Netherlands)

N.K. Olver (Neil)

2014-01-01

htmlabstractRobust network design refers to a class of optimization problems that occur when designing networks to efficiently handle variable demands. The notion of "hierarchical hubbing" was introduced (in the narrow context of a specific robust network design question), by Olver and Shepherd

A note on hierarchical hubbing for a generalization of the VPN problem

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Olver, N.K.

2014-01-01

Robust network design refers to a class of optimization problems that occur when designing networks to efficiently handle variable demands. The notion of "hierarchical hubbing" was introduced (in the narrow context of a specific robust network design question), by Olver and Shepherd [2010].

Development and validation of a new kind of coupling element for wheel-hub motors

Science.gov (United States)

Perekopskiy, Sergey; Kasper, Roland

2018-05-01

For the automotive industry, electric powered vehicles are becoming an increasingly relevant factor in the competition against climate change. Application of one special example - a wheel-hub motor, for electric powered vehicle can support this challenge. Patented slotless air gap winding invented at the chair of mechatronics of the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg has great application potential in constantly growing e-mobility field, especially for wheel-hub motors based on this technology due to its advantages, such as a high gravimetric power density and high efficiency. However, advantages of this technology are decreased by its sensibility to the loads out of driving maneuvers by dimensional variations of air gap consistency. This article describes the development and validation of a coupling element for the designed wheel-hub motor. To find a suitable coupling concept first the assembly structure of the motor was analyzed and developed design of the coupling element was checked. Based on the geometry of the motor and wheel a detailed design of the coupling element was generated. The analytical approach for coupling element describes a potential of the possible loads on the coupling element. The FEM simulation of critical load cases for the coupling element validated results of the analytical approach.

The hub-and-spoke organization design revisited: a lifeline for rural hospitals.

Science.gov (United States)

Elrod, James K; Fortenberry, John L

2017-12-13

Characterized by declining populations, high poverty, reduced employment opportunities, and high numbers of uninsured residents, rural communities pose significant challenges for healthcare providers desirous of addressing these medically underserved areas. Such difficult environments, in fact, have forced the closure of many rural hospitals across America, with scores facing the same threat, compelling intensive efforts to identify pathways which will yield an improved future. Collaborations with stronger urban or suburban healthcare institutions offer a prudent avenue for rural hospitals to continue serving their patients. Such relationships can be structured in many different ways, but Willis-Knighton Health System found that its use of the hub-and-spoke organization design set the stage for the institution to cast a vital lifeline to neighboring rural hospitals, affording the relatively seamless integration and assimilation of partner facilities into its network, ensuring continuity of services in remote regions. This article supplies an overview of the hub-and-spoke network and discusses Willis-Knighton Health System's use of it to facilitate the establishment of productive partnerships with rural hospitals. The delivery of healthcare services in rural environments is essential, but with small community hospitals increasingly being under threat, the outlook is not particularly attractive. Partnerships with better positioned healthcare entities offer significant hope, but care must be taken to structure these arrangements optimally. Willis-Knighton Health System found utility and value in its hub-and-spoke organization design, with the insights presented in this account potentially offering a pathway for others to follow as they go about addressing the healthcare needs of rural populations.

Left Frontal Hub Connectivity during Memory Performance Supports Reserve in Aging and Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Science.gov (United States)

Franzmeier, Nicolai; Hartmann, Julia C; Taylor, Alexander N W; Araque Caballero, Miguel Á; Simon-Vermot, Lee; Buerger, Katharina; Kambeitz-Ilankovic, Lana M; Ertl-Wagner, Birgit; Mueller, Claudia; Catak, Cihan; Janowitz, Daniel; Stahl, Robert; Dichgans, Martin; Duering, Marco; Ewers, Michael

2017-01-01

Reserve in aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD) is defined as maintaining cognition at a relatively high level in the presence of neurodegeneration, an ability often associated with higher education among other life factors. Recent evidence suggests that higher resting-state functional connectivity within the frontoparietal control network, specifically the left frontal cortex (LFC) hub, contributes to higher reserve. Following up these previous resting-state fMRI findings, we probed memory-task related functional connectivity of the LFC hub as a neural substrate of reserve. In elderly controls (CN, n = 37) and patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n = 17), we assessed global connectivity of the LFC hub during successful face-name association learning, using generalized psychophysiological interaction analyses. Reserve was quantified as residualized memory performance, accounted for gender and proxies of neurodegeneration (age, hippocampus atrophy, and APOE genotype). We found that greater education was associated with higher LFC-connectivity in both CN and MCI during successful memory. Furthermore, higher LFC-connectivity predicted higher residualized memory (i.e., reserve). These results suggest that higher LFC-connectivity contributes to reserve in both healthy and pathological aging.

Beyond the Gatekeeper State : African Infrastructure Hubs as Sites of Experimentation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hönke, Jana

2018-01-01

While Africa has often been portrayed as peripheral to major global economic flows, the copper mines in the South of the DRC as much as the port of Dar es Salaam are hubs of extraction and trade at the heart of the global economy. This article departs from the notion of the gatekeeper state that

Improving Healthcare in Pediatric Oncology: Development and Testing of Multiple Indicators to Evaluate a Hub-And-Spoke Model.

Science.gov (United States)

Zucchetti, Giulia; Bertorello, Nicoletta; Angelastro, Angela; Gianino, Paola; Bona, Gianni; Barbara, Affif; Besenzon, Luigi; Brach Del Prever, Adalberto; Pesce, Fernando; Nangeroni, Marco; Fagioli, Franca

2017-06-01

Purpose The hub-and-spoke is a new innovation model in healthcare that has been adopted in some countries to manage rare pathologies. We developed a set of indicators to assess current quality practices of the hub-and-spoke model adopted in the Interregional Pediatric Oncology Network in Northwest Italy and to promote patient, family, and professional healthcare empowerment. Methods Literature and evidence-based clinical guidelines were reviewed and multiprofessional team workshops were carried out to highlight some important issues on healthcare in pediatric oncology and to translate them into a set of multiple indicators. For each indicator, specific questions were formulated and tested through a series of questionnaires completed by 80 healthcare professionals and 50 pediatric patients and their parents. Results The results highlighted a positive perception of healthcare delivered by the hub-and-spoke model (M HP = 156, M Pat = 93, M Par = 104). Based on the participants' suggestions, some quality improvements have been implemented. Conclusions This study represents the first attempt to examine this new model of pediatric oncology care through the active involvement of patients, families, and healthcare professionals. Suggestions for adopting a hub-and-spoke model in pediatric oncology in other regions and countries are also highlighted.

Savannah River Site Eastern Transportation Hub: A Concept For a DOE Eastern Packaging, Staging and Maintenance Center - 13143

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

England, Jeffery L.; Adams, Karen; Maxted, Maxcine; Ruff Jr, Clarence; Albenesius, Andrew; Bowers, Mark D.; Fountain, Geoffrey; Hughes, Michael; Gordon, Sydney; O'Connor, Stephen

2013-01-01

The Department of Energy (DOE) is working to de-inventory sites and consolidate hazardous materials for processing and disposal. The DOE administers a wide range of certified shipping packages for the transport of hazardous materials to include Special Nuclear Material (SNM), radioactive materials, sealed sources and radioactive wastes. A critical element to successful and safe transportation of these materials is the availability of certified shipping packages. There are over seven thousand certified packagings (i.e., Type B/Type AF) utilized within the DOE for current missions. The synergistic effects of consolidated maintenance, refurbishment, testing, certification, and costing of these services would allow for efficient management of the packagings inventory and to support anticipated future in-commerce shipping needs. The Savannah River Site (SRS) receives and ships radioactive materials (including SNM) and waste on a regular basis for critical missions such as consolidated storage, stabilization, purification, or disposition using H-Canyon and HB-Line. The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) has the technical capability and equipment for all aspects of packaging management. SRS has the only active material processing facility in the DOE complex and is one of the sites of choice for nuclear material consolidation. SRS is a logical location to perform maintenance and periodic testing of the DOE fleet of certified packagings. This initiative envisions a DOE Eastern Packaging Staging and Maintenance Center (PSMC) at the SRS and a western hub at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), an active DOE Regional Disposal Site. The PSMC's would be the first place DOE would go to meet their radioactive packaging needs and the primary locations projects would go to disposition excess packaging for beneficial reuse. These two hubs would provide the centralized management of a packaging fleet rather than the current approach to design, procure, maintain and dispose

Test-retest reliability of myofascial trigger point detection in hip and thigh areas.

Science.gov (United States)

Rozenfeld, E; Finestone, A S; Moran, U; Damri, E; Kalichman, L

2017-10-01

Myofascial trigger points (MTrP's) are a primary source of pain in patients with musculoskeletal disorders. Nevertheless, they are frequently underdiagnosed. Reliable MTrP palpation is the necessary for their diagnosis and treatment. The few studies that have looked for intra-tester reliability of MTrPs detection in upper body, provide preliminary evidence that MTrP palpation is reliable. Reliability tests for MTrP palpation on the lower limb have not yet been performed. To evaluate inter- and intra-tester reliability of MTrP recognition in hip and thigh muscles. Reliability study. 21 patients (15 males and 6 females, mean age 21.1 years) referred to the physical therapy clinic, 10 with knee or hip pain and 11 with pain in an upper limb, low back, shin or ankle. Two experienced physical therapists performed the examinations, blinded to the subjects' identity, medical condition and results of the previous MTrP evaluation. Each subject was evaluated four times, twice by each examiner in a random order. Dichotomous findings included a palpable taut band, tenderness, referred pain, and relevance of referred pain to patient's complaint. Based on these, diagnosis of latent MTrP's or active MTrP's was established. The evaluation was performed on both legs and included a total of 16 locations in the following muscles: rectus femoris (proximal), vastus medialis (middle and distal), vastus lateralis (middle and distal) and gluteus medius (anterior, posterior and distal). Inter- and intra-tester reliability (Cohen's kappa (κ)) values for single sites ranged from -0.25 to 0.77. Median intra-tester reliability was 0.45 and 0.46 for latent and active MTrP's, and median inter-tester reliability was 0.51 and 0.64 for latent and active MTrPs, respectively. The examination of the distal vastus medialis was most reliable for latent and active MTrP's (intra-tester k = 0.27-0.77, inter-tester k = 0.77 and intra-tester k = 0.53-0.72, inter-tester k = 0.72, correspondingly

FROM PRE-OIL SETTLEMENT TO POST-OIL HUB: The Urban Transformation of Doha

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Florian Wiedmann

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Since oil production commenced in the middle of the 20th century Qatar's capital Doha witnessed a rapid urbanisation period. Today, new development strategies, which have been implemented to diversify Qatar's economy, have led to a new urban transformation process with the vision to establish Doha as hub within global networks. Economic transformation processes in Qatar have always caused new structures within its society, which in turn affected urban developments. After decades of urbanisation based on the export of oil, the introduction of a hub vision at the end of the 1990s marked a new process that has been rethinking urbanism in Qatar. Although current developments have attracted worldwide attention, there has been rather little scientific reflection as to how current urbanism in the Gulf should be understood in relation to its past and projected future. Therefore, this paper seeks to investigate the various factors impacting Doha's urban environment during economic transformation processes. Each economc transformation has had a large impact  on the structure of the city’s society as well as its built environment. The curren transformation process can still be considered at its beginning. In order to understand the impact of contemporary economic diversification strategies, the city’s past urbanisation stages and their spatial development factors had to be analysed. All in all four distinct phases of urbanism can be distinguished in the case of Doha: The pre-oil settlement, the modernisation period, the oil city and the globalised hub.

Optimization of urinary dipstick pH: Are multiple dipstick pH readings reliably comparable to commercial 24-hour urinary pH?

Science.gov (United States)

Abbott, Joel E; Miller, Daniel L; Shi, William; Wenzler, David; Elkhoury, Fuad F; Patel, Nishant D; Sur, Roger L

2017-09-01

Accurate measurement of pH is necessary to guide medical management of nephrolithiasis. Urinary dipsticks offer a convenient method to measure pH, but prior studies have only assessed the accuracy of a single, spot dipstick. Given the known diurnal variation in pH, a single dipstick pH is unlikely to reflect the average daily urinary pH. Our goal was to determine whether multiple dipstick pH readings would be reliably comparable to pH from a 24-hour urine analysis. Kidney stone patients undergoing a 24-hour urine collection were enrolled and took images of dipsticks from their first 3 voids concurrently with the 24-hour collection. Images were sent to and read by a study investigator. The individual and mean pH from the dipsticks were compared to the 24-hour urine pH and considered to be accurate if the dipstick readings were within 0.5 of the 24-hour urine pH. The Bland-Altman test of agreement was used to further compare dipstick pH relative to 24-hour urine pH. Fifty-nine percent of patients had mean urinary pH values within 0.5 pH units of their 24-hour urine pH. Bland-Altman analysis showed a mean difference between dipstick pH and 24-hour urine pH of -0.22, with an upper limit of agreement of 1.02 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.45-1.59) and a lower limit of agreement of -1.47 (95% CI, -2.04 to -0.90). We concluded that urinary dipstick based pH measurement lacks the precision required to guide medical management of nephrolithiasis and physicians should use 24-hour urine analysis to base their metabolic therapy.

From co-located to dispersed work – first experiences of commuter hubs as stress intervention

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ipsen, Christine; Nardelli, Giulia; Cox, Paul

The headquarters of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is in Westminster within London, UK. The cost of property within this location is much higher than elsewhere in the country and the department has sought multiple ways of reducing these costs. Rising housing prices compared to income also meant th...

A Method for the Preparation of Chicken Liver P?t? that Reliably Destroys Campylobacters

OpenAIRE

Hutchison, Mike; Harrison, Dawn; Richardson, Ian; Tch?rzewska, Monika

2015-01-01

This study devised a protocol for the manufacture of commercial quantities of chicken liver pâté that reliably destroyed campylobacters. A literature search identified 40 pâté manufacture recipes. Recipes stages with a potential to be antimicrobial were assembled to form a new protocol that included washing with organic acid, freeze-thaw and flambé in alcohol. Naturally-contaminated, high-risk livers were obtained from clearance flocks at slaughter and the effect of each stage of the protoco...

Idea Exchange Music Hub Hits the Right Note in Community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Greg Bester

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The Cambridge Libraries and Galleries has made many changes over the last two years, rebranding as Idea Exchange and adding 3D printers, creative spaces and many on-site events. This article focuses on one of the organization’s newest innovations, the addition of a Music Hub, and the challenges of creating a space where members can learn and collaborate musically without disturbing those around them.

Visioning for secondary palliative care service hubs in rural communities: a qualitative case study from British Columbia's interior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hanlon Neil

2009-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background As the populations of many developed nations continue to age at rapid rates it is becoming increasingly important to enhance palliative care service delivery in order to meet anticipated demand. Rural areas face a number of challenges in doing this, and thus dedicated attention must be given to determining how to best enhance service delivery in ways that are sensitive to their particular needs. The purposes of this article are to determine the vision for establishing secondary palliative care service hubs (SPCH in rural communities through undertaking a case study, and to ascertain the criteria that need to be considered when siting such hubs. Methods A rural region of British Columbia, Canada was selected for primary data collection, which took place over a five-month period in 2008. Formal and informal palliative care providers (n = 31 were interviewed. A purposeful recruitment strategy was used to maximize occupational and practice diversity. Interviews were conducted by phone using a semi-structured guide. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were managed using NVivo8™ software and analyzed thematically, using investigator triangulation to strengthen interpretation. Results Four themes emerged from the dataset: (1 main SPCH features; (2 determining a location; (3 value-added outcomes; and (4 key considerations. It was found that participants generally supported implementing a SPCH in the rural region of focus. Several consistent messages emerged, including that: (1 SPCHs must create opportunities for two-way information exchange between specialists and generalists and communities; (2 SPCHs should diffuse information and ideas throughout the region, thus serving as a locus for education and a means of enhancing training opportunities; and (3 hubs need not be physical sites in the community (e.g., an office in a hospice or hospital, but may be virtual or take other forms based upon local needs

Continuous integration in a social-coding world : empirical evidence from GitHub

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vasilescu, B.N.; van Schuylenburg, S.B.; Wulms, Jules; Serebrenik, A.; Brand, van den M.G.J.

2014-01-01

Continuous integration is a software engineering practice of frequently merging all developer working copies with a shared main branch, e.g., several times a day. With the advent of GitHub, a platform well known for its "social coding" features that aid collaboration and sharing, and currently the

A protein interaction atlas for the nuclear receptors: properties and quality of a hub-based dimerisation network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

De Graaf David

2007-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The nuclear receptors are a large family of eukaryotic transcription factors that constitute major pharmacological targets. They exert their combinatorial control through homotypic heterodimerisation. Elucidation of this dimerisation network is vital in order to understand the complex dynamics and potential cross-talk involved. Results Phylogeny, protein-protein interactions, protein-DNA interactions and gene expression data have been integrated to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date description of the topology and properties of the nuclear receptor interaction network in humans. We discriminate between DNA-binding and non-DNA-binding dimers, and provide a comprehensive interaction map, that identifies potential cross-talk between the various pathways of nuclear receptors. Conclusion We infer that the topology of this network is hub-based, and much more connected than previously thought. The hub-based topology of the network and the wide tissue expression pattern of NRs create a highly competitive environment for the common heterodimerising partners. Furthermore, a significant number of negative feedback loops is present, with the hub protein SHP [NR0B2] playing a major role. We also compare the evolution, topology and properties of the nuclear receptor network with the hub-based dimerisation network of the bHLH transcription factors in order to identify both unique themes and ubiquitous properties in gene regulation. In terms of methodology, we conclude that such a comprehensive picture can only be assembled by semi-automated text-mining, manual curation and integration of data from various sources.

Graph theory reveals dysconnected hubs in 22q11DS and altered nodal efficiency in patients with hallucinations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marie-Christine eOttet

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Schizophrenia is postulated to be the prototypical dysconnection disorder, in which hallucinations are the core symptom. Due to high heterogeneity in methodology across studies and the clinical phenotype, it remains unclear whether the structural brain dysconnection is global or focal and if clinical symptoms result from this dysconnection. In the present work, we attempt to clarify this issue by studying a population considered as a homogeneous genetic sub-type of schizophrenia, namely the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS. Cerebral MRIs were acquired for 46 patients and 48 age and gender matched controls (aged 6 to 26, respectively mean age = 15.20 ± 4.53 and 15.28 ± 4.35 years old. Using the Connectome mapper pipeline (connectomics.org that combines structural and diffusion MRI, we created a whole brain network for each individual. The graph theory was used to quantify the global and local properties in the brain network organization for each participant. A global degree loss of 6% was found in patients’ network along with an increased Characteristic Path Length. After identifying and comparing hubs, a significant loss of degree in patients’ hubs was found in 58% of them. Based on Allen’s brain network model for hallucinations, we explored the association between local efficiency and symptom severity. Negative correlations were found in the Broca’s area (p<0.004, the Wernicke area (p<0.023 and a positive correlation was found in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC (p<0.014. In line with the dysconnection findings in schizophrenia, our results provide preliminary evidence for a targeted alteration in the brain network hubs’organisation in individuals with a genetic risk for schizophrenia. The study of specific disorganization in language, speech and thought regulation networks sharing similar network properties may help to understand their role in the hallucination mechanism.

A Futile Search for Values and Pedagogy? A Discursive Analysis of the Marketing Messages of Branch-Campuses in Higher Education Hubs

Science.gov (United States)

Karram, Grace

2014-01-01

Higher education has become a key strategy for the economic development of certain city-states that are positioning themselves as higher education hubs, recruiting both students and foreign providers. This article presents the findings of a research study that examined the online messages of foreign branch-campuses in education hubs (Dubai, Hong…

Abnormal functional connectivity of brain network hubs associated with symptom severity in treatment-naive patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder: A resting-state functional MRI study.

Science.gov (United States)

Tian, Lin; Meng, Chun; Jiang, Ying; Tang, Qunfeng; Wang, Shuai; Xie, Xiyao; Fu, Xiangshuai; Jin, Chunhui; Zhang, Fuquan; Wang, Jidong

2016-04-03

Abnormal brain networks have been observed in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, detailed network hub and connectivity changes remained unclear in treatment-naive patients with OCD. Here, we sought to determine whether patients show hub-related connectivity changes in their whole-brain functional networks. We used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data and voxel-based graph-theoretic analysis to investigate functional connectivity strength and hubs of whole-brain networks in 29 treatment-naive patients with OCD and 29 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. Correlation analysis was applied for potential associations with OCD symptom severity. OCD selectively targeted brain regions of higher functional connectivity strength than the average including brain network hubs, mainly distributed in the cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical (CSTC) circuits and additionally parietal, occipital, temporal and cerebellar regions. Moreover, affected functional connectivity strength in the cerebellum, the medial orbitofrontal cortex and superior occipital cortex was significantly associated with global OCD symptom severity. Our results provide the evidence about OCD-related brain network hub changes, not only in the CSTC circuits but more distributed in whole brain networks. Data suggest that whole brain network hub analysis is useful for understanding the pathophysiology of OCD. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Persian version of auditory word discrimination test (P-AWDT) for children: Development, validity, and reliability.

Science.gov (United States)

Hashemi, Nassim; Ghorbani, Ali; Soleymani, Zahra; Kamali, Mohmmad; Ahmadi, Zohreh Ziatabar; Mahmoudian, Saeid

2018-07-01

Auditory discrimination of speech sounds is an important perceptual ability and a precursor to the acquisition of language. Auditory information is at least partially necessary for the acquisition and organization of phonological rules. There are few standardized behavioral tests to evaluate phonemic distinctive features in children with or without speech and language disorders. The main objective of the present study was the development, validity, and reliability of the Persian version of auditory word discrimination test (P-AWDT) for 4-8-year-old children. A total of 120 typical children and 40 children with speech sound disorder (SSD) participated in the present study. The test comprised of 160 monosyllabic paired-words distributed in the Forms A-1 and the Form A-2 for the initial consonants (80 words) and the Forms B-1 and the Form B-2 for the final consonants (80 words). Moreover, the discrimination of vowels was randomly included in all forms. Content validity was calculated and 50 children repeated the test twice with two weeks of interval (test-retest reliability). Further analysis was also implemented including validity, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), Cronbach's alpha (internal consistency), age groups, and gender. The content validity index (CVI) and the test-retest reliability of the P-AWDT were achieved 63%-86% and 81%-96%, respectively. Moreover, the total Cronbach's alpha for the internal consistency was estimated relatively high (0.93). Comparison of the mean scores of the P-AWDT in the typical children and the children with SSD revealed a significant difference. The results revealed that the group with SSD had greater severity of deficit than the typical group in auditory word discrimination. In addition, the difference between the age groups was statistically significant, especially in 4-4.11-year-old children. The performance of the two gender groups was relatively same. The comparison of the P-AWDT scores between the typical children

The effect of spherical hub-nose position on pressure drop in an oscillating water column system for wave energy conversion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Taha, Z.; Ahmad, N.; Ghazilla, R.A.R.; Yap, H.J.; Ya, T.Y.T.; Passarella, R.; Hasanuddin, I.; Yunus, M. [Malaya Univ. (Malaysia). Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing; Sugiyono [Malaya Univ., (Malaysia). Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing; Gadjah Mada Univ. (Indonesia). Dept. of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

2009-07-01

The use of renewable energy sources as an alternative to conventional fuels was discussed with particular reference to ocean wave energy and its potential to contribute to the energy requirements of coastal nations. Ocean wave energy has been harnessed and converted into electricity using processes and technologies that are environmentally sound. The oscillating water column (OWC) system is considered to be among the most promising technology for harnessing wave energy. This paper presented the results of a study that investigated the pressure drop in an OWC system and the effect of spherical hub-nose position in an annular duct. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was used under steady flow conditions for several hub-nose positions to determine the characteristic of pressure drop. The study showed that the hub-nose position influenced the pressure drop in the OWC system. The highest value of the pressure drop in this study occurred when the hub-nose was at the position of 0.0 m relative to the end of the converging cone. The pressure drop decreased when the hub-nose position moved away from the end of converging cone. The lowest value occurred at the position of -0.5 m. It was concluded that despite the numerically small change in pressure drop, this phenomenon should be considered in the design process of the OWC system because of the operational condition of the system at low-pressure pneumatic power. The pressure drop actually reduces the amount of energy that will be converted by the air turbine. 9 refs., 2 tabs., 6 figs.

Acute effects on pulmonary function in young healthy adults exposed to traffic-related air pollution in semi-closed transport hub in Beijing.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Jing; Deng, Furong; Wu, Shaowei; Zhao, Yan; Shima, Masayuki; Guo, Bin; Liu, Qichen; Guo, Xinbiao

2016-09-01

Transport hub is an important part of urban comprehensive transportation system. Traffic-related air pollution can reach high level because of difficulty of diffusion and increase of emission in transport hub. However, whether exposure in this semi-closed traffic micro-environment causes acute changes in pulmonary function of commuters still needs to be explored. Forty young healthy adults participated in this randomized, crossover study. Each participant underwent 2 h exposure in a designated transport hub and, on a separate occasion, in an appointed park. Personal exposures to fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ), black carbon (BC) and carbon monoxide (CO) were measured. Forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV 1 ) and peak expiratory flow (PEF) were assessed pre-, during and post-exposure. Mixed linear models were used to analyze the pulmonary effects of traffic-related air pollutants. Participants had significantly higher exposures to PM 2.5 , BC and CO in the transport hub than in the park. Exposure in transport hub induced significant reductions in FEV 1 and PEF compared with the park during exposure 1 and 2 h. The reductions were significant associated with traffic-related air pollutants. For instance, per 10 μg/m 3 increment in PM 2.5 was associated with -0.15 % (95 % CI -0.28, -0.02 %) reduction in FEV 1 during exposure 2 h. However, effects became attenuate after 2 h exposure. Short-term exposure in transport hub had acute reduction effects on pulmonary function. More attention should be paid to the health effects of exposure in the semi-closed traffic micro-environment.

Network Competition - the Coexistence of Hub-and-Spoke and Point-to-Point Systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Alderighi, M.; Cento, A.; Nijkamp, P.; Rietveld, P.

2005-01-01

The paper identifies conditions under which asymmetric equilibria may exist when carriers compete in designing their network configurations in a game-theoretical framework. Two carriers are assumed here, which are allowed to play three different strategies: Point-to-point (PP), hub-and-spoke (HS) or

Location Based Services and Applications

OpenAIRE

Elenis Gorrita Michel; Rónier Sierra Dávila; Samuel Montejo Sánchez

2012-01-01

Location Based Services (LBS) continue to grow in popularity, effectiveness and reliability, to the extent that applications are designed and implemented taking into account the facilities of the user location information. In this work, some of the main applications are addressed, in order to make an assessment of the current importance of the LBS, as a branch of technology in full swing. In addition, the main techniques for location estimation are studied, essential information to the LBS. B...

HuB (elavl2 mRNA is restricted to the germ cells by post-transcriptional mechanisms including stabilisation of the message by DAZL.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sophie E Wiszniak

Full Text Available The ability of germ cells to carry out a gene regulatory program distinct from the surrounding somatic tissue, and their capacity to specify an entire new organism has made them a focus of many studies that seek to understand how specific regulatory mechanisms, particularly post-transcriptional mechanisms, contribute to cell fate. In zebrafish, germ cells are specified through the inheritance of cytoplasmic determinants, termed the germ plasm, which contains a number of maternal mRNAs and proteins. Investigation of several of these messages has revealed that the restricted localisation of these mRNAs to the germ plasm and subsequent germ cells is due to cis-acting sequence elements present in their 3'UTRs. Here we show that a member of the Hu family of RNA-binding proteins, HuB, is maternally provided in the zebrafish embryo and exhibits germ cell specific expression during embryogenesis. Restriction of HuB mRNA to the germ cells is dependent on a number of sequence elements in its 3'UTR, which act to degrade the mRNA in the soma and stabilise it in the germ cells. In addition, we show that the germ cell specific RNA-binding protein DAZL is able to promote HuB mRNA stability and translation in germ cells, and further demonstrate that these activities require a 30 nucleotide element in the 3'UTR. Our study suggests that DAZL specifically binds the HuB 3'UTR and protects the message from degradation and/or enhances HuB translation, leading to the germ cell specific expression of HuB protein.

Of Hubs and Hinterlands: Cyprus as an Insular Space of Overlapping Diasporas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Russell King

2012-05-01

Full Text Available This paper uses the metaphor of diasporic hubs and hinterlands to document and analyse the various diasporic formations that overlap and encounter each other on the divided island of Cyprus. After a review of the various ways that islands interface with migration processes and some essential historical and statistical background on Cyprus and its population, the paper considers a number of migrations/diasporas that are based on or affect the island. They include the emigration from the diasporic hub of Cyprus during the 1950s-1970s; return migration, both of the original emigrants and their descendants; the British military/colonial settlement of Cyprus; retirees and ‘lifestyle migrants’; and various categories of recent immigrants, for whom Cyprus is a diasporic hinterland. We draw both similarities and differences between migratory dynamics in the northern, Turkish Cypriot part of the island and the southern, Greek Cypriot part. In the final part of the paper we describe recent fieldwork on various spaces of inter-diasporic encounter in Cyprus.

Determining Domestic Container Shipping as an Enforcement of Indonesian International Hub Port

Science.gov (United States)

Nur, H. I.; Lazuardi, S. D.; Hadi, F.; Hapis, M.

2018-03-01

According to Presidential Regulation Number 26 year of 2012 about the National Logistics System Development Blueprint, the Indonesian government proposed to build two international hub ports, which were in Port of Kuala Tanjung for the western region and Port of Bitung for eastern region. Therefore, the optimum routes and fleet size are required to support the enforcement of Indonesian International Hub Port. The optimization model is used to obtain the optimum route and fleet by minimizing the total shipping costs, while considering the container demand. The result of analysis obtained that the optimum route and fleet size for the western region of Indonesia were: (1) Kuala Tanjung-Belawan required 15 ships of 1,000 TEU; (2) Kuala Tanjung-Tanjung Priok required 73 ships of 2,500 TEU; (3) Kuala Tanjung- Tanjung Perak required 44 ships of 2,500 TEU. Meanwhile, the optimum route and fleet size for the eastern region of Indonesia consisted of: (1) Bitung-Sorong required 1 ship of 500 TEU; (2) Bitung-Banjarmasin required 3 ships of 500 TEU; and (3) Bitung-Makassar required 1 ship of 1,500 TEU.

Helminth-infected patients with malaria: a low profile transmission hub?

Science.gov (United States)

Nacher, Mathieu

2012-11-15

Eclipsed by the debates about malaria incidence and severity in individual patients, malaria transmission in helminth-infected persons has so far received very little attention. Studies in humans have shown increased malaria incidence and prevalence, and a trend for a reduction of symptoms in patients with malaria. This suggests that such patients could possibly be less likely to seek treatment thus carrying malaria parasites and their gametocytes for longer durations, therefore, being a greater potential source of transmission. In addition, in humans, a study showed increased gametocyte carriage, and in an animal model of helminth-malaria co-infection, there was increased malaria transmission. These elements converge towards the hypothesis that patients co-infected with worms and malaria may represent a hub of malaria transmission. The test of this hypothesis requires verifying, in different epidemiological settings, that helminth-infected patients have more gametocytes, that they have less symptomatic malaria and longer-lasting infections, and that they are more attractive for the vectors. The negative outcome in one setting of one of the above aspects does not necessarily mean that the other two aspects may suffice to increase transmission. If it is verified that patients co-infected by worms and malaria could be a transmission hub, this would be an interesting piece of strategic information in the context of the spread of anti-malarial resistance and the malaria eradication attempts.

A review study of the current research on energy hub for energy positive neighborhoods

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Walker, S.W.W.; Labeodan, T.; Maassen, W.H.; Zeiler, W.

2017-01-01

Energy positive neighborhoods and cities are emerging concepts aimed at addressing the current energy and environmental sustainability challenges. In this paper, the concept and current research on energy hubs relating to energy positive neighborhoods are presented. In addition to discussing

Guiding Principles for Data Architecture to Support the Pathways Community HUB Model.

Science.gov (United States)

Zeigler, Bernard P; Redding, Sarah; Leath, Brenda A; Carter, Ernest L; Russell, Cynthia

2016-01-01

The Pathways Community HUB Model provides a unique strategy to effectively supplement health care services with social services needed to overcome barriers for those most at risk of poor health outcomes. Pathways are standardized measurement tools used to define and track health and social issues from identification through to a measurable completion point. The HUB use Pathways to coordinate agencies and service providers in the community to eliminate the inefficiencies and duplication that exist among them. Experience with the Model has brought out the need for better information technology solutions to support implementation of the Pathways themselves through decision-support tools for care coordinators and other users to track activities and outcomes, and to facilitate reporting. Here we provide a basis for discussing recommendations for such a data infrastructure by developing a conceptual model that formalizes the Pathway concept underlying current implementations. The main contribution is a set of core recommendations as a framework for developing and implementing a data architecture to support implementation of the Pathways Community HUB Model. The objective is to present a tool for communities interested in adopting the Model to learn from and to adapt in their own development and implementation efforts. Experience with the Community Health Access Project (CHAP) data base system (the core implementation of the Model) has identified several issues and remedies that have been developed to address these issues. Based on analysis of issues and remedies, we present several key features for a data architecture meeting the just mentioned recommendations. Presentation of features is followed by a practical guide to their implementation allowing an organization to consider either tailoring off-the-shelf generic systems to meet the requirements or offerings that are specialized for community-based care coordination. Looking to future extensions, we discuss the

A Dynamic Calibration Method for Experimental and Analytical Hub Load Comparison

Science.gov (United States)

2017-03-01

computed at various pitch angles through changes in actuator length. The linear spring stiffness was estimated by using the internal volume of the...Vehicle Technology Directorate Mechanics Division (ATTN: RDRL-VTM) Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21005-5066 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER...Finally, the balance loads are not only induced by the rotor hub loads, but also by loads transmitted via the pitch links to the swashplate. Thus

The home hemodialysis hub: physical infrastructure and integrated governance structure.

Science.gov (United States)

Marshall, Mark R; Young, Bessie A; Fox, Sally J; Cleland, Calli J; Walker, Robert J; Masakane, Ikuto; Herold, Aaron M

2015-04-01

An effective home hemodialysis program critically depends on adequate hub facilities and support functions and on transparent and accountable organizational processes. The likelihood of optimal service delivery and patient care will be enhanced by fit-for-purpose facilities and implementation of a well-considered governance structure. In this article, we describe the required accommodation and infrastructure for a home hemodialysis program and a generic organizational structure that will support both patient-facing clinical activities and business processes. © 2015 International Society for Hemodialysis.

Omni directional mobile robot capable of variable foot printing based on hub type drive module

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Hyo Joong; Cho, Chang Nho; Kim, Hwi Su; Song, Jae Bok [Korea Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2012-03-15

In recent years, an increased amount of research has been carried out on mobile robots to improve the performance of service robots. Mobile robots maximize the mobility of service robots, thus allowing them to work in different areas. However, conventional service robots have their center of mass placed high above the ground, which may cause them to fall when moving at high speed. Furthermore, hub type actuators, which are often used for mobile robots, are large and expensive. In this study, we propose a mobile robot with a hub type actuator unit and a variable footprint mechanism. The proposed variable footprint mechanism greatly improves the stability and mobility of the robot, allowing it to move freely in a narrow space and carry out various tasks. The performance of the proposed robot is verified experimentally.

Preliminary design study of advanced composite blade and hub and nonmechanical control system for the tilt-rotor aircraft. Volume 2: Project planning data

Science.gov (United States)

1980-01-01

Project planning data for a rotor and control system procurement and testing program for modifications to the XV-15 tilt-rotor research demonstrator aircraft is presented. The design, fabrication, and installation of advanced composite blades compatible with the existing hub, an advanced composite hub, and a nonmechanical control system are required.

Savannah River Site Eastern Transportation Hub: A Concept For a DOE Eastern Packaging, Staging and Maintenance Center - 13143

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

England, Jeffery L. [Savannah River National Laboratory, Aiken, South Carolina (United States); Adams, Karen; Maxted, Maxcine; Ruff Jr, Clarence [U.S. Department of Energy, Savannah River Site, Aiken, SC (United States); Albenesius, Andrew; Bowers, Mark D.; Fountain, Geoffrey; Hughes, Michael [Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, Aiken, SC (United States); Gordon, Sydney [National Security Technologies, LLC, Las Vegas, NV (United States); O' Connor, Stephen [U.S. Department of Energy, HQ DOE, EM-33, Germantown MD (United States)

2013-07-01

The Department of Energy (DOE) is working to de-inventory sites and consolidate hazardous materials for processing and disposal. The DOE administers a wide range of certified shipping packages for the transport of hazardous materials to include Special Nuclear Material (SNM), radioactive materials, sealed sources and radioactive wastes. A critical element to successful and safe transportation of these materials is the availability of certified shipping packages. There are over seven thousand certified packagings (i.e., Type B/Type AF) utilized within the DOE for current missions. The synergistic effects of consolidated maintenance, refurbishment, testing, certification, and costing of these services would allow for efficient management of the packagings inventory and to support anticipated future in-commerce shipping needs. The Savannah River Site (SRS) receives and ships radioactive materials (including SNM) and waste on a regular basis for critical missions such as consolidated storage, stabilization, purification, or disposition using H-Canyon and HB-Line. The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) has the technical capability and equipment for all aspects of packaging management. SRS has the only active material processing facility in the DOE complex and is one of the sites of choice for nuclear material consolidation. SRS is a logical location to perform maintenance and periodic testing of the DOE fleet of certified packagings. This initiative envisions a DOE Eastern Packaging Staging and Maintenance Center (PSMC) at the SRS and a western hub at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), an active DOE Regional Disposal Site. The PSMC's would be the first place DOE would go to meet their radioactive packaging needs and the primary locations projects would go to disposition excess packaging for beneficial reuse. These two hubs would provide the centralized management of a packaging fleet rather than the current approach to design, procure, maintain and

Lazy Updating of hubs can enable more realistic models by speeding up stochastic simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ehlert, Kurt; Loewe, Laurence

2014-01-01

To respect the nature of discrete parts in a system, stochastic simulation algorithms (SSAs) must update for each action (i) all part counts and (ii) each action's probability of occurring next and its timing. This makes it expensive to simulate biological networks with well-connected “hubs” such as ATP that affect many actions. Temperature and volume also affect many actions and may be changed significantly in small steps by the network itself during fever and cell growth, respectively. Such trends matter for evolutionary questions, as cell volume determines doubling times and fever may affect survival, both key traits for biological evolution. Yet simulations often ignore such trends and assume constant environments to avoid many costly probability updates. Such computational convenience precludes analyses of important aspects of evolution. Here we present “Lazy Updating,” an add-on for SSAs designed to reduce the cost of simulating hubs. When a hub changes, Lazy Updating postpones all probability updates for reactions depending on this hub, until a threshold is crossed. Speedup is substantial if most computing time is spent on such updates. We implemented Lazy Updating for the Sorting Direct Method and it is easily integrated into other SSAs such as Gillespie's Direct Method or the Next Reaction Method. Testing on several toy models and a cellular metabolism model showed >10× faster simulations for its use-cases—with a small loss of accuracy. Thus we see Lazy Updating as a valuable tool for some special but important simulation problems that are difficult to address efficiently otherwise

31P NMR Chemical Shifts of Phosphorus Probes as Reliable and Practical Acidity Scales for Solid and Liquid Catalysts.

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Anmin; Liu, Shang-Bin; Deng, Feng

2017-10-11

Acid-base catalytic reaction, either in heterogeneous or homogeneous systems, is one of the most important chemical reactions that has provoked a wide variety of industrial catalytic processes for production of chemicals and petrochemicals over the past few decades. In view of the fact that the catalytic performances (e.g., activity, selectivity, and reaction mechanism) of acid-catalyzed reactions over acidic catalysts are mostly dictated by detailed acidic features, viz. type (Brønsted vs Lewis acidity), amount (concentration), strength, and local environments (location) of acid sites, information on and manipulation of their structure-activity correlation are crucial for optimization of catalytic performances as well as innovative design of novel effective catalysts. This review aims to summarize recent developments on acidity characterization of solid and liquid catalysts by means of experimental 31 P nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy using phosphorus probe molecules such as trialkylphosphine (TMP) and trialkylphosphine oxides (R 3 PO). In particular, correlations between the observed 31 P chemical shifts (δ 31 P) of phosphorus (P)-containing probes and acidic strengths have been established in conjuction with density functional theory (DFT) calculations, rendering practical and reliable acidity scales for Brønsted and Lewis acidities at the atomic level. As illustrated for a variety of different solid and liquid acid systems, such as microporous zeolites, mesoporous molecular sieves, and metal oxides, the 31 P NMR probe approaches were shown to provide important acid features of various catalysts, surpassing most conventional methods such as titration, pH measurement, Hammett acidity function, and some other commonly used physicochemical techniques, such as calorimetry, temperature-programmed desorption of ammonia (NH 3 -TPD), Fourier transformed infrared (FT-IR), and 1 H NMR spectroscopies.

Positioning Mauritius as a Knowledge Hub in the Context of Globalisation

OpenAIRE

Deepa Gokulsing

2014-01-01

Knowledge is the most valued commodity in the global economy. Since 2005, it has been proposed to develop Mauritius into a knowledge hub and a centre of higher learning, thus meeting the needs of an increasingly competitive, knowledge-based and globalised economy. Therefore, this paper provides an understanding of the higher education system in Mauritius. Secondly, it explores the interconnection between globalisation and higher education in Mauritius. Thirdly, it also focuses the challenges ...

P2-13: Location word Cues' Effect on Location Discrimination Task: Cross-Modal Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Satoko Ohtsuka

2012-10-01

Full Text Available As is well known, participants are slower and make more errors in responding to the display color of an incongruent color word than a congruent one. This traditional stroop effect is often accounted for with relatively automatic and dominant word processing. Although the word dominance account has been widely supported, it is not clear in what extent of perceptual tasks it is valid. Here we aimed to examine whether the word dominance effect is observed in location stroop tasks and in audio-visual situations. The participants were required to press a key according to the location of visual (Experiment 1 and audio (Experiment 2 targets, left or right, as soon as possible. A cue of written (Experiments 1a and 2a or spoken (Experiments 1b and 2b location words, “left” or “right”, was presented on the left or right side of the fixation with cue lead times (CLT of 200 ms and 1200 ms. Reaction time from target presentation to key press was recorded as a dependent variable. The results were that the location validity effect was marked in within-modality but less so in cross-modality trials. The word validity effect was strong in within- but not in cross-modality trials. The CLT gave some effect of inhibition of return. So the word dominance could be less effective in location tasks and in cross-modal situations. The spatial correspondence seems to overcome the word effect.

P-MartCancer-Interactive Online Software to Enable Analysis of Shotgun Cancer Proteomic Datasets.

Science.gov (United States)

Webb-Robertson, Bobbie-Jo M; Bramer, Lisa M; Jensen, Jeffrey L; Kobold, Markus A; Stratton, Kelly G; White, Amanda M; Rodland, Karin D

2017-11-01

P-MartCancer is an interactive web-based software environment that enables statistical analyses of peptide or protein data, quantitated from mass spectrometry-based global proteomics experiments, without requiring in-depth knowledge of statistical programming. P-MartCancer offers a series of statistical modules associated with quality assessment, peptide and protein statistics, protein quantification, and exploratory data analyses driven by the user via customized workflows and interactive visualization. Currently, P-MartCancer offers access and the capability to analyze multiple cancer proteomic datasets generated through the Clinical Proteomics Tumor Analysis Consortium at the peptide, gene, and protein levels. P-MartCancer is deployed as a web service (https://pmart.labworks.org/cptac.html), alternatively available via Docker Hub (https://hub.docker.com/r/pnnl/pmart-web/). Cancer Res; 77(21); e47-50. ©2017 AACR . ©2017 American Association for Cancer Research.

Reliability and validity of a smartphone-based assessment of gait parameters across walking speed and smartphone locations: Body, bag, belt, hand, and pocket.

Science.gov (United States)

Silsupadol, Patima; Teja, Kunlanan; Lugade, Vipul

2017-10-01

The assessment of spatiotemporal gait parameters is a useful clinical indicator of health status. Unfortunately, most assessment tools require controlled laboratory environments which can be expensive and time consuming. As smartphones with embedded sensors are becoming ubiquitous, this technology can provide a cost-effective, easily deployable method for assessing gait. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of a smartphone-based accelerometer in quantifying spatiotemporal gait parameters when attached to the body or in a bag, belt, hand, and pocket. Thirty-four healthy adults were asked to walk at self-selected comfortable, slow, and fast speeds over a 10-m walkway while carrying a smartphone. Step length, step time, gait velocity, and cadence were computed from smartphone-based accelerometers and validated with GAITRite. Across all walking speeds, smartphone data had excellent reliability (ICC 2,1 ≥0.90) for the body and belt locations, with bag, hand, and pocket locations having good to excellent reliability (ICC 2,1 ≥0.69). Correlations between the smartphone-based and GAITRite-based systems were very high for the body (r=0.89, 0.98, 0.96, and 0.87 for step length, step time, gait velocity, and cadence, respectively). Similarly, Bland-Altman analysis demonstrated that the bias approached zero, particularly in the body, bag, and belt conditions under comfortable and fast speeds. Thus, smartphone-based assessments of gait are most valid when placed on the body, in a bag, or on a belt. The use of a smartphone to assess gait can provide relevant data to clinicians without encumbering the user and allow for data collection in the free-living environment. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Orbital Hub: a concept for human spaceflight beyond ISS operations

Science.gov (United States)

Jahnke, Stephan S.; Maiwald, Volker; Philpot, Claudia; Quantius, Dominik; Romberg, Oliver; Seboldt, Wolfgang; Vrakking, Vincent; Zeidler, Conrad

2018-04-01

The International Space Station (ISS) is the greatest endeavour in low-Earth orbit since the beginning of the space age and the culmination of human outposts like Skylab and Mir. While a clear schedule has yet to be drafted, it is expected that ISS will cease operation in the 2020s. What could be the layout for a human outpost in LEO with lessons learnt from ISS? What are the use cases and applications of such an outpost in the future? The System Analysis Space Segment group of the German Aerospace Center investigated these and other questions and developed the Orbital Hub concept. In this paper an overview is presented of how the overall concept has been derived and its properties and layouts are described. Starting with a workshop involving the science community, the scientific requirements have been derived and Strawman payloads have been defined for use in further design activities. These design activities focused on Concurrent Engineering studies, where besides DLR employees participants from the industry and astronauts were involved. The result is an expandable concept that is composed of two main parts, the Base Platform, home for a permanent crew of up to three astronauts, and the Free Flyer, an uncrewed autonomous research platform. This modular approach provides one major advantage: the decoupling of the habitat and payload leading to increased quality of the micro-gravity environment. The former provides an environment for human physiology experiments, while the latter allows science without the perturbations caused by a crew, e.g. material experiments or Earth observation. The Free Flyer is designed to operate for up to 3 months on its own, but can dock with the space station for maintenance and experiment servicing. It also has a hybrid propulsion system, chemical and electrical, for different applications. The hub's design allows launch with just three launches, as the total mass of all the hub parts is about 60,000 kg. The main focus of the design is

Testing and Life Prediction for Composite Rotor Hub Flexbeams

Science.gov (United States)

Murri, Gretchen B.

2004-01-01

A summary of several studies of delamination in tapered composite laminates with internal ply-drops is presented. Initial studies used 2D FE models to calculate interlaminar stresses at the ply-ending locations in linear tapered laminates under tension loading. Strain energy release rates for delamination in these laminates indicated that delamination would likely start at the juncture of the tapered and thin regions and grow unstably in both directions. Tests of glass/epoxy and graphite/epoxy linear tapered laminates under axial tension delaminated as predicted. Nonlinear tapered specimens were cut from a full-size helicopter rotor hub and were tested under combined constant axial tension and cyclic transverse bending loading to simulate the loading experienced by a rotorhub flexbeam in flight. For all the tested specimens, delamination began at the tip of the outermost dropped ply group and grew first toward the tapered region. A 2D FE model was created that duplicated the test flexbeam layup, geometry, and loading. Surface strains calculated by the model agreed very closely with the measured surface strains in the specimens. The delamination patterns observed in the tests were simulated in the model by releasing pairs of MPCs along those interfaces. Strain energy release rates associated with the delamination growth were calculated for several configurations and using two different FE analysis codes. Calculations from the codes agreed very closely. The strain energy release rate results were used with material characterization data to predict fatigue delamination onset lives for nonlinear tapered flexbeams with two different ply-dropping schemes. The predicted curves agreed well with the test data for each case studied.

Helminth-infected patients with malaria: a low profile transmission hub?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nacher Mathieu

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Eclipsed by the debates about malaria incidence and severity in individual patients, malaria transmission in helminth-infected persons has so far received very little attention. Studies in humans have shown increased malaria incidence and prevalence, and a trend for a reduction of symptoms in patients with malaria. This suggests that such patients could possibly be less likely to seek treatment thus carrying malaria parasites and their gametocytes for longer durations, therefore, being a greater potential source of transmission. In addition, in humans, a study showed increased gametocyte carriage, and in an animal model of helminth-malaria co-infection, there was increased malaria transmission. These elements converge towards the hypothesis that patients co-infected with worms and malaria may represent a hub of malaria transmission. The test of this hypothesis requires verifying, in different epidemiological settings, that helminth-infected patients have more gametocytes, that they have less symptomatic malaria and longer-lasting infections, and that they are more attractive for the vectors. The negative outcome in one setting of one of the above aspects does not necessarily mean that the other two aspects may suffice to increase transmission. If it is verified that patients co-infected by worms and malaria could be a transmission hub, this would be an interesting piece of strategic information in the context of the spread of anti-malarial resistance and the malaria eradication attempts.

Numerical and Experimental Investigation of Heat Flow in Permanent Magnet Brushless DC Hub Motor

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fasil, Muhammed; Plesner, Daniel; Walther, Jens Honore

2014-01-01

This paper investigates the heat dissipation in the hub motor of an electric two-wheeler using lumped parameter (LP), finite element (FE) and computational fluid dynamic (CFD) models. The motor uses external rotor permanent magnet brushless DC topology and nearly all of its losses are generated...

Identifying hubs and spokes in global supply chains using redirected trade in value added

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lejour, Arjan; Rojas-Romagosa, Hugo; Veenendaal, Paul

2017-01-01

The increasing importance of global supply chains has prompted the use of analytical tools based on trade in value added - instead of traditional measures in gross value. We use this analytical framework to develop indicators that identify production hubs and supply spokes in global supply chains.

Partial synchronization in networks of non-linearly coupled oscillators: The Deserter Hubs Model

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Freitas, Celso, E-mail: cbnfreitas@gmail.com; Macau, Elbert, E-mail: elbert.macau@inpe.br [Associate Laboratory for Computing and Applied Mathematics - LAC, Brazilian National Institute for Space Research - INPE (Brazil); Pikovsky, Arkady, E-mail: pikovsky@uni-potsdam.de [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam, Germany and Department of Control Theory, Nizhni Novgorod State University, Gagarin Av. 23, 606950, Nizhni Novgorod (Russian Federation)

2015-04-15

We study the Deserter Hubs Model: a Kuramoto-like model of coupled identical phase oscillators on a network, where attractive and repulsive couplings are balanced dynamically due to nonlinearity of interactions. Under weak force, an oscillator tends to follow the phase of its neighbors, but if an oscillator is compelled to follow its peers by a sufficient large number of cohesive neighbors, then it actually starts to act in the opposite manner, i.e., in anti-phase with the majority. Analytic results yield that if the repulsion parameter is small enough in comparison with the degree of the maximum hub, then the full synchronization state is locally stable. Numerical experiments are performed to explore the model beyond this threshold, where the overall cohesion is lost. We report in detail partially synchronous dynamical regimes, like stationary phase-locking, multistability, periodic and chaotic states. Via statistical analysis of different network organizations like tree, scale-free, and random ones, we found a measure allowing one to predict relative abundance of partially synchronous stationary states in comparison to time-dependent ones.

Protein P7 of the cystovirus φ6 is located at the three-fold axis of the unexpanded procapsid.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Garrett Katz

Full Text Available The objective of this study was to determine the location of protein P7, the RNA packaging factor, in the procapsid of the φ6 cystovirus. A comparison of cryo-electron microscopy high-resolution single particle reconstructions of the φ6 complete unexpanded procapsid, the protein P2-minus procapsid (P2 is the RNA directed RNA-polymerase, and the P7-minus procapsid, show that prior to RNA packaging the P7 protein is located near the three-fold axis of symmetry. Difference maps highlight the precise position of P7 and demonstrate that in P7-minus particles the P2 proteins are less localized with reduced densities at the three-fold axes. We propose that P7 performs the mechanical function of stabilizing P2 on the inner protein P1 shell which ensures that entering viral single-stranded RNA is replicated.

Analysis of Wheel Hub Motor Drive Application in Electric Vehicles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sun Yuechao

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Based on the comparative analysis of the performance characteristics of centralized and distributed drive electric vehicles, we found that the wheel hub motor drive mode of the electric vehicles with distributed drive have compact structure, high utilization ratio of interior vehicle space, lower center of vehicle gravity, good driving stability, easy intelligent control and many other advantages, hence in line with the new requirements for the development of drive performance of electric vehicles, and distributed drive will be the ultimate mode of electric vehicles in the future.

P-{Delta} effects on the reliability of oil offshore jacket platforms in Mexico

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

De Leon-Escobedo, D. [Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Mexico, Toluca, Estado de Mexico (Mexico)]. E-mail: daviddeleonescobedo@yahoo.com.mx; Campos, D. [Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo (Mexico)]. E-mail: dcampos@imp.mx

2012-07-15

Given the important economic consequences of an oil platform failure, all the aspects of its structural behavior and safety issues need to be carefully considered. In particular, P-{Delta} effects on the deck legs of marine offshore jacket platforms may be relevant when the deck height and the vertical load are significant. In this paper, the impact of the moment amplification, due to slenderness of the deck legs, on the platform safety is examined and appraised from the viewpoint of the structural reliability. The formulation is applied to a typical tall deck marine platform under the environmental loading at the Bay of Campeche, Mexico, and its reliability index is calculated with and without the P-{Delta} effect. The results presented herein may be used to improve the current practice in the design and assessment of offshore marine platforms in Mexico and to update the current version of the code. [Spanish] Dadas las importantes consecuencias economicas de la falla de una plataforma petrolera, todos los aspectos de su comportamiento estructural y aspectos de seguridad necesitan considerarse cuidadosamente. En particular, los efectos P-{Delta} en las piernas de la cubierta de plataformas marinas costa fuera petroleras tipo jacket pueden ser relevantes cuando la altura de la cubierta y la intensidad de cargas verticales son significativas. En este articulo se examina el impacto que sobre la seguridad de la plataforma tiene la amplificacion de momentos, debido a la esbeltez de las piernas de la cubierta, y se evalua este impacto desde el punto de vista de confiabilidad estructural. La formulacion se aplica a una plataforma marina tipica, con cubierta alta, bajo la carga ambiental de la Bahia de Campeche, Mexico y se calcula su indice de confiabilidad con y sin el efecto P-{Delta}. Los resultados presentados aqui pueden usarse para mejorar las practicas actuales de diseno y evaluacion de plataformas marinas costa fuera en Mexico y para actualizar la version actual

Near-real time 3D probabilistic earthquakes locations at Mt. Etna volcano

Science.gov (United States)

Barberi, G.; D'Agostino, M.; Mostaccio, A.; Patane', D.; Tuve', T.

2012-04-01

Automatic procedure for locating earthquake in quasi-real time must provide a good estimation of earthquakes location within a few seconds after the event is first detected and is strongly needed for seismic warning system. The reliability of an automatic location algorithm is influenced by several factors such as errors in picking seismic phases, network geometry, and velocity model uncertainties. On Mt. Etna, the seismic network is managed by INGV and the quasi-real time earthquakes locations are performed by using an automatic-picking algorithm based on short-term-average to long-term-average ratios (STA/LTA) calculated from an approximate squared envelope function of the seismogram, which furnish a list of P-wave arrival times, and the location algorithm Hypoellipse, with a 1D velocity model. The main purpose of this work is to investigate the performances of a different automatic procedure to improve the quasi-real time earthquakes locations. In fact, as the automatic data processing may be affected by outliers (wrong picks), the use of a traditional earthquake location techniques based on a least-square misfit function (L2-norm) often yield unstable and unreliable solutions. Moreover, on Mt. Etna, the 1D model is often unable to represent the complex structure of the volcano (in particular the strong lateral heterogeneities), whereas the increasing accuracy in the 3D velocity models at Mt. Etna during recent years allows their use today in routine earthquake locations. Therefore, we selected, as reference locations, all the events occurred on Mt. Etna in the last year (2011) which was automatically detected and located by means of the Hypoellipse code. By using this dataset (more than 300 events), we applied a nonlinear probabilistic earthquake location algorithm using the Equal Differential Time (EDT) likelihood function, (Font et al., 2004; Lomax, 2005) which is much more robust in the presence of outliers in the data. Successively, by using a probabilistic

Using a thermoluminescent dosimeter to evaluate the location reliability of the highest–skin dose area detected by treatment planning in radiotherapy for breast cancer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sun, Li-Min, E-mail: limin.sun@yahoo.com [Department of Radiation Oncology, Zuoying Branch of Kaohsiung Armed Forces General Hospital, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan (China); Huang, Chih-Jen [Department of Radiation Oncology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan (China); Faculty of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan (China); College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan (China); Chen, Hsiao-Yun [Department of Radiation Oncology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan (China); Meng, Fan-Yun [Department of General Surgery, Zuoying Branch of Kaohsiung Armed Forces General Hospital, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan (China); Lu, Tsung-Hsien [Department of Radiation Oncology, Zuoying Branch of Kaohsiung Armed Forces General Hospital, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan (China); Tsao, Min-Jen [Department of General Surgery, Zuoying Branch of Kaohsiung Armed Forces General Hospital, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan (China)

2014-01-01

Acute skin reaction during adjuvant radiotherapy for breast cancer is an inevitable process, and its severity is related to the skin dose. A high–skin dose area can be speculated based on the isodose distribution shown on a treatment planning. To determine whether treatment planning can reflect high–skin dose location, 80 patients were collected and their skin doses in different areas were measured using a thermoluminescent dosimeter to locate the highest–skin dose area in each patient. We determined whether the skin dose is consistent with the highest-dose area estimated by the treatment planning of the same patient. The χ{sup 2} and Fisher exact tests revealed that these 2 methods yielded more consistent results when the highest-dose spots were located in the axillary and breast areas but not in the inframammary area. We suggest that skin doses shown on the treatment planning might be a reliable and simple alternative method for estimating the highest skin doses in some areas.

Using a thermoluminescent dosimeter to evaluate the location reliability of the highest–skin dose area detected by treatment planning in radiotherapy for breast cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sun, Li-Min; Huang, Chih-Jen; Chen, Hsiao-Yun; Meng, Fan-Yun; Lu, Tsung-Hsien; Tsao, Min-Jen

2014-01-01

Acute skin reaction during adjuvant radiotherapy for breast cancer is an inevitable process, and its severity is related to the skin dose. A high–skin dose area can be speculated based on the isodose distribution shown on a treatment planning. To determine whether treatment planning can reflect high–skin dose location, 80 patients were collected and their skin doses in different areas were measured using a thermoluminescent dosimeter to locate the highest–skin dose area in each patient. We determined whether the skin dose is consistent with the highest-dose area estimated by the treatment planning of the same patient. The χ 2 and Fisher exact tests revealed that these 2 methods yielded more consistent results when the highest-dose spots were located in the axillary and breast areas but not in the inframammary area. We suggest that skin doses shown on the treatment planning might be a reliable and simple alternative method for estimating the highest skin doses in some areas

Signaling efficiency of Gαq through its effectors p63RhoGEF and GEFT depends on their subcellular location.

Science.gov (United States)

Goedhart, Joachim; van Unen, Jakobus; Adjobo-Hermans, Merel J W; Gadella, Theodorus W J

2013-01-01

The p63RhoGEF and GEFT proteins are encoded by the same gene and both members of the Dbl family of guanine nucleotide exchange factors. These proteins can be activated by the heterotrimeric G-protein subunit Gαq. We show that p63RhoGEF is located at the plasma membrane, whereas GEFT is confined to the cytoplasm. Live-cell imaging studies yielded quantitative information on diffusion coefficients, association rates and encounter times of GEFT and p63RhoGEF. Calcium signaling was examined as a measure of the signal transmission, revealing more efficient signaling through the membrane-associated p63RhoGEF. A rapamycin dependent recruitment system was used to dynamically alter the subcellular location and concentration of GEFT, showing efficient signaling through GEFT only upon membrane recruitment. Together, our results show efficient signal transmission through membrane located effectors, and highlight a role for increased concentration rather than increased encounter times due to membrane localization in the Gαq mediated pathways to p63RhoGEF and PLCβ.

Comparison of rigid and swivelling rotor hubs for a MW wind power system, using the example of the WKA Autoflug A 1200; Vergleich von starrer und Pendel-Rotornabe fuer eine Windkraftanlage der Megawatt-Leistungsklasse am Beispiel der WKA Autoflug A 1200

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Quell, P. [aerodyn Energiesysteme GmbH, Rendsburg (Germany)

1996-12-31

Developments in the MW range are a further illustration of the well-known problem that a linear increase of the rotor surface area will result in an overproportional increase of mass. One classical approach for reducing weight is the installation of a two-blade rotor with a swivelling hub. In the course of the development activities for the 1.2 MW A1200 wind power system of Autoflug Energietechnik GmbH, it was investigated whether a pendulum hub is a technically and economically feasible concept for a plant of this size. For this purpose, two otherwise identical plants were projected and compared, one with a rigid hub and the other with a swivelling hub. Both systems were simulated using the dynamic program GAROS. With the loads thus determined, both concepts are detailed enough to permit a comprehensive cost comparison in consideration of the masses, the resulting cost, performance and reliability. [Deutsch] Der Entwicklungsprozess der Megawatt-Anlagen verdeutlicht den aus frueheren Untersuchungen bekannten Zusammenhang eines ueberproportionalen Massenzuwachses bei linear steigender Rotorflaeche. Ein klassischer Ansatz zur Reduzierung des Anlagengewichtes ist der Einsatz eines Zweiblatt-Rotors in Verbindung mit einer Pendelnabe. Im Rahmen der Entwicklungstaetigkeit fuer die 1,2 MW-Windkraftanlage A 1200 der Fa. Autoflug Energietechnik GmbH wurde untersucht, inwieweit der Einsatz einer Pendelnabe fuer eine Anlage dieser Groessenordnung ein technisch und wirtschaftlich sinnvolles Konzept darstellen kann. Dazu wurden zwei grundsaetzlich gleiche Anlagen mit Zweiblatt-Rotor unter Verwendung einer Pendelnabe und einer starren Nabe konzipiert und gegenuebergestellt. Zur Bewertung des Anlagenverhaltens sowie zur Ermittlung realitaetsnaher Belastungen werden sowohl die Anlagenversion mit Pendelnabe als auch die Version mit starrer Nabe mit dem Dynamikprogramm GAROS simuliert. Basierend auf den ermittelten Lasten werden beide Konzepte so detailliert, dass ein umfassender

Pocket Handbook on Reliability

Science.gov (United States)

1975-09-01

exponencial distributions Weibull distribution, -xtimating reliability, confidence intervals, relia- bility growth, 0. P- curves, Bayesian analysis. 20 A S...introduction for those not familiar with reliability and a good refresher for those who are currently working in the area. LEWIS NERI, CHIEF...includes one or both of the following objectives: a) prediction of the current system reliability, b) projection on the system reliability for someI future

Continuous Integration for Concurrent MOOSE Framework and Application Development on GitHub

OpenAIRE

Slaughter, Andrew E.; Peterson, John W.; Gaston, Derek R.; Permann, Cody J.; Andrš, David; Miller, Jason M.

2015-01-01

For the past several years, Idaho National Laboratory’s MOOSE framework team has employed modern software engineering techniques (continuous integration, joint application/framework source code repos- itories, automated regression testing, etc.) in developing closed-source multiphysics simulation software (Gaston et al., 'Journal of Open Research Software' vol. 2, article e10, 2014). In March 2014, the MOOSE framework was released under an open source license on GitHub, significantly expandin...

Reliability of the non-contact tono-pachymeter Tonopachy NT-530P in healthy eyes.

Science.gov (United States)

García-Resúa, Carlos; Pena-Verdeal, Hugo; Miñones, Mercedes; Giraldez, M Jesus; Yebra-Pimentel, Eva

2013-05-01

Non-contact Tonopachy NT-530P (Nidek Co., LTD) provides intraocular pressure (IOP) and central corneal thickness (CCT) measurements. This study assesses the reliability and repeatability of its IOP measurements in young healthy adult subjects. IOP was determined in the right eye of 64 healthy patients using Tonopachy followed by the Canon TX-10 non-contact and Goldmann applanation (GAT) tonometers. Tonopachy IOP measurements were corrected (Tonopachy-C) or not (Tonopachy-NC) by the instrument for central corneal thickness. Central corneal thickness measurements provided by Tonopachy were also used to correlate (Pearson's coefficient) central corneal thickness with the GAT and Canon TX-10 IOPs. Repeatability of Tonopachy and GAT was assessed in the right eye of 31 subjects in two separate sessions one week apart. Differences between pairs of instruments and between sessions were determined using Bland-Altman plots. The coefficient of repeatability was calculated as the 95% limits of agreement (LoA) of differences between the two sessions. Tonopachy-NC, Tonopachy-C, Canon TX-10 and the Goldmann tonometers showed a mean IOP of 14.62, 15.64, 15.02 and 14.68 mmHg, respectively. Tonopachy-NC and Canon TX-10 readings did not differ significantly from the Goldmann (p > 0.05), with close agreement with both tonometers (GAT versus Tonopachy-NC: -3.84 to 3.96 mmHg; Goldmann versus Canon TX-10: -4.75 to 4.07 mmHg). Tonopachy-C readings differed significantly from Goldmann (mean difference -0.96 mmHg, p = 0.001, LoA from -5.09 to 3.17). Coefficients of repeatability were ± 3.70, ± 3.14 and ± 3.33 mmHg for GAT, Tonopachy-NC and Tonopachy-C, respectively. Central corneal thickness measured with Tonopachy was 530.42 ± 34.96 μm. There was a significant correlation between central corneal thickness and IOP for all tonometers except Tonopachy-C. Reasonable agreement was observed between the Goldmann and Tonopachy. This instrument provides reliable and repeatable IOP

A Hypercat-enabled Semantic Internet of Things Data Hub: Technical Report

OpenAIRE

Tachmazidis, Ilias; Batsakis, Sotiris; Davies, John; Duke, Alistair; Vallati, Mauro; Antoniou, Grigoris; Clarke, Sandra Stincic

2017-01-01

An increasing amount of information is generated from the rapidly increasing number of sensor networks and smart devices. A wide variety of sources generate and publish information in different formats, thus highlighting interoperability as one of the key prerequisites for the success of Internet of Things (IoT). The BT Hypercat Data Hub provides a focal point for the sharing and consumption of available datasets from a wide range of sources. In this work, we propose a semantic enrichment of ...

Locating proteins in the cell using TargetP, SignalP and related tools

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Emanuelsson, O.; Brunak, Søren; von Heijne, G.

2007-01-01

of methods to predict subcellular localization based on these sorting signals and other sequence properties. We then outline how to use a number of internet-accessible tools to arrive at a reliable subcellular localization prediction for eukaryotic and prokaryotic proteins. In particular, we provide detailed...

Abnormal Intrinsic Functional Hubs in Severe Male Obstructive Sleep Apnea: Evidence from a Voxel-Wise Degree Centrality Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Haijun; Li, Lan; Shao, Yi; Gong, Honghan; Zhang, Wei; Zeng, Xianjun; Ye, Chenglong; Nie, Si; Chen, Liting; Peng, Dechang

2016-01-01

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has been associated with changes in brain structure and regional function in certain brain areas. However, the functional features of network organization in the whole brain remain largely uncertain. The purpose of this study was to identify the OSA-related spatial centrality distribution of the whole brain functional network and to investigate the potential altered intrinsic functional hubs. Forty male patients with newly confirmed severe OSA on polysomnography, and well-matched good sleepers, participated in this study. All participants underwent a resting-state functional MRI scan and clinical and cognitive evaluation. Voxel-wise degree centrality (DC) was measured across the whole brain, and group difference in DC was compared. The relationship between the abnormal DC value and clinical variables was assessed using a linear correlation analysis. Remarkably similar spatial distributions of the functional hubs (high DC) were found in both groups. However, OSA patients exhibited a pattern of significantly reduced regional DC in the left middle occipital gyrus, posterior cingulate cortex, left superior frontal gyrus, and bilateral inferior parietal lobule, and DC was increased in the right orbital frontal cortex, bilateral cerebellum posterior lobes, and bilateral lentiform nucleus, including the putamen, extending to the hippocampus, and the inferior temporal gyrus, which overlapped with the functional hubs. Furthermore, a linear correlation analysis revealed that the DC value in the posterior cingulate cortex and left superior frontal gyrus were positively correlated with Montreal cognitive assessment scores, The DC value in the left middle occipital gyrus and bilateral inferior parietal lobule were negatively correlated with apnea-hypopnea index and arousal index in OSA patients. Our findings suggest that OSA patients exhibited specific abnormal intrinsic functional hubs including relatively reduced and increased DC. This expands

A operação das companhias aéreas nos aeroportos hub & spoke e nas bases operacionais

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cláudia Ribeiro de Almeida

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The process of deregulation of air transportation and all changes that have arisen in the air transport market led to the emergence of new airport concepts, not always clear and easy to understand. Airports Hub & Spoke and operational bases, has specific characteristics to be exploited in this article through case studies that aim to highlight the differences and emphasize its importance for the airlines involved. In this article we are going to evaluate the operation of two airlines that are members of a Strategic Alliance, which operate under a Hub & Spoke network, as well as an example of a low cost airline operating to more than 50 operational bases all over Europe.

TravisTorrent : Synthesizing Travis CI and GitHub for Full-Stack Research on Continuous Integration

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Beller, M.M.; Gousios, Giorgos; Zaidman, A.E.

2017-01-01

Continuous Integration (CI) has become a best practice of modern software development. Thanks in part to its tight integration with GitHub, Travis CI has emerged as arguably the most widely used CI platform for Open-Source Software (OSS) development. However, despite its prominent role in Software

Preliminary design study of advanced composite blade and hub and nonmechanical control system for the tilt-rotor aircraft. Volume 1: Engineering studies

Science.gov (United States)

Alexander, H. R.; Smith, K. E.; Mcveigh, M. A.; Dixon, P. G.; Mcmanus, B. L.

1979-01-01

Composite structures technology is applied in a preliminary design study of advanced technology blades and hubs for the XV-15 tilt rotor research demonstrator aircraft. Significant improvements in XV-15 hover and cruise performance are available using blades designed for compatibility with the existing aircraft, i.e., blade installation would not require modification of the airframe, hub or upper controls. Provision of a low risk nonmechanical control system was also studied, and a development specification is given.

Establishment of a Hub for the Light Water Reactor Sustainability Online Monitoring Community

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lybeck, Nancy J.; Tawfik, Magdy S.; Pham, Binh T.

2011-01-01

Implementation of online monitoring and prognostics in existing U.S. nuclear power plants will involve coordinating the efforts of national laboratories, utilities, universities, and private companies. Internet-based collaborative work environments provide necessary communication tools to facilitate interaction between geographically diverse participants. Available technologies were considered, and a collaborative workspace was established at INL as a hub for the light water reactor sustainability online monitoring community.

Reviewing the Justice and Security Hub Modality as Piloted in Liberia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rory Keane

2012-11-01

Full Text Available ‘The Republic of Bangui’ or ‘the Republic of Monrovia’ are phrases we sometimes hear from practitioners to describe post conflict countries where very few services exist outside the capital city. This is especially the case for security – the critical public good in post conflict countries. In response to the need to bring security services closer to the citizens who often need them most, the Government of Liberia and the United Nations are piloting a new approach financed by the UN Peacebuilding Fund (PBF – the so-called ‘Justice and Security Hubs’. The donor community and the United Nations are watching closely. If this works, there is indication from UN officials that the model could potentially be replicated in other settings such as the East of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, Haiti and the northern states of South Sudan. If the hub concept is capable of being adapted and successful elsewhere, the United Nations will not only have added a new instrument to its peacekeeping toolkit but will also firmly demonstrate how the UN Peacebuilding Fund can in essence be catalytic in fostering long-term and comprehensive approaches to peacebuilding. This practice note outlines the process of developing and constructing the first hub in Liberia, which is due to be partly operational by the end of 2012, and provides a prognosis on its chances for success.

Improvements to Earthquake Location with a Fuzzy Logic Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Gökalp, Hüseyin

2018-01-01

In this study, improvements to the earthquake location method were investigated using a fuzzy logic approach proposed by Lin and Sanford (Bull Seismol Soc Am 91:82-93, 2001). The method has certain advantages compared to the inverse methods in terms of eliminating the uncertainties of arrival times and reading errors. In this study, adopting this approach, epicentral locations were determined based on the results of a fuzzy logic space concerning the uncertainties in the velocity models. To map the uncertainties in arrival times into the fuzzy logic space, a trapezoidal membership function was constructed by directly using the travel time difference between the two stations for the P- and S-arrival times instead of the P- and S-wave models to eliminate the need for obtaining information concerning the velocity structure of the study area. The results showed that this method worked most effectively when earthquakes occurred away from a network or when the arrival time data contained phase reading errors. In this study, to resolve the problems related to determining the epicentral locations of the events, a forward modeling method like the grid search technique was used by applying different logical operations (i.e., intersection, union, and their combination) with a fuzzy logic approach. The locations of the events were depended on results of fuzzy logic outputs in fuzzy logic space by searching in a gridded region. The process of location determination with the defuzzification of only the grid points with the membership value of 1 obtained by normalizing all the maximum fuzzy output values of the highest values resulted in more reliable epicentral locations for the earthquakes than the other approaches. In addition, throughout the process, the center-of-gravity method was used as a defuzzification operation.

A methodology of SiP testing based on boundary scan

Science.gov (United States)

Qin, He; Quan, Haiyang; Han, Yifei; Zhu, Tianrui; Zheng, Tuo

2017-10-01

System in Package (SiP) play an important role in portable, aerospace and military electronic with the microminiaturization, light weight, high density, and high reliability. At present, SiP system test has encountered the problem on system complexity and malfunction location with the system scale exponentially increase. For SiP system, this paper proposed a testing methodology and testing process based on the boundary scan technology. Combining the character of SiP system and referencing the boundary scan theory of PCB circuit and embedded core test, the specific testing methodology and process has been proposed. The hardware requirement of the under test SiP system has been provided, and the hardware platform of the testing has been constructed. The testing methodology has the character of high test efficiency and accurate malfunction location.

Measures of differences in reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doksum, K.A.

1975-01-01

Measures of differences in reliability of two systems are considered in the scale model, location-scale model, and a nonparametric model. In each model, estimates and confidence intervals are given and some of their properties discussed

Unveiling Exception Handling Bug Hazards in Android Based on GitHub and Google Code Issues

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Coelho, R.; Almeida, L.; Gousios, G.; Van Deursen, A.

2015-01-01

This paper reports on a study mining the exception stack traces included in 159,048 issues reported on Android projects hosted in GitHub (482 projects) and Google Code (157 projects). The goal of this study is to investigate whether stack trace information can reveal bug hazards related to exception

Hypocretin as a Hub for Arousal and Motivation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susan M. Tyree

2018-06-01

Full Text Available The lateral hypothalamus is comprised of a heterogeneous mix of neurons that serve to integrate and regulate sleep, feeding, stress, energy balance, reward, and motivated behavior. Within these populations, the hypocretin/orexin neurons are among the most well studied. Here, we provide an overview on how these neurons act as a central hub integrating sensory and physiological information to tune arousal and motivated behavior accordingly. We give special attention to their role in sleep-wake states and conditions of hyper-arousal, as is the case with stress-induced anxiety. We further discuss their roles in feeding, drug-seeking, and sexual behavior, which are all dependent on the motivational state of the animal. We further emphasize the application of powerful techniques, such as optogenetics, chemogenetics, and fiber photometry, to delineate the role these neurons play in lateral hypothalamic functions.

Global Dynamics and International Cooperation Needs of RT Development and Utilization for the Establishment of the Northeast Asia RT Hub in Korea

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Y. K.; Oh, G. B.; Yun, S. W.; Yang, M. H.; Ryu, J. S.; Choi, S. J.; Choi, S. G

2005-11-15

In an effort to achieve the objectives, the following scopes were categorized for in-depth study. First, analysis framework was developed for RT capacity development and international technology cooperation strategy. RT survey checklist and international technology cooperation was analyzed with interviewing and reports of domestic participants recently. Second, RT strategic environment was analyze for East-Asia hub competition/cooperation and developing nations using analysis framework. Korean RT was analyzed using SWOT analysis for establishment of RT hub in Korea. Third, East-Asian nations were classified analyzed by RT categories in standpoint of our country. Technology status and future cooperation plan were discussed about RT application for bio-medicine. Products/technology seminar related to an export was hold about support plan of admission/sales for functional food HemoHIM. This study can be utilized in the establishment of RT hub and development strategy. And it can be also utilized in promotion devising of domestic RT and planning setup for obtaing the international competitive power.

Global Dynamics and International Cooperation Needs of RT Development and Utilization for the Establishment of the Northeast Asia RT Hub in Korea

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Y. K.; Oh, G. B.; Yun, S. W.; Yang, M. H.; Ryu, J. S.; Choi, S. J.; Choi, S. G.

2005-11-01

In an effort to achieve the objectives, the following scopes were categorized for in-depth study. First, analysis framework was developed for RT capacity development and international technology cooperation strategy. RT survey checklist and international technology cooperation was analyzed with interviewing and reports of domestic participants recently. Second, RT strategic environment was analyze for East-Asia hub competition/cooperation and developing nations using analysis framework. Korean RT was analyzed using SWOT analysis for establishment of RT hub in Korea. Third, East-Asian nations were classified analyzed by RT categories in standpoint of our country. Technology status and future cooperation plan were discussed about RT application for bio-medicine. Products/technology seminar related to an export was hold about support plan of admission/sales for functional food HemoHIM. This study can be utilized in the establishment of RT hub and development strategy. And it can be also utilized in promotion devising of domestic RT and planning setup for obtaing the international competitive power

Dynamic Migration Intentions and the Impact of Socio-Institutional Environments: A Transit Migration Hub in Turkey

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wissink, M.J.; Düvell, F.; van Eerdewijk, A.

2013-01-01

Transit migration is generally defined by migrants having the intention to move onwards to a third country. Based on an empirical investigation in Izmir, a transit migration hub in Turkey, this paper critically discusses intentionality as a valid dimension in conceptualisations of transit migration.

Test-retest reliability of the novel 5-HT1B receptor PET radioligand [11C]P943

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saricicek, Aybala; Chen, Jason; Ruf, Barbara; Planeta, Beata; Labaree, David; Gallezot, Jean-Dominique; Huang, Yiyun; Subramanyam, Kalyani; Maloney, Kathleen; Matuskey, David; Deserno, Lorenz; Neumeister, Alexander; Krystal, John H.; Carson, Richard E.; Bhagwagar, Zubin

2015-01-01

[ 11 C]P943 is a novel, highly selective 5-HT 1B PET radioligand. The aim of this study was to determine the test-retest reliability of [ 11 C]P943 using two different modeling methods and to perform a power analysis with each quantification technique. Seven healthy volunteers underwent two PET scans on the same day. Regions of interest (ROIs) were the amygdala, hippocampus, pallidum, putamen, insula, frontal, anterior cingulate, parietal, temporal and occipital cortices, and cerebellum. Two multilinear radioligand quantification techniques were used to estimate binding potential: MA1, using arterial input function data, and the second version of the multilinear reference tissue model analysis (MRTM2), using the cerebellum as the reference region. Between-scan percent variability and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were used to assess test-retest reliability. We also performed power analyses to determine the method that would allow the least number of subjects using within-subject or between-subject study designs. A voxel-wise ICC analysis for MRTM2 BP ND was performed for the whole brain and all the ROIs studied. Mean percent variability between two scans across regions ranged between 0.4 % and 12.4 % for MA1 BP ND , 0.5 % and 11.5 % for MA1 BP P , 16.7 % and 28.3 % for MA1 BP F , and between 0.2 % and 5.4 % for MRTM2 BP ND . The power analyses showed a greater number of subjects were required using MA1 BP F compared with other outcome measures for both within-subject and between-subject study designs. ICC values were the highest using MRTM2 BP ND and the lowest with MA1 BP F in ten ROIs. Small regions and regions with low binding had lower ICC values than large regions and regions with high binding. Reliable measures of 5-HT 1B receptor binding can be obtained using the novel PET radioligand [ 11 C]P943. Quantification of 5-HT 1B receptor binding with MRTM2 BP ND and with MA1 BP P provided the least variability and optimal power for within-subject and

Reliability and validity of the Bowel Function Index for evaluating opioid-induced constipation: translation, cultural adaptation and validation of the Portuguese version (BFI-P).

Science.gov (United States)

Dueñas, María; Mendonça, Liliane; Sampaio, Rute; Gouvinhas, Cláudia; Oliveira, Daniela; Castro-Lopes, José Manuel; Azevedo, Luís Filipe

2017-03-01

The Bowel Function Index (BFI) is a simple and sound bowel function and opioid-induced constipation (OIC) screening tool. We aimed to develop the translation and cultural adaptation of this measure (BFI-P) and to assess its reliability and validity for the Portuguese language and a chronic pain population. The BFI-P was created after a process including translation, back translation and cultural adaptation. Participants (n = 226) were recruited in a chronic pain clinic and were assessed at baseline and after one week. Internal consistency, test-retest reliability, responsiveness, construct (convergent and known groups) and factorial validity were assessed. Test-retest reliability had an intra-class correlation of 0.605 for BFI mean score. Internal consistency of BFI had Cronbach's alpha of 0.865. The construct validity of BFI-P was shown to be excellent and the exploratory factor analysis confirmed its unidimensional structure. The responsiveness of BFI-P was excellent, with a suggested 17-19 point and 8-12 point change in score constituting a clinically relevant change in constipation for patients with and without previous constipation, respectively. This study had some limitations, namely, the criterion validity of BFI-P was not directly assessed; and the absence of a direct criterion for OIC precluded the assessment of the criterion based responsiveness of BFI-P. Nevertheless, BFI may importantly contribute to better OIC screening and its Portuguese version (BFI-P) has been shown to have excellent reliability, internal consistency, validity and responsiveness. Further suggestions regarding statistically and clinically important change cut-offs for this instrument are presented.

Locations and attributes of wind turbines in Colorado, 2009

Science.gov (United States)

Carr, Natasha B.; Diffendorfer, Jay E.; Fancher, Tammy S.; Latysh, Natalie E.; Leib, Kenneth J.; Matherne, Anne-Marie; Turner, Christine

2011-01-01

The Colorado wind-turbine data series provides geospatial data for all wind turbines established within the State as of August 2009. Attributes specific to each turbine include: turbine location, manufacturer and model, rotor diameter, hub height, rotor height, potential megawatt output, land ownership, and county. Wind energy facility data for each turbine include: facility name, facility power capacity, number of turbines associated with each facility to date, facility developer, facility ownership, year the facility went online, and development status of wind facility. Turbine locations were derived from August 2009 1-meter true-color aerial photographs produced by the National Agriculture Imagery Program; the photographs have a positional accuracy of about + or - 5 meters. The location of turbines under construction during August 2009 likely will be less accurate than the location of existing turbines. This data series contributes to an Online Interactive Energy Atlas currently (2011) in development by the U.S. Geological Survey. The Energy Atlas will synthesize data on existing and potential energy development in Colorado and New Mexico and will include additional natural resource data layers. This information may be used by decisionmakers to evaluate and compare the potential benefits and tradeoffs associated with different energy development strategies or scenarios. Interactive maps, downloadable data layers, comprehensive metadata, and decision-support tools will be included in the Energy Atlas. The format of the Energy Atlas will facilitate the integration of information about energy with key terrestrial and aquatic resources for evaluating resource values and minimizing risks from energy development.

Lattice location of the group V elements Sb, As, and P in ZnO

CERN Document Server

Wahl, Ulrich; Mendonça, Tânia; Decoster, Stefan

2010-01-01

Modifying the properties of ZnO by means of incorporating antimony, arsenic or phosphorus impurities is of interest since these group V elements have been reported in the literature among the few successful p-type dopants in this technologically promising II-VI compound. The lattice location of ion-implanted Sb, As, and P in ZnO single crystals was investigated by means of the electron emission channeling technique using the radioactive isotopes $^{124}$Sb, $^{73}$As and $^{33}$P and it is found that they preferentially occupy substitutional Zn sites while the possible fractions on substitutional O sites are a few percent at maximum. The lattice site preference is understandable from the relatively large ionic size of the heavy mass group V elements. Unfortunately the presented results cannot finally settle the interesting issue whether substitutional Sb, As or P on oxygen sites or Sb$_{Zn}$−2V$_{Zn}$, As$_{Zn}$−2V$_{Zn}$ or P$_{Zn}$−2V$_{Zn}$ complexes (as suggested in the literature) are responsible f...

Reliability benefits of dispersed wind resource development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Milligan, M.; Artig, R.

1998-05-01

Generating capacity that is available during the utility peak period is worth more than off-peak capacity. Wind power from a single location might not be available during enough of the peak period to provide sufficient value. However, if the wind power plant is developed over geographically disperse locations, the timing and availability of wind power from these multiple sources could provide a better match with the utility's peak load than a single site. There are other issues that arise when considering disperse wind plant development. Singular development can result in economies of scale and might reduce the costs of obtaining multiple permits and multiple interconnections. However, disperse development can result in cost efficiencies if interconnection can be accomplished at lower voltages or at locations closer to load centers. Several wind plants are in various stages of planning or development in the US. Although some of these are small-scale demonstration projects, significant wind capacity has been developed in Minnesota, with additional developments planned in Wyoming, Iowa and Texas. As these and other projects are planned and developed, there is a need to perform analysis of the value of geographically disperse sites on the reliability of the overall wind plant.This paper uses a production-cost/reliability model to analyze the reliability of several wind sites in the state of Minnesota. The analysis finds that the use of a model with traditional reliability measures does not produce consistent, robust results. An approach based on fuzzy set theory is applied in this paper, with improved results. Using such a model, the authors find that system reliability can be optimized with a mix of disperse wind sites

Branding by Proxy? : How hubs market (or not) higher education systems globally: the example of Qatar

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cremonini, Leon; Taylor, John; Papadimitriou, Antigoni

2017-01-01

This chapter proposes a framework to understand if and how hubs contribute to stronger positioning of higher education system in global competition, and uses the case of Qatar to draw conclusions. Increasingly, governments around the world invest in so-called “education hubs”, which host excellent

Structures and short linear motif of disordered transcription factor regions provide clues to the interactome of the cellular hub radical-induced cell death1

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

O'Shea, Charlotte; Staby, Lasse; Bendsen, Sidsel Krogh

2017-01-01

Intrinsically disordered protein regions (IDRs) lack a well-defined three-dimensional structure, but often facilitate key protein functions. Some interactions between IDRs and folded protein domains rely on short linear motifs (SLiMs). These motifs are challenging to identify, but once found can...... point to larger networks of interactions, such as with proteins that serve as hubs for essential cellular functions. The stress-associated plant protein Radical-Induced Cell Death1 (RCD1) is one such hub, interacting with many transcription factors via their flexible IDRs. To identify the SLiM bound......046 formed different structures or were fuzzy in the complexes. These findings allow us to present a model of the stress-associated RCD1-transcription factor interactome and to contribute to the emerging understanding of the interactions between folded hubs and their intrinsically disordered partners....

Researching Higher Education in "Asia's Global Education Hub": Trends and Issues in Singapore

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Michael H.

2016-01-01

Higher education studies as a field of academic research has become more developed and important in Singapore since the 1980s when the city-state placed more emphasis on reforming and restructuring its higher education sector to achieve the status of "Asia's global education hub". The past few decades witnessed a more significant growth…

Location Intelligence Solutions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schmidt, D.

2015-01-01

Location Intelligence (LI) means using the spatial dimension of information as a key to support business processes. This spatial dimension has to be defined by geographic coordinates. Storing these spatial objects in a database allows for attaching a 'meaning' to them, like 'current position', 'border', 'building' or 'room'. Now the coordinates represent real-world objects, which can be relevant for the measurement, documentation, control or optimization of (parameters of) business processes aiming at different business objectives. But LI can only be applied, if the locations can be determined with an accuracy (in space and time) appropriate for the business process in consideration. Therefore the first step in any development of a LI solution is the analysis of the business process itself regarding its requirements for spatial and time resolution and accuracy. The next step is the detailed analysis of the surrounding conditions of the process: Does the process happen indoor and/or outdoor? Are there moving objects? If yes, how fast are they? How does the relevant environment look like? Is technical infrastructure available? Is the process restricted by regulations? As a result, a proper Location Detection Technology (LDT) has to be chosen in order to get reliable and accurate positions of the relevant objects. At the highly challenging conditions of the business processes IAEA inspectors are working with, the chosen LDTs have to deliver reliable positioning on ''room-level'' accuracy, even if there is no location enabling infrastructure in place, the objects (people) mostly are indoors and have to work under strong regulations. The presentation will give insights into innovative LI solutions based on technologies of different LDT providers. Pros and cons of combinations of different LDT (like multi- GNSS, IMU, camera, and human interaction based positioning) will be discussed from the

Benefits of Two Turbine Rotor Diameters and Hub Heights in the Same Wind Farm

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dykes, Katherine L [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Stanley, Andrew P. J. [Brigham Young University; Ning, Andrew [Brigham Young University

2018-01-12

Significant turbine-wake interactions greatly reduce power output in a wind farm. If different turbine hub heights and rotor diameters are included in the same wind farm, the wake interference in the farm will be reduced, resulting in a lower cost of energy (COE) than a farm with identical turbines. In this paper, we present a method to model wind farm COE in farms with hub heights and rotor diameters that vary across the wind farm. We also demonstrate how to optimize these wind farms to minimize COE. The results show that COE can be greatly reduced in wind farms with non-homogeneous turbines, especially when the turbines are spaced close together. For a unidirectional wind rose, including different turbine design in the wind farm has a similar decrease in COE to spreading the wind turbines farther apart. When the rotor diameter and hub height of the wind turbines in a farm are optimized uniformly, a COE decrease of 4% to 13% (depending on the grid spacing and wind shear exponent) is achieved compared to the baseline. When the rotor diameter and turbine heights are optimized non-uniformly, with two different diameters and heights throughout the farm, there is a COE decrease of 22% to 41% compared to the baseline. For a more spread wind rose with a dominant probability from the west, there is a COE decrease between 3% and 10% for uniformly optimized rotor diameter and height compared to the baseline. With two optimized rotor diameters and heights through the farm, a COE decrease of 3% to 19% is achieved. For a similar wind rose shifted such that the dominant wind direction is from the northwest, a COE decrease between 3% and 10% results from uniformly optimized wind turbines compared to the baseline. A COE decrease of 3% to 17% compared to the baseline occurs with two different turbines are optimized throughout the wind farm.

Reliability analysis of nuclear containment without metallic liners against jet aircraft crash

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Siddiqui, N.A.; Iqbal, M.A.; Abbas, H. E-mail: abbas_husain@hotmail.com; Paul, D.K

2003-09-01

The present study presents a methodology for detailed reliability analysis of nuclear containment without metallic liners against aircraft crash. For this purpose, a nonlinear limit state function has been derived using violation of tolerable crack width as failure criterion. This criterion has been considered as failure criterion because radioactive radiations may come out if size of crack becomes more than the tolerable crack width. The derived limit state uses the response of containment that has been obtained from a detailed dynamic analysis of nuclear containment under an impact of a large size Boeing jet aircraft. Using this response in conjunction with limit state function, the reliabilities and probabilities of failures are obtained at a number of vulnerable locations employing an efficient first-order reliability method (FORM). These values of reliability and probability of failure at various vulnerable locations are then used for the estimation of conditional and annual reliabilities of nuclear containment as a function of its location from the airport. To study the influence of the various random variables on containment reliability the sensitivity analysis has been performed. Some parametric studies have also been included to obtain the results of field and academic interest.

A preliminary assessment of the potential for 'team science' in DOE Energy Innovation Hubs and Energy Frontier Research Centers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boardman, Craig; Ponomariov, Branco

2011-01-01

President Obama has called for the development of new energy technologies to address our national energy needs and restore US economic competitiveness. In response, the Department of Energy has established new R and D modalities for energy research and development designed to facilitate collaboration across disciplinary, institutional, and sectoral boundaries. In this research note, we provide a preliminary assessment of the potential for essential mechanisms for coordinated problem solving among diverse actors within two new modalities at the DOE: Energy Innovation Hubs and Energy Frontier Research Centers. - Highlights: → Energy Frontier Research Centers may lack the basic mechanisms for coordinating diverse actors. → Divergent goals across diverse actors may hinder coordination in Energy Innovation Hubs. → The implementation of these and similar energy policies require further investigation.

Reliability of Oronasal Fistula Classification.

Science.gov (United States)

Sitzman, Thomas J; Allori, Alexander C; Matic, Damir B; Beals, Stephen P; Fisher, David M; Samson, Thomas D; Marcus, Jeffrey R; Tse, Raymond W

2018-01-01

Objective Oronasal fistula is an important complication of cleft palate repair that is frequently used to evaluate surgical quality, yet reliability of fistula classification has never been examined. The objective of this study was to determine the reliability of oronasal fistula classification both within individual surgeons and between multiple surgeons. Design Using intraoral photographs of children with repaired cleft palate, surgeons rated the location of palatal fistulae using the Pittsburgh Fistula Classification System. Intrarater and interrater reliability scores were calculated for each region of the palate. Participants Eight cleft surgeons rated photographs obtained from 29 children. Results Within individual surgeons reliability for each region of the Pittsburgh classification ranged from moderate to almost perfect (κ = .60-.96). By contrast, reliability between surgeons was lower, ranging from fair to substantial (κ = .23-.70). Between-surgeon reliability was lowest for the junction of the soft and hard palates (κ = .23). Within-surgeon and between-surgeon reliability were almost perfect for the more general classification of fistula in the secondary palate (κ = .95 and κ = .83, respectively). Conclusions This is the first reliability study of fistula classification. We show that the Pittsburgh Fistula Classification System is reliable when used by an individual surgeon, but less reliable when used among multiple surgeons. Comparisons of fistula occurrence among surgeons may be subject to less bias if they use the more general classification of "presence or absence of fistula of the secondary palate" rather than the Pittsburgh Fistula Classification System.

Why primary care practices should become digital health information hubs for their patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Baird, Aaron; Nowak, Samantha

2014-11-25

Two interesting health care trends are currently occurring: 1) patient-facing technologies, such as personal health records, patient portals, and mobile health apps, are being adopted at rapid rates, and 2) primary care, which includes family practice, is being promoted as essential to reducing health care costs and improving health care outcomes. While these trends are notable and commendable, both remain subject to significant fragmentation and incentive misalignments, which has resulted in significant data coordination and value generation challenges. In particular, patient-facing technologies designed to increase care coordination, often fall prey to the very digital fragmentation issues they are supposed to overcome. Additionally, primary care providers are treating patients that may have considerable health information histories, but generating a single view of such multi-source data is nearly impossible. We contribute to this debate by proposing that primary care practices become digital health information hubs for their patients. Such hubs would offer health data coordination in a medically professional setting with the benefits of expert, trustworthy advice coupled with active patient engagement. We acknowledge challenges including: costs, information quality and provenance, willingness-to-share information and records, willingness-to-use (by both providers and patients), primary care scope creep, and determinations of technical and process effectiveness. Even with such potential challenges, we strongly believe that more debate is needed on this topic prior to full implementation of various health information technology incentives and reform programs currently being designed and enacted throughout the world. Ultimately, if we do not provide a meaningful way for the full spectrum of health information to be used by both providers and patients, especially early in the health care continuum, effectively improving health outcomes may remain elusive. We view

WetDATA Hub: Democratizing Access to Water Data to Accelerate Innovation through Data Visualization, Predictive Analytics and Artificial Intelligence Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Sarni, W.

2017-12-01

Water scarcity and poor quality impacts economic development, business growth, and social well-being. Water has become, in our generation, the foremost critical local, regional, and global issue of our time. Despite these needs, there is no water hub or water technology accelerator solely dedicated to water data and tools. There is a need by the public and private sectors for vastly improved data management and visualization tools. This is the WetDATA opportunity - to develop a water data tech hub dedicated to water data acquisition, analytics, and visualization tools for informed policy and business decisions. WetDATA's tools will help incubate disruptive water data technologies and accelerate adoption of current water data solutions. WetDATA is a Colorado-based (501c3), global hub for water data analytics and technology innovation. WetDATA's vision is to be a global leader in water information, data technology innovation and collaborate with other US and global water technology hubs. ROADMAP * Portal (www.wetdata.org) to provide stakeholders with tools/resources to understand related water risks. * The initial activities will provide education, awareness and tools to stakeholders to support the implementation of the Colorado State Water Plan. * Leverage the Western States Water Council Water Data Exchange database. * Development of visualization, predictive analytics and AI tools to engage with stakeholders and provide actionable data and information. TOOLS Education: Provide information on water issues and risks at the local, state, national and global scale. Visualizations: Development of data analytics and visualization tools based upon the 2030 Water Resources Group methodology to support the implementation of the Colorado State Water Plan. Predictive Analytics: Accessing publically available water databases and using machine learning to develop water availability forecasting tools, and time lapse images to support city / urban planning.

Hubs of Anticorrelation in High-Resolution Resting-State Functional Connectivity Network Architecture.

Science.gov (United States)

Gopinath, Kaundinya; Krishnamurthy, Venkatagiri; Cabanban, Romeo; Crosson, Bruce A

2015-06-01

A major focus of brain research recently has been to map the resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) network architecture of the normal brain and pathology through functional magnetic resonance imaging. However, the phenomenon of anticorrelations in resting-state signals between different brain regions has not been adequately examined. The preponderance of studies on resting-state fMRI (rsFMRI) have either ignored anticorrelations in rsFC networks or adopted methods in data analysis, which have rendered anticorrelations in rsFC networks uninterpretable. The few studies that have examined anticorrelations in rsFC networks using conventional methods have found anticorrelations to be weak in strength and not very reproducible across subjects. Anticorrelations in rsFC network architecture could reflect mechanisms that subserve a number of important brain processes. In this preliminary study, we examined the properties of anticorrelated rsFC networks by systematically focusing on negative cross-correlation coefficients (CCs) among rsFMRI voxel time series across the brain with graph theory-based network analysis. A number of methods were implemented to enhance the neuronal specificity of resting-state functional connections that yield negative CCs, although at the cost of decreased sensitivity. Hubs of anticorrelation were seen in a number of cortical and subcortical brain regions. Examination of the anticorrelation maps of these hubs indicated that negative CCs in rsFC network architecture highlight a number of regulatory interactions between brain networks and regions, including reciprocal modulations, suppression, inhibition, and neurofeedback.

Signaling efficiency of Galphaq through its effectors p63RhoGEF and GEFT depends on their subcellular location

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Goedhart, J.; Unen, J. van; Adjobo-Hermans, M.J.W.; Gadella, T.W.

2013-01-01

The p63RhoGEF and GEFT proteins are encoded by the same gene and both members of the Dbl family of guanine nucleotide exchange factors. These proteins can be activated by the heterotrimeric G-protein subunit Galphaq. We show that p63RhoGEF is located at the plasma membrane, whereas GEFT is confined

HIV and AIDS Data Hub for Asia Pacific: a regional tool to support strategic information needs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ye Yu Shwe

2012-09-01

Full Text Available The 2011 global commitments towards controlling HIV made by Asia-Pacific countries require considerable improvement in strategic information and response tracking. The HIV and AIDS Data Hub can serve as an important tool for stakeholders with its regional database of subnational indicators, web site and data synthesis capacity.

ABACUS and AQME: Semiconductor Device and Quantum Mechanics Education on nanoHUB.org

OpenAIRE

Klimeck, Gerhard; Vasileska, Dragica

2009-01-01

The ABACUS and AQME on-line tools and their associated wiki pages form one-stop shops for educators and students of existing university courses. They are geared towards courses like "introduction to Semiconductor Devices" and "Quantum Mechanics for Engineers". The service is free to anyone and no software installation is required on the user's computer. All simulations, including advanced visualization are performed at a remote computer. The tools have been deployed on nanoHUB.org in August 2...

Highly uniform and reliable resistive switching characteristics of a Ni/WOx/p+-Si memory device

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Tae-Hyeon; Kim, Sungjun; Kim, Hyungjin; Kim, Min-Hwi; Bang, Suhyun; Cho, Seongjae; Park, Byung-Gook

2018-02-01

In this paper, we investigate the resistive switching behavior of a bipolar resistive random-access memory (RRAM) in a Ni/WOx/p+-Si RRAM with CMOS compatibility. Highly unifrom and reliable bipolar resistive switching characteristics are observed by a DC voltage sweeping and its switching mechanism can be explained by SCLC model. As a result, the possibility of metal-insulator-silicon (MIS) structural WOx-based RRAM's application to Si-based 1D (diode)-1R (RRAM) or 1T (transistor)-1R (RRAM) structure is demonstrated.

Locations and attributes of wind turbines in Colorado, 2011

Science.gov (United States)

Carr, Natasha B.; Diffendorfer, James E.; Fancher, Tammy; Hawkins, Sarah J.; Latysh, Natalie; Leib, Kenneth J.; Matherne, Anne Marie

2013-01-01

This dataset represents an update to U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 597. Locations and attributes of wind turbines in Colorado, 2009 (available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/597/). This updated Colorado wind turbine Data Series provides geospatial data for all 1,204 wind turbines established within the State of Colorado as of September 2011, an increase of 297 wind turbines from 2009. Attributes specific to each turbine include: turbine location, manufacturer and model, rotor diameter, hub height, rotor height, potential megawatt output, land ownership, county, and development status of the wind turbine. Wind energy facility data for each turbine include: facility name, facility power capacity, number of turbines associated with each facility to date, facility developer, facility ownership, and year the facility went online. The locations of turbines are derived from 1-meter true-color aerial photographs produced by the National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP); the photographs have a positional accuracy of about ±5 meters. Locations of turbines constructed during or prior to August 2009 are based on August 2009 NAIP imagery and turbine locations constructed after August 2009 were based on September 2011 NAIP imagery. The location of turbines under construction during September 2011 likely will be less accurate than the location of existing turbines. This data series contributes to an Online Interactive Energy Atlas developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (http://my.usgs.gov/eerma/). The Energy Atlas synthesizes data on existing and potential energy development in Colorado and New Mexico and includes additional natural resource data layers. This information may be used by decisionmakers to evaluate and compare the potential benefits and tradeoffs associated with different energy development strategies or scenarios. Interactive maps, downloadable data layers, comprehensive metadata, and decision-support tools also are included in the Energy Atlas. The format of

Reliability of Source Mechanisms for a Hydraulic Fracturing Dataset

Science.gov (United States)

Eyre, T.; Van der Baan, M.

2016-12-01

Non-double-couple components have been inferred for induced seismicity due to fluid injection, yet these components are often poorly constrained due to the acquisition geometry. Likewise non-double-couple components in microseismic recordings are not uncommon. Microseismic source mechanisms provide an insight into the fracturing behaviour of a hydraulically stimulated reservoir. However, source inversion in a hydraulic fracturing environment is complicated by the likelihood of volumetric contributions to the source due to the presence of high pressure fluids, which greatly increases the possible solution space and therefore the non-uniqueness of the solutions. Microseismic data is usually recorded on either 2D surface or borehole arrays of sensors. In many cases, surface arrays appear to constrain source mechanisms with high shear components, whereas borehole arrays tend to constrain more variable mechanisms including those with high tensile components. The abilities of each geometry to constrain the true source mechanisms are therefore called into question.The ability to distinguish between shear and tensile source mechanisms with different acquisition geometries is investigated using synthetic data. For both inversions, both P- and S- wave amplitudes recorded on three component sensors need to be included to obtain reliable solutions. Surface arrays appear to give more reliable solutions due to a greater sampling of the focal sphere, but in reality tend to record signals with a low signal to noise ratio. Borehole arrays can produce acceptable results, however the reliability is much more affected by relative source-receiver locations and source orientation, with biases produced in many of the solutions. Therefore more care must be taken when interpreting results.These findings are taken into account when interpreting a microseismic dataset of 470 events recorded by two vertical borehole arrays monitoring a horizontal treatment well. Source locations and

EXPANSION OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION, GRADUATE UNEMPLOYMENT AND THE KNOWLEDGE HUB IN SRI LANKA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gamini Samaranayake

2016-04-01

Full Text Available The main objective of this paper is to examine the nexus between the existing university education system and graduate unemployment, and to explore the responses of successive governments to address this issue. It also examines the viability and potential of the knowledge hub as a solution to graduate unemployment. Towards this end, it argues that the solution to graduate employment lies in implementing structural changes that are concurrent to changes that are taking place at the international level in higher education. It illustrates, with the use of relevant sources, the pressing issue of graduate un- and underemployment, and identifies the mismatch between skills and requirements as a major factor contributing to intensify the crisis. It observes that strategies such as training unemployed graduates to enable them to acquire the competencies needed for the modern work place, developing systems to link them to the world of work, re-structuring the university system such that it is more concerned with quality and relevance rather than the width of knowledge imparted, and introducing job-oriented programmes could partially address this issue. It also identifies the proposal to establish a knowledge hub in Sri Lanka as constituting a long term and sustainable strategy not only to mitigate the effects of graduate un- and underemployment, but also to facilitate a lucrative source of revenue for the country.

Hexcrete Tower for Harvesting Wind Energy at Taller Hub Heights - Budget Period 2

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sritharan, Sri [Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)

2017-05-01

Interest in designing taller towers for wind energy production in the United States (U.S.) has been steadily growing. In May 2015, it was revealed that taller towers will make wind energy production a reality in all 50 states, including some states that have nearly zero renewables in their energy portfolio. Facilitating wind energy production feasibility in all 50 states will no doubt contribute to increasing the electricity produced by wind from 4.5% in 2013 to a targeted scenario of 35% by 2050 in the Wind Vision report. This project focuses on the Hexcrete tower concept developed for tall towers using High Strength Concrete (HSC) and/or Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC). Among other benefits, the Hexcrete concept overcomes transportation and logistical challenges, thus facilitating construction of towers with hub heights of 100-m (328-ft) and higher. The goal of this project is to facilitate widespread deployment of Hexcrete towers for harvesting wind energy at 120 to 140-m (394 to 459-ft) hub heights and reduce the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) of wind energy production in the U.S. The technical scope of the project includes detailed design and optimization of at least three wind turbine towers using the Hexcrete concept together with experimental validation and LCOE analyses and development of a commercialization plan.

The iMars WebGIS - A Central Hub for Displaying and Distributing Co-Registered Data of Mars

Science.gov (United States)

van Gasselt, S.; Morley, J.; Houghton, R.; Bamford, S.; Ivanov, A.; Muller, J.-P.; Yershov, V.; Sidiripoulos, P.; Gwinner, K.; Waehlisch, M.; Kim, J. R.

2014-04-01

The iMars-project [1] is an EU funded R&D project which has started in 2014 and which is aimed at developing an automated processing system for generating image stacks of high-precision, co-registered, terrain-corrected and multi-temporal data of Mars obtained since 1977. It is anticipated that the entire NASA and ESA record of orbital image data will be co-registered and terrain-corrected in 2015 [1] so that time-series data can be generated for subsequent analyses. Such analyses will be conducted automatically using change-detection algorithms or interactively and visually using the citizen-science concept implemented at Zooniverse [2]. For more detailed information see [1] and visit the project's website at http://www.i-Mars.eu. Close user interaction plays a paramount role within iMars which requires sophisticated concepts for data handling and communication allowing users to integrate, analyse and visualise data from a central location. This interactive data hub will be realised through open-source webGIS implementations and by providing webGIS services to the user community using established OGC-protocols (see Fig. 1, [3, 4, 5]).

Locations and attributes of wind turbines in New Mexico, 2009

Science.gov (United States)

Carr, Natasha B.; Diffendorfer, Jay E.; Fancher, Tammy S.; Latysh, Natalie E.; Leib, Kenneth J.; Matherne, Anne-Marie; Turner, Christine

2011-01-01

The New Mexico wind-turbine data series provides geospatial data for all wind turbines established within the State as of August 2009. Attributes specific to each turbine include: turbine location, manufacturer and model, rotor diameter, hub height, rotor height, potential megawatt output, land ownership, and county. Wind energy facility data for each turbine include: facility name, facility power capacity, number of turbines associated with each facility to date, facility developer, facility ownership, year the facility went online, and development status of wind facility. Turbine locations were derived from 1-meter August 2009 true-color aerial photographs produced by the National Agriculture Imagery Program; the photographs have a positional accuracy of about + or - 5 meters. The location of turbines under construction during August 2009 likely will be less accurate than the location of existing turbines. This data series contributes to an Online Interactive Energy Atlas currently (2011) in development by the U.S. Geological Survey. The Energy Atlas will synthesize data on existing and potential energy development in Colorado and New Mexico and will include additional natural resource data layers. This information may be used by decisionmakers to evaluate and compare the potential benefits and tradeoffs associated with different energy development strategies or scenarios. Interactive maps, downloadable data layers, comprehensive metadata, and decision-support tools will be included in the Energy Atlas. The format of the Energy Atlas will facilitate the integration of information about energy with key terrestrial and aquatic resources for evaluating resource values and minimizing risks from energy development.

75 FR 76003 - Tricor Ten Section Hub LLC; Notice of Availability of the Environmental Assessment for the...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-12-07

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [Docket No. CP09-432-000] Tricor Ten Section Hub LLC; Notice of Availability of the Environmental Assessment for the Proposed Ten Section Gas... Commission) has prepared an environmental assessment (EA) for the Ten Section Gas Storage Project, in Kern...

ABACUS and AQME: Semiconducor Device and Quantum Mechanics Education on nanoHUB.org

OpenAIRE

Klimeck, Gerhard; Vasileska, Dragica

2009-01-01

The ABACUS and AQME on-line tools and their associated wiki pages form one-stop shops for educators and students of existing university courses. They are geared towards courses like “introduction to Semiconductor Devices” and “Quantum Mechanics for Engineers”. The service is free to anyone and no software installation is required on the user’s computer. All simulations, including advanced visualization are performed at a remote computer. The tools have been deployed on nanoHUB.org in August 2...

An Integrated Approach for Reliable Facility Location/Network Design Problem with Link Disruption

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Davood Shishebori

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Proposing a robust designed facility location is one of the most effective ways to hedge against unexpected disruptions and failures in a transportation network system. This paper considers the combined facility location/network design problem with regard to transportation link disruptions and develops a mixed integer linear programming formulation to model it. With respect to the probability of link disruptions, the objective function of the model minimizes the total costs, including location costs, link construction costs and also the expected transportation costs. An efficient hybrid algorithm based on LP relaxation and variable neighbourhood search metaheuristic is developed in order to solve the mathematical model. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed hybrid algorithm has suitable efficiency in terms of duration of solution time and determining excellent solution quality.

78 FR 63036 - Transmission Planning Reliability Standards

Science.gov (United States)

2013-10-23

... Reliability Standards for the Bulk Power System, 130 FERC ] 61,200 (2010). \\8\\ Mandatory Reliability Standards... electric system operations across normal and contingency conditions. We also find that Reliability Standard... Reliability Standards for the Bulk Power System, 131 FERC ] 61,231 at P 21. Comments 24. NERC supports the...

A genome-wide screen identifies conserved protein hubs required for cadherin-mediated cell–cell adhesion

Science.gov (United States)

Toret, Christopher P.; D’Ambrosio, Michael V.; Vale, Ronald D.; Simon, Michael A.

2014-01-01

Cadherins and associated catenins provide an important structural interface between neighboring cells, the actin cytoskeleton, and intracellular signaling pathways in a variety of cell types throughout the Metazoa. However, the full inventory of the proteins and pathways required for cadherin-mediated adhesion has not been established. To this end, we completed a genome-wide (∼14,000 genes) ribonucleic acid interference (RNAi) screen that targeted Ca2+-dependent adhesion in DE-cadherin–expressing Drosophila melanogaster S2 cells in suspension culture. This novel screen eliminated Ca2+-independent cell–cell adhesion, integrin-based adhesion, cell spreading, and cell migration. We identified 17 interconnected regulatory hubs, based on protein functions and protein–protein interactions that regulate the levels of the core cadherin–catenin complex and coordinate cadherin-mediated cell–cell adhesion. Representative proteins from these hubs were analyzed further in Drosophila oogenesis, using targeted germline RNAi, and adhesion was analyzed in Madin–Darby canine kidney mammalian epithelial cell–cell adhesion. These experiments reveal roles for a diversity of cellular pathways that are required for cadherin function in Metazoa, including cytoskeleton organization, cell–substrate interactions, and nuclear and cytoplasmic signaling. PMID:24446484

A physical model study of the travel times and conversion point locations of P-SV converted waves in vertical transversely isotropic media

Science.gov (United States)

Tseng, C.

2013-12-01

In exploration seismology, subsurface medium commonly exhibits anisotropy, characterized by a vertical transversely isotropic (VTI) model. Due to the need of exploring small reservoirs in complex structures, the seismic exploration is extended to deal with anisotropic media. The P-S converted wave seismic exploration is a relatively inexpensive, broadly applicable, and effective way to obtain the S-wave information of the medium. In anisotropic traveltime analysis, the moveout curve of horizontal P-SV event can help to determine the ratio of the P- and SV-wave vertical velocities, the normal moveout (NMO) velocity of SV-waves, and the anisotropy parameters. The P-SV conversion point (CP) location is of great importance to P-SV data binning, NMO corrections and common conversion point (CCP) stacking, and the anisotropy has a more significant effect on the conversion point location than on the moveout. In this study, we attempt to inspect the theoretical non-hyperbolic moveout and CP equations for the P-SV waves reflected from a VTI layer by numerical calculations and physical modeling. We are also interested in visualizing the variations of the conversion point locations from a designed VTI medium. In traveltime analysis, the theoretical moveout curve is accurate up to offsets about one and a half times the reflector depth (x/z=1.5). However, the moveout curve computed by Fermat's principle fits well to the physical data. The CP locations of P-SV waves are similar to those calculated by Fermat's principle and theoretical CP equation, which are verified by the physical modeling.

Air network performance and hub competitive position: evaluation of primary airports in East and South-East Asia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Burghouwt, G.; de Wit, J.; Veldhuis, J.; Matsumoto, H.

2009-01-01

The growth of hub-and-spoke operations has changed the structure of competition among airlines and airports, meaning that airlines now compete both directly (air services from A to B) as well as indirectly (services from A to B via H). Traditional measures of airport performance, such as passenger

Wind turbine/generator set having a stator cooling system located between stator frame and active coils

Science.gov (United States)

Bevington, Christopher M.; Bywaters, Garrett L.; Coleman, Clint C.; Costin, Daniel P.; Danforth, William L.; Lynch, Jonathan A.; Rolland, Robert H.

2012-11-13

A wind turbine comprising an electrical generator that includes a rotor assembly. A wind rotor that includes a wind rotor hub is directly coupled to the rotor assembly via a simplified connection. The wind rotor and generator rotor assembly are rotatably mounted on a central spindle via a bearing assembly. The wind rotor hub includes an opening having a diameter larger than the outside diameter of the central spindle adjacent the bearing assembly so as to allow access to the bearing assembly from a cavity inside the wind rotor hub. The spindle is attached to a turret supported by a tower. Each of the spindle, turret and tower has an interior cavity that permits personnel to traverse therethrough to the cavity of the wind rotor hub. The wind turbine further includes a frictional braking system for slowing, stopping or keeping stopped the rotation of the wind rotor and rotor assembly.

Sustainable energy from biomass: Biomethane manufacturing plant location and distribution problem

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, Bingqing; Sarker, Bhaba R.; Paudel, Krishna P.

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Optimal strategy to locate biogas reactor and allocating feedstock. • Nonlinear mixed integer programming problem structure. • Real world supply chain of biogas production system. • Considers construction cost, transportation and labor costs. • Novel heuristic improves efficiency to obtain optimal solution. - Abstract: As an environment-friendly and renewable energy source, biomethane plays a significant role in the supply of sustainable energy. To facilitate the decision-making process of where to build a biomethane production system (BMPS) and how to allocate the resources for the BMPS, this paper develops an analytical method to find the solutions to location and allocation problems by minimizing the supply chain cost of the BMPS. The BMPS consists of the local farms for providing feedstock, the hubs for collecting and storing feedstock from farms, and the reactors for producing biomethane from feedstock. A mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) is introduced to model the supply chain by considering building, transportation, and labor costs. An alternative heuristic is proposed to obtain an optimal/sub-optimal solution from the MINLP. The validity of the proposed heuristic is proven by numerical examples that are abstracted from practical scenarios.

Improving Wind Turbine Drivetrain Reliability Using a Combined Experimental, Computational, and Analytical Approach

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Guo, Y.; van Dam, J.; Bergua, R.; Jove, J.; Campbell, J.

2015-03-01

Nontorque loads induced by the wind turbine rotor overhang weight and aerodynamic forces can greatly affect drivetrain loads and responses. If not addressed properly, these loads can result in a decrease in gearbox component life. This work uses analytical modeling, computational modeling, and experimental data to evaluate a unique drivetrain design that minimizes the effects of nontorque loads on gearbox reliability: the Pure Torque(R) drivetrain developed by Alstom. The drivetrain has a hub-support configuration that transmits nontorque loads directly into the tower rather than through the gearbox as in other design approaches. An analytical model of Alstom's Pure Torque drivetrain provides insight into the relationships among turbine component weights, aerodynamic forces, and the resulting drivetrain loads. Main shaft bending loads are orders of magnitude lower than the rated torque and are hardly affected by wind conditions and turbine operations.

"Thanks for Letting Us All Share Your Mammogram Experience Virtually": Developing a Web-Based Hub for Breast Cancer Screening.

Science.gov (United States)

Galpin, Adam; Meredith, Joanne; Ure, Cathy; Robinson, Leslie

2017-10-27

discussion. Health professionals and service users expressed the same broad concerns, but there were subtle differences in their opinions. Importantly, the themes were triangulated between the Facebook discussions and the survey data, supporting the validity of an online user design group. Online user design groups afford a useful method for understanding stakeholder needs. In contrast to focus groups, they afford access to users from diverse geographical locations and traverse time constraints, allowing more follow-ups to responses. The use of Facebook provides a familiar and naturalistic setting for discussion. Although we acknowledge the limitations in the sample, this approach has allowed us to understand the views of stakeholders in the user-centered design of the WoMMeN hub for breast cancer screening. ©Adam Galpin, Joanne Meredith, Cathy Ure, Leslie Robinson. Originally published in JMIR Cancer (http://cancer.jmir.org), 27.10.2017.

Reliability of IP Tunnels in Military Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pólkowski Marcin

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The military networks, contrary to commercial ones, require standards which provide the highest level of security and reliability. The process to assuring redundancy of the main connections through applying various protocols and transmission media causes problem with time needed to re-establish virtual tunnels between different locations in case of damaged link. This article compares reliability of different IP (Internet Protocol tunnels, which were implemented on military network devices.

State and local taxes minor factors for E and P locations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pulsipher, A.G.

1991-01-01

In the main oil and gas producing states of the U.S., contrary to common perception, differences are small in the state and local tax bills on exploration and production (E and P) operations. Therefore it is unlikely that competition for exploration and investment, such as between Louisiana and Texas, depends on these taxes. It is likey that price and geological considerations dominate the selection of E and P locations. The common perception that some states could be at a disadvantage is based on two factors: First, there is a considerable variation among states in severance tax rates levied on oil and gas ranging from California's negligible rate of 2 1/2 cents/bbl to Alaska's 15% of the value of a barrel at the well. Second, state and local tax structures differ in the degree to which they rely on business taxes relative to consumer taxes. The objective of this article is to test this hypothesis by estimating the tax bill of the production industry in the leading oil and gas producing states in the U.S. The tax bills of the states are compared. This figure depicts, expressed as the per barrel of oil or gas equivalent produced in each state, the total amount paid in sales, property, corporate income or franchise, and severance taxes

Power system reliability enhancement by using PowerformerTM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rahmat-Allah Hooshmand

2009-01-01

Full Text Available A high-voltage generator PowerformerTM is a new generation of the AC generators. The most significant advantages of these PowerformerTM are their direct connection to high-voltage grid, higher availability, and more reactive power margin, short term overloading capacity and removing the power transformer from the structure of the power plant. In this paper, the installation effect of these generators on the power system reliability is investigated. The amount of the effects depends on the type and location of the power plant, location of the PowerformerTM, the size of load and network topology. For this purpose, in the 6-bus IEEE RBTS system, the conventional generators are replaced by these new PowerformerTM and then, the reliability indices are evaluated. The simulation results show that the reliability indices such as the expected duration of load curtailment (EDLC and the expected energy not served (EENS are improved. .

Development of an Agility Test for Badminton Players and Assessment of Its Validity and Test-Retest Reliability.

Science.gov (United States)

Loureiro, Luiz de França Bahia; de Freitas, Paulo Barbosa

2016-04-01

Badminton requires open and fast actions toward the shuttlecock, but there is no specific agility test for badminton players with specific movements. To develop an agility test that simultaneously assesses perception and motor capacity and examine the test's concurrent and construct validity and its test-retest reliability. The Badcamp agility test consists of running as fast as possible to 6 targets placed on the corners and middle points of a rectangular area (5.6 × 4.2 m) from the start position located in the center of it, following visual stimuli presented in a luminous panel. The authors recruited 43 badminton players (17-32 y old) to evaluate concurrent (with shuttle-run agility test--SRAT) and construct validity and test-retest reliability. Results revealed that Badcamp presents concurrent and construct validity, as its performance is strongly related to SRAT (ρ = 0.83, P < .001), with performance of experts being better than nonexpert players (P < .01). In addition, Badcamp is reliable, as no difference (P = .07) and a high intraclass correlation (ICC = .93) were found in the performance of the players on 2 different occasions. The findings indicate that Badcamp is an effective, valid, and reliable tool to measure agility, allowing coaches and athletic trainers to evaluate players' athletic condition and training effectiveness and possibly detect talented individuals in this sport.

Signaling efficiency of Gαq through its effectors p63RhoGEF and GEFT depends on their subcellular location.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Goedhart, J.; van Unen, J.; Adjobo-Hermans, M.J.W.; Gadella (jr.), T.W.J.

2013-01-01

The p63RhoGEF and GEFT proteins are encoded by the same gene and both members of the Dbl family of guanine nucleotide exchange factors. These proteins can be activated by the heterotrimeric G-protein subunit Galphaq. We show that p63RhoGEF is located at the plasma membrane, whereas GEFT is confined

Locations and attributes of wind turbines in New Mexico, 2011

Science.gov (United States)

Carr, Natasha B.; Diffendorfer, James B.; Fancher, Tammy; Hawkins, Sarah J.; Latysh, Natalie; Leib, Kenneth J.; Matherne, Anne Marie

2013-01-01

This dataset represents an update to U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 596. Locations and attributes of wind turbines in New Mexico, 2009 (available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/596/).This updated New Mexico wind turbine Data Series provides geospatial data for all 562 wind turbines established within the State of New Mexico as of June 2011, an increase of 155 wind turbines from 2009. Attributes specific to each turbine include: turbine location, manufacturer and model, rotor diameter, hub height, rotor height, potential megawatt output, land ownership, county, and development status of wind turbine. Wind energy facility data for each turbine include: facility name, facility power capacity, number of turbines associated with each facility to date, facility developer, facility ownership, and year the facility went online. The locations of turbines are derived from 1-meter true-color aerial photographs produced by the National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP); the photographs have a positional accuracy of about ±5 meters. The locations of turbines constructed during or prior to August 2009 are based on August 2009 NAIP imagery and turbine locations constructed after August 2009 were based June 2011 NAIP imagery. The location of turbines under construction during June 2011 likely will be less accurate than the location of existing turbines. This data series contributes to an Online Interactive Energy Atlas developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (http://my.usgs.gov/eerma/). The Energy Atlas synthesizes data on existing and potential energy development in Colorado and New Mexico and includes additional natural resource data layers. This information may be used by decisionmakers to evaluate and compare the potential benefits and tradeoffs associated with different energy development strategies or scenarios. Interactive maps, downloadable data layers, comprehensive metadata, and decision-support tools also are included in the Energy Atlas. The format of the Energy

Environment as a home to architecture. The Cremona City Hub project

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emilio Faroldi

2014-10-01

Full Text Available The urban regeneration pro- ject of the former Marketplace area promoted by the Local Administration in Cremona through a two-step international contest which ended in May 2012, relies on the willingness to guarantee new and high standards of welcoming and liveability within a logic of “smart city” to be meant as an healthy, dynamic and economically sustainable city. The promotion of energy policies, the close connection between the urban and the architectural project, a new dimension of welcoming and residentiality, the environmental quality, and the fruition of culture, represent questions to which new project development capabilities intend to ensure adequate answers. The experimental research of the Cremona City Hub project targets these very values.

Test-retest reliability of the novel 5-HT{sub 1B} receptor PET radioligand [{sup 11}C]P943

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Saricicek, Aybala [Yale University, Department of Psychiatry, New Haven, CT (United States); Connecticut Mental Health Center, Abraham Ribicoff Research Facilities, New Haven, CT (United States); Izmir Katip Celebi University, Department of Psychiatry, Izmir (Turkey); Chen, Jason; Ruf, Barbara [Yale University, Department of Psychiatry, New Haven, CT (United States); Planeta, Beata; Labaree, David; Gallezot, Jean-Dominique; Huang, Yiyun [Yale University, PET Center, Department of Diagnostic Radiology, New Haven, CT (United States); Subramanyam, Kalyani; Maloney, Kathleen [Yale University, Department of Psychiatry, New Haven, CT (United States); Connecticut Mental Health Center, Abraham Ribicoff Research Facilities, New Haven, CT (United States); Matuskey, David [Yale University, Department of Psychiatry, New Haven, CT (United States); Connecticut Mental Health Center, Abraham Ribicoff Research Facilities, New Haven, CT (United States); Yale University, PET Center, Department of Diagnostic Radiology, New Haven, CT (United States); Deserno, Lorenz [Charite - Universitaetsmedizin Berlin, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Campus Charite Mitte, Berlin (Germany); Max-Planck-Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Berlin (Germany); Neumeister, Alexander [Yale University, Department of Psychiatry, New Haven, CT (United States); Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, New York, NY (United States); VA Connecticut Healthcare System, Clinical Neuroscience Division, VA National Center for PTSD, West Haven, CT (United States); Krystal, John H. [Yale University, Department of Psychiatry, New Haven, CT (United States); Connecticut Mental Health Center, Abraham Ribicoff Research Facilities, New Haven, CT (United States); VA Connecticut Healthcare System, Clinical Neuroscience Division, VA National Center for PTSD, West Haven, CT (United States); Carson, Richard E. [Connecticut Mental Health Center, Abraham Ribicoff Research Facilities, New Haven, CT (United States); Bhagwagar, Zubin [Yale University, Department of Psychiatry, New Haven, CT (United States); Connecticut Mental Health Center, Abraham Ribicoff Research Facilities, New Haven, CT (United States); Bristol-Myers Squibb, Wallingford, CT (United States)

2014-11-27

[{sup 11}C]P943 is a novel, highly selective 5-HT{sub 1B} PET radioligand. The aim of this study was to determine the test-retest reliability of [{sup 11}C]P943 using two different modeling methods and to perform a power analysis with each quantification technique. Seven healthy volunteers underwent two PET scans on the same day. Regions of interest (ROIs) were the amygdala, hippocampus, pallidum, putamen, insula, frontal, anterior cingulate, parietal, temporal and occipital cortices, and cerebellum. Two multilinear radioligand quantification techniques were used to estimate binding potential: MA1, using arterial input function data, and the second version of the multilinear reference tissue model analysis (MRTM2), using the cerebellum as the reference region. Between-scan percent variability and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were used to assess test-retest reliability. We also performed power analyses to determine the method that would allow the least number of subjects using within-subject or between-subject study designs. A voxel-wise ICC analysis for MRTM2 BP{sub ND} was performed for the whole brain and all the ROIs studied. Mean percent variability between two scans across regions ranged between 0.4 % and 12.4 % for MA1 BP{sub ND}, 0.5 % and 11.5 % for MA1 BP{sub P}, 16.7 % and 28.3 % for MA1 BP{sub F}, and between 0.2 % and 5.4 % for MRTM2 BP{sub ND}. The power analyses showed a greater number of subjects were required using MA1 BP{sub F} compared with other outcome measures for both within-subject and between-subject study designs. ICC values were the highest using MRTM2 BP{sub ND} and the lowest with MA1 BP{sub F} in ten ROIs. Small regions and regions with low binding had lower ICC values than large regions and regions with high binding. Reliable measures of 5-HT{sub 1B} receptor binding can be obtained using the novel PET radioligand [{sup 11}C]P943. Quantification of 5-HT{sub 1B} receptor binding with MRTM2 BP{sub ND} and with MA1 BP{sub P

Microseismic event location using global optimization algorithms: An integrated and automated workflow

Science.gov (United States)

Lagos, Soledad R.; Velis, Danilo R.

2018-02-01

We perform the location of microseismic events generated in hydraulic fracturing monitoring scenarios using two global optimization techniques: Very Fast Simulated Annealing (VFSA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), and compare them against the classical grid search (GS). To this end, we present an integrated and optimized workflow that concatenates into an automated bash script the different steps that lead to the microseismic events location from raw 3C data. First, we carry out the automatic detection, denoising and identification of the P- and S-waves. Secondly, we estimate their corresponding backazimuths using polarization information, and propose a simple energy-based criterion to automatically decide which is the most reliable estimate. Finally, after taking proper care of the size of the search space using the backazimuth information, we perform the location using the aforementioned algorithms for 2D and 3D usual scenarios of hydraulic fracturing processes. We assess the impact of restricting the search space and show the advantages of using either VFSA or PSO over GS to attain significant speed-ups.

A Reliable and Non-destructive Method for Monitoring the Stromal pH in Isolated Chloroplasts Using a Fluorescent pH Probe

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pai-Hsiang Su

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The proton gradient established by the pH difference across a biological membrane is essential for many physiological processes, including ATP synthesis and ion and metabolite transport. Currently, ionophores are used to study proton gradients, and determine their importance to biological functions of interest. Because of the lack of an easy method for monitoring the proton gradient across the inner envelope membrane of chloroplasts (ΔpHenv, whether the concentration of ionophores used can effectively abolish the ΔpHenv is not proven for most experiments. To overcome this hindrance, we tried to setup an easy method for real-time monitoring of the stromal pH in buffered, isolated chloroplasts by using fluorescent pH probes; using this method the ΔpHenv can be calculated by subtracting the buffer pH from the measured stromal pH. When three fluorescent dyes, BCECF-AM [2′,7′-bis-(2-carboxyethyl-5-(and-6-carboxyfluorescein acetoxymethyl ester], CFDA-SE [5(6-Carboxyfluorescein diacetate succinimidyl ester] and SNARF-1 carboxylic acid acetate succinimidyl ester were incubated with isolated chloroplasts, BCECF-AM and CFDA-SE, but not the ester-formed SNARF-1 were taken up by chloroplasts and digested with esterase to release high levels of fluorescence. According to its relatively higher pKa value (6.98, near the physiological pH of the stroma, BCECF was chosen for further development. Due to shielding of the excitation and emission lights by chloroplast pigments, the ratiometric fluorescence of BCECF was highly dependent on the concentration of chloroplasts. By using a fixed concentration of chloroplasts, a highly correlated standard curve of pH to the BCECF ratiometric fluorescence with an r-square value of 0.98 was obtained, indicating the reliability of this method. Consistent with previous reports, the light-dependent formation of ΔpHenv can be detected ranging from 0.15 to 0.33 pH units upon illumination. The concentration of the ionophore

Dimensional consistency achieved in high-performance synchronizing hubs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

García, P.

2013-02-01

Full Text Available The tolerances of parts produced for the automotive industry are so tight that any small process variation may mean that the product does not fulfill them. As dimensional tolerances decrease, the material properties of parts are expected to be improved. Depending on the dimensional and material requirements of a part, different production routes are available to find robust processes, minimizing cost and maximizing process capability. Dimensional tolerances have been reduced in recent years, and as a result, the double pressing-double sintering production via (“2P2S” has again become an accurate way to meet these increasingly narrow tolerances. In this paper, it is shown that the process parameters of the first sintering have great influence on the following production steps and the dimensions of the final parts. The roles of factors other than density and the second sintering process in defining the final dimensions of product are probed. All trials were done in a production line that produces synchronizer hubs for manual transmissions, allowing the maintenance of stable conditions and control of those parameters that are relevant for the product and process.

Las tolerancias en componentes fabricados para la industria del automóvil son tan estrechas que cualquier modificación en las variables del proceso puede provocar que no se cumplan. Una disminución de las tolerancias dimensionales, puede significar una mejora en las propiedades de las piezas. Dependiendo de los requerimientos dimensionales y del material, distintas rutas de procesado pueden seguirse para encontrar un método de procesado robusto, que minimice costes y maximice la capacidad del proceso. En los últimos años, la tolerancia dimensional se ha ajustado gracias a métodos de procesado como el doble prensado/doble sinterizado (“2P2S”, método de gran precisión para conseguir estrechas tolerancias. En este trabajo, se muestra que los parámetros de procesado

3D P and S Wave Velocity Structure and Tremor Locations in the Parkfield Region

Science.gov (United States)

Zeng, X.; Thurber, C. H.; Shelly, D. R.; Bennington, N. L.; Cochran, E. S.; Harrington, R. M.

2014-12-01

We have assembled a new dataset to refine the 3D seismic velocity model in the Parkfield region. The S arrivals from 184 earthquakes recorded by the Parkfield Experiment to Record MIcroseismicity and Tremor array (PERMIT) during 2010-2011 were picked by a new S wave picker, which is based on machine learning. 74 blasts have been assigned to four quarries, whose locations were identified with Google Earth. About 1000 P and S wave arrivals from these blasts at permanent seismic network were also incorporated. Low frequency earthquakes (LFEs) occurring within non-volcanic tremor (NVT) are valuable for improving the precision of NVT location and the seismic velocity model at greater depths. Based on previous work (Shelley and Hardebeck, 2010), waveforms of hundreds of LFEs in same family were stacked to improve signal qualify. In a previous study (McClement et al., 2013), stacked traces of more than 30 LFE families at the Parkfileld Array Seismic Observatory (PASO) have been picked. We expanded our work to include LFEs recorded by the PERMIT array. The time-frequency Phase Weight Stacking (tf-PWS) method was introduced to improve the stack quality, as direct stacking does not produce clear S-wave arrivals on the PERMIT stations. This technique uses the coherence of the instantaneous phase among the stacked signals to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the stack. We found that it is extremely effective for picking LFE arrivals (Thurber et al., 2014). More than 500 P and about 1000 S arrivals from 58 LFE families were picked at the PERMIT and PASO arrays. Since the depths of LFEs are much deeper than earthquakes, we are able to extend model resolution to lower crustal depths. Both P and S wave velocity structure have been obtained with the tomoDD method. The result suggests that there is a low velocity zone (LVZ) in the lower crust and the location of the LVZ is consistent with the high conductivity zone beneath the southern segment of the Rinconada fault that

DisasterHub: A mobile application for enabling crowd generated data fusion in Earth Observation disaster management services

Science.gov (United States)

Tsironis, Vassilis; Herekakis, Themistocles; Tsouni, Alexia; Kontoes, Charalampos Haris

2016-04-01

by DisasterHub, an application proposal that won the MYGEOSS Second Call for Innovative Apps (http://beyond-eocenter.eu/index.php/ann-blog/197-disasterhub-mygeoss). DisasterHub will fill the gap by introducing a mobile application that will act as a middleware between mobile users and BEYOND services, building on the concept of citizen observatories in support of Copernicus, GEO, GEOSS, and UN-SPIDER. In this context the roadmap for generating beneficial EO services through DisasterHub is sketched in two main branches: (i) ingestion, processing and fusion of big multimodal data with additional spatiotemporal evidences (originated from Core Copernicus, GEO, GEOSS) for deriving higher value DRR and EMS products, (ii) interlinking the web and mobile platforms for the exchange and ease access of the societies to open EO/crowd generated data. The benefited communities will be effectively enlarged through DisasterHub mobile app. Mutually the BEYOND ecosystem will profit from the large amount of tagged information returned from the field, forming a unique input to the production chains and assimilation of predictive modeling. In conclusion DisasterHub will showcase in the EO community an enhanced EO services ecosystem with a software infrastructure for easy access of mobile users to the real-time monitoring and early-warning systems of BEYOND and tools for incorporating crowd-sourced data with open geospatial and socioeconomic data via open/linked data ingestion mechanisms (APIs), retrieved from the GEOSS Data-CORE, Copernicus and other EU portals.

LOCAT - A Data Retrieval Program.

Science.gov (United States)

1984-12-01

onoitode of scified location - P C RADIUS - maximum distance between specified location and C file locationsC . ’ CONNON /LOCN/ LOCLAT, LOCLNG, RADIUS...rrr’, ,r:.- r -’ - r- rJ Z. . . , . -.-. - - - - - - -- , -• .. . . FILMED 8-85 DTIC .-. ... , ,- . . . . ...: .--. :,.:. ..-..-- ,-, .-..-...

A preliminary assessment of the potential for 'team science' in DOE Energy Innovation Hubs and Energy Frontier Research Centers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Boardman, Craig, E-mail: boardman.10@osu.edu [John Glenn School of Public Affairs, Ohio State University (United States); Ponomariov, Branco, E-mail: branco.ponomariov@utsa.edu [Department of Public Administration, University of Texas at San Antonio (United States)

2011-06-15

President Obama has called for the development of new energy technologies to address our national energy needs and restore US economic competitiveness. In response, the Department of Energy has established new R and D modalities for energy research and development designed to facilitate collaboration across disciplinary, institutional, and sectoral boundaries. In this research note, we provide a preliminary assessment of the potential for essential mechanisms for coordinated problem solving among diverse actors within two new modalities at the DOE: Energy Innovation Hubs and Energy Frontier Research Centers. - Highlights: > Energy Frontier Research Centers may lack the basic mechanisms for coordinating diverse actors. > Divergent goals across diverse actors may hinder coordination in Energy Innovation Hubs. > The implementation of these and similar energy policies require further investigation.

International environmental and occupational health: From individual scientists to networked science Hubs.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosenthal, Joshua; Jessup, Christine; Felknor, Sarah; Humble, Michael; Bader, Farah; Bridbord, Kenneth

2012-12-01

For the past 16 years, the International Training and Research in Environmental and Occupational Health program (ITREOH) has supported projects that link U.S. academic scientists with scientists from low- and middle-income countries in diverse research and research training activities. Twenty-two projects of varied duration have conducted training to enhance the research capabilities of scientists at 75 institutions in 43 countries in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, and have built productive research relationships between these scientists and their U.S. partners. ITREOH investigators and their trainees have produced publications that have advanced basic sciences, developed methods, informed policy outcomes, and built institutional capacity. Today, the changing nature of the health sciences calls for a more strategic approach. Data-rich team science requires greater capacity for information technology and knowledge synthesis at the local institution. More robust systems for ethical review and administrative support are necessary to advance population-based research. Sustainability of institutional research capability depends on linkages to multiple national and international partners. In this context, the Fogarty International Center, the National Institute of Environmental Sciences and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, have reengineered the ITREOH program to support and catalyze a multi-national network of regional hubs for Global Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences (GEOHealth). We anticipate that these networked science hubs will build upon previous investments by the ITREOH program and will serve to advance locally and internationally important health science, train and attract first-class scientists, and provide critical evidence to guide policy discussions. Published in 2012. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

Henry Hub and national balancing point prices: what will be the international gas price reference?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mazighi, A.E.H.

2005-01-01

One of the lessons in the history of international trade in commodities is the emergence - sooner or later - of an international price reference, most commonly known as an international marker price. In the area of oil, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) plays the role of a marker for sour crudes traded in the Atlantic basin. Brent oil fulfils this function for sweet crudes traded in Europe. Another important aspect in the area of global commodities is that the emergence of a marker price is not always necessarily related to the relative share of production of exports of the commodity, but primarily to the existence of an organized market for this commodity. Today, while international gas trade is intensifying, we still lack an international price reference for this commodity. This is due to the fact that the international trade of natural gas is still highly regionalized. It is also due to the fact that most gas markets are still regulated. Nevertheless, deregulation efforts have been implemented in both developed (the United States, the United Kingdom, continental Europe, Korea) and developing countries (Brazil, Chile) and have led to new market structures based on more competition in all segments of the gas chain, except transportation. In the meantime, price structures based on supply and demand principles are supposed to have emerged in the US and UK markets in the 1990s as a result of the implementation of deregulation measures. Today, the US gas market, which represents more than 660 billion cubic metres per year of consumption and the UK gas market, which is close to 100 bcm annually, are considered mature enough to make the principles of supply and demand operate inside these markets. In fact, the Henry Hub (HH) price, which is determined at a physical location in Louisiana, US, and the national balancing point (NBP) price, which is determined somewhere inside the national transmission system (NTS), without any precise location, are considered as potential

Uncommon locations of hydatid disease: CT appearances

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gossios, K.J.; Kontoyiannis, D.S.; Dascalogiannaki, M.; Gourtsoyiannis, N.C.

1997-01-01

Hydatid disease (HD), already known by Hippocrates, is prevalent and widespread in most sheep-raising countries in Asia, Australia, South America, Near East, and southern Europe. The disease is most commonly due to Echinococcus granulosus and may occur in any organ or tissue. The location is mostly hepatic (75%) and pulmonary (15%), and only 10% occur in the rest of the body. Imaging modalities such as US, CT, and MR imaging are helpful in diagnosing the disease. The reliability of each method depends on the cyst's location in the body. The purpose of this essay is to illustrate the use of CT in depicting some unusual locations of HD besides the liver and lung. (orig.). With 18 figs

Uncommon locations of hydatid disease: CT appearances

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gossios, K.J.; Kontoyiannis, D.S. [Department of Radiology, General Hospital of Ioannina, GR-450 01 Ioannina (Greece); Dascalogiannaki, M.; Gourtsoyiannis, N.C. [Department of Radiology, University of Crete Medical School, GR-711 10 Iraklion (Greece)

1997-10-01

Hydatid disease (HD), already known by Hippocrates, is prevalent and widespread in most sheep-raising countries in Asia, Australia, South America, Near East, and southern Europe. The disease is most commonly due to Echinococcus granulosus and may occur in any organ or tissue. The location is mostly hepatic (75%) and pulmonary (15%), and only 10% occur in the rest of the body. Imaging modalities such as US, CT, and MR imaging are helpful in diagnosing the disease. The reliability of each method depends on the cyst`s location in the body. The purpose of this essay is to illustrate the use of CT in depicting some unusual locations of HD besides the liver and lung. (orig.). With 18 figs.

Midwest gas and power markets, hubs, pipelines, and interconnects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wirick, J.

2001-01-01

The existing interstate pipelines and proposed pipeline projects for the Chicago hub area were illustrated. The presentation explained why energy suppliers in the current competitive market need to balance and manage energy and transportation services for gas-fired power generators in terms of hourly winter and summer peaking services. The new infrastructure of the energy market will include new pipelines, storage and balancing to meet the ever increasing power demand. One of the options to meet power demand is to increase natural gas supply, transportation, storage, and hourly balancing capabilities. Other options are to build nuclear or coal-fired power generating facilities, or to go with renewables such as solar and wind power. Energy conservation and the reduction of natural gas usage per capita is another option to eliminate blackouts. This presentation also addressed the role that local distribution companies (LDC) and unbundling will play in the choice of these options. tabs., figs

Robustness of the p53 network and biological hackers.

Science.gov (United States)

Dartnell, Lewis; Simeonidis, Evangelos; Hubank, Michael; Tsoka, Sophia; Bogle, I David L; Papageorgiou, Lazaros G

2005-06-06

The p53 protein interaction network is crucial in regulating the metazoan cell cycle and apoptosis. Here, the robustness of the p53 network is studied by analyzing its degeneration under two modes of attack. Linear Programming is used to calculate average path lengths among proteins and the network diameter as measures of functionality. The p53 network is found to be robust to random loss of nodes, but vulnerable to a targeted attack against its hubs, as a result of its architecture. The significance of the results is considered with respect to mutational knockouts of proteins and the directed attacks mounted by tumour inducing viruses.

Planning the City Logistics Terminal Location by Applying the Green p-Median Model and Type-2 Neurofuzzy Network.

Science.gov (United States)

Pamučar, Dragan; Vasin, Ljubislav; Atanasković, Predrag; Miličić, Milica

2016-01-01

The paper herein presents green p-median problem (GMP) which uses the adaptive type-2 neural network for the processing of environmental and sociological parameters including costs of logistics operators and demonstrates the influence of these parameters on planning the location for the city logistics terminal (CLT) within the discrete network. CLT shows direct effects on increment of traffic volume especially in urban areas, which further results in negative environmental effects such as air pollution and noise as well as increased number of urban populations suffering from bronchitis, asthma, and similar respiratory infections. By applying the green p-median model (GMM), negative effects on environment and health in urban areas caused by delivery vehicles may be reduced to minimum. This model creates real possibilities for making the proper investment decisions so as profitable investments may be realized in the field of transport infrastructure. The paper herein also includes testing of GMM in real conditions on four CLT locations in Belgrade City zone.

Planning the City Logistics Terminal Location by Applying the Green p-Median Model and Type-2 Neurofuzzy Network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dragan Pamučar

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The paper herein presents green p-median problem (GMP which uses the adaptive type-2 neural network for the processing of environmental and sociological parameters including costs of logistics operators and demonstrates the influence of these parameters on planning the location for the city logistics terminal (CLT within the discrete network. CLT shows direct effects on increment of traffic volume especially in urban areas, which further results in negative environmental effects such as air pollution and noise as well as increased number of urban populations suffering from bronchitis, asthma, and similar respiratory infections. By applying the green p-median model (GMM, negative effects on environment and health in urban areas caused by delivery vehicles may be reduced to minimum. This model creates real possibilities for making the proper investment decisions so as profitable investments may be realized in the field of transport infrastructure. The paper herein also includes testing of GMM in real conditions on four CLT locations in Belgrade City zone.

Cahora Bassa and Tete Province (Mozambique): A great potential for an industrial hub in Southern Africa

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sebitosi, A.B.; Graca, A. da

2009-01-01

Mozambique is host to the great Zambezi River Basin and the World Famous Cahora Bassa power plant that generates some 13,000 GWh annually. The bulk of this energy (85%) is exported but the revenue raised does not appear to have any appreciable impact on the host economy. Moreover it is estimated that a further 10% of the generated energy is lost along the 1414 km long transmission line to South Africa. So quite evidently, Mozambique would benefit more if its energy were utilized by locally based industry. This would also save on the losses that are currently incurred during regional transmission. In this paper the authors visit Tete, the Mozambican Province that hosts the Zambezi Basin. They examine its natural and human resources. They observe that its strategic location gives it easy access to regional markets. They also hold interviews with a number of administrators in the Province. Finally, they conclude that Tete is uniquely advantaged to develop into the next regional industrial hub for the Southern African region. This would also greatly add value to the local resources. To realize this dream will require, conviction supported by strong and timely political commitment as well as hard work. Current trends towards integrated regional trading blocks will provide an even easier access to potential markets and human skills pools.

Reliability demonstration test planning: A three dimensional consideration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yadav, Om Prakash; Singh, Nanua; Goel, Parveen S.

2006-01-01

Increasing customer demand for reliability, fierce market competition on time-to-market and cost, and highly reliable products are making reliability testing more challenging task. This paper presents a systematic approach for identifying critical elements (subsystems and components) of the system and deciding the types of test to be performed to demonstrate reliability. It decomposes the system into three dimensions (i.e. physical, functional and time) and identifies critical elements in the design by allocating system level reliability to each candidate. The decomposition of system level reliability is achieved by using criticality index. The numerical value of criticality index for each candidate is derived based on the information available from failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) document or warranty data from a prior system. It makes use of this information to develop reliability demonstration test plan for the identified (critical) failure mechanisms and physical elements. It also highlights the benefits of using prior information in order to locate critical spots in the design and in subsequent development of test plans. A case example is presented to demonstrate the proposed approach

Characterization of Plasmid DNA Location within Chitosan/PLGA/pDNA Nanoparticle Complexes Designed for Gene Delivery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hali Bordelon

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide- (PLGA-chitosan nanoparticles are becoming an increasingly common choice for the delivery of nucleic acids to cells for various genetic manipulation techniques. These particles are biocompatible, with tunable size and surface properties, possessing an overall positive charge that promotes complex formation with negatively charged nucleic acids. This study examines properties of the PLGA-chitosan nanoparticle/plasmid DNA complex after formation. Specifically, the study aims to determine the optimal ratio of plasmid DNA:nanoparticles for nucleic acid delivery purposes and to elucidate the location of the pDNA within these complexes. Such characterization will be necessary for the adoption of these formulations in a clinical setting. The ability of PLGA-chitosan nanoparticles to form complexes with pDNA was evaluated by using the fluorescent intercalating due OliGreen to label free plasmid DNA. By monitoring the fluorescence at different plasmid: nanoparticle ratios, the ideal plasmid:nanoparticle ration for complete complexation of plasmid was determined to be 1:50. Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy and gel digest studies suggested that even at these optimal complexation ratios, a portion of the plasmid DNA was located on the outer complex surface. This knowledge will facilitate future investigations into the functionality of the system in vitro and in vivo.

Test-retest reliability of the multifocal photopic negative response.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Alstine, Anthony W; Viswanathan, Suresh

2017-02-01

To assess the test-retest reliability of the multifocal photopic negative response (mfPhNR) of normal human subjects. Multifocal electroretinograms were recorded from one eye of 61 healthy adult subjects on two separate days using a Visual Evoked Response Imaging System software version 4.3 (EDI, San Mateo, California). The visual stimulus delivered on a 75-Hz monitor consisted of seven equal-sized hexagons each subtending 12° of visual angle. The m-step exponent was 9, and the m-sequence was slowed to include at least 30 blank frames after each flash. Only the first slice of the first-order kernel was analyzed. The mfPhNR amplitude was measured at a fixed time in the trough from baseline (BT) as well as at the same fixed time in the trough from the preceding b-wave peak (PT). Additionally, we also analyzed BT normalized either to PT (BT/PT) or to the b-wave amplitude (BT/b-wave). The relative reliability of test-retest differences for each test location was estimated by the Wilcoxon matched-pair signed-rank test and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). Absolute test-retest reliability was estimated by Bland-Altman analysis. The test-retest amplitude differences for neither of the two measurement techniques were statistically significant as determined by Wilcoxon matched-pair signed-rank test. PT measurements showed greater ICC values than BT amplitude measurements for all test locations. For each measurement technique, the ICC value of the macular response was greater than that of the surrounding locations. The mean test-retest difference was close to zero for both techniques at each of the test locations, and while the coefficient of reliability (COR-1.96 times the standard deviation of the test-retest difference) was comparable for the two techniques at each test location when expressed in nanovolts, the %COR (COR normalized to the mean test and retest amplitudes) was superior for PT than BT measurements. The ICC and COR were comparable for the BT/PT and

A Secure Framework for Location Verification in Pervasive Computing

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Dawei; Lee, Moon-Chuen; Wu, Dan

The way people use computing devices has been changed in some way by the relatively new pervasive computing paradigm. For example, a person can use a mobile device to obtain its location information at anytime and anywhere. There are several security issues concerning whether this information is reliable in a pervasive environment. For example, a malicious user may disable the localization system by broadcasting a forged location, and it may impersonate other users by eavesdropping their locations. In this paper, we address the verification of location information in a secure manner. We first present the design challenges for location verification, and then propose a two-layer framework VerPer for secure location verification in a pervasive computing environment. Real world GPS-based wireless sensor network experiments confirm the effectiveness of the proposed framework.

Improved location of regional earthquakes by reduction of azimuthal bias in S-P travel time differences observed at Gauribidanur array, India

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bhadauria, Y.S.; Roy, Falguni; Unnikrishnan, E.

2008-02-01

The observed S-P time differences, T ( S-P) , at Gauribidanur array (GBA), India, from a large number of regional earthquakes covering a wide azimuth range showed significant bias in comparison to S-P time differences that are available in the standard travel time tables of Jeffreys-Bullen and IASP91. The bias is found larger particularly for the signals that originate from shallow earthquakes in the upper mantle distance range of 12 deg (S-P) at GBA using Jeffreys-Bullen tables falls short of the standard epicentral distance, Δ s , computed from the USGS reported locations, on an average by 128 km, 121 km and 72 km respectively for NE, SE and NW regions. In contrast to these, for the earthquakes from North of GBA whose signals traversed purely continental paths in the azimuth range of - 35 deg (S-P) bias for the mixed oceanic-continental paths may be attributed to the oceanic crystal structure at the source and upper mantle path effects between GBA and these source locations. (author)

One dimensional P wave velocity structure of the crust beneath west Java and accurate hypocentre locations from local earthquake inversion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Supardiyono; Santosa, Bagus Jaya

2012-01-01

A one-dimensional (1-D) velocity model and station corrections for the West Java zone were computed by inverting P-wave arrival times recorded on a local seismic network of 14 stations. A total of 61 local events with a minimum of 6 P-phases, rms 0.56 s and a maximum gap of 299° were selected. Comparison with previous earthquake locations shows an improvement for the relocated earthquakes. Tests were carried out to verify the robustness of inversion results in order to corroborate the conclusions drawn out from our reasearch. The obtained minimum 1-D velocity model can be used to improve routine earthquake locations and represents a further step toward more detailed seismotectonic studies in this area of West Java.

One dimensional P wave velocity structure of the crust beneath west Java and accurate hypocentre locations from local earthquake inversion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Supardiyono; Santosa, Bagus Jaya [Physics Department, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, State University of Surabaya, Surabaya (Indonesia) and Physics Department, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, Surabaya (Indonesia); Physics Department, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, Surabaya (Indonesia)

2012-06-20

A one-dimensional (1-D) velocity model and station corrections for the West Java zone were computed by inverting P-wave arrival times recorded on a local seismic network of 14 stations. A total of 61 local events with a minimum of 6 P-phases, rms 0.56 s and a maximum gap of 299 Degree-Sign were selected. Comparison with previous earthquake locations shows an improvement for the relocated earthquakes. Tests were carried out to verify the robustness of inversion results in order to corroborate the conclusions drawn out from our reasearch. The obtained minimum 1-D velocity model can be used to improve routine earthquake locations and represents a further step toward more detailed seismotectonic studies in this area of West Java.

Fault locator of an allyl chloride plant

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Savković-Stevanović Jelenka B.

2004-01-01

Full Text Available Process safety analysis, which includes qualitative fault event identification, the relative frequency and event probability functions, as well as consequence analysis, was performed on an allye chloride plant. An event tree for fault diagnosis and cognitive reliability analysis, as well as a troubleshooting system, were developed. Fuzzy inductive reasoning illustrated the advantages compared to crisp inductive reasoning. A qualitative model forecast the future behavior of the system in the case of accident detection and then compared it with the actual measured data. A cognitive model including qualitative and quantitative information by fuzzy logic of the incident scenario was derived as a fault locator for an ally! chloride plant. The obtained results showed the successful application of cognitive dispersion modeling to process safety analysis. A fuzzy inductive reasoner illustrated good performance to discriminate between different types of malfunctions. This fault locator allowed risk analysis and the construction of a fault tolerant system. This study is the first report in the literature showing the cognitive reliability analysis method.

A Three-Legged Stool or Race? Governance Models for NOAA RISAs, DOI CSCs, and USDA Climate Hubs

Science.gov (United States)

Foster, J. G.

2014-12-01

NOAAs Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) Teams, DOIs Climate Science Centers (CSCs), and USDAs Regional Climate Hubs (RCHs) have common missions of integrating climate and related knowledge across scientific disciplines and regions to create "actionable" information that decision-makes can use to manage climate risks and impacts at state and local scales. However, the sponsoring agency programs, university investigators, and local federal officials govern each differently. The three models of program and center governance are 1) exclusively university (RISAs), 2) a hybrid of Federal government and (host) university (CSCs,), and 3) exclusively Federal (Hubs). Each model has it's advantages and disadvantages in terms of legal definition and authority, scientific mission requirements and strategies, flexibility and legitimacy to conduct research and to collaborate regionally with constituencies, leadership and governance approach and "friction points,", staff capacity and ability to engage stakeholders, necessity to deliver products and services, bureaucratic oversight, performance evaluation, and political support at Congressional, state, and local levels. Using available sources of information and data, this paper will compare and contrast the strengths and weakness of these three regional applied climate science center governance models.

A Three-Legged Stool or Race? Governance Models for NOAA RISAs, DOI CSCs, and USDA Climate Hub

Science.gov (United States)

Foster, J. G.

2014-12-01

NOAAs Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) Teams, DOIs Climate Science Centers (CSCs), and USDAs Regional Climate Hubs (RCHs) have common missions of integrating climate and related knowledge across scientific disciplines and regions to create "actionable" information that decision-makes can use to manage climate risks and impacts at state and local scales. However, the sponsoring agency programs, university investigators, and local federal officials govern each differently. The three models of program and center governance are 1) exclusively university (RISAs), 2) a hybrid of Federal government and (host) university (CSCs,), and 3) exclusively Federal (Hubs). Each model has it's advantages and disadvantages in terms of legal definition and authority, scientific mission requirements and strategies, flexibility and legitimacy to conduct research and to collaborate regionally with constituencies, leadership and governance approach and "friction points,", staff capacity and ability to engage stakeholders, necessity to deliver products and services, bureaucratic oversight, performance evaluation, and political support at Congressional, state, and local levels. Using available sources of information and data, this paper will compare and contrast the strengths and weakness of these three regional applied climate science center governance models.

Identifying the Functional Requirements for an Arizona Astronomy Data Hub (AADH)

Science.gov (United States)

Stahlman, G.; Heidorn, P. B.

2015-12-01

Astronomy data represent a curation challenge for information managers, as well as for astronomers. Extracting knowledge from these heterogeneous and complex datasets is particularly complicated and requires both interdisciplinary and domain expertise to accomplish true curation, with an overall goal of facilitating reproducible science through discoverability and persistence. A group of researchers and professional staff at the University of Arizona held several meetings during the spring of 2015 about astronomy data and the role of the university in curation of that data. The group decided that it was critical to obtain a broader consensus on the needs of the community. With assistance from a Start for Success grant provided by the University of Arizona Office of Research and Discovery and funding from the American Astronomical Society (AAS), a workshop was held in early July 2015, with 28 participants plus 4 organizers in attendance. Representing University researchers as well as astronomical facilities and a scholarly society, the group verified that indeed there is a problem with the long-term curation of some astronomical data not associated with major facilities, and that a repository or "data hub" with the correct functionality could facilitate research and the preservation and use of astronomy data. The workshop members also identified a set of next steps, including the identification of possible data and metadata to be included in the Hub. The participants further helped to identify additional information that must be gathered before construction of the AADH could begin, including identifying significant datasets that do not currently have sufficient preservation and dissemination infrastructure, as well as some data associated with journal publications and the broader context of the data beyond that directly published in the journals. Workshop participants recommended that a set of grant proposal should be developed that ensures community buy-in and

Designing reliable supply chain network with disruption risk

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ali Bozorgi Amiri

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Although supply chains disruptions rarely occur, their negative effects are prolonged and severe. In this paper, we propose a reliable capacitated supply chain network design (RSCND model by considering random disruptions in both distribution centers and suppliers. The proposed model determines the optimal location of distribution centers (DC with the highest reliability, the best plan to assign customers to opened DCs and assigns opened DCs to suitable suppliers with lowest transportation cost. In this study, random disruption occurs at the location, capacity of the distribution centers (DCs and suppliers. It is assumed that a disrupted DC and a disrupted supplier may lose a portion of their capacities, and the rest of the disrupted DC's demand can be supplied by other DCs. In addition, we consider shortage in DCs, which can occur in either normal or disruption conditions and DCs, can support each other in such circumstances. Unlike other studies in the extent of literature, we use new approach to model the reliability of DCs; we consider a range of reliability instead of using binary variables. In order to solve the proposed model for real-world instances, a Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II (NSGA-II is applied. Preliminary results of testing the proposed model of this paper on several problems with different sizes provide seem to be promising.

Reliability of an experimental method to analyse the impact point on a golf ball during putting.

Science.gov (United States)

Richardson, Ashley K; Mitchell, Andrew C S; Hughes, Gerwyn

2015-06-01

This study aimed to examine the reliability of an experimental method identifying the location of the impact point on a golf ball during putting. Forty trials were completed using a mechanical putting robot set to reproduce a putt of 3.2 m, with four different putter-ball combinations. After locating the centre of the dimple pattern (centroid) the following variables were tested; distance of the impact point from the centroid, angle of the impact point from the centroid and distance of the impact point from the centroid derived from the X, Y coordinates. Good to excellent reliability was demonstrated in all impact variables reflected in very strong relative (ICC = 0.98-1.00) and absolute reliability (SEM% = 0.9-4.3%). The highest SEM% observed was 7% for the angle of the impact point from the centroid. In conclusion, the experimental method was shown to be reliable at locating the centroid location of a golf ball, therefore allowing for the identification of the point of impact with the putter head and is suitable for use in subsequent studies.

47 CFR 101.113 - Transmitter power limitations.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... Trading Area in the 29.1-29.25 GHz band will not transmit a co-frequency hub-to-subscriber e.i.r.p... frequency band. (ii) The climate zones in Table 1 are defined for different geographic locations within the US as shown in Appendix 28 of the ITU Radio Regulations. Table 1 1 Climate zone e.i.r.p. Spectral...

The roles of transportation and transportation hubs in the propagation of influenza and coronaviruses: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Browne, Annie; Ahmad, Sacha St-Onge; Beck, Charles R; Nguyen-Van-Tam, Jonathan S

2016-01-01

Respiratory viruses spread in humans across wide geographical areas in short periods of time, resulting in high levels of morbidity and mortality. We undertook a systematic review to assess the evidence that air, ground and sea mass transportation systems or hubs are associated with propagating influenza and coronaviruses. Healthcare databases and sources of grey literature were searched using pre-defined criteria between April and June 2014. Two reviewers screened all identified records against the protocol, undertook risk of bias assessments and extracted data using a piloted form. Results were analysed using a narrative synthesis. Forty-one studies met the eligibility criteria. Risk of bias was high in the observational studies, moderate to high in the reviews and moderate to low in the modelling studies. In-flight influenza transmission was identified substantively on five flights with up to four confirmed and six suspected secondary cases per affected flight. Five studies highlighted the role of air travel in accelerating influenza spread to new areas. Influenza outbreaks aboard cruise ships affect 2-7% of passengers. Influenza transmission events have been observed aboard ground transport vehicles. High heterogeneity between studies and the inability to exclude other sources of infection means that the risk of influenza transmission from an index case to other passengers cannot be accurately quantified. A paucity of evidence was identified describing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus transmission events associated with transportation systems or hubs. Air transportation appears important in accelerating and amplifying influenza propagation. Transmission occurs aboard aeroplanes, at the destination and possibly at airports. Control measures to prevent influenza transmission on cruise ships are needed to reduce morbidity and mortality. There is no recent evidence of sea transport accelerating influenza

Intermodaal railvervoer moet innoveren : Vergelijking van de voordelen van schaalvergroting of omloopversnelling in de innovatieprojecten Marathon, Spider, Twin hub en Spectrum

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kreutzberger, E.D.

2016-01-01

Innovatie van intermodaal railvervoer moet ertoe bijdragen dat het vervoersaandeel van intermodaal vervoer sterk groeit naar niveaus die Europa en zeehavens ambiëren. Marathon, Spider/Twin hub en Spectrum zijn drie concepten die een redelijk brede range van innovatierichtingen vertegenwoordigen,

A lysosome-locating and acidic pH-activatable fluorescent probe for visualizing endogenous H2O2 in lysosomes.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Jun; Zhou, Shunqing; Ren, Jing; Wu, Chuanliu; Zhao, Yibing

2017-11-20

There is increasing evidence indicating that lysosomal H 2 O 2 is closely related to autophagy and apoptotic pathways under both physiological and pathological conditions. Therefore, fluorescent probes that can be exploited to visualize H 2 O 2 in lysosomes are potential tools for exploring diverse roles of H 2 O 2 in cells. However, functional exploration of lysosomal H 2 O 2 is limited by the lack of fluorescent probes capable of compatibly sensing H 2 O 2 under weak acidic conditions (pH = 4.5) of lysosomes. Lower spatial resolution of the fluorescent visualization of lysosomal H 2 O 2 might be caused by the interference of signals from cytosolic and mitochondrial H 2 O 2 , as well as the non-specific distribution of the probes in cells. In this work, we developed a lysosome-locating and acidic-pH-activatable fluorescent probe for the detection and visualization of H 2 O 2 in lysosomes, which consists of a H 2 O 2 -responsive boronate unit, a lysosome-locating morpholine group, and a pH-activatable benzorhodol fluorophore. The response of the fluorescent probe to H 2 O 2 is significantly more pronounced under acidic pH conditions than that under neutral pH conditions. Notably, the present probe enables the fluorescence sensing of endogenous lysosomal H 2 O 2 in living cells without external stimulations, with signal interference from the cytoplasm and other intracellular organelles being negligible.

Optimized coral reconstructions of the Indian Ocean Dipole: An assessment of location and length considerations

Science.gov (United States)

Abram, Nerilie J.; Dixon, Bronwyn C.; Rosevear, Madelaine G.; Plunkett, Benjamin; Gagan, Michael K.; Hantoro, Wahyoe S.; Phipps, Steven J.

2015-10-01

The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD; or Indian Ocean Zonal Mode) is a coupled ocean-atmosphere climate oscillation that has profound impacts on rainfall distribution across the Indian Ocean region. Instrumental records provide a reliable representation of IOD behavior since 1958, while coral reconstructions currently extend the IOD history back to 1846. Large fluctuations in the number and intensity of positive IOD events over time are evident in these records, but it is unclear to what extent this represents multidecadal modulation of the IOD or an anthropogenically forced change in IOD behavior. In this study we explore the suitability of coral records from single-site locations in the equatorial Indian Ocean for capturing information about the occurrence and magnitude of positive IOD (pIOD) events. We find that the optimum location for coral reconstructions of the IOD occurs in the southeastern equatorial Indian Ocean, along the coast of Java and Sumatra between ~3 and 7°S. Here the strong ocean cooling and atmospheric drying during pIOD events are unambiguously recorded in coral oxygen isotope records, which capture up to 50% of IOD variance. Unforced experiments with coupled climate models suggest that potential biases in coral estimates of pIOD frequency are skewed toward overestimating pIOD recurrence intervals and become larger with shorter reconstruction windows and longer pIOD recurrence times. Model output also supports the assumption of stationarity in sea surface temperature relationships in the optimum IOD location that is necessary for paleoclimate reconstructions. This study provides a targeted framework for the future generation of paleoclimate records, including optimized coral reconstructions of past IOD variability.

A method to assign failure rates for piping reliability assessments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gamble, R.M.; Tagart, S.W. Jr.

1991-01-01

This paper reports on a simplified method that has been developed to assign failure rates that can be used in reliability and risk studies of piping. The method can be applied on a line-by-line basis by identifying line and location specific attributes that can lead to piping unreliability from in-service degradation mechanisms and random events. A survey of service experience for nuclear piping reliability also was performed. The data from this survey provides a basis for identifying in-service failure attributes and assigning failure rates for risk and reliability studies

Location, location, location: does early cancer in Barrett's esophagus have a preference?

Science.gov (United States)

Enestvedt, Brintha K; Lugo, Ricardo; Guarner-Argente, Carlos; Shah, Pari; Falk, Gary W; Furth, Emma; Ginsberg, Gregory G

2013-09-01

Early cancer (high-grade dysplasia [HGD] and intramucosal carcinoma [ImCa]) associated with Barrett's esophagus (BE) may have a circumferential spatial predilection. To describe the esophageal circumferential location of early cancer in BE. Retrospective study, single tertiary referral center. One hundred nineteen patients were referred for endoscopic eradication therapy for early cancer associated with BE. Endoscopic images and reports and pathology were reviewed. Circumferential location designation of early cancer in BE by using a clock-face orientation. One hundred nineteen of 131 patients referred for endoscopic eradication therapy had a location designation for their advanced histology (91.9%). There were a total of 57 patients (47.9%) with HGD and 62 patients (52.1%) with ImCa. There was a significantly higher rate of early cancer (HGD or ImCa) in the right hemisphere (12 to 6 o'clock location) compared with the left hemisphere (84.9% vs 15.1%, P cancer was found in the 12 to 3 o'clock quadrant (64.7%); 71.9% of HGD and 58.1% of ImCa lesions were located in the 12 to 3 o'clock quadrant. Retrospective design, single center. Early cancer associated with BE is far more commonly found in the right hemisphere of the esophagus (12 to 6 o'clock) with the highest rate in the 12 to 3 o'clock quadrant. These findings support enhanced scrutiny of the right hemisphere of the esophagus during surveillance and endoscopic treatment of patients with BE. Copyright © 2013 American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Topology of Functional Connectivity and Hub Dynamics in the Beta Band As Temporal Prior for Natural Vision in the Human Brain.

Science.gov (United States)

Betti, Viviana; Corbetta, Maurizio; de Pasquale, Francesco; Wens, Vincent; Della Penna, Stefania

2018-04-11

Networks hubs represent points of convergence for the integration of information across many different nodes and systems. Although a great deal is known on the topology of hub regions in the human brain, little is known about their temporal dynamics. Here, we examine the static and dynamic centrality of hub regions when measured in the absence of a task (rest) or during the observation of natural or synthetic visual stimuli. We used Magnetoencephalography (MEG) in humans (both sexes) to measure static and transient regional and network-level interaction in α- and β-band limited power (BLP) in three conditions: visual fixation (rest), viewing of movie clips (natural vision), and time-scrambled versions of the same clips (scrambled vision). Compared with rest, we observed in both movie conditions a robust decrement of α-BLP connectivity. Moreover, both movie conditions caused a significant reorganization of connections in the α band, especially between networks. In contrast, β-BLP connectivity was remarkably similar between rest and natural vision. Not only the topology did not change, but the joint dynamics of hubs in a core network during natural vision was predicted by similar fluctuations in the resting state. We interpret these findings by suggesting that slow-varying fluctuations of integration occurring in higher-order regions in the β band may be a mechanism to anticipate and predict slow-varying temporal patterns of the visual environment. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT A fundamental question in neuroscience concerns the function of spontaneous brain connectivity. Here, we tested the hypothesis that topology of intrinsic brain connectivity and its dynamics might predict those observed during natural vision. Using MEG, we tracked the static and time-varying brain functional connectivity when observers were either fixating or watching different movie clips. The spatial distribution of connections and the dynamics of centrality of a set of regions were similar

Sharing Data between Mobile Devices, Connected Vehicles and Infrastructure Task 8 : D2X Hub Proof-of-Concept Test Evaluation Report.

Science.gov (United States)

2017-10-25

The Task 8 D2X Hub Proof-of-Concept Test Evaluation Report provides results of the experimental data analysis performed in accordance with the experimental plan for the proof-of-concept version of the prototype system. The data set analyzed includes ...

Left frontal hub connectivity delays cognitive impairment in autosomal-dominant and sporadic Alzheimer’s disease

Science.gov (United States)

Franzmeier, Nicolai; Düzel, Emrah; Jessen, Frank; Buerger, Katharina; Levin, Johannes; Duering, Marco; Dichgans, Martin; Haass, Christian; Suárez-Calvet, Marc; Fagan, Anne M; Paumier, Katrina; Benzinger, Tammie; Masters, Colin L; Morris, John C; Perneczky, Robert; Janowitz, Daniel; Catak, Cihan; Wolfsgruber, Steffen; Wagner, Michael; Teipel, Stefan; Kilimann, Ingo; Ramirez, Alfredo; Rossor, Martin; Jucker, Mathias; Chhatwal, Jasmeer; Spottke, Annika; Boecker, Henning; Brosseron, Frederic; Falkai, Peter; Fliessbach, Klaus; Heneka, Michael T; Laske, Christoph; Nestor, Peter; Peters, Oliver; Fuentes, Manuel; Menne, Felix; Priller, Josef; Spruth, Eike J; Franke, Christiana; Schneider, Anja; Kofler, Barbara; Westerteicher, Christine; Speck, Oliver; Wiltfang, Jens; Bartels, Claudia; Araque Caballero, Miguel Ángel; Metzger, Coraline; Bittner, Daniel; Weiner, Michael; Lee, Jae-Hong; Salloway, Stephen; Danek, Adrian; Goate, Alison; Schofield, Peter R; Bateman, Randall J; Ewers, Michael

2018-01-01

Abstract Patients with Alzheimer’s disease vary in their ability to sustain cognitive abilities in the presence of brain pathology. A major open question is which brain mechanisms may support higher reserve capacity, i.e. relatively high cognitive performance at a given level of Alzheimer’s pathology. Higher functional MRI-assessed functional connectivity of a hub in the left frontal cortex is a core candidate brain mechanism underlying reserve as it is associated with education (i.e. a protective factor often associated with higher reserve) and attenuated cognitive impairment in prodromal Alzheimer’s disease. However, no study has yet assessed whether such hub connectivity of the left frontal cortex supports reserve throughout the evolution of pathological brain changes in Alzheimer’s disease, including the presymptomatic stage when cognitive decline is subtle. To address this research gap, we obtained cross-sectional resting state functional MRI in 74 participants with autosomal dominant Alzheimer’s disease, 55 controls from the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s Network and 75 amyloid-positive elderly participants, as well as 41 amyloid-negative cognitively normal elderly subjects from the German Center of Neurodegenerative Diseases multicentre study on biomarkers in sporadic Alzheimer’s disease. For each participant, global left frontal cortex connectivity was computed as the average resting state functional connectivity between the left frontal cortex (seed) and each voxel in the grey matter. As a marker of disease stage, we applied estimated years from symptom onset in autosomal dominantly inherited Alzheimer’s disease and cerebrospinal fluid tau levels in sporadic Alzheimer’s disease cases. In both autosomal dominant and sporadic Alzheimer’s disease patients, higher levels of left frontal cortex connectivity were correlated with greater education. For autosomal dominant Alzheimer’s disease, a significant left frontal cortex connectivity �

Reliability and Validity of the Korean Cancer Pain Assessment Tool (KCPAT)

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Jeong A; Lee, Juneyoung; Park, Jeanno; Lee, Myung Ah; Yeom, Chang Hwan; Jang, Se Kwon; Yoon, Duck Mi; Kim, Jun Suk

2005-01-01

The Korean Cancer Pain Assessment Tool (KCPAT), which was developed in 2003, consists of questions concerning the location of pain, the nature of pain, the present pain intensity, the symptoms associated with the pain, and psychosocial/spiritual pain assessments. This study was carried out to evaluate the reliability and validity of the KCPAT. A stratified, proportional-quota, clustered, systematic sampling procedure was used. The study population (903 cancer patients) was 1% of the target population (90,252 cancer patients). A total of 314 (34.8%) questionnaires were collected. The results showed that the average pain score (5 point on Likert scale) according to the cancer type and the at-present average pain score (VAS, 0-10) were correlated (r=0.56, p<0.0001), and showed moderate agreement (kappa=0.364). The mean satisfaction score was 3.8 (1-5). The average time to complete the questionnaire was 8.9 min. In conclusion, the KCPAT is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing cancer pain in Koreans. PMID:16224166

pLoc-mVirus: Predict subcellular localization of multi-location virus proteins via incorporating the optimal GO information into general PseAAC.

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, Xiang; Xiao, Xuan; Chou, Kuo-Chen

2017-09-10

Knowledge of subcellular locations of proteins is crucially important for in-depth understanding their functions in a cell. With the explosive growth of protein sequences generated in the postgenomic age, it is highly demanded to develop computational tools for timely annotating their subcellular locations based on the sequence information alone. The current study is focused on virus proteins. Although considerable efforts have been made in this regard, the problem is far from being solved yet. Most existing methods can be used to deal with single-location proteins only. Actually, proteins with multi-locations may have some special biological functions. This kind of multiplex proteins is particularly important for both basic research and drug design. Using the multi-label theory, we present a new predictor called "pLoc-mVirus" by extracting the optimal GO (Gene Ontology) information into the general PseAAC (Pseudo Amino Acid Composition). Rigorous cross-validation on a same stringent benchmark dataset indicated that the proposed pLoc-mVirus predictor is remarkably superior to iLoc-Virus, the state-of-the-art method in predicting virus protein subcellular localization. To maximize the convenience of most experimental scientists, a user-friendly web-server for the new predictor has been established at http://www.jci-bioinfo.cn/pLoc-mVirus/, by which users can easily get their desired results without the need to go through the complicated mathematics involved. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Influence of pH, layer charge location and crystal thickness distribution on U(VI) sorption onto heterogeneous dioctahedral smectite.

Science.gov (United States)

Guimarães, Vanessa; Rodríguez-Castellón, Enrique; Algarra, Manuel; Rocha, Fernando; Bobos, Iuliu

2016-11-05

The UO2(2+) adsorption on smectite (samples BA1, PS2 and PS3) with a heterogeneous structure was investigated at pH 4 (I=0.02M) and pH 6 (I=0.2M) in batch experiments, with the aim to evaluate the influence of pH, layer charge location and crystal thickness distribution. Mean crystal thickness distribution of smectite crystallite used in sorption experiments range from 4.8nm (sample PS2), to 5.1nm (sample PS3) and, to 7.4nm (sample BA1). Smaller crystallites have higher total surface area and sorption capacity. Octahedral charge location favor higher sorption capacity. The sorption isotherms of Freundlich, Langmuir and SIPS were used to model the sorption experiments. The surface complexation and cation exchange reactions were modeled using PHREEQC-code to describe the UO2(2+) sorption on smectite. The amount of UO2(2+) adsorbed on smectite samples decreased significantly at pH 6 and higher ionic strength, where the sorption mechanism was restricted to the edge sites of smectite. Two binding energy components at 380.8±0.3 and 382.2±0.3eV, assigned to hydrated UO2(2+) adsorbed by cation exchange and by inner-sphere complexation on the external sites at pH 4, were identified after the U4f7/2 peak deconvolution by X-photoelectron spectroscopy. Also, two new binding energy components at 380.3±0.3 and 381.8±0.3eV assigned to AlOUO2(+) and SiOUO2(+) surface species were observed at pH 6. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Reliability of fossil-fuel and nuclear power installations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1983-01-01

The conference heard a total of 37 papers of which 24 were inputted in INIS. The subject area was mainly the use of reliability information systems and the production of data banks for these systems, the application of the reliability theory and the reliability analysis of equipment and systems of nuclear power plants. (J.P.)

78 FR 27113 - Version 5 Critical Infrastructure Protection Reliability Standards

Science.gov (United States)

2013-05-09

... approve certain reliability standards proposed by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation... Infrastructure Protection Reliability Standards, 143 FERC ] 61,055 (2013). This errata notice serves to correct P... Commission 18 CFR Part 40 [Docket No. RM13-5-000] Version 5 Critical Infrastructure Protection Reliability...

Sustaining the Higher Education Hub Model: The Challenge of Adequate Academic and Social Support Structures for International Students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cameron Richards

2011-11-01

Full Text Available In recent years, the Education Hub (EH concept has perhaps become the single most important focus of higher education policy in most Asian countries. A particular Asian Education Hub model (e.g. Cheng, 2010 is now globally influential with its emphasis on how governments can harness direct as well as indirect economic benefits of a higher education system. Such a model aims to prepare students for employment in an emerging global economy and also to attract fee-paying international students in terms of education as not just a public good but a key and increasingly important area of national investment and economic development. In a related paper which focused on a comparison between distinct Malaysian and Singaporean versions of Asian EH l models developed over the last two decades (Richards, 2011c, we investigated the dangers as well as opportunities at stake. In this paper, we investigate the linked idea that sufficient academic and social support structures for supporting international as well as local students provide the crucial key to the factors of sustainability needed to support the various versions of the general strategy of Higher Education internationalisation.

RELIABILITY OF THE ONE-REPETITION MAXIMUM TEST BASED ON MUSCLE GROUP AND GENDER

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dong-il Seo

2012-06-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the present study was to examine the influence of muscle group location and gender on the reliability of assessing the one-repetition maximum (1RM test. Thirty healthy males (n = 15 and females (n = 15 who experienced at least 3 months of continuous resistance training during the last 2 years aged 18-35 years volunteered to participate in the study. The 1RM for the biceps curl, lat pull down, bench press, leg curl, hip flexion, triceps extension, shoulder press, low row, leg extension, hip extension, leg press and squat were measured twice by a trained professional using a standard published protocol. Biceps curl, lat pull down, bench press, leg curl, hip flexion, and squat 1RM's were measured on the first visit, then 48 hours later, subjects returned for their second visit. During their second visit, 1RM of triceps extension, shoulder press, low row, leg extension, hip extension, and leg press were measured. One week from the second visit, participants completed the 1 RM testing as previously done during the first and second visits. The third and fourth visits were separated by 48 hours as well. All four visits to the laboratory were at the same time of day. A high intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC > 0.91 was found for all exercises, independent of gender and muscle group size or location, however there was a significant interaction for muscle group location (upper body vs. lower body in females (p < 0.027. In conclusion, a standardized 1RM testing protocol with a short warm-up and familiarization period is a reliable measurement to assess muscle strength changes regardless of muscle group location or gender

Reliability analysis of a sensitive and independent stabilometry parameter set.

Science.gov (United States)

Nagymáté, Gergely; Orlovits, Zsanett; Kiss, Rita M

2018-01-01

Recent studies have suggested reduced independent and sensitive parameter sets for stabilometry measurements based on correlation and variance analyses. However, the reliability of these recommended parameter sets has not been studied in the literature or not in every stance type used in stabilometry assessments, for example, single leg stances. The goal of this study is to evaluate the test-retest reliability of different time-based and frequency-based parameters that are calculated from the center of pressure (CoP) during bipedal and single leg stance for 30- and 60-second measurement intervals. Thirty healthy subjects performed repeated standing trials in a bipedal stance with eyes open and eyes closed conditions and in a single leg stance with eyes open for 60 seconds. A force distribution measuring plate was used to record the CoP. The reliability of the CoP parameters was characterized by using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), standard error of measurement (SEM), minimal detectable change (MDC), coefficient of variation (CV) and CV compliance rate (CVCR). Based on the ICC, SEM and MDC results, many parameters yielded fair to good reliability values, while the CoP path length yielded the highest reliability (smallest ICC > 0.67 (0.54-0.79), largest SEM% = 19.2%). Usually, frequency type parameters and extreme value parameters yielded poor reliability values. There were differences in the reliability of the maximum CoP velocity (better with 30 seconds) and mean power frequency (better with 60 seconds) parameters between the different sampling intervals.

Reliability analysis of a sensitive and independent stabilometry parameter set

Science.gov (United States)

Nagymáté, Gergely; Orlovits, Zsanett

2018-01-01

Recent studies have suggested reduced independent and sensitive parameter sets for stabilometry measurements based on correlation and variance analyses. However, the reliability of these recommended parameter sets has not been studied in the literature or not in every stance type used in stabilometry assessments, for example, single leg stances. The goal of this study is to evaluate the test-retest reliability of different time-based and frequency-based parameters that are calculated from the center of pressure (CoP) during bipedal and single leg stance for 30- and 60-second measurement intervals. Thirty healthy subjects performed repeated standing trials in a bipedal stance with eyes open and eyes closed conditions and in a single leg stance with eyes open for 60 seconds. A force distribution measuring plate was used to record the CoP. The reliability of the CoP parameters was characterized by using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), standard error of measurement (SEM), minimal detectable change (MDC), coefficient of variation (CV) and CV compliance rate (CVCR). Based on the ICC, SEM and MDC results, many parameters yielded fair to good reliability values, while the CoP path length yielded the highest reliability (smallest ICC > 0.67 (0.54–0.79), largest SEM% = 19.2%). Usually, frequency type parameters and extreme value parameters yielded poor reliability values. There were differences in the reliability of the maximum CoP velocity (better with 30 seconds) and mean power frequency (better with 60 seconds) parameters between the different sampling intervals. PMID:29664938

Reliability Study Regarding the Use of Histogram Similarity Methods for Damage Detection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicoleta Gillich

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The paper analyses the reliability of three dissimilarity estimators to compare histograms, as support for a frequency-based damage detection method, able to identify structural changes in beam-like structures. First a brief presentation of the own developed damage detection method is made, with focus on damage localization. It consists actually in comparing a histogram derived from measurement results, with a large series of histograms, namely the damage location indexes for all locations along the beam, obtained by calculus. We tested some dissimilarity estimators like the Minkowski-form Distances, the Kullback-Leibler Divergence and the Histogram Intersection and found the Minkowski Distance as the method providing best results. It was tested for numerous locations, using real measurement results and with results artificially debased by noise, proving its reliability.

Reliability of reflectance measures in passive filters

Science.gov (United States)

Saldiva de André, Carmen Diva; Afonso de André, Paulo; Rocha, Francisco Marcelo; Saldiva, Paulo Hilário Nascimento; Carvalho de Oliveira, Regiani; Singer, Julio M.

2014-08-01

Measurements of optical reflectance in passive filters impregnated with a reactive chemical solution may be transformed to ozone concentrations via a calibration curve and constitute a low cost alternative for environmental monitoring, mainly to estimate human exposure. Given the possibility of errors caused by exposure bias, it is common to consider sets of m filters exposed during a certain period to estimate the latent reflectance on n different sample occasions at a certain location. Mixed models with sample occasions as random effects are useful to analyze data obtained under such setups. The intra-class correlation coefficient of the mean of the m measurements is an indicator of the reliability of the latent reflectance estimates. Our objective is to determine m in order to obtain a pre-specified reliability of the estimates, taking possible outliers into account. To illustrate the procedure, we consider an experiment conducted at the Laboratory of Experimental Air Pollution, University of São Paulo, Brazil (LPAE/FMUSP), where sets of m = 3 filters were exposed during 7 days on n = 9 different occasions at a certain location. The results show that the reliability of the latent reflectance estimates for each occasion obtained under homoskedasticity is km = 0.74. A residual analysis suggests that the within-occasion variance for two of the occasions should be different from the others. A refined model with two within-occasion variance components was considered, yielding km = 0.56 for these occasions and km = 0.87 for the remaining ones. To guarantee that all estimates have a reliability of at least 80% we require measurements on m = 10 filters on each occasion.

The Pooling-score (P-score): inter- and intra-rater reliability in endoscopic assessment of the severity of dysphagia.

Science.gov (United States)

Farneti, D; Fattori, B; Nacci, A; Mancini, V; Simonelli, M; Ruoppolo, G; Genovese, E

2014-04-01

This study evaluated the intra- and inter-rater reliability of the Pooling score (P-score) in clinical endoscopic evaluation of severity of swallowing disorder, considering excess residue in the pharynx and larynx. The score (minimum 4 - maximum 11) is obtained by the sum of the scores given to the site of the bolus, the amount and ability to control residue/bolus pooling, the latter assessed on the basis of cough, raclage, number of dry voluntary or reflex swallowing acts ( 5). Four judges evaluated 30 short films of pharyngeal transit of 10 solid (1/4 of a cracker), 11 creamy (1 tablespoon of jam) and 9 liquid (1 tablespoon of 5 cc of water coloured with methlyene blue, 1 ml in 100 ml) boluses in 23 subjects (10 M/13 F, age from 31 to 76 yrs, mean age 58.56±11.76 years) with different pathologies. The films were randomly distributed on two CDs, which differed in terms of the sequence of the films, and were given to judges (after an explanatory session) at time 0, 24 hours later (time 1) and after 7 days (time 2). The inter- and intra-rater reliability of the P-score was calculated using the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC; 3,k). The possibility that consistency of boluses could affect the scoring of the films was considered. The ICC for site, amount, management and the P-score total was found to be, respectively, 0.999, 0.997, 1.00 and 0.999. Clinical evaluation of a criterion of severity of a swallowing disorder remains a crucial point in the management of patients with pathologies that predispose to complications. The P-score, derived from static and dynamic parameters, yielded a very high correlation among the scores attributed by the four judges during observations carried out at different times. Bolus consistencies did not affect the outcome of the test: the analysis of variance, performed to verify if the scores attributed by the four judges to the parameters selected, might be influenced by the different consistencies of the boluses, was not

Decision making algorithms for hydro-power plant location

CERN Document Server

Majumder, Mrinmoy

2013-01-01

The present study has attempted to apply the advantage of neuro-genetic algorithms for optimal decision making in maximum utilization of natural resources. Hydro-power is one of the inexpensive, but a reliable source of alternative energy which is foreseen as the possible answer to the present crisis in the energy sector. However, the major problem related to hydro-energy is its dependency on location. An ideal location can produce maximum energy with minimum loss. Besides, such power-plant also requires substantial amount of land which is a precious resource nowadays due to the rapid and unco

A new reliability measure based on specified minimum distances before the locations of random variables in a finite interval

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Todinov, M.T.

2004-01-01

A new reliability measure is proposed and equations are derived which determine the probability of existence of a specified set of minimum gaps between random variables following a homogeneous Poisson process in a finite interval. Using the derived equations, a method is proposed for specifying the upper bound of the random variables' number density which guarantees that the probability of clustering of two or more random variables in a finite interval remains below a maximum acceptable level. It is demonstrated that even for moderate number densities the probability of clustering is substantial and should not be neglected in reliability calculations. In the important special case where the random variables are failure times, models have been proposed for determining the upper bound of the hazard rate which guarantees a set of minimum failure-free operating intervals before the random failures, with a specified probability. A model has also been proposed for determining the upper bound of the hazard rate which guarantees a minimum availability target. Using the models proposed, a new strategy, models and reliability tools have been developed for setting quantitative reliability requirements which consist of determining the intersection of the hazard rate envelopes (hazard rate upper bounds) which deliver a minimum failure-free operating period before random failures, a risk of premature failure below a maximum acceptable level and a minimum required availability. It is demonstrated that setting reliability requirements solely based on an availability target does not necessarily mean a low risk of premature failure. Even at a high availability level, the probability of premature failure can be substantial. For industries characterised by a high cost of failure, the reliability requirements should involve a hazard rate envelope limiting the risk of failure below a maximum acceptable level

The Development of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport as a Regional Aviation Hub

Science.gov (United States)

Irandu, Evaristus M.; Rhoades, Dawna L.

2006-01-01

Air transportation plays an important role in the social and economic development of the global system and the countries that seek to participate in it. As Africa seeks to take its place in the global economy, it is increasingly looking to aviation as the primary means of connecting its people and goods with the world. It has been suggested that Africa as a continent needs to move toward a system of hubs to optimize its scarce resources. Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, is one of the airports in the eastern region of Africa that is seeking to fill this role. This paper discusses the prospects for success and the challenges that it will need to overcome, including projections through 2020 for the growth in passenger and cargo traffic.

Application of objective clinical human reliability analysis (OCHRA) in assessment of technical performance in laparoscopic rectal cancer surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Foster, J D; Miskovic, D; Allison, A S; Conti, J A; Ockrim, J; Cooper, E J; Hanna, G B; Francis, N K

2016-06-01

Laparoscopic rectal resection is technically challenging, with outcomes dependent upon technical performance. No robust objective assessment tool exists for laparoscopic rectal resection surgery. This study aimed to investigate the application of the objective clinical human reliability analysis (OCHRA) technique for assessing technical performance of laparoscopic rectal surgery and explore the validity and reliability of this technique. Laparoscopic rectal cancer resection operations were described in the format of a hierarchical task analysis. Potential technical errors were defined. The OCHRA technique was used to identify technical errors enacted in videos of twenty consecutive laparoscopic rectal cancer resection operations from a single site. The procedural task, spatial location, and circumstances of all identified errors were logged. Clinical validity was assessed through correlation with clinical outcomes; reliability was assessed by test-retest. A total of 335 execution errors identified, with a median 15 per operation. More errors were observed during pelvic tasks compared with abdominal tasks (p technical performance of laparoscopic rectal surgery.

Reliability Constrained Priority Load Shedding for Aerospace Power System Automation

Science.gov (United States)

Momoh, James A.; Zhu, Jizhong; Kaddah, Sahar S.; Dolce, James L. (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

The need for improving load shedding on board the space station is one of the goals of aerospace power system automation. To accelerate the optimum load-shedding functions, several constraints must be involved. These constraints include congestion margin determined by weighted probability contingency, component/system reliability index, generation rescheduling. The impact of different faults and indices for computing reliability were defined before optimization. The optimum load schedule is done based on priority, value and location of loads. An optimization strategy capable of handling discrete decision making, such as Everett optimization, is proposed. We extended Everett method to handle expected congestion margin and reliability index as constraints. To make it effective for real time load dispatch process, a rule-based scheme is presented in the optimization method. It assists in selecting which feeder load to be shed, the location of the load, the value, priority of the load and cost benefit analysis of the load profile is included in the scheme. The scheme is tested using a benchmark NASA system consisting of generators, loads and network.

Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids from Symphytum sylvaticum Boiss. subsp. sepulcrale. (Boiss.& Bal.) Greuter & Burdetvar. sepulcrale and Symphytum aintabicum Hub.- Mor. & Wickens

OpenAIRE

KURUCU, Semra; KARTAL, Murat

2002-01-01

Pyrrolizidine alkaloid (Echimidine-N-oxide) was isolated from Symphytum sylvaticum Boiss. subsp. sepulcrale (Boiss. & Bal.) Greuter & Burdet var. sepulcrale and pyrrolizidine alkaloid (Echimidine) was isolated from Symphytum aintabicum Hub. - Mor. & Wickens. The structures of the isolated compounds were elucidated based on IR, EIMS, 1H, and 13C NMR analysis and also on 2D NMR (COSY, HMBC, HMQC) experiments.

A Lagrangian lower bound for the container transshipment problem at a railway hub for a fast branch-and-bound algorithm

OpenAIRE

M Barketau; H Kopfer; E Pesch

2013-01-01

In this paper, we consider the container transshipment problem at a railway hub. A simple lower bound known for this problem will be improved by a new Lagrangian relaxation lower bound. Computational tests show that this lower bound outperforms the simple one and decreases substantially the run time of the branch-and-bound algorithm.

Location of aerodynamic noise sources from a 200 kW vertical-axis wind turbine

Science.gov (United States)

Ottermo, Fredric; Möllerström, Erik; Nordborg, Anders; Hylander, Jonny; Bernhoff, Hans

2017-07-01

Noise levels emitted from a 200 kW H-rotor vertical-axis wind turbine have been measured using a microphone array at four different positions, each at a hub-height distance from the tower. The microphone array, comprising 48 microphones in a spiral pattern, allows for directional mapping of the noise sources in the range of 500 Hz to 4 kHz. The produced images indicate that most of the noise is generated in a narrow azimuth-angle range, compatible with the location where increased turbulence is known to be present in the flow, as a result of the previous passage of a blade and its support arms. It is also shown that a semi-empirical model for inflow-turbulence noise seems to produce noise levels of the correct order of magnitude, based on the amount of turbulence that could be expected from power extraction considerations.

New models to support the professional education of health visitors: A qualitative study of the role of space and place in creating 'community of learning hubs'.

Science.gov (United States)

Donetto, Sara; Malone, Mary; Sayer, Lynn; Robert, Glenn

2017-07-01

In response to a policy-driven workforce expansion in England new models of preparing health visitors for practice have been implemented. 'Community of Learning hubs' (COLHs) are one such model, involving different possible approaches to student support in clinical practice placements (for example, 'long arm mentoring' or 'action learning set' sessions). Such models present opportunities for studying the possible effects of spatiality on the learning experiences of students and newly qualified health visitors, and on team relationships more broadly. To explore a 'community of learning hub' model in health visitor education and reflect on the role of space and place in the learning experience and professional identity development of student health visitors. Qualitative research conducted during first year of implementation. Three 'community of learning hub' projects based in two NHS community Trusts in London during the period 2013-2015. Managers and leads (n=7), practice teachers and mentors (n=6) and newly qualified and student health visitors (n=16). Semi-structured, audio-recorded interviews analysed thematically. Participants had differing views as to what constituted a 'hub' in their projects. Two themes emerged around the spaces that shape the learning experience of student and newly qualified health visitors. Firstly, a generalised need for a 'quiet place' which allows pause for reflection but also for sharing experiences and relieving common anxieties. Secondly, the role of physical arrangements in open-plan spaces to promote access to support from more experienced practitioners. Attention to spatiality can shed light on important aspects of teaching and learning practices, and on the professional identities these practices shape and support. New configurations of time and space as part of educational initiatives can surface new insights into existing practices and learning models. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Reliable volumetry of the cervical spinal cord in MS patient follow-up data with cord image analyzer (Cordial).

Science.gov (United States)

Amann, Michael; Pezold, Simon; Naegelin, Yvonne; Fundana, Ketut; Andělová, Michaela; Weier, Katrin; Stippich, Christoph; Kappos, Ludwig; Radue, Ernst-Wilhelm; Cattin, Philippe; Sprenger, Till

2016-07-01

Spinal cord (SC) atrophy is an important contributor to the development of disability in many neurological disorders including multiple sclerosis (MS). To assess the spinal cord atrophy in clinical trials and clinical practice, largely automated methods are needed due to the sheer amount of data. Moreover, using these methods in longitudinal trials requires them to deliver highly reliable measurements, enabling comparisons of multiple data sets of the same subject over time. We present a method for SC volumetry using 3D MRI data providing volume measurements for SC sections of fixed length and location. The segmentation combines a continuous max flow approach with SC surface reconstruction that locates the SC boundary based on image voxel intensities. Two cutting planes perpendicular to the SC centerline are determined based on predefined distances to an anatomical landmark, and the cervical SC volume (CSCV) is then calculated in-between these boundaries. The development of the method focused on its application in MRI follow-up studies; the method provides a high scan-rescan reliability, which was tested on healthy subject data. Scan-rescan reliability coefficients of variation (COV) were below 1 %, intra- and interrater COV were even lower (0.1-0.2 %). To show the applicability in longitudinal trials, 3-year follow-up data of 48 patients with a progressive course of MS were assessed. In this cohort, CSCV loss was the only significant predictor of disability progression (p = 0.02). We are, therefore, confident that our method provides a reliable tool for SC volumetry in longitudinal clinical trials.

Reliability of Measured Data for pH Sensor Arrays with Fault Diagnosis and Data Fusion Based on LabVIEW

OpenAIRE

Liao, Yi-Hung; Chou, Jung-Chuan; Lin, Chin-Yi

2013-01-01

Fault diagnosis (FD) and data fusion (DF) technologies implemented in the LabVIEW program were used for a ruthenium dioxide pH sensor array. The purpose of the fault diagnosis and data fusion technologies is to increase the reliability of measured data. Data fusion is a very useful statistical method used for sensor arrays in many fields. Fault diagnosis is used to avoid sensor faults and to measure errors in the electrochemical measurement system, therefore, in this study, we use fault diagn...

Transcriptome Analysis of Three Sheep Intestinal Regions reveals Key Pathways and Hub Regulatory Genes of Large Intestinal Lipid Metabolism.

Science.gov (United States)

Chao, Tianle; Wang, Guizhi; Ji, Zhibin; Liu, Zhaohua; Hou, Lei; Wang, Jin; Wang, Jianmin

2017-07-13

The large intestine, also known as the hindgut, is an important part of the animal digestive system. Recent studies on digestive system development in ruminants have focused on the rumen and the small intestine, but the molecular mechanisms underlying sheep large intestine metabolism remain poorly understood. To identify genes related to intestinal metabolism and to reveal molecular regulation mechanisms, we sequenced and compared the transcriptomes of mucosal epithelial tissues among the cecum, proximal colon and duodenum. A total of 4,221 transcripts from 3,254 genes were identified as differentially expressed transcripts. Between the large intestine and duodenum, differentially expressed transcripts were found to be significantly enriched in 6 metabolism-related pathways, among which PPAR signaling was identified as a key pathway. Three genes, CPT1A, LPL and PCK1, were identified as higher expression hub genes in the large intestine. Between the cecum and colon, differentially expressed transcripts were significantly enriched in 5 lipid metabolism related pathways, and CEPT1 and MBOAT1 were identified as hub genes. This study provides important information regarding the molecular mechanisms of intestinal metabolism in sheep and may provide a basis for further study.

An RSS based location estimation technique for cognitive relay networks

KAUST Repository

Qaraqe, Khalid A.

2010-11-01

In this paper, a received signal strength (RSS) based location estimation method is proposed for a cooperative wireless relay network where the relay is a cognitive radio. We propose a method for the considered cognitive relay network to determine the location of the source using the direct and the relayed signal at the destination. We derive the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) expressions separately for x and y coordinates of the location estimate. We analyze the effects of cognitive behaviour of the relay on the performance of the proposed method. We also discuss and quantify the reliability of the location estimate using the proposed technique if the source is not stationary. The overall performance of the proposed method is presented through simulations. ©2010 IEEE.

Influence of pH, layer charge location and crystal thickness distribution on U(VI) sorption onto heterogeneous dioctahedral smectite

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Guimarães, Vanessa [Instituto de Ciências da Terra – Porto, DGAOT, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre 687, 4169-007 Porto (Portugal); Geobiotec. Departamento de Geociências da Universidade de Aveiro, Campo Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro (Portugal); Rodríguez-Castellón, Enrique; Algarra, Manuel [Departamento de Química Inorgánica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Teatino s/n, 29071 Málaga (Spain); Rocha, Fernando [Geobiotec. Departamento de Geociências da Universidade de Aveiro, Campo Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro (Portugal); Bobos, Iuliu, E-mail: ibobos@fc.up.pt [Instituto de Ciências da Terra – Porto, DGAOT, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre 687, 4169-007 Porto (Portugal)

2016-11-05

Highlights: • The UO{sub 2}{sup 2+} sorption at pH 4 and 6 on heterogeneous smectite structure. • The cation exchange process is affected by layer charge distribution. • Surface complexation and cation exchange modelling. • New binding energy components identified by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. - Abstract: The UO{sub 2}{sup 2+} adsorption on smectite (samples BA1, PS2 and PS3) with a heterogeneous structure was investigated at pH 4 (I = 0.02 M) and pH 6 (I = 0.2 M) in batch experiments, with the aim to evaluate the influence of pH, layer charge location and crystal thickness distribution. Mean crystal thickness distribution of smectite crystallite used in sorption experiments range from 4.8 nm (sample PS2), to 5.1 nm (sample PS3) and, to 7.4 nm (sample BA1). Smaller crystallites have higher total surface area and sorption capacity. Octahedral charge location favor higher sorption capacity. The sorption isotherms of Freundlich, Langmuir and SIPS were used to model the sorption experiments. The surface complexation and cation exchange reactions were modeled using PHREEQC-code to describe the UO{sub 2}{sup 2+} sorption on smectite. The amount of UO{sub 2}{sup 2+} adsorbed on smectite samples decreased significantly at pH 6 and higher ionic strength, where the sorption mechanism was restricted to the edge sites of smectite. Two binding energy components at 380.8 ± 0.3 and 382.2 ± 0.3 eV, assigned to hydrated UO{sub 2}{sup 2+} adsorbed by cation exchange and by inner-sphere complexation on the external sites at pH 4, were identified after the U4f{sub 7/2} peak deconvolution by X-photoelectron spectroscopy. Also, two new binding energy components at 380.3 ± 0.3 and 381.8 ± 0.3 eV assigned to ≡AlOUO{sub 2}{sup +} and ≡SiOUO{sub 2}{sup +} surface species were observed at pH 6.

Influence of pH, layer charge location and crystal thickness distribution on U(VI) sorption onto heterogeneous dioctahedral smectite

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guimarães, Vanessa; Rodríguez-Castellón, Enrique; Algarra, Manuel; Rocha, Fernando; Bobos, Iuliu

2016-01-01

Highlights: • The UO_2"2"+ sorption at pH 4 and 6 on heterogeneous smectite structure. • The cation exchange process is affected by layer charge distribution. • Surface complexation and cation exchange modelling. • New binding energy components identified by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. - Abstract: The UO_2"2"+ adsorption on smectite (samples BA1, PS2 and PS3) with a heterogeneous structure was investigated at pH 4 (I = 0.02 M) and pH 6 (I = 0.2 M) in batch experiments, with the aim to evaluate the influence of pH, layer charge location and crystal thickness distribution. Mean crystal thickness distribution of smectite crystallite used in sorption experiments range from 4.8 nm (sample PS2), to 5.1 nm (sample PS3) and, to 7.4 nm (sample BA1). Smaller crystallites have higher total surface area and sorption capacity. Octahedral charge location favor higher sorption capacity. The sorption isotherms of Freundlich, Langmuir and SIPS were used to model the sorption experiments. The surface complexation and cation exchange reactions were modeled using PHREEQC-code to describe the UO_2"2"+ sorption on smectite. The amount of UO_2"2"+ adsorbed on smectite samples decreased significantly at pH 6 and higher ionic strength, where the sorption mechanism was restricted to the edge sites of smectite. Two binding energy components at 380.8 ± 0.3 and 382.2 ± 0.3 eV, assigned to hydrated UO_2"2"+ adsorbed by cation exchange and by inner-sphere complexation on the external sites at pH 4, were identified after the U4f_7_/_2 peak deconvolution by X-photoelectron spectroscopy. Also, two new binding energy components at 380.3 ± 0.3 and 381.8 ± 0.3 eV assigned to ≡AlOUO_2"+ and ≡SiOUO_2"+ surface species were observed at pH 6.

78 FR 76986 - Version 5 Critical Infrastructure Protection Reliability Standards