Research of Snow-Melt Process on a Heated Platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vasilyev Gregory P.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The article has shown the results of experimental researches of the snow-melt on a heated platform-near building heat-pump snow-melt platform. The near-building (yard heat pump platforms for snow melt with the area up to 10-15 m2 are a basis of the new ideology of organization of the street cleaning of Moscow from snow in the winter period which supposes the creation in the megalopolis of the «distributed snow-melt system» (DSMS using non-traditional energy sources. The results of natural experimental researches are presented for the estimation of efficiency of application in the climatic conditions of Moscow of heat pumps in the snow-melt systems. The researches were conducted on a model sample of the near-building heat-pump platform which uses the low-potential thermal energy of atmospheric air. The conducted researches have confirmed experimentally in the natural conditions the possibility and efficiency of using of atmospheric air as a source of low-potential thermal energy for evaporation of the snow-melt heat pump systems in the climatic conditions of Moscow. The results of laboratory researches of snow-melt process on a heated horizontal platform are presented. The researches have revealed a considerable dependence of efficiency of the snow-melt process on its piling mode (form-building and the organization of the process of its piling mode (form-building and the organization of the process of its (snow mass heat exchange with the surface of the heated platform. In the process of researches the effect of formation of an «ice dome» under the melting snow mass called by the fact that in case of the thickness of snow loaded on the platform more than 10 cm the water formed from the melting snow while the contact with the heating surface don’t spread on it, but soaks into the snow, wets it due to capillary effect and freezes. The formation of «ice dome» leads to a sharp increase of snow-melt period and decreases the operating

Creating a platform for collaborative genomic research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mark Smithson

2017-04-01

The developed genomics informatics platform provides a step-change in this type of genetic research, accelerating reproducible collaborative research across multiple disparate organisations and data sources, of varying type and complexity.

Utilising Benchmarking to Inform Decision-Making at the Institutional Level: A Research-Informed Process

Science.gov (United States)

Booth, Sara

2013-01-01

Benchmarking has traditionally been viewed as a way to compare data only; however, its utilisation as a more investigative, research-informed process to add rigor to decision-making processes at the institutional level is gaining momentum in the higher education sector. Indeed, with recent changes in the Australian quality environment from the…

Capacity Utilisation of Vehicles for Road Freight Transport

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kveiborg, Ole; Abate, Megersa Abera

to their analytical approach and origin of research. Findings The first approach looks at utilisation based on economic theories such as the firms’ objective to maximise profitability and considers how various firm and haul (market) characteristics influence utilisation. The second approach stems from the transport...... modelling literature and its main aim is analysing vehicle movement and usage in transport demand modelling context. A strand of this second group of contributions is the modelling of trip-chain and its implication on the level of capacity utilisation. Research limitations The review is not a comprehensive...... by combining different strands of this literature....

ServiceNow as a platform – practical research

OpenAIRE

Nechyporenko, Tamara

2015-01-01

In this thesis I am going to cover the main aspects of ServiceNow platform, what is it, and related areas to ServiceNow technologies such as cloud service technologies and ITIL framework, how it is used in ServiceNow. All the definitions and descriptions will be in details and a reader can get the important terms and definitions. The main scope of the thesis is practical research and creation of portal based on that research. The portal will be implemented using ServiceNow platform, Servic...

Nuclear platform research and development - 2008-09 highlights

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sadhankar, R.R.

2009-08-01

The Nuclear Platform R and D Program has lead responsibility for the maintenance and further development of the CANDU intellectual property covering the safety, licensing and design basis for nuclear facilities. The Nuclear Platform R and D Program is part of the Research and Technology Operation (RTO) unit of AECL and is managed through the Research and Development division, which has responsibility for maintaining and enhancing the knowledge and technology base. The RTO is also responsible for managing AECL's nuclear facilities and infrastructure (including laboratories and R and D facilities), the nuclear waste management program and other legacy liabilities (e.g., decommissioning) to demonstrate and grow shareholder value. The Nuclear Platform also provides the technology base from which new products and services can be developed to meet customer needs (including ACR and commercial products and services). (author)

Experiences in the Dissemination and Utilisation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Research Findings from Three Southern African Universities

Science.gov (United States)

Kaino, Luckson M.; Mtetwa, David; Kasanda, Choshi

2014-01-01

The dissemination and utilisation of research knowledge produced at universities has been debated in recent times. Recent changes and developments at universities suggest an entrepreneurial model of academic research production in which universities have the responsibility not only to carry out research and teaching but also to disseminate…

The Pivotal Position of 'Liaison People': Facilitating a Research Utilisation Intervention in Policy Agencies

Science.gov (United States)

Haynes, Abby; Butow, Phyllis; Brennan, Sue; Williamson, Anna; Redman, Sally; Carter, Stacy; Gallego, Gisselle; Rudge, Sian

2018-01-01

This paper explores the enormous variation in views, championing behaviours and impacts of liaison people: staff nominated to facilitate, tailor and promote SPIRIT (a research utilisation intervention trial in six Australian health policy agencies). Liaison people made cost/benefit analyses: they weighed the value of participation against its…

Development of a Modular Research Platform to Create Medical Observational Studies for Mobile Devices.

Science.gov (United States)

Zens, Martin; Grotejohann, Birgit; Tassoni, Adrian; Duttenhoefer, Fabian; Südkamp, Norbert P; Niemeyer, Philipp

2017-05-23

Observational studies have proven to be a valuable resource in medical research, especially when performed on a large scale. Recently, mobile device-based observational studies have been discovered by an increasing number of researchers as a promising new source of information. However, the development and deployment of app-based studies is not trivial and requires profound programming skills. The aim of this project was to develop a modular online research platform that allows researchers to create medical studies for mobile devices without extensive programming skills. The platform approach for a modular research platform consists of three major components. A Web-based platform forms the researchers' main workplace. This platform communicates via a shared database with a platform independent mobile app. Furthermore, a separate Web-based login platform for physicians and other health care professionals is outlined and completes the concept. A prototype of the research platform has been developed and is currently in beta testing. Simple questionnaire studies can be created within minutes and published for testing purposes. Screenshots of an example study are provided, and the general working principle is displayed. In this project, we have created a basis for a novel research platform. The necessity and implications of a modular approach were displayed and an outline for future development given. International researchers are invited and encouraged to participate in this ongoing project. ©Martin Zens, Birgit Grotejohann, Adrian Tassoni, Fabian Duttenhoefer, Norbert P Südkamp, Philipp Niemeyer. Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (http://www.researchprotocols.org), 23.05.2017.

eTRIKS platform: Conception and operation of a highly scalable cloud-based platform for translational research and applications development.

Science.gov (United States)

Bussery, Justin; Denis, Leslie-Alexandre; Guillon, Benjamin; Liu, Pengfeï; Marchetti, Gino; Rahal, Ghita

2018-04-01

We describe the genesis, design and evolution of a computing platform designed and built to improve the success rate of biomedical translational research. The eTRIKS project platform was developed with the aim of building a platform that can securely host heterogeneous types of data and provide an optimal environment to run tranSMART analytical applications. Many types of data can now be hosted, including multi-OMICS data, preclinical laboratory data and clinical information, including longitudinal data sets. During the last two years, the platform has matured into a robust translational research knowledge management system that is able to host other data mining applications and support the development of new analytical tools. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Multi-donor Research Platform on Social Protection, Financial ...

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

Multi-donor Research Platform on Social Protection, Financial Inclusion and ... There have been some experiments linking a financial inclusion component to CCT programs, ... Universidad de Chile. Institution Country. Chile. Institution Website.

Multi-donor Research Platform on Social Protection, Financial ...

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

Multi-donor Research Platform on Social Protection, Financial Inclusion and ICTs ... been some experiments linking a financial inclusion component to CCT programs, ... Institution. Universidad de Chile. Pays d' institution. Chile. Site internet.

German mires - Utilisation and protection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roderfeld, H.

1996-01-01

Mires in Germany are mainly used for agriculture. Peat mining is important regionally, but forest utilisation less so. Twenty years ago in the former West Germany, the first steps from peatland utilisation to peatland protection were taken. Bog protection programmes were developed first. Nowadays research directed to fen protection has begun, prompted by the decreasing importance of agriculture in Central Europe and an increasing environmental awareness. The situation regarding mire protection in Germany is presented for each Federal State individually. A rough estimate suggests 45 000 ha of protected bogs and 25 000 ha of protected fens. These areas include natural and semi-natural mires as well as rewetted mires. (30 refs.)

New Tools for New Research in Psychiatry: A Scalable and Customizable Platform to Empower Data Driven Smartphone Research.

Science.gov (United States)

Torous, John; Kiang, Mathew V; Lorme, Jeanette; Onnela, Jukka-Pekka

2016-05-05

A longstanding barrier to progress in psychiatry, both in clinical settings and research trials, has been the persistent difficulty of accurately and reliably quantifying disease phenotypes. Mobile phone technology combined with data science has the potential to offer medicine a wealth of additional information on disease phenotypes, but the large majority of existing smartphone apps are not intended for use as biomedical research platforms and, as such, do not generate research-quality data. Our aim is not the creation of yet another app per se but rather the establishment of a platform to collect research-quality smartphone raw sensor and usage pattern data. Our ultimate goal is to develop statistical, mathematical, and computational methodology to enable us and others to extract biomedical and clinical insights from smartphone data. We report on the development and early testing of Beiwe, a research platform featuring a study portal, smartphone app, database, and data modeling and analysis tools designed and developed specifically for transparent, customizable, and reproducible biomedical research use, in particular for the study of psychiatric and neurological disorders. We also outline a proposed study using the platform for patients with schizophrenia. We demonstrate the passive data capabilities of the Beiwe platform and early results of its analytical capabilities. Smartphone sensors and phone usage patterns, when coupled with appropriate statistical learning tools, are able to capture various social and behavioral manifestations of illnesses, in naturalistic settings, as lived and experienced by patients. The ubiquity of smartphones makes this type of moment-by-moment quantification of disease phenotypes highly scalable and, when integrated within a transparent research platform, presents tremendous opportunities for research, discovery, and patient health.

Implementing a product platform in 35 man-days:

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mortensen, Niels Henrik; Pedersen, Rasmus; Nielsen, Ole Fiil

2008-01-01

benefits are reduced costs, reduced lead time and increased ability to focus engineering resources on aspects providing value to the customer. A so-called visual approach has been utilised. By means of a Product Family Master Plan, the content and scope of the platform have been modelled and visualised...

Action-research platforms in water and agriculture: Lessons from three programmes in Africa

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Tucker, J

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Stakeholder platforms are popular among agricultural innovation projects. However, there has been limited critical or comparative research on these platforms, exploring what outcomes can be expected and what makes platforms effective or sustainable...

Raven-II: an open platform for surgical robotics research.

Science.gov (United States)

Hannaford, Blake; Rosen, Jacob; Friedman, Diana W; King, Hawkeye; Roan, Phillip; Cheng, Lei; Glozman, Daniel; Ma, Ji; Kosari, Sina Nia; White, Lee

2013-04-01

The Raven-II is a platform for collaborative research on advances in surgical robotics. Seven universities have begun research using this platform. The Raven-II system has two 3-DOF spherical positioning mechanisms capable of attaching interchangeable four DOF instruments. The Raven-II software is based on open standards such as Linux and ROS to maximally facilitate software development. The mechanism is robust enough for repeated experiments and animal surgery experiments, but is not engineered to sufficient safety standards for human use. Mechanisms in place for interaction among the user community and dissemination of results include an electronic forum, an online software SVN repository, and meetings and workshops at major robotics conferences.

Health Information Research Platform (HIReP)--an architecture pattern.

Science.gov (United States)

Schreiweis, Björn; Schneider, Gerd; Eichner, Theresia; Bergh, Björn; Heinze, Oliver

2014-01-01

Secondary use or single source is still far from routine in healthcare, although lots of data are available either structured or unstructured. As data are stored in multiple systems, using them for biomedical research is difficult. Clinical data warehouses already help overcoming this issue, but currently they are only used for certain parts of biomedical research. A comprehensive research platform based on a generic architecture pattern could increase the benefits of existing data warehouses for both patient care and research by meeting two objectives: serving as a so called single point-of-truth and acting as a mediator between them strengthening interaction and close collaboration. Another effect is to reduce boundaries for the implementation of data warehouses. Taking further settings into account the architecture of a clinical data warehouse supporting patient care and biomedical research needs to be integrated with biomaterial banks and other sources. This work provides a solution conceptualizing a comprehensive architecture pattern of a Health Information Research Platform (HIReP) derived from use cases of the patient care and biomedical research domain. It serves as single IT infrastructure providing solutions for any type of use case.

Semantic Web-Based Services for Supporting Voluntary Collaboration among Researchers Using an Information Dissemination Platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hanmin Jung

2007-05-01

Full Text Available Information dissemination platforms for supporting voluntary collaboration among researchers should assure that controllable and verified information is being disseminated. However, previous related studies on this field narrowed their research scopes into information type and information specification. This paper focuses on the verification and the tracing of information using an information dissemination platform and other Semantic Web-based services. Services on our platform include information dissemination services to support reliable information exchange among researchers and knowledge service to provide unrevealed information. The latter is also divided into the two: knowledgization using ontology and inference using a Semantic Web-based inference engine. This paper discusses how this platform supports instant knowledge addition and inference. We demonstrate our approach by constructing an ontology for national R&D reference information using 37,656 RDF triples from about 2,300 KISTI (Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information outcomes. Three knowledge services including 'Communities of Practice', 'Researcher Tracing,' and 'Research Map' were implemented on our platform using a Jena framework. Our study shows that information dissemination platforms will make a meaningful contribution to the possibility of realizing a practical Semantic Web-based information dissemination platform.

European research platform IPANEMA at the SOLEIL synchrotron for ancient and historical materials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bertrand, L.; Languille, M.A.; Cohen, S.X.; Robinet, L.; Josse, W.; Gervais, C.; Leroy, S.; Bernard, D.; Le Pennec, E.; Doucet, J.; Schoder, S.

2011-01-01

IPANEMA, a research platform devoted to ancient and historical materials (archaeology, cultural heritage, palaeontology and past environments), is currently being set up at the synchrotron facility SOLEIL (Saint-Aubin, France; SOLEIL opened to users in January 2008). The new platform is open to French, European and international users. The activities of the platform are centred on two main fields: increased support to synchrotron projects on ancient materials and methodological research. The IPANEMA team currently occupies temporary premises at SOLEIL, but the platform comprises construction of a new building that will comply with conservation and environmental standards and of a hard X-ray imaging beamline today in its conceptual design phase, named PUMA. Since 2008, the team has supported synchrotron works at SOLEIL and at European synchrotron facilities on a range of topics including pigment degradation in paintings, composition of musical instrument varnishes, and provenancing of medieval archaeological ferrous artefacts. Once the platform is fully operational, user support will primarily take place within medium-term research projects for 'hosted' scientists, PhDs and post-docs. IPANEMA methodological research is focused on advanced two-dimensional/ three-dimensional imaging and spectroscopy and statistical image analysis, both optimized for ancient materials. (authors)

A cloud computing based platform for sleep behavior and chronic diseases collaborative research.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuo, Mu-Hsing; Borycki, Elizabeth; Kushniruk, Andre; Huang, Yueh-Min; Hung, Shu-Hui

2014-01-01

The objective of this study is to propose a Cloud Computing based platform for sleep behavior and chronic disease collaborative research. The platform consists of two main components: (1) a sensing bed sheet with textile sensors to automatically record patient's sleep behaviors and vital signs, and (2) a service-oriented cloud computing architecture (SOCCA) that provides a data repository and allows for sharing and analysis of collected data. Also, we describe our systematic approach to implementing the SOCCA. We believe that the new cloud-based platform can provide nurse and other health professional researchers located in differing geographic locations with a cost effective, flexible, secure and privacy-preserved research environment.

Securing a Home Energy Managing Platform

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mikkelsen, Søren Aagaard; Jacobsen, Rune Hylsberg

2016-01-01

Energy management in households gets increasingly more attention in the struggle to integrate more sustainable energy sources. Especially in the electrical system, smart grid towards a better utilisation of the energy production and distribution infrastructure. The Home Energy Management System...... (HEMS) is a critical infrastructure component in this endeavour. Its main goal is to enable energy services utilising smart devices in the households based on the interest of the residential consumers and external actors. With the role of being both an essential link in the communication infrastructure...... for balancing the electrical grid and a surveillance unit in private homes, security and privacy become essential to address. In this chapter, we identify and address potential threats Home Energy Management Platform (HEMP) developers should consider in the progress of designing architecture, selecting hardware...

Usability studies on e-learning platforms: Preliminary study in USM

Science.gov (United States)

Emang, Devinna Win Anak Boniface; Lukman, Raja Nurul Izzati Raja; Kamarulzaman, Muhammad Izzat Syafiq; Zaaba, Zarul Fitri

2017-10-01

This paper explores the end-users' experienced in regards to the usability issues in E-learning platform. An online survey utilising 116 participants were conducted to investigate the end-users understanding and satisfaction on E-learning platform in the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). The results indicates that mainly students still experiencing significant challenges in E-learning platform in regards to accessibility, technical terminologies and functionality. On the other hand, the 10 heuristic guideline is chosen to be a referral point to compare five E-learning platforms in order to assess each performance on regards to the usability criteria. Overall, USM E-learning platform can be considered in a good shape. However, there are more works to be done to improve the delivery system of the E-learning if it would like to sustain for a long period of time. Although the result is at the preliminary stage, it provides useful insights to improve the E-learning platform as one of the most popular education platform in Malaysia.

EPOS Thematic Core Service ANTHROPOGENIC HAZARDS (TCS AH) - development of e-research platform

Science.gov (United States)

Orlecka-Sikora, Beata

2017-04-01

TCS AH is based on IS-EPOS Platform. The Platform facilitates research on anthropogenic hazards and is available online, free of charge https://tcs.ah-epos.eu/. The Platform is a final product of the IS-EPOS project, founded by the national programme - POIG - which was implemented in 2013-2015 (POIG.02.03.00-14-090/13-00). The platform is a result of a joint work of scientific community and industrial partners. Currently, the development of TCS AH is carried under EPOS IP project (H2020-INFRADEV-1-2015-1, INFRADEV-3-2015). Platform is an open virtual access point for researchers and Ph. D. students interested in anthropogenic seismicity and related hazards. This environment is designed to ensure a researcher the maximum possible liberty for experimentation by providing a virtual laboratory, in which the researcher can design own processing streams and process the data integrated on the platform. TCS AH integrates: data and specific high-level services. Data gathered in the so-called "episodes", comprehensively describing a geophysical process, induced or triggered by human technological activity, which, under certain circumstances can become hazardous for people, infrastructure and the environment. 7 sets of seismic, geological and technological data were made available on the Platform. The data come from Poland, Germany, UK and Vietnam, and refer to underground mining, reservoir impoundment, shale gas exploitation and geothermal energy production. The next at least 19 new episodes related to conventional hydrocarbon extraction, reservoir treatment, underground mining and geothermal energy production are being integrated within the framework of EPOS IP project. The heterogeneous multi-disciplinary data (seismic, displacement, geomechanical data, production data etc.) are transformed to unified structures to form integrated and validated datasets. To deal with this various data the problem-oriented services were designed and implemented. The particular attention

Utilisation of phosphate by jute from jute growing soils

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ray, P.K.; Suiha, A.K.

1974-01-01

The uptake and utilisation of phosphate from different jute growing soils of West Bengal viz., Humaipur (24-Parganas), Haripal (Hooghly), Panagarh (Burdwan) and the Jute Agricultural Research Institute, Barrackpore (24-Parganas) were studied in pot under fertilizer combination of NP, PK and NPK. The soils from 24-Parganas district behaved in a similar manner with respect to dry matter yield, fertilizer P uptake and per cent utilisation of added P. The P deficient between the two, Humaipur soil, showed comparatively higher P utilisation. Other two soils, Haripal and Panagarh, though of different origin behaved similarly, highest soil P has been contributed by the P rich soil (J.A.R.I.) to the crop, though it showed minimum P fixation. (author)

SimNEC : research platform for studying human functioning in NCW

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Veen, H.A.H.C. van; Graaf, B. de; Essens, P.

2006-01-01

SimNEC is TNOÆs grand scheme for experimentally studying human factors issues related to NEC/NCW. The research platform SimNEC consists of multidisciplinary expert teams, long-term research programmes, and a local network of state-of-the-art simulator modules. SimNEC does not focus on technology,

NASA's Platform for Cross-Disciplinary Microchannel Research

Science.gov (United States)

Son, Sang Young; Spearing, Scott; Allen, Jeffrey; Monaco, Lisa A.

2003-01-01

A team from the Structural Biology group located at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama is developing a platform suitable for cross-disciplinary microchannel research. The original objective of this engineering development effort was to deliver a multi-user flight-certified facility for iterative investigations of protein crystal growth; that is, Iterative Biological Crystallization (IBC). However, the unique capabilities of this facility are not limited to the low-gravity structural biology research community. Microchannel-based research in a number of other areas may be greatly accelerated through use of this facility. In particular, the potential for gas-liquid flow investigations and cellular biological research utilizing the exceptional pressure control and simplified coupling to macroscale diagnostics inherent in the IBC facility will be discussed. In conclusion, the opportunities for research-specific modifications to the microchannel configuration, control, and diagnostics will be discussed.

West African Platform for HIV Intervention Research (WAPHIR ...

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

West African Platform for HIV Intervention Research (WAPHIR) : plateforme de recherche interventionnelle en matière de VIH en Afrique de l'Ouest. Grâce à cette subvention, on appuiera l'établissement d'un partenariat dirigé par des Africains de l'Ouest, en collaboration avec des partenaires canadiens et européens, afin ...

Acquisition And Utilisation Of Human Resources In Public ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The study examined the acquisition and utilisation of human resources in public secondary schools for students with special needs in Oyo State. The study employed a descriptive research design. The entire 196 teachers and 16 supportive staff formed the sample. The research instrument for the study was a questionnaire ...

[Platforms are needed for innovative basic research in ophthalmology].

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yi-qiang

2012-07-01

Basic research poses the cornerstone of technical innovation in all lines including medical sciences. Currently, there are shortages of professional scientists as well as technical supporting teams and facilities in the field of basic research of ophthalmology and visual science in China. Evaluation system and personnel policies are not supportive for innovative but high-risk-of-failure research projects. Discussion of reasons and possible solutions are given here to address these problems, aiming at promoting buildup of platforms hosting novel and important basic research in eye science in this country.

An investigation on e-resource utilisation among university students in a developing country: A case of Great Zimbabwe University

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Talent Mawere

2018-06-01

Full Text Available Background: Electronic libraries are the recent development in the ever-changing technological world today. Students nowadays have the ability to carry the library wherever they are, their Internet-enabled devices being the only requirement. Most universities worldwide have subscribed to various online databases and other e-resources as a way of availing resources to their students. To their credit, most institutions of higher learning in developing countries have not been left out in this stampede.   Objectives: The study aimed at investigating the adoption and utilisation of e-resources by students at a university in a developing country.   Method: The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM model was used to conceptualise the study. A survey questionnaire was designed and distributed through social media platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp. Quantitative data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS. The Chi-squared test was used to test for casual relationships within the developed model. A thematic approach was used to analyse qualitative data. Results: Despite the fact that many Zimbabwean academic institutions have made the facility of e-libraries top agenda in their strategic plans, the adoption rate among students is still very limited. This can be attributed to a myriad of facts, inter alia, poor marketing strategies, lack of resources among the students and exorbitant data charges by Internet Service Providers (ISPs.   Conclusion: This study has provided some basic insights in utilisation of e-resources in universities of developing countries. Despite the younger generation being described as digital natives, it is, quite evident that their uptake of technological innovations especially in education is quite poor. This research will assist both researchers and management of institutions of higher learning to provide and design amicable solutions to the problem of poor utilisation of e-resources as

Design of e-Science platform for biomedical imaging research cross multiple academic institutions and hospitals

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Jianguo; Zhang, Kai; Yang, Yuanyuan; Ling, Tonghui; Wang, Tusheng; Wang, Mingqing; Hu, Haibo; Xu, Xuemin

2012-02-01

More and more image informatics researchers and engineers are considering to re-construct imaging and informatics infrastructure or to build new framework to enable multiple disciplines of medical researchers, clinical physicians and biomedical engineers working together in a secured, efficient, and transparent cooperative environment. In this presentation, we show an outline and our preliminary design work of building an e-Science platform for biomedical imaging and informatics research and application in Shanghai. We will present our consideration and strategy on designing this platform, and preliminary results. We also will discuss some challenges and solutions in building this platform.

Region-Specific Indicators for Assessing the Sustainability of Biomass Utilisation in East Asia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuki Kudoh

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the findings of an expert working group of researchers from East Asian countries. The group was tasked with developing a theoretically sound and practically implementable methodology for assessing the sustainability of biomass utilisation in East Asian countries based on the needs and potential of biomass resources in this region. Building on six years of research conducted between 2007 and 2013, the working group formulated a set of main and secondary indicators for biomass utilisation under three pillars of sustainability. For the environmental pillar, the main indicator was life cycle greenhouse gas emissions and secondary indicators were water consumption and soil quality. For the economic pillar, the main indicator was total value added and secondary indicators were net profit, productivity, and net energy balance. For the social pillar, the main indicators were employment generation and access to modern energy, and the secondary indicator was the human development index. The application of the working group methodology and indicators in sustainability assessments of biomass utilisation will enable decision makers in East Asian countries to compare the sustainability of biomass utilisation options and to make decisions on whether or not to launch or sustain biomass utilisation initiatives.

Attitudes to social media use as a platform for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) within occupational therapy

OpenAIRE

Murray, Kelly; Ward, Kath

2017-01-01

Introduction: This study explored what influences the use of social media platforms within the CPD of occupational therapy students and qualified occupational therapists. It also considered perceived barriers to its use and whether age in line with generation theory, in particular digital natives vs digital immigrants impacted on willingness to utilise social media within CPD.\\ud \\ud Method: A mixed method survey design was utilised to collect qualitative and quantitative data through an onli...

Pattern of Smartphones Utilisation among Engineering Undergraduates

OpenAIRE

Muliati Sedek

2014-01-01

The smartphones ownership among the undergraduates in Malaysia was recorded as high. However, little was known about its utilization patterns, thus, the focus of this research was to determine the utilisation patterns of smartphones based on the National Education Technology Standard for Students (NETS.S) among engineering undergraduates in Malaysia. This study was based on a quantitative research and the population comprised undergraduates from four Malaysian Technical Universities. A total ...

e-Science platform for translational biomedical imaging research: running, statistics, and analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Tusheng; Yang, Yuanyuan; Zhang, Kai; Wang, Mingqing; Zhao, Jun; Xu, Lisa; Zhang, Jianguo

2015-03-01

In order to enable multiple disciplines of medical researchers, clinical physicians and biomedical engineers working together in a secured, efficient, and transparent cooperative environment, we had designed an e-Science platform for biomedical imaging research and application cross multiple academic institutions and hospitals in Shanghai and presented this work in SPIE Medical Imaging conference held in San Diego in 2012. In past the two-years, we implemented a biomedical image chain including communication, storage, cooperation and computing based on this e-Science platform. In this presentation, we presented the operating status of this system in supporting biomedical imaging research, analyzed and discussed results of this system in supporting multi-disciplines collaboration cross-multiple institutions.

Aspects of biogas utilisation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Luning, L.

1992-01-01

Utilisation of biogas has received considerable attention over the last decade, its full potential has not been reached however. The paper discusses various options for utilisation of biogas and the limitations that may occur as far as they are associated with the characteristics of biogas. As a result the prospects for the future are presented. (au)

Towards A Research Agenda on Digital Platform Disruption

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kazan, Erol; Tan, Chee-Wee; Lim, Eric T. K.

Digital platforms are disruptive IT artifacts, because they facilitate the quick release of innovative platform derivatives from third parties. This study endeavors to unravel the disruptive potential, caused by distinct designs and configurations of digital platforms on market environments. We...... postulate that the disruptive potential of digital platforms is determined by the degree of alignment among the business, technology and platform profiles. Furthermore, we argue that the design and configuration of the aforementioned three elements dictates the extent to which open innovation is permitted....... To shed light on the disruptive potential of digital platforms, we opted for digital payment platforms as our unit of analysis. Through interviews with experts and payment providers, we seek to gain an in-depth appreciation of how contemporary digital payment platforms are designed and configured...

Secure Ad Hoc Networking on an Android Platform

Science.gov (United States)

2014-05-01

Loscocco & Smalley 2001]. SE Android applies the same concept to Android , in order to: • confine privileged daemons • sandbox and isolate applications more...Science and Technology Organisation DSTO–TN–1390 ABSTRACT This document describes and analyses a suite of applications for the Android platform that... applications , and en- forcing for root level applications only. In addition to the implicit protections provided by SE Android , we utilised SE Android’s

The Doktabörse – an innovative online platform for research projects at the medical faculty of the LMU Munich

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicolai, Leo

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Introduction: One of the most important extracurricular aspects of medical studies in Germany is a research thesis completed by most students. This research project often times conveys relevant competencies for the physician’s role as scientist. Nevertheless, the choice of the right project remains a challenge. Reasons for this are among others, missing structures for a comprehensive overview of research groups and their respective projects.Description of the project: We developed the online platform as an online marketplace for doctoral research projects. The platform enables authorized researchers to create working groups and upload, deactivate and change research projects within their institute. For interested students, a front end with integrated search function displays these projects in a structured and well-arranged way. In parallel, the provides for a comprehensive overview of research at the medical faculty. We evaluated Researchers‘ and students‘ use of the platform. Results: 96,6% of students participating in the evaluation (n=400 were in favor of a centralized research platform at the medical faculty. The platform grew at a steady pace and included 120 research groups in June 2016. The students appreciated the structure and design of the Two thirds of all uploaded projects matched successfully with doctoral students via the platform and over 94% of researchers stated that they did not need technical assistance with uploading projects and handling the platform. Discussion: The represents an innovative and well accepted platform for doctoral research projects. The platform is perceived positively by researchers and students alike. However, students criticized limited extent and timeliness of offered projects.In addition, the platform serves as databank of research at the medical faculty of the LMU Munich. The future potential of this platform is to provide for an integrated management solution of doctoral thesis projects

Issues in offshore platform research - Part 1: Semi-submersibles

Science.gov (United States)

Sharma, R.; Kim, Tae-Wan; Sha, O. P.; Misra, S. C.

2010-09-01

Availability of economic and efficient energy resources is crucial to a nation's development. Because of their low cost and advancement in drilling and exploration technologies, oil and gas based energy systems are the most widely used energy source throughout the world. The inexpensive oil and gas based energy systems are used for everything, i.e., from transportation of goods and people to the harvesting of crops for food. As the energy demand continues to rise, there is strong need for inexpensive energy solutions. An offshore platform is a large structure that is used to house workers and machinery needed to drill wells in the ocean bed, extract oil and/or natural gas, process the produced fluids, and ship or pipe them to shore. Depending on the circumstances, the offshore platform can be fixed (to the ocean floor) or can consist of an artificial island or can float. Semi-submersibles are used for various purposes in offshore and marine engineering, e.g. crane vessels, drilling vessels, tourist vessels, production platforms and accommodation facilities, etc. The challenges of deepwater drilling have further motivated the researchers to design optimum choices for semi-submersibles for a chosen operating depth. In our series of eight papers, we discuss the design and production aspects of all the types of offshore platforms. In the present part I, we present an introduction and critical analysis of semi-submersibles.

The Research of China's Civil Aviation Passenger Multi-Channel Service Technology Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Zhibing, Xue; Xinming, Wang

IATA is promoting Simplifying the Business. The traditional passenger services and business process, such as ticketing, airport counters, had a great influence. The airlines have the passenger service and convenience as the next product development requirements. With civil aviation industry and their company's products construction, the authors propose a solution of passenger multi-channel service product platform. The solution is to streamline the business as the breakthrough point, around the convenience of passengers travel services to travelers as the center, using the current mainstream and the latest IT technology to establish passenger service product platform. The solution will promote DCS e-ticketing business development and service channel diversity. In this paper, the research results have been applied in the product platform construction of the authors' company. The practice shows that through traditional business with the latest IT technologies, traditional passenger services into the emerging service model, passenger service product platform has strong advantages and characteristics. Based on the platform, various types of service products is growing rapidly.

From NHS Choices to the integrated customer service platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Gann, Bob; Grant, Maria J

2013-03-01

In 2013 the NHS Commissioning Board launches its new integrated customer service platform. The new service utilises the full range of channels (web, telephone, apps etc) to provide access to information to support transparency, participation and transactions. Digital health services have proven benefits in informed choice, shared decision making and patient participation. © 2013 The authors. Health Information and Libraries Journal © 2013 Health Libraries Group.

Issues in offshore platform research - Part 1: Semi-submersibles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. Sharma

2010-09-01

Full Text Available Availability of economic and efficient energy resources is crucial to a nation's development. Because of their low cost and advancement in drilling and exploration technologies, oil and gas based energy systems are the most widely used energy source throughout the world. The inexpensive oil and gas based energy systems are used for everything, i.e., from transportation of goods and people to the harvesting of crops for food. As the energy demand continues to rise, there is strong need for inexpensive energy solutions. An offshore platform is a large structure that is used to house workers and machinery needed to drill wells in the ocean bed, extract oil and/or natural gas, process the produced fluids, and ship or pipe them to shore. Depending on the circumstances, the offshore platform can be fixed (to the ocean floor or can consist of an artificial island or can float. Semi-submersibles are used for various purposes in offshore and marine engineering, e.g. crane vessels, drilling vessels, tourist vessels, production platforms and accommodation facilities, etc. The challenges of deepwater drilling have further motivated the researchers to design optimum choices for semi-submersibles for a chosen operating depth. In our series of eight papers, we discuss the design and production aspects of all the types of offshore platforms. In the present part I, we present an introduction and critical analysis of semi-submersibles.

ICT and OTs: a model of information and communication technology acceptance and utilisation by occupational therapists.

Science.gov (United States)

Schaper, Louise K; Pervan, Graham P

2007-06-01

There is evidence to suggest that health professionals are reluctant to accept and utilise information and communication technologies (ICT) and concern is growing within health informatics research that this is contributing to the lag in adoption and utilisation of ICT across the health sector. Technology acceptance research within the field of information systems has been limited in its application to health and there is a concurrent need to develop and gain empirical support for models of technology acceptance within health and to examine acceptance and utilisation issues amongst health professionals to improve the success of information system implementation in this arena. This paper outlines a project that examines ICT acceptance and utilisation by Australian occupational therapists. It describes the theoretical basis behind the development of a research model and the methodology being employed to empirically validate the model using substantial quantitative, qualitative and longitudinal data. Preliminary results from Phase II of the study are presented. The theoretical significance of this work is that it uses a thoroughly constructed research model, with potentially the largest sample size ever tested, to extend technology acceptance research into the health sector.

Optimal environmental benefits of utilising alternative energy technologies in Jordan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mrayyan, B.

2004-01-01

With rapid population growth and increase in industrial activities, more energy is consumed, resulting in environmental pollution and economic difficulties. Therefore, the need for utilising renewable energy resources has emerged. Although Jordan does not have adequate fuel supplies (90% of its crude oil is imported), it is gifted with alternative resources. Because of the political and economical constraints that hinder the import of crude oil from neighbouring countries and of the fact that Jordan has limited fossil fuel resources, strategies to meet energy demand are being addressed and examined together with their consequences and the ways in which they could be utilised. This paper assesses for the first time, the potential of using alternative energy technologies in Jordan, including the utilisation of solar energy for water heating, for wind towers in rural areas and also for biogas production from waste. Approximately 2% of unconventional renewable energy resources are being utilised. The data and scenarios of this study were presented in a manner that would assist decision makers, funding agencies, researchers and other related parties to establish programmes that will be helpful in meeting the energy demand, while preserving the environment and maintaining sustainability. (author)

Utilisation of research and training reactors in the study programme of students at the Slovak University of Technology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Slugen, V.; Lipka, J.; Hascik, J.; Miglierini, M.

2004-01-01

Preparing operating staff for the nuclear industry is and also will be one of the most serious education processes, mainly in the Central-European countries where about 40-50% of the electricity is produced in nuclear power plants. In the Central-European region there exists a very extensive and also effective international collaboration in nuclear industry and education. Similarly, the level of education in universities and technical high schools of this area is also good. Slovak University of Technology Bratislava has established contacts with many universities abroad for utilisation of research and training reactors. (author)

Research and application of mobile teaching platform

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Ping; Xue, Hongjiao

2017-08-01

The application of mobile technology in university digital campus is ripe. This article mainly introduced the necessity of teaching platform based on mobile Internet in the teaching of higher vocational education, and the key to the construction of the feasibility of mobile learning platform, which is a feasible and effective teaching model under the new situation, worthy of promotion. The design and application of teaching platform based on mobile Internet is the change of educational ideas and working methods, and is the new starting point of Higher Vocational education.

Designing Experiences to Increase Stadium Capacity Utilisation in Football

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Junghagen, Sven; Besjakov, Simon D; Lund, Anders Alrø

2016-01-01

The aim of this paper is to show in what way football clubs in smaller leagues with limited capacity utilisation can increase their per-game revenue by increasing the attendance frequency. A sequential mixed method research design was employed, involving both qualitative and quantitative methods...

Life cycle assessment of peat utilisation in Finland

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maelkki, H.

1997-01-01

Environmental issues related to the production of peat and its use in energy generation have been the subject of public debate and research over the past few years in Finland. Peat is both an indigenous and a locally utilised fuel. Finland has no fossil fuel resources, and the transportation distances of imported fuels into Finland are normally long. In Finland the large peat resources can be utilised locally and peat-burning power plants are situated near the peatlands. Peat production and energy conversion methods are being continuously developed to make use of the environmentally and technically best available technology. In Finland peat formation exceeds peat utilisation and an increase in peat utilisation is therefore sustainable. The life cycle assessment concept gives an opportunity to evaluate and improve the environmental quality of peat utilisation options. The study focuses on an inventory analysis, but some of the most common methods of impact assessment with valuation are also included. The study also includes a comparison of fossil fuels and a discussion part. All the calculated results are based on net emissions. The background emissions of natural peatland are subtracted from the emissions of the utilisation phases. Milled peat and sod peat are reported in this study. Horticultural peat is studied simultaneously, but it will be reported later. The Sod Wave, Haku and Tehoturve methods are studied for the production of peat. The power plants of the study are Kempele heating plant and Rauhalahti cogeneration plant. The functional unit is 1 MWh produced total energy. The temporal boundaries vary from 112 to 128 years, depending on the peat production methods used. The restoration time is 100 years in all options. The emissions of greenhouse gases are based on the reports of The Finnish Research Programme on Climate Change. The water emissions are based on control monitoring reports from 1994 and 1995. The water emissions of the restoration phase are

RMS: a platform for managing cross-disciplinary and multi-institutional research project collaboration.

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Jake; Apperson-Hansen, Carolyn; Pelfrey, Clara M; Zhang, Guo-Qiang

2014-11-30

Cross-institutional cross-disciplinary collaboration has become a trend as researchers move toward building more productive and innovative teams for scientific research. Research collaboration is significantly changing the organizational structure and strategies used in the clinical and translational science domain. However, due to the obstacles of diverse administrative structures, differences in area of expertise, and communication barriers, establishing and managing a cross-institutional research project is still a challenging task. We address these challenges by creating an integrated informatics platform to reduce the barriers to biomedical research collaboration. The Request Management System (RMS) is an informatics infrastructure designed to transform a patchwork of expertise and resources into an integrated support network. The RMS facilitates investigators' initiation of new collaborative projects and supports the management of the collaboration process. In RMS, experts and their knowledge areas are categorized and managed structurally to provide consistent service. A role-based collaborative workflow is tightly integrated with domain experts and services to streamline and monitor the life-cycle of a research project. The RMS has so far tracked over 1,500 investigators with over 4,800 tasks. The research network based on the data collected in RMS illustrated that the investigators' collaborative projects increased close to 3 times from 2009 to 2012. Our experience with RMS indicates that the platform reduces barriers for cross-institutional collaboration of biomedical research projects. Building a new generation of infrastructure to enhance cross-disciplinary and multi-institutional collaboration has become an important yet challenging task. In this paper, we share the experience of developing and utilizing a collaborative project management system. The results of this study demonstrate that a web-based integrated informatics platform can facilitate and

A method for establishing a long duration, stratospheric platform for astronomical research

Science.gov (United States)

Fesen, Robert; Brown, Yorke

2015-10-01

During certain times of the year at middle and low latitudes, winds in the upper stratosphere move in nearly the opposite direction than the wind in the lower stratosphere. Here we present a method for maintaining a high-altitude balloon platform in near station-keeping mode that utilizes this stratospheric wind shear. The proposed method places a balloon-borne science platform high in the stratosphere connected by a lightweight, high-strength tether to a tug vehicle located in the lower or middle stratosphere. Using aerodynamic control surfaces, wind-induced aerodynamic forces on the tug can be manipulated to counter the wind drag acting on the higher altitude science vehicle, thus controlling the upper vehicle's geographic location. We describe the general framework of this station-keeping method, some important properties required for the upper stratospheric science payload and lower tug platforms, and compare this station-keeping approach with the capabilities of a high altitude airship and conventional tethered aerostat approaches. We conclude by discussing the advantages of such a platform for a variety of missions with emphasis on astrophysical research.

Utilising UDT to push the bandwidth envelope

Science.gov (United States)

Garrett, B.; Davies, B.

eScience applications, in particular High Energy Physics, often involve large amounts of data and/or computing and often require secure resource sharing across organizational boundaries, and are thus not easily handled by today's networking infrastructures. By utilising the switched lightpath connections provided by the UKLight network it has been possible to research the use of alternate protocols for data transport. While the HEP projects make use of a number of middleware solutions for data storage and transport, they all rely on GridFTP for WAN transport. The GridFTP protocol runs over TCP as the layer 3 protocol by default, however with the latest released of the Globus toolkit it is possible to utilise alternate protocols at the layer 3 level. One of the alternatives is a reliable version of UDP called UDT. This report presents the results of the tests measuring the performance of single-threaded file transfers using GridFTP running over both TCP and the UDT protocol.

A Binaural CI Research Platform for Oticon Medical SP/XP Implants Enabling ITD/ILD and Variable Rate Processing

Science.gov (United States)

Adiloğlu, K.; Herzke, T.

2015-01-01

We present the first portable, binaural, real-time research platform compatible with Oticon Medical SP and XP generation cochlear implants. The platform consists of (a) a pair of behind-the-ear devices, each containing front and rear calibrated microphones, (b) a four-channel USB analog-to-digital converter, (c) real-time PC-based sound processing software called the Master Hearing Aid, and (d) USB-connected hardware and output coils capable of driving two implants simultaneously. The platform is capable of processing signals from the four microphones simultaneously and producing synchronized binaural cochlear implant outputs that drive two (bilaterally implanted) SP or XP implants. Both audio signal preprocessing algorithms (such as binaural beamforming) and novel binaural stimulation strategies (within the implant limitations) can be programmed by researchers. When the whole research platform is combined with Oticon Medical SP implants, interaural electrode timing can be controlled on individual electrodes to within ±1 µs and interaural electrode energy differences can be controlled to within ±2%. Hence, this new platform is particularly well suited to performing experiments related to interaural time differences in combination with interaural level differences in real-time. The platform also supports instantaneously variable stimulation rates and thereby enables investigations such as the effect of changing the stimulation rate on pitch perception. Because the processing can be changed on the fly, researchers can use this platform to study perceptual changes resulting from different processing strategies acutely. PMID:26721923

A Binaural CI Research Platform for Oticon Medical SP/XP Implants Enabling ITD/ILD and Variable Rate Processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Backus, B; Adiloğlu, K; Herzke, T

2015-12-30

We present the first portable, binaural, real-time research platform compatible with Oticon Medical SP and XP generation cochlear implants. The platform consists of (a) a pair of behind-the-ear devices, each containing front and rear calibrated microphones, (b) a four-channel USB analog-to-digital converter, (c) real-time PC-based sound processing software called the Master Hearing Aid, and (d) USB-connected hardware and output coils capable of driving two implants simultaneously. The platform is capable of processing signals from the four microphones simultaneously and producing synchronized binaural cochlear implant outputs that drive two (bilaterally implanted) SP or XP implants. Both audio signal preprocessing algorithms (such as binaural beamforming) and novel binaural stimulation strategies (within the implant limitations) can be programmed by researchers. When the whole research platform is combined with Oticon Medical SP implants, interaural electrode timing can be controlled on individual electrodes to within ±1 µs and interaural electrode energy differences can be controlled to within ±2%. Hence, this new platform is particularly well suited to performing experiments related to interaural time differences in combination with interaural level differences in real-time. The platform also supports instantaneously variable stimulation rates and thereby enables investigations such as the effect of changing the stimulation rate on pitch perception. Because the processing can be changed on the fly, researchers can use this platform to study perceptual changes resulting from different processing strategies acutely. © The Author(s) 2015.

Inflation and capacity utilisation in Nigeria's manufacturing sector ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study analysed the relationship between inflation and capacity utilisation empirically leaning on the model employed by Baylor (2001). It utilised time series secondary data using least square multiple regression technique. The quarterly data utilised were tested for stationarity using ADF test. The multiple regression ...

Platform Performance and Challenges - using Platforms in Lego Company

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Munk, Lone; Mortensen, Niels Henrik

2009-01-01

needs focus on the incentive of using the platform. This problem lacks attention in literature, as well as industry, where assessment criteria do not cover this aspect. Therefore, we recommend including user incentive in platform assessment criteria to these challenges. Concrete solution elements...... ensuring user incentive in platforms is an object for future research...

Gaps and strategies in developing health research capacity: experience from the Nigeria Implementation Science Alliance

OpenAIRE

Ezeanolue, Echezona E.; Menson, William Nii Ayitey; Patel, Dina; Aarons, Gregory; Olutola, Ayodotun; Obiefune, Michael; Dakum, Patrick; Okonkwo, Prosper; Gobir, Bola; Akinmurele, Timothy; Nwandu, Anthea; Khamofu, Hadiza; Oyeledun, Bolanle; Aina, Muyiwa; Eyo, Andy

2018-01-01

Background Despite being disproportionately burdened by preventable diseases than more advanced countries, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) continue to trail behind other parts of the world in the number, quality and impact of scholarly activities by their health researchers. Our strategy at the Nigerian Implementation Science Alliance (NISA) is to utilise innovative platforms that catalyse collaboration, enhance communication between different stakeholders, and promote the uptake of ...

PARAMO: a PARAllel predictive MOdeling platform for healthcare analytic research using electronic health records.

Science.gov (United States)

Ng, Kenney; Ghoting, Amol; Steinhubl, Steven R; Stewart, Walter F; Malin, Bradley; Sun, Jimeng

2014-04-01

Healthcare analytics research increasingly involves the construction of predictive models for disease targets across varying patient cohorts using electronic health records (EHRs). To facilitate this process, it is critical to support a pipeline of tasks: (1) cohort construction, (2) feature construction, (3) cross-validation, (4) feature selection, and (5) classification. To develop an appropriate model, it is necessary to compare and refine models derived from a diversity of cohorts, patient-specific features, and statistical frameworks. The goal of this work is to develop and evaluate a predictive modeling platform that can be used to simplify and expedite this process for health data. To support this goal, we developed a PARAllel predictive MOdeling (PARAMO) platform which (1) constructs a dependency graph of tasks from specifications of predictive modeling pipelines, (2) schedules the tasks in a topological ordering of the graph, and (3) executes those tasks in parallel. We implemented this platform using Map-Reduce to enable independent tasks to run in parallel in a cluster computing environment. Different task scheduling preferences are also supported. We assess the performance of PARAMO on various workloads using three datasets derived from the EHR systems in place at Geisinger Health System and Vanderbilt University Medical Center and an anonymous longitudinal claims database. We demonstrate significant gains in computational efficiency against a standard approach. In particular, PARAMO can build 800 different models on a 300,000 patient data set in 3h in parallel compared to 9days if running sequentially. This work demonstrates that an efficient parallel predictive modeling platform can be developed for EHR data. This platform can facilitate large-scale modeling endeavors and speed-up the research workflow and reuse of health information. This platform is only a first step and provides the foundation for our ultimate goal of building analytic pipelines

Automated platform for designing multiple robot work cells

Science.gov (United States)

Osman, N. S.; Rahman, M. A. A.; Rahman, A. A. Abdul; Kamsani, S. H.; Bali Mohamad, B. M.; Mohamad, E.; Zaini, Z. A.; Rahman, M. F. Ab; Mohamad Hatta, M. N. H.

2017-06-01

Designing the multiple robot work cells is very knowledge-intensive, intricate, and time-consuming process. This paper elaborates the development process of a computer-aided design program for generating the multiple robot work cells which offer a user-friendly interface. The primary purpose of this work is to provide a fast and easy platform for less cost and human involvement with minimum trial and errors adjustments. The automated platform is constructed based on the variant-shaped configuration concept with its mathematical model. A robot work cell layout, system components, and construction procedure of the automated platform are discussed in this paper where integration of these items will be able to automatically provide the optimum robot work cell design according to the information set by the user. This system is implemented on top of CATIA V5 software and utilises its Part Design, Assembly Design, and Macro tool. The current outcomes of this work provide a basis for future investigation in developing a flexible configuration system for the multiple robot work cells.

Platform Constellations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Staykova, Kalina Stefanova; Damsgaard, Jan

2016-01-01

This research paper presents an initial attempt to introduce and explain the emergence of new phenomenon, which we refer to as platform constellations. Functioning as highly modular systems, the platform constellations are collections of highly connected platforms which co-exist in parallel and a......’ acquisition and users’ engagement rates as well as unlock new sources of value creation and diversify revenue streams....

The RUDY study platform – a novel approach to patient driven research in rare musculoskeletal diseases

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. K. Javaid

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Research into rare diseases is becoming more common, with recognition of the significant diagnostic and therapeutic care gaps. Registries are considered a key research methodology to address rare diseases. This report describes the structure of the Rare UK Diseases Study (RUDY platform that aims to improve research processes and address many of the challenges of carrying out rare musculoskeletal disease research. RUDY is an internet-based platform with online registration, initial verbal consent, online capture of patient reported outcome measures and events within a dynamic consent framework. The database structure, security and governance framework are described. Results There have been 380 participants recruited into RUDY with completed questionnaire rates in excess of 50 %. There has been one withdrawal and two participants have amended their consent options. Conclusions The strengths of RUDY include low burden for the clinical team, low research administration costs with high participant recruitment and ease of data collection and access. This platform has the potential to be used as the model for other rare diseases globally.

Comparative emergency department resource utilisation across age groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Burkett, Ellen; Martin-Khan, Melinda G; Gray, Leonard C

2017-12-11

Objectives The aim of the present study was to assess comparative emergency department (ED) resource utilisation across age groups. Methods A retrospective analysis of data collected in the National Non-admitted Patient Emergency Department Care Database was undertaken to assess comparative ED resource utilisation across six age groups (0-14, 15-35, 36-64, 65-74, 75-84 and ≥85 years) with previously used surrogate markers of ED resource utilisation. Results Older people had significantly higher resource utilisation for their individual ED episodes of care than younger people, with the effect increasing with advancing age. Conclusion With ED care of older people demonstrated to be more resource intensive than care for younger people, the projected increase in older person presentations anticipated with population aging will have a magnified effect on ED services. These predicted changes in demand for ED care will only be able to be optimally managed if Australian health policy, ED funding instruments and ED models of care are adjusted to take into account the specific care and resource needs of older people. What is known about the topic? Current Australian ED funding models do not adjust for patient age. Several regional studies have suggested higher resource utilisation of ED patients aged ≥65 years. Anticipated rapid population aging mandates that contribution of age to ED visit resource utilisation be further explored. What does this paper add? The present study of national Australian ED presentations compared ED resource utilisation across age groups using surrogate markers of ED cost. Older people were found to have significantly higher resource utilisation in the ED, with the effect increasing further with advancing age. What are the implications for practitioners? The higher resource utilisation of older people in the ED warrants a review of current ED funding models to ensure that they will continue to meet the needs of an aging population.

Research and development of common DAQ platform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Higuchi, T.; Igarashi, Y.; Nakao, M.; Suzuki, S.Y.; Tanaka, M.; Nagasaka, Y.; Varner, G.

2003-01-01

The upgrade of the KEKB accelerator toward L=10 35 cm -2 s -1 requires an upgrade of the Belle data acquisition system. To match the market trend, we develop a DAQ platform based on the PCI bus that enables fastest DAQ with longer lifetime of the system. The platform is a VME-9U motherboard comprising of four slots for signal digitization modules and three PMC slots to house CPU for data compression. The platform is equipped with event FIFOs for data buffering to minimize the dead-time. A trigger module residing on VME-6U size rear board is connected to the 9U board via PCI-PCI bridge to make an interrupt for the CPU upon the level-1 trigger. (author)

Explanatory factors for first and second-generation non-western women's inadequate prenatal care utilisation: a prospective cohort study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boerleider, A.W.; Manniën, J.; van Stenus, C.M.V.; Wiegers, T.A.; Feijen-de Jong, E.I.; Spelten, E.R.; Deville, W.L.J.M.

2015-01-01

Background: Little research into non-western women's prenatal care utilisation in industrialised western countries has taken generational differences into account. In this study we examined non-western women's prenatal care utilisation and its explanatory factors according to generational status.

Explanatory factors for first and second-generation non-western women's inadequate prenatal care utilisation : a prospective cohort study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boerleider, Agatha W; Manniën, Judith; van Stenus, Cherelle M V; Wiegers, Therese A; Feijen-de Jong, Esther I; Spelten, Evelien R; Devillé, Walter L J M

2015-01-01

BACKGROUND: Little research into non-western women's prenatal care utilisation in industrialised western countries has taken generational differences into account. In this study we examined non-western women's prenatal care utilisation and its explanatory factors according to generational status.

Contribution to global computation infrastructure: inter-platform delegation, integration of standard services and application to high-energy physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lodygensky, Oleg

2006-01-01

The generalization and implementation of the current information resources, particularly the large storing capacities and the networks allow conceiving new methods of work and ways of entertainment. Centralized stand-alone, monolithic computing stations have been gradually replaced by distributed client-tailored architectures which in turn are challenged by the new distributed systems called 'pair-by pair' systems. This migration is no longer with the specialists' realm but users of more modest skills get used with this new techniques for e-mailing commercial information and exchanging various sorts of files on a 'equal-to-equal' basis. Trade, industry and research as well make profits largely of the new technique called 'grid', this new technique of handling information at a global scale. The present work concerns the grid utilisation for computation. A synergy was created with Paris-Sud University at Orsay, between the Information Research Laboratory (LRI) and the Linear Accelerator Laboratory (LAL) in order to foster the works on grid infrastructure of high research interest for LRI and offering new working methods for LAL. The results of the work developed within this inter-disciplinary-collaboration are based on XtremWeb, the research and production platform for global computation elaborated at LRI. First one presents the current status of the large-scale distributed systems, their basic principles and user-oriented architecture. The XtremWeb is then described focusing the modifications which were effected upon both architecture and implementation in order to fulfill optimally the requirements imposed to such a platform. Then one presents studies with the platform allowing a generalization of the inter-grid resources and development of a user-oriented grid adapted to special services, as well,. Finally one presents the operation modes, the problems to solve and the advantages of this new platform for the high-energy research community, the most demanding

NCI's Transdisciplinary High Performance Scientific Data Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, Ben; Antony, Joseph; Bastrakova, Irina; Car, Nicholas; Cox, Simon; Druken, Kelsey; Evans, Bradley; Fraser, Ryan; Ip, Alex; Kemp, Carina; King, Edward; Minchin, Stuart; Larraondo, Pablo; Pugh, Tim; Richards, Clare; Santana, Fabiana; Smillie, Jon; Trenham, Claire; Wang, Jingbo; Wyborn, Lesley

2016-04-01

additional communities practices, and a foundation for new exploratory developments. To that end, NCI is already participating in numerous current and emerging collaborations internationally including the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF); Climate and Weather Data from International agencies such as NASA, NOAA, and UK Met Office; Remotely Sensed Satellite Earth Imaging through collaborations through GEOS and CEOS; EU-led Ocean Data Interoperability Platform (ODIP) and Horizon2020 Earth Server2 project; as well as broader data infrastructure community activities such as Research Data Alliance (RDA). Each research community is heavily engaged in international standards such as ISO, OGC and W3C, adopting community-led conventions for data, supporting improved data organisation such as controlled vocabularies, and creating workflows that use mature APIs and data services. NCI is engaging with these communities on NERDIP to ensure that such standards are applied uniformly and tested in practice by working with the variety of data and technologies. This includes benchmarking exemplar cases from individual communities, documenting their use of standards, and evaluating their practical use of the different technologies. Such a process fully establishes the functionality and performance, and is required to safely transition when improvements or rationalisation is required. Work is now underway to extend the NERDIP platform for better utilisation in the subsurface geophysical community, including maximizing national uptake, as well as better integration with international science platforms.

Small-scale production and utilisation of fuelwood. Review of research projects; Puupolttoaineen pientuotanto ja -kaeyttoe. Katsaus tutkimusprojekteihin

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tuomi, S [Work Efficiency Inst., Rajamaeki (Finland)

1997-12-01

The goal in the small-scale production of wood fuels in the context of the Bioenergy research programme is to reduce production costs by 20 % when compared to the 1992 cost level. Also, new harvesting technology and new work methods will be developed for forest owners and small-entrepreneurs in the course of the research programme. The goal of the research work will be to improve the competitiveness of harvesting machines, devices and work chains when dealing with small-diameter trees and logging residues. The aim in the development of measuring methods and quality requirements for purchased fuelwood is to eliminate obstacles resulting from the ambiguities in the measuring and quality of fuelwood. The objective of the fuelwood utilisation research is to eliminate technical obstacles and to develop new action models for organising energy generation in the categories of building-specific and district heating. Also, marketing of the new action models to potential entrepreneurs and heating energy purchasers is an important part of the work. The main objective of the work on the development of fireplaces is to reduce fluegas emissions. The main subject of development of heating equipment designed for buildings is stoker burners for wet fuels (orig.)

New Tools for New Research in Psychiatry: A Scalable and Customizable Platform to Empower Data Driven Smartphone Research

OpenAIRE

Torous, John; Kiang, Mathew V; Lorme, Jeanette; Onnela, Jukka-Pekka

2016-01-01

Background A longstanding barrier to progress in psychiatry, both in clinical settings and research trials, has been the persistent difficulty of accurately and reliably quantifying disease phenotypes. Mobile phone technology combined with data science has the potential to offer medicine a wealth of additional information on disease phenotypes, but the large majority of existing smartphone apps are not intended for use as biomedical research platforms and, as such, do not generate research-qu...

Resource Utilisation and Curriculum Implementation in Community Colleges in Kenya

Science.gov (United States)

Kigwilu, Peter Changilwa; Akala, Winston Jumba

2017-01-01

The study investigated how Catholic-sponsored community colleges in Nairobi utilise the existing physical facilities and teaching and learning resources for effective implementation of Artisan and Craft curricula. The study adopted a mixed methods research design. Proportional stratified random sampling was used to sample 172 students and 18…

Sonochemically Fabricated Microelectrode Arrays for Use as Sensing Platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stuart D. Collyer

2010-05-01

Full Text Available The development, manufacture, modification and subsequent utilisation of sonochemically-formed microelectrode arrays is described for a range of applications. Initial fabrication of the sensing platform utilises ultrasonic ablation of electrochemically insulating polymers deposited upon conductive carbon substrates, forming an array of up to 70,000 microelectrode pores cm–2. Electrochemical and optical analyses using these arrays, their enhanced signal response and stir-independence area are all discussed. The growth of conducting polymeric “mushroom” protrusion arrays with entrapped biological entities, thereby forming biosensors is detailed. The simplicity and inexpensiveness of this approach, lending itself ideally to mass fabrication coupled with unrivalled sensitivity and stir independence makes commercial viability of this process a reality. Application of microelectrode arrays as functional components within sensors include devices for detection of chlorine, glucose, ethanol and pesticides. Immunosensors based on microelectrode arrays are described within this monograph for antigens associated with prostate cancer and transient ischemic attacks (strokes.

Dynamic simulation platform to verify the performance of the reactor regulating system for a research reactor

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2015-07-01

Digital instrumentation and controls system technique is being introduced in new constructed research reactor or life extension of older research reactor. Digital systems are easy to change and optimize but the validated process for them is required. Also, to reduce project risk or cost, we have to make it sure that configuration and control functions is right before the commissioning phase on research reactor. For this purpose, simulators have been widely used in developing control systems in automotive and aerospace industries. In these literatures, however, very few of these can be found regarding test on the control system of research reactor with simulator. Therefore, this paper proposes a simulation platform to verify the performance of RRS (Reactor Regulating System) for research reactor. This simulation platform consists of the reactor simulation model and the interface module. This simulation platform is applied to I and C upgrade project of TRIGA reactor, and many problems of RRS configuration were found and solved. And it proved that the dynamic performance testing based on simulator enables significant time saving and improves economics and quality for RRS in the system test phase. (authors)

Product Platform Performance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Munk, Lone

The aim of this research is to improve understanding of platform-based product development by studying platform performance in relation to internal effects in companies. Platform-based product development makes it possible to deliver product variety and at the same time reduce the needed resources...... engaging in platform-based product development. Similarly platform assessment criteria lack empirical verification regarding relevance and sufficiency. The thesis focuses on • the process of identifying and estimating internal effects, • verification of performance of product platforms, (i...... experienced representatives from the different life systems phase systems of the platform products. The effects are estimated and modeled within different scenarios, taking into account financial and real option aspects. The model illustrates and supports estimation and quantification of internal platform...

GIFT-Cloud: A data sharing and collaboration platform for medical imaging research.

Science.gov (United States)

Doel, Tom; Shakir, Dzhoshkun I; Pratt, Rosalind; Aertsen, Michael; Moggridge, James; Bellon, Erwin; David, Anna L; Deprest, Jan; Vercauteren, Tom; Ourselin, Sébastien

2017-02-01

Clinical imaging data are essential for developing research software for computer-aided diagnosis, treatment planning and image-guided surgery, yet existing systems are poorly suited for data sharing between healthcare and academia: research systems rarely provide an integrated approach for data exchange with clinicians; hospital systems are focused towards clinical patient care with limited access for external researchers; and safe haven environments are not well suited to algorithm development. We have established GIFT-Cloud, a data and medical image sharing platform, to meet the needs of GIFT-Surg, an international research collaboration that is developing novel imaging methods for fetal surgery. GIFT-Cloud also has general applicability to other areas of imaging research. GIFT-Cloud builds upon well-established cross-platform technologies. The Server provides secure anonymised data storage, direct web-based data access and a REST API for integrating external software. The Uploader provides automated on-site anonymisation, encryption and data upload. Gateways provide a seamless process for uploading medical data from clinical systems to the research server. GIFT-Cloud has been implemented in a multi-centre study for fetal medicine research. We present a case study of placental segmentation for pre-operative surgical planning, showing how GIFT-Cloud underpins the research and integrates with the clinical workflow. GIFT-Cloud simplifies the transfer of imaging data from clinical to research institutions, facilitating the development and validation of medical research software and the sharing of results back to the clinical partners. GIFT-Cloud supports collaboration between multiple healthcare and research institutions while satisfying the demands of patient confidentiality, data security and data ownership. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Design:Lab as platform in participatory design research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Binder, Thomas; Brandt, Eva

2008-01-01

The notion of laboratory or simply 'lab' has become popular in recent years in areas outside science and technology development. Learning Labs, Innovation Labs, Usability Labs, Media and Communication Labs and even Art Labs designate institutions or fora dedicated to change and experimentation...... as others have frequently used other metaphors like workshop, studio or atelier in design research. In this article we will argue that the laboratory metaphor is particularly suitable and useful for the design:lab, and we will give examples of how we have worked with the design:lab as a platform...

Environmental aspects of the geothermal energy utilisation in Poland

Science.gov (United States)

Sowiżdżał, Anna; Tomaszewska, Barbara; Drabik, Anna

2017-11-01

Geothermal energy is considered as a strategic and sustainable source of renewable energy that can be effectively managed in several economic sectors. In Poland, despite the abundant potential of such resources, its share in the energy mix of renewable energy sources remains insubstantial. The utilisation of geothermal resources in Poland is related to the hydrogeothermal resources, however, numerous researches related to petrogeothermal energy resources are being performed. The utilisation of each type of energy, including geothermal, has an impact on the natural environment. In case of the effective development of geothermal energy resources, many environmental benefits are pointed out. The primary one is the extraction of clean, green energy that is characterised by the zero-emission rate of pollutants into the atmosphere, what considering the current environmental pollution in many Polish cities remains the extremely important issue. On the other hand, the utilisation of geothermal energy might influence the natural environment negatively. Beginning from the phase of drilling, which strongly interferes with the local landscape or acoustic climate, to the stage of energy exploitation. It should be noted that the efficient and sustainable use of geothermal energy resources is closely linked with the current law regulations at national and European level.

Sharing Health Big Data for Research - A Design by Use Cases: The INSHARE Platform Approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Bouzillé, Guillaume; Westerlynck, Richard; Defossez, Gautier; Bouslimi, Dalel; Bayat, Sahar; Riou, Christine; Busnel, Yann; Le Guillou, Clara; Cauvin, Jean-Michel; Jacquelinet, Christian; Pladys, Patrick; Oger, Emmanuel; Stindel, Eric; Ingrand, Pierre; Coatrieux, Gouenou; Cuggia, Marc

2017-01-01

Sharing and exploiting Health Big Data (HBD) allow tackling challenges: data protection/governance taking into account legal, ethical, and deontological aspects enables trust, transparent and win-win relationship between researchers, citizens, and data providers. Lack of interoperability: compartmentalized and syntactically/semantica heterogeneous data. INSHARE project using experimental proof of concept explores how recent technologies overcome such issues. Using 6 data providers, platform is designed via 3 steps to: (1) analyze use cases, needs, and requirements; (2) define data sharing governance, secure access to platform; and (3) define platform specifications. Three use cases - from 5 studies and 11 data sources - were analyzed for platform design. Governance derived from SCANNER model was adapted to data sharing. Platform architecture integrates: data repository and hosting, semantic integration services, data processing, aggregate computing, data quality and integrity monitoring, Id linking, multisource query builder, visualization and data export services, data governance, study management service and security including data watermarking.

Explanatory factors for first and second-generation non-western women’s inadequate prenatal care utilisation: a prospective cohort study.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boerleider, A.W.; Manniën, J.; Stenus, C.M.V. van; Wiegers, T.A.; Feijen-de Jong, E.I.; Spelten, E.R.; Devillé, W.L.J.M.

2015-01-01

Background: Little research into non-western women’s prenatal care utilisation in industrialised western countries has taken generational differences into account. In this study we examined non-western women’s prenatal care utilisation and its explanatory factors according to generational status.

Standardized analysis and sharing of genome-phenome data for neuromuscular and rare disease research through the RD-Connect platform

OpenAIRE

Thompson, Rachel; Beltran, Sergi; Papakonstantinou, Anastasios; Cañada, Andrés; Fernández, Jose Maria; Thompson, Mark; Kaliyaperumal, Rajaram; Lair, Séverine; Sernadela, Pedro; Girdea, Marta; Brudno, Michael; Blavier, André; Lochmüller, Hanns; Roos, Andreas; Straub, Volker

2016-01-01

Abstract: RD-Connect (rd-connect.eu) is an EU-funded project building an integrated platform to narrow the gaps in rare disease research, where patient populations, clinical expertise and research communities are small in number and highly fragmented. Guided by the needs of rare disease researchers and with neuromuscular and neurodegenerative researchers as its original collaborators, the RD-Connect platform securely integrates multiple types of omics data (genomics, proteomics and transcript...

Development of a Web-Based Visualization Platform for Climate Research Using Google Earth

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Xiaojuan; Shen, Suhung; Leptoukh, Gregory G.; Wang, Panxing; Di, Liping; Lu, Mingyue

2011-01-01

Recently, it has become easier to access climate data from satellites, ground measurements, and models from various data centers, However, searching. accessing, and prc(essing heterogeneous data from different sources are very tim -consuming tasks. There is lack of a comprehensive visual platform to acquire distributed and heterogeneous scientific data and to render processed images from a single accessing point for climate studies. This paper. documents the design and implementation of a Web-based visual, interoperable, and scalable platform that is able to access climatological fields from models, satellites, and ground stations from a number of data sources using Google Earth (GE) as a common graphical interface. The development is based on the TCP/IP protocol and various data sharing open sources, such as OPeNDAP, GDS, Web Processing Service (WPS), and Web Mapping Service (WMS). The visualization capability of integrating various measurements into cE extends dramatically the awareness and visibility of scientific results. Using embedded geographic information in the GE, the designed system improves our understanding of the relationships of different elements in a four dimensional domain. The system enables easy and convenient synergistic research on a virtual platform for professionals and the general public, gr$tly advancing global data sharing and scientific research collaboration.

Environmental assessment of incinerator residue utilisation

OpenAIRE

Toller, Susanna

2008-01-01

 In Sweden, utilisation of incinerator residues outside disposal areas is restricted by environmental concerns, as such residues commonly contain greater amounts of potentially toxic trace elements than the natural materials they replace. On the other hand, utilisation can also provide environmental benefits by decreasing the need for landfill and reducing raw material extraction. This thesis provides increased knowledge and proposes better approaches for environmental assessment of incinerat...

Application Platform for Intelligent Mobility – research facility for intelligent mobility services

OpenAIRE

Schnieder, Lars

2012-01-01

Traffic can be seen as a multi-dimensional field of research. Traffic can be best described as a socio-technical system which brings about new challenges for the design of future transportation systems. With its Application Platform for Intelligent Mobility (AIM), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), together with the state of Lower Saxony, the city of Braunschweig and other partners, is creating a unique way of linking up research, development and applications for intelligent transportation an...

Central Vehicle Dynamics Control of the Robotic Research Platform ROboMObil

OpenAIRE

Bünte, Tilman; Ho, Lok Man; Satzger, Clemens; Brembeck, Jonathan

2014-01-01

The ROboMObil is DLR’s space-robotics driven by-wire electro-mobile research platform for mechatronic actuators, vehicle dynamics control, human machine interfaces, and autonomous driving (DLR = German Aerospace Center). Due to its four highly integrated identical Wheel Robots it exhibits an extraordinary manoeuvrability even allowing for driving sideward or rotating on the spot. Topics related to vehicle dynamics control are addressed in this article.

Mobile platform security

CERN Document Server

Asokan, N; Dmitrienko, Alexandra

2013-01-01

Recently, mobile security has garnered considerable interest in both the research community and industry due to the popularity of smartphones. The current smartphone platforms are open systems that allow application development, also for malicious parties. To protect the mobile device, its user, and other mobile ecosystem stakeholders such as network operators, application execution is controlled by a platform security architecture. This book explores how such mobile platform security architectures work. We present a generic model for mobile platform security architectures: the model illustrat

An analysis of partial efficiencies of energy utilisation of different macronutrients by barramundi (Lates calcarifer) shows that starch restricts protein utilisation in carnivorous fish.

Science.gov (United States)

Glencross, Brett D; Blyth, David; Bourne, Nicholas; Cheers, Susan; Irvin, Simon; Wade, Nicholas M

2017-02-01

This study examined the effect of including different dietary proportions of starch, protein and lipid, in diets balanced for digestible energy, on the utilisation efficiencies of dietary energy by barramundi (Lates calcarifer). Each diet was fed at one of three ration levels (satiety, 80 % of initial satiety and 60 % of initial satiety) for a 42-d period. Fish performance measures (weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio) were all affected by dietary energy source. The efficiency of energy utilisation was significantly reduced in fish fed the starch diet relative to the other diets, but there were no significant effects between the other macronutrients. This reduction in efficiency of utilisation was derived from a multifactorial change in both protein and lipid utilisation. The rate of protein utilisation deteriorated as the amount of starch included in the diet increased. Lipid utilisation was most dramatically affected by inclusion levels of lipid in the diet, with diets low in lipid producing component lipid utilisation rates well above 1·3, which indicates substantial lipid synthesis from other energy sources. However, the energetic cost of lipid gain was as low as 0·65 kJ per kJ of lipid deposited, indicating that barramundi very efficiently store energy in the form of lipid, particularly from dietary starch energy. This study defines how the utilisation efficiency of dietary digestible energy by barramundi is influenced by the macronutrient source providing that energy, and that the inclusion of starch causes problems with protein utilisation in this species.

Utilisation of Business Advice in Small Innovative Firms: the Role of Trust and Tacit Knowledge

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katarzyna Łobacz

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Objective: The aim of this paper is to expand the understanding of the influence of trust relationship, as well as tacit knowledge on the process of business advice utilisation in small innovative firms. Research Design & Methods: The  analysis  is  based  on  empirical  research  conducted with the use of the explorative approach. The multiple case study methodology was used. Findings: Trust relationships as well as tacit knowledge were identified as factors essential to the process of utilisation of business advice in small innovative firms. It was recognised that the significance of both factors is related not only to the process of advice, but also as a purpose of activities happening prior to advice. They are referred to as the initial phase. Implications & Recommendations: The  findings  provide  implications  for  further  research of the structure of the process of business advice utilisation. It is related to the inclusion of the “initial phase”, as well as to the  necessity to include both factors in further research. The paper also provides implicationsrelated to the measurement of business advice output, and recommendations on the construction of public policy instruments. Contribution & Value Added: The originality of this work lies in using the process perspective and qualitative methodology in the field of the utilisation of business advice. It extends our understanding of the processes of business advice with regard to trust, as well as the use of tacit knowledge. The original contribution is to add the “initial phase” to the description of the business advice process.

Trends, determinants and inequities of 4+ ANC utilisation in Bangladesh.

Science.gov (United States)

Rahman, Aminur; Nisha, Monjura Khatun; Begum, Tahmina; Ahmed, Sayem; Alam, Nurul; Anwar, Iqbal

2017-01-13

The objectives of this study are to document the trend on utilisation of four or more (4 + ) antenatal care (ANC) over the last 22 years period and to explore the determinants and inequity of 4 + ANC utilisation as reported by the last two Bangladesh Demographic and Health surveys (BDHS) (2011 and 2014). The data related to ANC have been extracted from the BDHS data set which is available online as an open source. STATA 13 software was used for organising and analysing the data. The outcome variable considered for this study was utilisation of 4 + ANC. Trends of 4 + ANC were measured in percentage and predictors for 4 + ANC were measured through bivariate and multivariable analysis. The concentration index was estimated for assessing inequity in 4 + ANC utilisation. Utilisation of 4 + ANC has increased by about 26% between the year 1994 and 2014. Higher level of education, residing in urban region and richest wealth quintile were found to be significant predictors. The utilisation of 4 + ANC has decreased with increasing parity and maternal age. The inequity indices showed consistent inequities in 4 + ANC utilisation, and such inequities were increased between 2011 and 2014. In Bangladesh, the utilisation of any ANC rose steadily between 1994 and 2014, but progress in terms of 4 + ANC utilisation was much slower as the expectation was to achieve the national set target (50%: 4 + ANC utilisation) by 2016. Socio-economic inequities were observed in groups that failed to attend a 4 + ANC visit. Policymakers should pay special attention to increase the 4 + ANC coverage where this study can facilitate to identify the target groups whom need to be intervened on priority basis.

Development of the Research Platform of Small Autonomous Blimp Robot

Science.gov (United States)

Takaya, Toshihiko; Kawamura, Hidenori; Yamamoto, Masahito; Ohuchi, Azuma

A blimp robot is attractive as an small flight robot and can float in the air by buoyancy and realize safe to the crash small flight with low energy and can movement for a long time compared with other flight robots with low energy and can movement for a long time compared with other flight robots. However, control of an airplane robot is difficult for the nonlinear characteristic exposed to inertia by the air flow in response to influence. Therefore, the applied research which carried out the maximum use of such in recent years a blimp robot's feature is prosperous. In this paper, we realized development of blimp robot for research which can be used general-purpose by carrying out clue division of the blimp robot body at a unit, and constituting and building for research of blimp robot, and application development. On the other hand, by developing a general-purpose blimp robot research platform, improvement in the research efficiency of many researchers can be attained, and further, research start of blimp robot becomes easy and contributes to development of research. We performed the experiments for the above-mentioned proof. 1. Checked basic keeping position performance and that various orbital operation was possible. And the unit exchange ease of software unit was checked by the experiment which exchanges the control layer of software for learning control from PID control, and carries out comparison of operation. 2. In order to check the exchange ease of hardware unit, the sensor was exchanged for the microphon from the camera, and control of operation was checked. 3. For the unit addition ease, the microphon which carries out sound detection with the picture detection with a camera was added, and control of operation was verified. 4. The unit exchange was carried out for the check of a function addition and the topological map generation experiment by addition of an ultrasonic sensor was conducted. Developed blimp robot for research mounted the exchange ease

A proposed maintenance strategy for generator sets utilised in biogas applications

OpenAIRE

2012-01-01

M. Ing. The overall purpose of this research project was to develop a proposed maintenance strategy for generator sets utilised in biogas applications. One specific biogas application, involving the use of landfill gas (LFG) to generate electrical energy, was the focal point of the research project. This is due to the fact that the author’s organisation is extensively involved with landfills and power generation through the use of LFG.

Price and utilisation differences for statins between four countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Thai, Loc Phuoc; Vitry, Agnes Isabelle; Moss, John Robert

2018-02-01

Australia, England, France and New Zealand use different policies to regulate their medicines market, which can impact on utilisation and price. To compare the prices and utilisation of statins in Australia, England, France and New Zealand from 2011 to 2013. Utilisation of statins in the four countries was compared using Defined Daily Doses (DDD) per 1000 inhabitants per year. Pairwise Laspeyres and Paasche index comparisons were conducted comparing the price and utilisation of statins. The results showed that the price of statins in New Zealand was the cheapest. The price of statins in Australia was most expensive in 2011 and 2012 but France was more expensive in 2013. There were large differences between the Laspeyres index and Paasche index when comparing the price and utilisation of England with Australia and France. The policies that regulate the New Zealand and England medicines markets were more effective in reducing the price of expensive statins. The relative utilisation of cheaper statins was greatest in England and had a large effect on the differences between the two index results. The pricing policies in Australia have been only partly effective in reducing the price of statins compared to other countries.

Machine utilisation and operation experience with Jet from 1983

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Green, B.J.; Chuilon, P.; Noble, B.; Saunders, R.; Webberley, D.

1989-01-01

The operation of JET commenced in June 1983 and is scheduled until the end of 1992. This seemingly long period is actually quite limited when compared with the time needed to implement and commission the planned machine enhancements, and pursue research and developments which result from the experiments. There is an ever-present urgency to make the best use of the machine. 1983-84 was a learning period and only in 1985 was it felt worthwhile to adopt double-shift day working. Data has been compiled and analysed for utilisation of the machine, delays in terms of time lost and systems involved, and number and frequency of machine pulses. This paper presents an overall picture of machine availability and utilisation. It describes the JET operational arrangements and the experience of system faults. Finally, it draws conclusions and identifies lessons learned which may be relevant to the next stage of fusion power development

Machine utilisation and operation experience with JET from 1983

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Green, B.J.; Chuilon, P.; Noble, B.; Saunders, R.; Webberley, D.

1989-01-01

The operation of JET commenced in June 1983 and is scheduled until the end of 1992. This seemingly long period is actually quite limited when compared with the time needed to implement and commission the planned machine enhancements, and pursue research and developments which result from the experiments. There is an ever-present urgency to make the use of the machine. 1983-84 was a learning period and only in 1985 was it felt worthwhile to adopt double-shift day working. Data has been compiled and analysed for utilisation of the machine, delays in terms of time lost and system involved, and number and frequency of machine pulses. This paper presents an overall picture of machine availability and utilisation. It describes the JET operational arrangements and the experience of system faults. Finally, it draws conclusions and identifies lessons learned which may be relevant to the next stage of fusion power development. (author). 9 figs

Cross-platform learning: on the nature of children's learning from multiple media platforms.

Science.gov (United States)

Fisch, Shalom M

2013-01-01

It is increasingly common for an educational media project to span several media platforms (e.g., TV, Web, hands-on materials), assuming that the benefits of learning from multiple media extend beyond those gained from one medium alone. Yet research typically has investigated learning from a single medium in isolation. This paper reviews several recent studies to explore cross-platform learning (i.e., learning from combined use of multiple media platforms) and how such learning compares to learning from one medium. The paper discusses unique benefits of cross-platform learning, a theoretical mechanism to explain how these benefits might arise, and questions for future research in this emerging field. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company.

Launching a virtual decision lab: development and field-testing of a web-based patient decision support research platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoffman, Aubri S; Llewellyn-Thomas, Hilary A; Tosteson, Anna N A; O'Connor, Annette M; Volk, Robert J; Tomek, Ivan M; Andrews, Steven B; Bartels, Stephen J

2014-12-12

Over 100 trials show that patient decision aids effectively improve patients' information comprehension and values-based decision making. However, gaps remain in our understanding of several fundamental and applied questions, particularly related to the design of interactive, personalized decision aids. This paper describes an interdisciplinary development process for, and early field testing of, a web-based patient decision support research platform, or virtual decision lab, to address these questions. An interdisciplinary stakeholder panel designed the web-based research platform with three components: a) an introduction to shared decision making, b) a web-based patient decision aid, and c) interactive data collection items. Iterative focus groups provided feedback on paper drafts and online prototypes. A field test assessed a) feasibility for using the research platform, in terms of recruitment, usage, and acceptability; and b) feasibility of using the web-based decision aid component, compared to performance of a videobooklet decision aid in clinical care. This interdisciplinary, theory-based, patient-centered design approach produced a prototype for field-testing in six months. Participants (n = 126) reported that: the decision aid component was easy to use (98%), information was clear (90%), the length was appropriate (100%), it was appropriately detailed (90%), and it held their interest (97%). They spent a mean of 36 minutes using the decision aid and 100% preferred using their home/library computer. Participants scored a mean of 75% correct on the Decision Quality, Knowledge Subscale, and 74 out of 100 on the Preparation for Decision Making Scale. Completing the web-based decision aid reduced mean Decisional Conflict scores from 31.1 to 19.5 (p development of a web-based patient decision support research platform that was feasible for use in research studies in terms of recruitment, acceptability, and usage. Within this platform, the web

Use of Web 2.0 Social Media Platforms to Promote Community-Engaged Research Dialogs: A Preliminary Program Evaluation

Science.gov (United States)

Valdez Soto, Miguel; Bishop, Shawn G; Aase, Lee A; Timimi, Farris K; Montori, Victor M; Patten, Christi A

2016-01-01

Background Community-engaged research is defined by the Institute of Medicine as the process of working collaboratively with groups of people affiliated by geographic proximity, special interests, or similar situations with respect to issues affecting their well-being. Traditional face-to-face community-engaged research is limited by geographic location, limited in resources, and/or uses one-way communications. Web 2.0 technologies including social media are novel communication channels for community-engaged research because these tools can reach a broader audience while promoting bidirectional dialogs. Objective This paper reports on a preliminary program evaluation of the use of social media platforms for promoting engagement of researchers and community representatives in dialogs about community-engaged research. Methods For this pilot program evaluation, the Clinical and Translational Science Office for Community Engagement in Research partnered with the Social Media Network at our institution to create a WordPress blog and Twitter account. Both social media platforms were facilitated by a social media manager. We used descriptive analytics for measuring engagement with WordPress and Twitter over an 18-month implementation period during 2014-2016. For the blog, we examined type of user (researcher, community representative, other) and used content analysis to generate the major themes from blog postings. For use of Twitter, we examined selected demographics and impressions among followers. Results There were 76 blog postings observed from researchers (48/76, 64%), community representatives (23/76, 32%) and funders (5/76, 8%). The predominant themes of the blog content were research awareness and dissemination of community-engaged research (35/76, 46%) and best practices (23/76, 30%). For Twitter, we obtained 411 followers at the end of the 18-month evaluation period, with an increase of 42% (from 280 to 411) over the final 6 months. Followers reported varied

Use of Web 2.0 Social Media Platforms to Promote Community-Engaged Research Dialogs: A Preliminary Program Evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Valdez Soto, Miguel; Balls-Berry, Joyce E; Bishop, Shawn G; Aase, Lee A; Timimi, Farris K; Montori, Victor M; Patten, Christi A

2016-09-09

Community-engaged research is defined by the Institute of Medicine as the process of working collaboratively with groups of people affiliated by geographic proximity, special interests, or similar situations with respect to issues affecting their well-being. Traditional face-to-face community-engaged research is limited by geographic location, limited in resources, and/or uses one-way communications. Web 2.0 technologies including social media are novel communication channels for community-engaged research because these tools can reach a broader audience while promoting bidirectional dialogs. This paper reports on a preliminary program evaluation of the use of social media platforms for promoting engagement of researchers and community representatives in dialogs about community-engaged research. For this pilot program evaluation, the Clinical and Translational Science Office for Community Engagement in Research partnered with the Social Media Network at our institution to create a WordPress blog and Twitter account. Both social media platforms were facilitated by a social media manager. We used descriptive analytics for measuring engagement with WordPress and Twitter over an 18-month implementation period during 2014-2016. For the blog, we examined type of user (researcher, community representative, other) and used content analysis to generate the major themes from blog postings. For use of Twitter, we examined selected demographics and impressions among followers. There were 76 blog postings observed from researchers (48/76, 64%), community representatives (23/76, 32%) and funders (5/76, 8%). The predominant themes of the blog content were research awareness and dissemination of community-engaged research (35/76, 46%) and best practices (23/76, 30%). For Twitter, we obtained 411 followers at the end of the 18-month evaluation period, with an increase of 42% (from 280 to 411) over the final 6 months. Followers reported varied geographic location (321/411, 78

Adolescents' utilisation of psychiatric care, neighbourhoods and neighbourhood socioeconomic deprivation: a multilevel analysis.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna-Karin Ivert

Full Text Available Mental health problems among adolescents have become a major public health issue, and it is therefore important to increase knowledge on the contextual determinants of adolescent mental health. One such determinant is the socioeconomic structure of the neighbourhood. The present study has two central objectives, (i to examine if neighbourhood socioeconomic deprivation is associated to individual variations in utilisation of psychiatric care in a Swedish context, and (ii to investigate if neighbourhood boundaries are a valid construct for identifying contexts that influence individual variations in psychiatric care utilization. Data were obtained from the Longitudinal Multilevel Analysis in Scania (LOMAS database. The study population consists of all boys and girls aged 13-18 years (N=18,417, who were living in the city of Malmö, Sweden, in 2005. Multilevel logistic regression analysis was applied to estimate the probability of psychiatric care utilisation. The results from the study indicate that the neighbourhood of residence had little influence on psychiatric care utilisation. Although we initially found a variation between neighbourhoods, this general contextual effect was very small (i.e. 1.6%. The initial conclusive association between the neighbourhood level of disadvantage and psychiatric care utilisation (specific contextual effect disappeared following adjustment for individual and family level variables. Our results suggest the neighbourhoods in Malmö (at least measured in terms of SAMS-areas, do not provide accurate information for discriminating adolescents utilisation of psychiatric care. The SAMS-areas appears to be an inappropriate construct of the social environment that influences adolescent utilisation of psychiatric care. Therefore, public health interventions should be directed to the whole city rather than to specific neighbourhoods. However, since geographical, social or cultural contexts may be important for our

EURESCOM Services Platform

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nieuwenhuis, Lambertus Johannes Maria; van Halteren, Aart

1999-01-01

This paper presents the results of the EURESCOM Project 715. In February 1999, a large team of researchers from six European public network operators completed a two year period of cooperative experiments on a TINA-based environment, called the EURESCOM Services Platform (ESP). This platform

Environmental assessment of incinerator residue utilisation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Toller, Susanna

2008-10-15

In Sweden, utilisation of incinerator residues outside disposal areas is restricted by environmental concerns, as such residues commonly contain greater amounts of potentially toxic trace elements than the natural materials they replace. On the other hand, utilisation can also provide environmental benefits by decreasing the need for landfill and reducing raw material extraction. This thesis provides increased knowledge and proposes better approaches for environmental assessment of incinerator residue utilisation, particularly bottom ash from municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI). A life cycle assessment (LCA) based approach was outlined for environmental assessment of incinerator residue utilisation, in which leaching of trace elements as well as other emissions to air and water and the use of resources were regarded as constituting the potential environmental impact from the system studied. Case studies were performed for i) road construction with or without MSWI bottom ash, ii) three management scenarios for MSWI bottom ash and iii) three management scenarios for wood ash. Different types of potential environmental impact predominated in the activities of the system and the scenarios differed in use of resources and energy. Utilising MSWI bottom ash in road construction and recycling of wood ash on forest land saved more natural resources and energy than when these materials were managed according to the other scenarios investigated, including dumping in landfill. There is a potential for trace element leaching regardless of how the ash is managed. Trace element leaching, particularly of copper (Cu), was identified as being relatively important for environmental assessment of MSWI bottom ash utilisation. CuO is suggested as the most important type of Cu-containing mineral in weathered MSWI bottom ash, whereas in the leachate Cu is mainly present in complexes with dissolved organic matter (DOM). The hydrophilic components of the DOM were more important for Cu

Chemical Utilisation of CO

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education; Volume 20; Issue 2. Chemical Utilisation of CO2: A Challenge for the Sustainable World. Dinesh Jagadeesan Bhaskar Joshi Prashant Parameswaran. General Article Volume 20 Issue 2 February 2015 pp 165-176 ...

Literature evidence in open targets - a target validation platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Kafkas, Şenay; Dunham, Ian; McEntyre, Johanna

2017-06-06

We present the Europe PMC literature component of Open Targets - a target validation platform that integrates various evidence to aid drug target identification and validation. The component identifies target-disease associations in documents and ranks the documents based on their confidence from the Europe PMC literature database, by using rules utilising expert-provided heuristic information. The confidence score of a given document represents how valuable the document is in the scope of target validation for a given target-disease association by taking into account the credibility of the association based on the properties of the text. The component serves the platform regularly with the up-to-date data since December, 2015. Currently, there are a total number of 1168365 distinct target-disease associations text mined from >26 million PubMed abstracts and >1.2 million Open Access full text articles. Our comparative analyses on the current available evidence data in the platform revealed that 850179 of these associations are exclusively identified by literature mining. This component helps the platform's users by providing the most relevant literature hits for a given target and disease. The text mining evidence along with the other types of evidence can be explored visually through https://www.targetvalidation.org and all the evidence data is available for download in json format from https://www.targetvalidation.org/downloads/data .

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.

The ASSISTments Ecosystem: Building a Platform That Brings Scientists and Teachers Together for Minimally Invasive Research on Human Learning and Teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Heffernan, Neil T.; Heffernan, Cristina Lindquist

2014-01-01

The ASSISTments project is an ecosystem of a few hundred teachers, a platform, and researchers working together. Development professionals help train teachers and get teachers to participate in studies. The platform and these teachers help researchers (sometimes explicitly and sometimes implicitly) simply by using content the teacher selects. The…

Designing an Africa-EU research and innovation collaboration platform on climate change

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tostensen, Arne; Monteverde Haakonsen, Jan; Hughes, Mike

Climate change is arguably the most significant of a set of interconnected global challenges threatening water resources and food security. In particular, the relationship between water resources, food systems and climate change is tightly coupled, and improved food security under climate change...... this process more effective by developing a proposition for a platform to strengthen Africa-EU research and innovation collaboration on climate change....

DSF: A Common Platform for Distributed Systems Research and Development

Science.gov (United States)

Tang, Chunqiang

This paper presents Distributed Systems Foundation (DSF), a common platform for distributed systems research and development. It can run a distributed algorithm written in Java under multiple execution modes—simulation, massive multi-tenancy, and real deployment. DSF provides a set of novel features to facilitate testing and debugging, including chaotic timing test and time travel debugging with mutable replay. Unlike existing research prototypes that offer advanced debugging features by hacking programming tools, DSF is written entirely in Java, without modifications to any external tools such as JVM, Java runtime library, compiler, linker, system library, OS, or hypervisor. This simplicity stems from our goal of making DSF not only a research prototype but more importantly a production tool. Experiments show that DSF is efficient and easy to use. DSF's massive multi-tenancy mode can run 4,000 OS-level threads in a single JVM to concurrently execute (as opposed to simulate) 1,000 DHT nodes in real-time.

WiseEye: Next Generation Expandable and Programmable Camera Trap Platform for Wildlife Research.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sajid Nazir

Full Text Available The widespread availability of relatively cheap, reliable and easy to use digital camera traps has led to their extensive use for wildlife research, monitoring and public outreach. Users of these units are, however, often frustrated by the limited options for controlling camera functions, the generation of large numbers of images, and the lack of flexibility to suit different research environments and questions. We describe the development of a user-customisable open source camera trap platform named 'WiseEye', designed to provide flexible camera trap technology for wildlife researchers. The novel platform is based on a Raspberry Pi single-board computer and compatible peripherals that allow the user to control its functions and performance. We introduce the concept of confirmatory sensing, in which the Passive Infrared triggering is confirmed through other modalities (i.e. radar, pixel change to reduce the occurrence of false positives images. This concept, together with user-definable metadata, aided identification of spurious images and greatly reduced post-collection processing time. When tested against a commercial camera trap, WiseEye was found to reduce the incidence of false positive images and false negatives across a range of test conditions. WiseEye represents a step-change in camera trap functionality, greatly increasing the value of this technology for wildlife research and conservation management.

Dynamic Gaming Platform (DGP)

Science.gov (United States)

2009-04-01

GAMING PLATFORM (DGP) Lockheed Martin Corporation...YYYY) APR 09 2. REPORT TYPE Final 3. DATES COVERED (From - To) Jul 07 – Mar 09 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE DYNAMIC GAMING PLATFORM (DGP) 5a...CMU Carnegie Mellon University DGP Dynamic Gaming Platform GA Genetic Algorithm IARPA Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity LM ATL Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories PAINT ProActive INTelligence

Direct2Experts: a pilot national network to demonstrate interoperability among research-networking platforms

OpenAIRE

Weber, Griffin M; Barnett, William; Conlon, Mike; Eichmann, David; Kibbe, Warren; Falk-Krzesinski, Holly; Halaas, Michael; Johnson, Layne; Meeks, Eric; Mitchell, Donald; Schleyer, Titus; Stallings, Sarah; Warden, Michael; Kahlon, Maninder

2011-01-01

Research-networking tools use data-mining and social networking to enable expertise discovery, matchmaking and collaboration, which are important facets of team science and translational research. Several commercial and academic platforms have been built, and many institutions have deployed these products to help their investigators find local collaborators. Recent studies, though, have shown the growing importance of multiuniversity teams in science. Unfortunately, the lack of a standard dat...

Enhancing Cloud Resource Utilisation using Statistical Analysis

OpenAIRE

Sijin He; Li Guo; Yike Guo

2014-01-01

Resource provisioning based on virtual machine (VM) has been widely accepted and adopted in cloud computing environments. A key problem resulting from using static scheduling approaches for allocating VMs on different physical machines (PMs) is that resources tend to be not fully utilised. Although some existing cloud reconfiguration algorithms have been developed to address the problem, they normally result in high migration costs and low resource utilisation due to ignoring the multi-dimens...

Using online, crowdsourcing platforms for data collection in personality disorder research: The example of Amazon's Mechanical Turk.

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Joshua D; Crowe, Michael; Weiss, Brandon; Maples-Keller, Jessica L; Lynam, Donald R

2017-01-01

The use of crowdsourcing platforms such as Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) for data collection in the behavioral sciences has increased substantially in the past several years due in large part to (a) the ability to recruit large samples, (b) the inexpensiveness of data collection, (c) the speed of data collection, and (d) evidence that the data collected are, for the most part, of equal or better quality to that collected in undergraduate research pools. In this review, we first evaluate the strengths and potential limitations of this approach to data collection. Second, we examine how MTurk has been used to date in personality disorder (PD) research and compare the characteristics of such research to PD research conducted in other settings. Third, we compare PD trait data from the Section III trait model of the DSM-5 collected via MTurk to data collected using undergraduate and clinical samples with regard to internal consistency, mean-level differences, and factor structure. Overall, we conclude that platforms such as MTurk have much to offer PD researchers, especially for certain kinds of research (e.g., where large samples are required and there is a need for iterative sampling). Whether MTurk itself remains the predominant model of such platforms is unclear, however, and will largely depend on decisions related to cost effectiveness and the development of alternatives that offer even greater flexibility. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Parental decision-making on utilisation of out-of-home respite in children's palliative care: findings of qualitative case study research - a proposed new model.

Science.gov (United States)

Ling, J; Payne, S; Connaire, K; McCarron, M

2016-01-01

Respite in children's palliative care aims to provide a break for family's from the routine of caring. Parental decision-making regarding the utilisation of out-of-home respite is dependent on many interlinking factors including the child's age, diagnosis, geographical location and the family's capacity to meet their child's care needs. A proposed model for out-of-home respite has been developed based on the findings of qualitative case study research. Utilising multiple, longitudinal, qualitative case study design, the respite needs and experiences of parents caring for a child with a life-limiting condition were explored. Multiple, in-depth interviews were undertaken with the parents identified by a hospital-based children's palliative care team. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Each individual case consists of a whole study. Cross-case comparison was also conducted. Nine families were recruited and followed for two years. A total of 19 in-depth interviews were conducted with mothers and fathers (one or both) caring for a child with a life-limiting condition in Ireland. Each family reported vastly different needs and experiences of respite from their own unique perspective. Cross-case comparison showed that for all parents utilising respite care, regardless of their child's age and condition, home was the location of choice. Many interlinking factors influencing these decisions included: past experience of in-patient care, and trust and confidence in care providers. Issues were raised regarding the impact of care provision in the home on family life, siblings and the concept of home. Respite is an essential element of children's palliative care. Utilisation of out-of-home respite is heavily dependent on a number of interlinked and intertwined factors. The proposed model of care offers an opportunity to identify how these decisions are made and may ultimately assist in identifying the elements of responsive and family-focused respite that are important

qPortal: A platform for data-driven biomedical research.

Science.gov (United States)

Mohr, Christopher; Friedrich, Andreas; Wojnar, David; Kenar, Erhan; Polatkan, Aydin Can; Codrea, Marius Cosmin; Czemmel, Stefan; Kohlbacher, Oliver; Nahnsen, Sven

2018-01-01

Modern biomedical research aims at drawing biological conclusions from large, highly complex biological datasets. It has become common practice to make extensive use of high-throughput technologies that produce big amounts of heterogeneous data. In addition to the ever-improving accuracy, methods are getting faster and cheaper, resulting in a steadily increasing need for scalable data management and easily accessible means of analysis. We present qPortal, a platform providing users with an intuitive way to manage and analyze quantitative biological data. The backend leverages a variety of concepts and technologies, such as relational databases, data stores, data models and means of data transfer, as well as front-end solutions to give users access to data management and easy-to-use analysis options. Users are empowered to conduct their experiments from the experimental design to the visualization of their results through the platform. Here, we illustrate the feature-rich portal by simulating a biomedical study based on publically available data. We demonstrate the software's strength in supporting the entire project life cycle. The software supports the project design and registration, empowers users to do all-digital project management and finally provides means to perform analysis. We compare our approach to Galaxy, one of the most widely used scientific workflow and analysis platforms in computational biology. Application of both systems to a small case study shows the differences between a data-driven approach (qPortal) and a workflow-driven approach (Galaxy). qPortal, a one-stop-shop solution for biomedical projects offers up-to-date analysis pipelines, quality control workflows, and visualization tools. Through intensive user interactions, appropriate data models have been developed. These models build the foundation of our biological data management system and provide possibilities to annotate data, query metadata for statistics and future re-analysis on

GLASS MELTING PHENOMENA, THEIR ORDERING AND MELTING SPACE UTILISATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Němec L.

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Four aspects of effective glass melting have been defined – namely the fast kinetics of partial melting phenomena, a consideration of the melting phenomena ordering, high utilisation of the melting space, and effective utilisation of the supplied energy. The relations were defined for the specific melting performance and specific energy consumption of the glass melting process which involve the four mentioned aspects of the process and indicate the potentials of effective melting. The quantity “space utilisation” has been treated in more detail as an aspect not considered in practice till this time. The space utilisation was quantitatively defined and its values have been determined for the industrial melting facility by mathematical modelling. The definitions of the specific melting performance and specific energy consumption have been used for assessment of the potential impact of a controlled melt flow and high space utilisation on the melting process efficiency on the industrial scale. The results have shown that even the partial control of the melt flow, leading to the partial increase of the space utilisation, may considerably increase the melting performance, whereas a decrease of the specific energy consumption was determined to be between 10 - 15 %.

Utilisation des "algues-fourrage" en aquaculture

OpenAIRE

Chretiennot-dinet, Marie-josèphe; Robert, Rene; His, Edouard

1986-01-01

Les travaux concernant l'utilisation d'algues unicellulaires pour la nutrtion de larves et de juvéniles de bivalves d'intérêt commercial sont analysés. Sur une cinquantaine d'espèces d'algues testées, un dizaine seulement sont produites en grande quantité dans des écloseries commerciales sous le non "d'algues fourrage". Les principales espèces employées sont décrites et leurs caractéristiques majeures illustrées. Les critères permettant de retenir une espèce pour son utilisation en aquacultur...

A platform for quality management in research institutes (part II

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Klembalska Agnieszka

2016-09-01

Full Text Available In the recent years there has been a particularly strong pressure on changing old structures and management models in research institutes. Contemporary research institutes are scientific units which are commercial in character – almost 80% of funds come from companies and contractual research activity and services. They are the basic sector of science aiming at cooperation with the economy, applied and innovative research. In order to maintain the current and start new cooperation it is necessary to pay particular attention to maintaining, improving and exposing high level of quality of conducted activity. Taking into consideration the necessity of carrying out ever more complex research projects, conducting activity requiring fast reaction to change, risk analysis, which is assessed every year by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education – it seems that it is necessary to apply tools supporting the assessment of quality. In the proposed three-aspect perspective the following scopes of activity are emphasized: implemented quality management systems, area of scientific information and the sphere of cooperation with the client. This article constitutes the continuation of the subjects discussed in the first part – an extension of issues associated with the scope of responsibilities of particular Sections of the proposed Quality Management Platform in research institutes.

A survey of informatics platforms that enable distributed comparative effectiveness research using multi-institutional heterogeneous clinical data

Science.gov (United States)

Sittig, Dean F.; Hazlehurst, Brian L.; Brown, Jeffrey; Murphy, Shawn; Rosenman, Marc; Tarczy-Hornoch, Peter; Wilcox, Adam B.

2012-01-01

Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) has the potential to transform the current healthcare delivery system by identifying the most effective medical and surgical treatments, diagnostic tests, disease prevention methods and ways to deliver care for specific clinical conditions. To be successful, such research requires the identification, capture, aggregation, integration, and analysis of disparate data sources held by different institutions with diverse representations of the relevant clinical events. In an effort to address these diverse demands, there have been multiple new designs and implementations of informatics platforms that provide access to electronic clinical data and the governance infrastructure required for inter-institutional CER. The goal of this manuscript is to help investigators understand why these informatics platforms are required and to compare and contrast six, large-scale, recently funded, CER-focused informatics platform development efforts. We utilized an 8-dimension, socio-technical model of health information technology use to help guide our work. We identified six generic steps that are necessary in any distributed, multi-institutional CER project: data identification, extraction, modeling, aggregation, analysis, and dissemination. We expect that over the next several years these projects will provide answers to many important, and heretofore unanswerable, clinical research questions. PMID:22692259

A survey of informatics platforms that enable distributed comparative effectiveness research using multi-institutional heterogenous clinical data.

Science.gov (United States)

Sittig, Dean F; Hazlehurst, Brian L; Brown, Jeffrey; Murphy, Shawn; Rosenman, Marc; Tarczy-Hornoch, Peter; Wilcox, Adam B

2012-07-01

Comparative effectiveness research (CER) has the potential to transform the current health care delivery system by identifying the most effective medical and surgical treatments, diagnostic tests, disease prevention methods, and ways to deliver care for specific clinical conditions. To be successful, such research requires the identification, capture, aggregation, integration, and analysis of disparate data sources held by different institutions with diverse representations of the relevant clinical events. In an effort to address these diverse demands, there have been multiple new designs and implementations of informatics platforms that provide access to electronic clinical data and the governance infrastructure required for interinstitutional CER. The goal of this manuscript is to help investigators understand why these informatics platforms are required and to compare and contrast 6 large-scale, recently funded, CER-focused informatics platform development efforts. We utilized an 8-dimension, sociotechnical model of health information technology to help guide our work. We identified 6 generic steps that are necessary in any distributed, multi-institutional CER project: data identification, extraction, modeling, aggregation, analysis, and dissemination. We expect that over the next several years these projects will provide answers to many important, and heretofore unanswerable, clinical research questions.

A Remote Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum Communications Lab Utilising the Emona DATEx

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cosmas Mwikirize

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Remote labs have become popular learning aids due to their versatility and considerable ease of utilisation as compared to their physical counterparts. At Makerere University, the remote labs are based on the standard Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT iLabs Shared Architecture (ISA - a scalable and generic platform. Presented in this paper is such a lab, addressing the key practical aspects of Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS communication. The lab is built on the National Instruments Educational Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Suite (NI ELVIS with the Emona Digital and Analog Telecommunications Experimenter (DATEx add-on board. It also incorporates switching hardware. The lab facilitates real-time control of the equipment, with users able to set, manipulate and observe signal parameters in both the frequency and the time domains. Simulation and data Acquisition modes of the experiment are supported to provide a richer learning experience.

ISS External Payload Platform - a new opportunity for research in the space environment

Science.gov (United States)

Steimle, Christian; Pape, Uwe

The International Space Station (ISS) is a widely accepted platform for research activities in low Earth orbit. To a wide extent these activities are conducted in the pressurised laboratories of the station and less in the outside environment. Suitable locations outside the ISS are rare, existing facilities fully booked for the coming years. To overcome this limitation, an external payload platform accessible for small size payloads on a commercial basis will be launched to the ISS and installed on the Japanese Experiment Module External Facility (JEM-EF) in the third quarter of 2014 and will be ready to be used by the scientific community on a fully commercial basis. The new External Payload Platform (EPP) and its opportunities and constraints assessed regarding future research activities on-board the ISS. The small size platform is realised in a cooperation between the companies NanoRacks, Astrium North America in the United States, and Airbus Defence and Space in Germany. The hardware allows the fully robotic installation and operation of payloads. In the nominal mission scenario payload items are installed not later than one year after the signature of the contract, stay in operation for 15 weeks, and can be returned to the scientist thereafter. Payload items are transported among the pressurised cargo usually delivered to the station with various supply vehicles. Due to the high frequency of flights and the flexibility of the vehicle manifests the risk of a delay in the payload readiness can be mitigated by delaying to the next flight opportunity which on average is available not more than two months later. The mission is extra-ordinarily fast and of low cost in comparison to traditional research conducted on-board the ISS and can fit into short-term funding cycles available on national and multi-national levels. The size of the payload items is limited by handling constraints on-board the ISS. Therefore, the standard experiment payload size is a multiple of a

Reducing Risky Security Behaviours: Utilising Affective Feedback to Educate Users

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lynsay A. Shepherd

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Despite the number of tools created to help end-users reduce risky security behaviours, users are still falling victim to online attacks. This paper proposes a browser extension utilising affective feedback to provide warnings on detection of risky behaviour. The paper provides an overview of behaviour considered to be risky, explaining potential threats users may face online. Existing tools developed to reduce risky security behaviours in end-users have been compared, discussing the success rates of various methodologies. Ongoing research is described which attempts to educate users regarding the risks and consequences of poor security behaviour by providing the appropriate feedback on the automatic recognition of risky behaviour. The paper concludes that a solution utilising a browser extension is a suitable method of monitoring potentially risky security behaviour. Ultimately, future work seeks to implement an affective feedback mechanism within the browser extension with the aim of improving security awareness.

Measuring factors that influence the utilisation of preventive care services provided by general practitioners in Australia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oldenburg Brian

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Relatively little research attention has been given to the development of standardised and psychometrically sound scales for measuring influences relevant to the utilisation of health services. This study aims to describe the development, validation and internal reliability of some existing and new scales to measure factors that are likely to influence utilisation of preventive care services provided by general practitioners in Australia. Methods Relevant domains of influence were first identified from a literature review and formative research. Items were then generated by using and adapting previously developed scales and published findings from these. The new items and scales were pre-tested and qualitative feedback was obtained from a convenience sample of citizens from the community and a panel of experts. Principal Components Analyses (PCA and internal reliability testing (Cronbach's alpha were then conducted for all of the newly adapted or developed scales utilising data collected from a self-administered mailed survey sent to a randomly selected population-based sample of 381 individuals (response rate 65.6 per cent. Results The PCA identified five scales with acceptable levels of internal consistency were: (1 social support (ten items, alpha 0.86; (2 perceived interpersonal care (five items, alpha 0.87, (3 concerns about availability of health care and accessibility to health care (eight items, alpha 0.80, (4 value of good health (five items, alpha 0.79, and (5 attitudes towards health care (three items, alpha 0.75. Conclusion The five scales are suitable for further development and more widespread use in research aimed at understanding the determinants of preventive health services utilisation among adults in the general population.

NEON's Mobile Deployment Platform: A Resource for Community Research

Science.gov (United States)

Sanclements, M.

2015-12-01

Here we provide an update on construction and validation of the NEON Mobile Deployment Platforms (MDPs) as well as a description of the infrastructure and sensors available to researchers in the future. The MDPs will provide the means to observe stochastic or spatially important events, gradients, or quantities that cannot be reliably observed using fixed location sampling (e.g. fires and floods). Due to the transient temporal and spatial nature of such events, the MDPs will be designed to accommodate rapid deployment for time periods up to ~ 1 year. Broadly, the MDPs will be comprised of infrastructure and instrumentation capable of functioning individually or in conjunction with one another to support observations of ecological change, as well as education, training and outreach.

SenStick: Comprehensive Sensing Platform with an Ultra Tiny All-In-One Sensor Board for IoT Research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yugo Nakamura

2017-01-01

Full Text Available We propose a comprehensive sensing platform called SenStick, which is composed of hardware (ultra tiny all-in-one sensor board, software (iOS, Android, and PC, and 3D case data. The platform aims to allow all the researchers to start IoT research, such as activity recognition and context estimation, easily and efficiently. The most important contribution is the hardware that we have designed. Various sensors often used for research are embedded in an ultra tiny board with the size of 50 mm (W × 10 mm (H × 5 mm (D and weight around 3 g including a battery. Concretely, the following sensors are embedded on this board: acceleration, gyro, magnetic, light, UV, temperature, humidity, and pressure. In addition, this board has BLE (Bluetooth low energy connectivity and capability of a rechargeable battery. By using 110 mAh battery, it can run more than 15 hours. The most different point from other similar boards is that our board has a large flash memory for logging all the data without a smartphone. By using SenStick, all the users can collect various data easily and focus on IoT data analytics. In this paper, we introduce SenStick platform and some case studies. Through the user study, we confirmed the usefulness of our proposed platform.

Utilisation of Antenatal Services at the Provincial Hospital, Mongomo ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Utilisation of Antenatal Services at the Provincial Hospital, Mongomo, Guinea Equatoria. AAG Jimoh. Abstract. This prospective study was carried out to evaluate the utilisation of antenatal care at the Provincial Specialist Hospital, Mongomo, Guinea Equatoria, paying close attention to the confounding factors affecting ...

Construction of the Chinese Veteran Clinical Research (CVCR) platform for the assessment of non-communicable diseases.

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, Jiping; Li, Nan; Gao, Jing; Guo, Yuhe; Hu, Wei; Yang, Jinsheng; Yu, Baocheng; Yu, Jianmin; Du, Wei; Zhang, Wenjun; Cui, Lianqi; Wang, Qingsong; Xia, Xiangnan; Li, Jianjun; Zhou, Peiyi; Zhang, Baohe; Liu, Zhiying; Zhang, Shaogang; Sun, Lanying; Liu, Nan; Deng, Ruixiang; Dai, Wenguang; Yi, Fang; Chen, Wenjun; Zhang, Yongqing; Xue, Shenwu; Cui, Bo; Zhao, Yiming; Wang, Luning

2014-01-01

Based on the excellent medical care and management system for Chinese veterans, as well as the detailed medical documentation available, we aim to construct a Chinese Veteran Clinical Research (CVCR) platform on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and carry out studies of the primary disabling NCDs. The Geriatric Neurology Department of Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital and veterans' hospitals serve as the leading and participating units in the platform construction. The fundamental constituents of the platform are veteran communities. Stratified typical cluster sampling is adopted to recruit veteran communities. A cross-sectional study of mental, neurological, and substance use (MNS) disorders are performed in two stages using screening scale such as the Mini-Mental State Examination and Montreal cognitive assessment, followed by systematic neuropsychological assessments to make clinical diagnoses, evaluated disease awareness and care situation. A total of 9 676 among 277 veteran communities from 18 cities are recruited into this platform, yielding a response rate of 83.86%. 8 812 subjects complete the MNS subproject screening and total response rate is 91.70%. The average participant age is (82.01±4.61) years, 69.47% of veterans are 80 years or older. Most participants are male (94.01%), 83.36% of subjects have at least a junior high school degree. The overall health status of veterans is good and stable. The most common NCD are cardiovascular disorders (86.44%), urinary and genital diseases (73.14%), eye and ear problems (66.25%), endocrine (56.56%) and neuro-psychiatric disturbances (50.78%). We first construct a veterans' comprehensive clinical research platform for the study of NCDs that is primarily composed of highly educated Chinese males of advanced age and utilize this platform to complete a cross-sectional national investigation of MNS disorders among veterans. The good and stable health condition of the veterans could facilitate the long

Factors that influence utilisation of HIV/AIDS prevention methods among university students residing at a selected university campus.

Science.gov (United States)

Ndabarora, Eléazar; Mchunu, Gugu

2014-01-01

Various studies have reported that university students, who are mostly young people, rarely use existing HIV/AIDS preventive methods. Although studies have shown that young university students have a high degree of knowledge about HIV/AIDS and HIV modes of transmission, they are still not utilising the existing HIV prevention methods and still engage in risky sexual practices favourable to HIV. Some variables, such as awareness of existing HIV/AIDS prevention methods, have been associated with utilisation of such methods. The study aimed to explore factors that influence use of existing HIV/AIDS prevention methods among university students residing in a selected campus, using the Health Belief Model (HBM) as a theoretical framework. A quantitative research approach and an exploratory-descriptive design were used to describe perceived factors that influence utilisation by university students of HIV/AIDS prevention methods. A total of 335 students completed online and manual questionnaires. Study findings showed that the factors which influenced utilisation of HIV/AIDS prevention methods were mainly determined by awareness of the existing university-based HIV/AIDS prevention strategies. Most utilised prevention methods were voluntary counselling and testing services and free condoms. Perceived susceptibility and perceived threat of HIV/AIDS score was also found to correlate with HIV risk index score. Perceived susceptibility and perceived threat of HIV/AIDS showed correlation with self-efficacy on condoms and their utilisation. Most HBM variables were not predictors of utilisation of HIV/AIDS prevention methods among students. Intervention aiming to improve the utilisation of HIV/AIDS prevention methods among students at the selected university should focus on removing identified barriers, promoting HIV/AIDS prevention services and providing appropriate resources to implement such programmes.

Storylines as an alternative method to communicate river research via a knowledge platform

Science.gov (United States)

Cortes Arevalo, Juliette; Verbrugge, Laura N. H.; den Haan, Robert Jan; Baart, Fedor; Hulscher, Suzanne J. M. H.; van der Voort, Mascha C.

2017-04-01

Sustainable river management relies on diverse and multi-faceted knowledge from fundamental and applied research. Communicating the context, added value and potential use of river research to actors working in multiple disciplines or organizations is challenging. RiverCare is a research programme studying the mid-term effects of innovative river interventions in the Netherlands. Effective communication between researchers and potential users of scientific information, such as water professionals, requires an interactive, two-way communication approach. As part of the communication strategy, we are designing a knowledge platform to provide access to, explain and gather feedback about the potential use of results from water professionals. The knowledge platform is a combination of online services including: a content management system in which storylines are the main component; a data repository to the underlying research data and; hyperlinks to existing online sites that present our results via short news articles. Storylines engage water professionals via experiences or stories of river management actors to explain research outputs instead of or in addition to more technical means such as scientific papers and reports. The use of storylines enables us to explain research outcomes in a way that is captivating and easily understood by a multi-disciplinary audience. To explore its usefulness as communication approach, we developed a storyline example for research about stakeholder perceptions of a re-landscaping intervention in the Waal river in the Netherlands. The storyline's layout consisted of a menu outline and three tabs: (1) storyline's content; (2) contact details; and (3) links to available resources or related publications. The storyline's content was divided in four sections including subsections to navigate. Each section had a heading statement or question to engage users: "Imagine this!"; "What matters? Places matter to people"; "Surveying people

NEON's Mobile Deployment Platform: A Resource for Community Research

Science.gov (United States)

Sanclements, M.

2017-12-01

Here we provide an update on construction of the five NEON Mobile Deployment Platforms (MDPs) as well as a description of the infrastructure and sensors available to researchers in the near future. Additionally, we include information (i.e. timelines and procedures) on requesting MDPs for PI led projects. The MDPs will provide the means to observe stochastic or spatially important events, gradients, or quantities that cannot be reliably observed using fixed location sampling (e.g. fires and floods). Due to the transient temporal and spatial nature of such events, the MDPs are designed to accommodate rapid deployment for time periods up to 1 year. Broadly, the MDPs are comprised of infrastructure and instrumentation capable of functioning individually or in conjunction with one another to support observations of ecological change, as well as education, training and outreach. More specifically, the MDPs include the capability to make tower based measures of ecosystem exchange, radiation, and precipitation in conjunction with baseline soils data such as CO2 flux, and soil temperature and moisture. An aquatics module is also available with the MDP to facilitate research integrating terrestrial and aquatic processes. Ultimately, the NEON MDPs provide a tool for linking PI led research to the continental scale data sets collected by NEON.

Google Search and the Law on Dominance in the EU : An Assessment of the Compatibility of Current Methodology with Multi-Sided Platforms in Online Search

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Herz, Martin

2014-01-01

Business platforms that utilise, or are based upon, internet technology are omnipresent in consumers daily lives. Since the dawn of the World Wide Web, the amount of web content has increased greatly. Simultaneously, business interests have sparked, meeting the arisen demand for particular online

Mobile Phone Cognitive Bias Modification Research Platform for Substance Use Disorders: Protocol for a Feasibility Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Melvyn; Ying, JiangBo; Song, Guo; Fung, Daniel Ss; Smith, Helen

2018-06-12

Cognitive biases refer to automatic attentional and interpretational tendencies, which could be retained by cognitive bias modification interventions. Cristea et al and Jones et al have published reviews (in 2016 and 2017 respectively) on the effectiveness of such interventions. The advancement of technologies such as electronic health (eHealth) and mobile health (mHealth) has led to them being harnessed for the delivery of cognitive bias modification. To date, at least eight studies have demonstrated the feasibility of mobile technologies for the delivery of cognitive bias modification. Most of the studies are limited to a description of the conventional cognitive bias modification methodology that has been adopted. None of the studies shared the developmental process for the methodology involved, such that future studies could adopt it in the cost-effective replication of such interventions. It is important to have a common platform that could facilitate the design and customization of cognitive bias modification interventions for a variety of psychiatric and addictive disorders. It is the aim of the current research protocol to describe the design of a research platform that allows for customization of cognitive bias modification interventions for addictive disorders. A multidisciplinary team of 2 addiction psychiatrists, a psychologist with expertise in cognitive bias modification, and a computer engineer, were involved in the development of the intervention. The proposed platform would comprise of a mobile phone version of the cognitive bias task which is controlled by a server that could customize the algorithm for the tasks and collate the reaction-time data in realtime. The server would also allow the researcher to program the specific set of images that will be present in the task. The mobile phone app would synchronize with the backend server in real-time. An open-sourced cross-platform gaming software from React Native was used in the current development

The Data Platform for Climate Research and Action: Introducing Climate Watch

Science.gov (United States)

Hennig, R. J.; Ge, M.; Friedrich, J.; Lebling, K.; Carlock, G.; Arcipowska, A.; Mangan, E.; Biru, H.; Tankou, A.; Chaudhury, M.

2017-12-01

The Paris Agreement, adopted through Decision 1/CP.21, brings all nations together to take on ambitious efforts to combat climate change. Open access to climate data supporting climate research, advancing knowledge, and informing decision making is key to encourage and strengthen efforts of stakeholders at all levels to address and respond to effects of climate change. Climate Watch is a robust online data platform developed in response to the urgent needs of knowledge and tools to empower climate research and action, including those of researchers, policy makers, the private sector, civil society, and all other non-state actors. Building on the rapid growing technology of open data and information sharing, Climate Watch is equipped with extensive amount of climate data, informative visualizations, concise yet efficient user interface, and connection to resources users need to gather insightful information on national and global progress towards delivering on the objective of the Convention and the Paris Agreement. Climate Watch brings together hundreds of quantitative and qualitative indicators for easy explore, visualize, compare, download at global, national, and sectoral levels: Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for more than 190 countries over the1850-2014 time period, covering all seven Kyoto Gases following IPCC source/sink categories; Structured information on over 150 NDCs facilitating the clarity, understanding and transparency of countries' contributions to address climate change; Over 6500 identified linkages between climate actions in NDCs across the 169 targets of the sustainable development goals (SDG); Over 200 indicators describing low carbon pathways from models and scenarios by integrated assessment models (IAMs) and national sources; and Data on vulnerability and risk, policies, finance, and many more. Climate Watch platform is developed as part of the broader efforts within the World Resources Institute, the NDC Partnership, and in collaboration

Tailoring Spectator Experiences for Non-Regular Attendants to Increase Stadium Capacity Utilisation in Football

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Junghagen, Sven; Besjakov, Simon D; Lund, Anders Alrø

The aim of this paper is to show in what way football clubs in smaller leagues with limited capacity utilisation can increase their per-game revenue by increasing the attendance frequency. A sequential mixed method research design was employed, involving both qualitative and quantitative methods...

VASIR: An Open-Source Research Platform for Advanced Iris Recognition Technologies.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Yooyoung; Micheals, Ross J; Filliben, James J; Phillips, P Jonathon

2013-01-01

The performance of iris recognition systems is frequently affected by input image quality, which in turn is vulnerable to less-than-optimal conditions due to illuminations, environments, and subject characteristics (e.g., distance, movement, face/body visibility, blinking, etc.). VASIR (Video-based Automatic System for Iris Recognition) is a state-of-the-art NIST-developed iris recognition software platform designed to systematically address these vulnerabilities. We developed VASIR as a research tool that will not only provide a reference (to assess the relative performance of alternative algorithms) for the biometrics community, but will also advance (via this new emerging iris recognition paradigm) NIST's measurement mission. VASIR is designed to accommodate both ideal (e.g., classical still images) and less-than-ideal images (e.g., face-visible videos). VASIR has three primary modules: 1) Image Acquisition 2) Video Processing, and 3) Iris Recognition. Each module consists of several sub-components that have been optimized by use of rigorous orthogonal experiment design and analysis techniques. We evaluated VASIR performance using the MBGC (Multiple Biometric Grand Challenge) NIR (Near-Infrared) face-visible video dataset and the ICE (Iris Challenge Evaluation) 2005 still-based dataset. The results showed that even though VASIR was primarily developed and optimized for the less-constrained video case, it still achieved high verification rates for the traditional still-image case. For this reason, VASIR may be used as an effective baseline for the biometrics community to evaluate their algorithm performance, and thus serves as a valuable research platform.

Global and Local Path Planning Study in a ROS-Based Research Platform for Autonomous Vehicles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pablo Marin-Plaza

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this work is to integrate and analyze the performance of a path planning method based on Time Elastic Bands (TEB in real research platform based on Ackermann model. Moreover, it will be proved that all modules related to the navigation can coexist and work together to achieve the goal point without any collision. The study is done by analyzing the trajectory generated from global and local planners. The software prototyping tool is Robot Operating System (ROS from Open Source Robotics Foundation and the research platform is the iCab (Intelligent Campus Automobile from University Carlos III. This work has been validated from a test inside the campus where the iCab has performed the navigation between the starting point and the goal point without any collision. During the experiment, we proved the low sensitivity of the TEB method to variations of the vehicle model configuration and constraints.

Globalisation and Labour Utilisation in Nigeria: Evidence from the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study examines the influence of globalisation on labour utilisation in Nigeria using the construction industry as a case study. It reveals that the era of globalisation has given rise to profound changes in the way labour is utilised, specifically in terms of employment patterns as well as the related issues of earnings, job ...

Platforms.

Science.gov (United States)

Josko, Deborah

2014-01-01

The advent of DNA sequencing technologies and the various applications that can be performed will have a dramatic effect on medicine and healthcare in the near future. There are several DNA sequencing platforms available on the market for research and clinical use. Based on the medical laboratory scientist or researcher's needs and taking into consideration laboratory space and budget, one can chose which platform will be beneficial to their institution and their patient population. Although some of the instrument costs seem high, diagnosing a patient quickly and accurately will save hospitals money with fewer hospital stays and targeted treatment based on an individual's genetic make-up. By determining the type of disease an individual has, based on the mutations present or having the ability to prescribe the appropriate antimicrobials based on the knowledge of the organism's resistance patterns, the clinician will be better able to treat and diagnose a patient which ultimately will improve patient outcomes and prognosis.

Wood torrefaction. Pilot tests and utilisation prospects

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wilen, C.; Jukola, P.; Jarvinen, T.; Sipila, K. [VTT Technical Reseach Centre of Finland, Espoo (Finland); Verhoeff, F.; Kiel, J. [Energy research Centre of the Netherlands, LE Petten (Netherlands)

2013-09-15

The research project 'Torrefaction of woody biomasses as energy carriers for the European markets' was carried out within the Tekes BioRefine programme in 2010-2012 and was coordinated by VTT. The main objective of the project was to create a discussion platform and collate basic information for the Finnish industrial stakeholders involved in developing torrefaction technology or planning to include torrefied biomass in their fuel supply for energy production. Given the availability of torrefaction pilot facilities in Europe, it was decided at an early phase of the national torrefaction research project not to build and operate separate pilot equipment, and thus save time and money. Experimental research was conducted in cooperation with ECN, The Netherlands. Finnish wood chips and crushed forest residue were tested at different torrefaction temperatures in the PATRIG torrefaction test rig with great success, and large quantities of torrefied wood chips and pellets were produced. CFD simulation work was carried out at VTT to investigate the feasibility of torrefied fuels to replace part of the coal. From the combustion point of view it seems feasible to replace coal by torrefied wood biomass with shares up to 50% by weight. Basic, small-scale experiments were carried out to compare torrefied wood pellets with conventional wood and straw pellets with regard to their handling and storage properties. The experiments showed that the torrefied pellets are clearly more hydrophobic than wood and straw pellets and do not disintegrate completely on exposure to water. A study on dust explosion and self-ignition characteristics indicated that the torrefied dust does not differ significantly from the normal biomass dust, but is clearly more reactive than coal dust. Commercial development of torrefaction is currently in its early phase. The current general view is that most of the demonstration plants have technical problems, which have delayed their commercial

Flexible experimental FPGA based platform

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Karsten Holm; Nymand, Morten

2016-01-01

This paper presents an experimental flexible Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based platform for testing and verifying digital controlled dc-dc converters. The platform supports different types of control strategies, dc-dc converter topologies and switching frequencies. The controller platform...... interface supporting configuration and reading of setup parameters, controller status and the acquisition memory in a simple way. The FPGA based platform, provides an easy way within education or research to use different digital control strategies and different converter topologies controlled by an FPGA...

Withstanding austerity: Equity in health services utilisation in the first stage of the economic recession in Southern Spain.

Science.gov (United States)

Córdoba-Doña, Juan Antonio; Escolar-Pujolar, Antonio; San Sebastián, Miguel; Gustafsson, Per E

2018-01-01

Scant research is available on the impact of the current economic crisis and austerity policies on inequality in health services utilisation in Europe. This study aimed to describe the trends in horizontal inequity in the use of health services in Andalusia, Spain, during the early years of the Great Recession, and the contribution of demographic, economic and social factors. Consultation with a general practitioner (GP) and specialist, hospitalisation and emergency care were studied through the Andalusian Health Survey 2007 (pre-crisis) and 2011-2012 (crisis), using a composite income index as socioeconomic status (SES) indicator. Horizontal inequity indices (HII) were calculated to take differential healthcare needs into account, and a decomposition analysis of change in inequality between periods was performed. Results showed that before the crisis, the HII was positive (greater access for people with higher SES) for specialist visits but negative (greater access for people with lower SES) in the other three utilisation models. During the crisis no change was observed in inequalities in GP visits, but a pro-poor development was seen for the other types of utilisation, with hospital and emergency care showing significant inequality in favour of low income groups. Overall, the main contributors to pro-poor changes in utilisation were socio-economic variables and poor mental health, due to changes in their elasticities. Our findings show that inequalities in healthcare utilisation largely remained in favour of the less well-off, despite the cuts in welfare benefits and health services provision during the early years of the recession in Andalusia. Further research is needed to monitor the potential impact of such measures in subsequent years.

Outpatient echocardiography in the evaluation of innocent murmurs in children: utilisation benchmarking.

Science.gov (United States)

Frias, Patricio A; Oster, Matthew; Daley, Patricia A; Boris, Jeffrey R

2016-03-01

We sought to benchmark the utilisation of echocardiography in the outpatient evaluation of heart murmurs by evaluating two large paediatric cardiology centres. Although criteria exist for appropriate use of echocardiography, there are no benchmarking data demonstrating its utilisation. We performed a retrospective cohort study of outpatients aged between 0 and 18 years at the Sibley Heart Center Cardiology and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Division of Cardiology, given a sole diagnosis of "innocent murmur" from 1 July, 2007 to 31 October, 2010. Using internal claims data, we compared the utilisation of echocardiography according to centre, patient age, and physician years of service. Of 23,114 eligible patients (Sibley Heart Center Cardiology: 12,815, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Division of Cardiology: 10,299), 43.1% (Sibley Heart Center Cardiology: 45.2%, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Division of Cardiology: 40.4%; p1-5 years had the lowest utilisation (32.7%). In two large paediatric cardiology practices, the overall utilisation of echocardiography by physicians with a sole diagnosis of innocent murmur was similar. There was significant and similar variability in utilisation by provider at both centres. Although these data serve as initial benchmarking, the variability in utilisation highlights the importance of appropriate use criteria.

{cross-disciplinary} Data CyberInfrastructure: A Different Approach to Developing Collaborative Earth and Environmental Science Research Platforms

Science.gov (United States)

Lenhardt, W. C.; Krishnamurthy, A.; Blanton, B.; Conway, M.; Coposky, J.; Castillo, C.; Idaszak, R.

2017-12-01

An integrated science cyberinfrastructure platform is fast becoming a norm in science, particularly where access to distributed resources, access to compute, data management tools, and collaboration tools are accessible to the end-user scientist without the need to spin up these services on their own. There platforms have various types of labels ranging from data commons to science-as-a-service. They tend to share common features, as outlined above. What tends to distinguish these platforms, however, is their affinity for particular domains, NanoHub - nanomaterials, iPlant - plant biology, Hydroshare - hydrology, and so on. The challenge still remains how to enable these platforms to be more easily adopted for use by other domains. This paper will provide an overview of RENCI's approach to creating a science platform that can be more easily adopted by new communities while also endeavoring to accelerate their research. At RENCI, we started with Hydroshare, but have now worked to generalize the methodology for application to other domains. This new effort is called xDCi, or {cross-disciplinary} Data CyberInfrastructure. We have adopted a broader approach to the challenge of domain adoption and includes two key elements in addition to the technology component. The first of these is how development is operationalized. RENCI implements a DevOps model of continuous development and deployment. This greatly increases the speed by which a new platform can come online and be refined to meet domain needs. DevOps also allows for migration over time, i.e. sustainability. The second element is a concierge model. In addition to the technical elements, and the more responsive development process, RENCI also supports domain adoption of the platform by providing a concierge service— dedicated expertise- in the following areas, Information Technology, Sustainable Software, Data Science, and Sustainability. The success of the RENCI methodology is illustrated by the adoption of the

Disentangling Competition Among Platform Driven Strategic Groups

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kazan, Erol; Tan, Chee-Wee; Lim, Eric

2015-01-01

In platform-driven markets, competitive advantage is derived from superior platform design and configurations. For this reason, platform owners strive to create unique and inimitable platform configurals to maintain and extend their competitiveness within network economies. To disentangle firm...... competition within platform-driven markets, we opted for the UK mobile payment market as our empirical setting. By embracing the theoretical lens of strategic groups and digital platforms, this study supplements prior research by deriving a taxonomy of platform-driven strategic groups that is grounded...

Research on vehicles and cargos matching model based on virtual logistics platform

Science.gov (United States)

Zhuang, Yufeng; Lu, Jiang; Su, Zhiyuan

2018-04-01

Highway less than truckload (LTL) transportation vehicles and cargos matching problem is a joint optimization problem of typical vehicle routing and loading, which is also a hot issue of operational research. This article based on the demand of virtual logistics platform, for the problem of the highway LTL transportation, the matching model of the idle vehicle and the transportation order is set up and the corresponding genetic algorithm is designed. Then the algorithm is implemented by Java. The simulation results show that the solution is satisfactory.

Floodwater utilisation values of wetland services - a case study in Northeastern China

Science.gov (United States)

Lü, S. B.; Xu, S. G.; Feng, F.

2012-02-01

Water plays a significant role in wetlands. Floodwater utilisation in wetlands brings a wide range of wetland services, from goods production and water regulation to animal protection and aesthetics related to water supply in wetlands. In this study, the floodwater utilisation values of wetland services were estimated within the Momoge wetland and Xianghai wetland in western Jilin province of northeastern China. From 2003 to 2008, the floodwater diverted from the Nenjiang and Tao'er River is 381 million m3, which translates into a monetary value of approximately 1.35 billion RMB in 2008 (RMB: Chinese Currency, RMB 6.80 = US 1), and the ratio of economic value, eco-environmental value, and social value is 1:12:2. Besides the monetary value of the water itself, excessive floodwater utilisation may bring losses to wetlands; the threshold floodwater utilisation volumes in wetlands are discussed. Floodwater utilisation can alleviate water shortages in wetlands, and the evaluation of floodwater utilisation in wetland services in monetary terms is a guide for the effective use of the floodwater resources and for the conservation of wetlands.

Utilisation of strategic communication to create willingness to change work practices among primary care staff: a long-term follow-up study.

Science.gov (United States)

Morténius, Helena; Fridlund, Bengt; Marklund, Bertil; Palm, Lars; Baigi, Amir

2012-04-01

To evaluate the long-term utilisation of strategic communication as a factor of importance when changing work practices among primary care staff. In many health care organisations, there is a gap between theory and practice. This gap hinders the provision of optimal evidence-based practice and, in the long term, is unfavourable for patient care. One way of overcoming this barrier is systematically structured communication between the scientific theoretical platform and clinical practice. This longitudinal evaluative study was conducted among a primary care staff cohort. Strategic communication was considered to be the intervention platform and included a network of ambassadors who acted as a component of the implementation. Measurements occurred 7 and 12 years after formation of the cohort. A questionnaire was used to obtain information from participants. In total, 846 employees (70%) agreed to take part in the study. After 12 years, the 352 individuals (60%) who had remained in the organisation were identified and followed up. Descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis were used to analyse the data. Continuous information contributed to significant improvements over time with respect to new ideas and the intention to change work practices. There was a statistically significant synergistic effect on the new way of thinking, that is, willingness to change work practices. During the final two years, the network of ambassadors had created a distinctive image for itself in the sense that primary care staff members were aware of it and its activities. This awareness was associated with a positive change with regard to new ways of thinking. More years of practice was inversely associated with willingness to change work practices. Strategic communication may lead to a scientific platform that promotes high-quality patient care by means of new methods and research findings.

Impacts of HIV/AIDS mortality on food security and natural resource utilisation in rural South Africa

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Mambo, J

2012-03-01

Full Text Available AIDS mortality, its linkages as a determinant and consequence of food security and its impact on natural resource utilisation by mainly rural populations, has not been well researched, especially their effects on rural livelihoods. Determining...

The scheme and research of TV series multidimensional comprehensive evaluation on cross-platform

Science.gov (United States)

Chai, Jianping; Bai, Xuesong; Zhou, Hongjun; Yin, Fulian

2016-10-01

As for shortcomings of the comprehensive evaluation system on traditional TV programs such as single data source, ignorance of new media as well as the high time cost and difficulty of making surveys, a new evaluation of TV series is proposed in this paper, which has a perspective in cross-platform multidimensional evaluation after broadcasting. This scheme considers the data directly collected from cable television and the Internet as research objects. It's based on TOPSIS principle, after preprocessing and calculation of the data, they become primary indicators that reflect different profiles of the viewing of TV series. Then after the process of reasonable empowerment and summation by the six methods(PCA, AHP, etc.), the primary indicators form the composite indices on different channels or websites. The scheme avoids the inefficiency and difficulty of survey and marking; At the same time, it not only reflects different dimensions of viewing, but also combines TV media and new media, completing the multidimensional comprehensive evaluation of TV series on cross-platform.

Investigating the impact of poor utilisation of quality management system in a South African foundry

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Mpanza, Z

2013-07-01

Full Text Available . This research paper focusses on the impact of defects on productivity and monetary losses due to poor utilisation of the quality management system in sand casting. Data was gathered on defects and productivity and the company’s quality control records were used...

Application research of cloud computing in emergency system platform of nuclear accidents

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Yan; Yue Huiguo; Lin Quanyi; Yue Feng

2013-01-01

This paper described the key technology of the concept of cloud computing, service type and implementation methods. Combined with the upgrade demand of nuclear accident emergency system platform, the paper also proposed the application design of private cloud computing platform, analyzed safety of cloud platform and the characteristics of cloud disaster recovery. (authors)

Research and Development of Target Recognition and Location Crawling Platform based on Binocular Vision

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Weidong; Lei, Zhu; Yuan, Zhang; Gao, Zhenqing

2018-03-01

The application of visual recognition technology in industrial robot crawling and placing operation is one of the key tasks in the field of robot research. In order to improve the efficiency and intelligence of the material sorting in the production line, especially to realize the sorting of the scattered items, the robot target recognition and positioning crawling platform based on binocular vision is researched and developed. The images were collected by binocular camera, and the images were pretreated. Harris operator was used to identify the corners of the images. The Canny operator was used to identify the images. Hough-chain code recognition was used to identify the images. The target image in the image, obtain the coordinates of each vertex of the image, calculate the spatial position and posture of the target item, and determine the information needed to capture the movement and transmit it to the robot control crawling operation. Finally, In this paper, we use this method to experiment the wrapping problem in the express sorting process The experimental results show that the platform can effectively solve the problem of sorting of loose parts, so as to achieve the purpose of efficient and intelligent sorting.

Influence of C-Peptide on Glucose Utilisation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. Wilhelm

2008-01-01

Full Text Available During the recent years, multiple studies demonstrated that C-peptide is not an inert peptide, but exerts important physiological effects. C-peptide binds to cell membranes, stimulates the Na,K-ATPase and the endothelial nitric oxide (NO synthase. Moreover, there is evidence that C-peptide decreases glomerular hyperfiltration and increases glucose utilisation. Nevertheless, there is still limited knowledge concerning mechanisms leading to an increased glucose utilisation either in rats or in humans. The aim of this paper is to give an overview over the published studies regarding C-peptide and glucose metabolism from in vitro studies to longer lasting studies in humans.

The energy balance of utilising meadow grass in Danish biogas production

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Meyer, Ane Katharina Paarup; Raju, Chitra Sangaraju; Kucheryavskiy, Sergey V.

2015-01-01

of meadow areas, different relevant geo-datasets, spatial analyses, and various statistical analyses. The results show that values for the energy return on energy invested (EROEI) ranging from 1.7 to 3.3 can be obtained when utilising meadow grasses in local biogas production. The total national net energy......This paper presents a study of the energy balance of utilising nature conservation biomass from meadow habitats in Danish biogas production. Utilisation of nature conservation grass in biogas production in Denmark represents an interesting perspective for enhancing nature conservation of the open...... grassland habitats, while introducing an alternative to the use of intensively cultivated energy crops as co-substrates in manure based biogas plants. The energy balance of utilising nature conservation grass was investigated by using: data collected from previous investigations on the productivity...

The Changing Role of Data Stewardship in Creating Trustworthy, Interdisciplinary High Performance Data Platforms for the Future.

Science.gov (United States)

Richards, C. J.; Evans, B. J. K.; Wyborn, L. A.; Wang, J.; Trenham, C. E.; Druken, K. A.

2016-12-01

The Australian National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) has ingested over 10PB of national and international environmental, Earth systems science and geophysics reference data onto a single platform to advance high performance data (HPD) techniques that enable interdisciplinary Data-intensive Science. Improved Data Stewardship is critical to evolve both data and data services that support the increasing need for programmatic usability and that prioritises interoperability rather than just traditional data download or portal access. A data platform designed for programmatic access requires quality checked collections that better utilise interoperable data formats and standards. Achieving this involves strategies to meet both the technical and `social' challenges. Aggregating datasets used by different communities and organisations requires satisfying multiple use cases for the broader research community, whilst addressing existing BAU requirements. For NCI, this requires working with data stewards to manage the process of replicating data to the common platform, community representatives and developers to confirm their requirements, and with international peers to better enable globally integrated data communities. It is particularly important to engage with representatives from each community who can work collaboratively to a common goal, as well as capture their community needs, apply quality assurance, determine any barriers to change and to understand priorities. This is critical when managing the aggregation of data collections from multiple producers with different levels of stewardship maturity, technologies and standards, and where organisational barriers can impact the transformation to interoperable and performant data access. To facilitate the management, development and operation of the HPD platform, NCI coordinates technical and domain committees made up of user representatives, data stewards and informatics experts to provide a forum to discuss

Glucose utilisation in the lungs of septic rats

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hansson, L.; Jeppsson, B.; Ohlsson, T.; Sandell, A.; Valind, S.; Luts, A.; Wollmer, P.

1999-01-01

Sequestration and degranulation of leucocytes in the pulmonary microcirculation is considered to be a key event in the development of acute respiratory distress syndrome in patients with sepsis. Glucose serves as the main source of energy in activated leucocytes. The aim of this study was to assess whether glucose utilisation in the lungs can be used as an indicator of pulmonary leucocyte accumulation in an experimental model of sepsis of intra-abdominal origin. Sepsis was induced in rats by abdominal implantation of a gelatine capsule containing bacteria and rat colonic contents. Empty gelatine capsules were implanted in control animals. Animals were studied 6 and 12 h after sepsis induction. Glucose utilisation was measured as the tissue uptake of fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose ( 18 FDG) 1 h after intravenous injection of the tracer. Micro-autoradiography was also performed after injection of tritiated deoxyglucose. We found increased uptake of 18 FDG in the lungs of septic animals. The uptake also increased with time after sepsis induction. 18 FDG uptake in circulating leucocytes was increased in septic animals compared with controls, and micro-autoradiography showed intense accumulation of deoxyglucose in leucocytes in the lungs of septic animals. We conclude that glucose utilisation is increased in the lungs of septic rats. Measurements of pulmonary glucose utilisation as an index of leucocyte metabolic activity may open new possibilities for studies of the pathophysiology of sepsis and for evaluation of therapeutic interventions. (orig.)

Utilisation of a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) for equestrian accidents in a regional major trauma network in the United Kingdom.

Science.gov (United States)

McQueen, Carl; Crombie, Nick; Cormack, Stef; George, Arun; Wheaton, Steve

2015-05-01

The utilisation of Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) in response to equestrian accidents has been an integral part of operations for many years throughout the UK. The recent establishment of major trauma networks in the UK has placed great emphasis on the appropriate tasking of HEMS units to cases where added benefit can be provided and the incidence of time critical injury in cases of equestrian accidents has been shown to be low. This study assesses the impact made on the utilisation of the different HEMS resources for cases of equestrian accidents within the West Midlands following the launch of the regional trauma network. We present a retrospective analysis of all equestrian accidents attended by Midlands Air Ambulance (MAA) between 1 April 2012 and 1 April 2013. Data were abstracted from the MAA operational database relating to mission activations/scene attendances; team configuration (physician led and Critical Care Paramedic (CCP) led); on-scene interventions; mission timings and patient conveyance by helicopter. A total of 114 activations involved equestrian accidents (6% of overall workload). The contribution of equestrian accidents to overall workload was similar for physician led and CCP-led (69/1069) platforms (5% vs. 6%, p=0.50). Only three patients (3%) required pre-hospital RSI during the period analysed and there were no recorded cases of ketamine administration for analgesia/conscious sedation. In approximately half of all scene attendances patients did not require any medication to be administered by the HEMS team. The vast majority of incidents occurred in rural locations with over 80% of patients conveyed to hospital by helicopter. The average mission time for scene attendances resulting in conveyance by helicopter was in excess of 90 min on both types of platform. There is a clear requirement for the design and implementation of informed and intelligent tasking models to respond to the need for assistance in equestrian accidents

Factors affecting Japanese retirees' healthcare service utilisation in Malaysia: a qualitative study.

Science.gov (United States)

Kohno, Ayako; Nik Farid, Nik Daliana; Musa, Ghazali; Abdul Aziz, Norlaili; Nakayama, Takeo; Dahlui, Maznah

2016-03-22

While living overseas in another culture, retirees need to adapt to a new environment but often this causes difficulties, particularly among those elderly who require healthcare services. This study examines factors affecting healthcare service utilisation among Japanese retirees in Malaysia. We conducted 6 focus group discussions with Japanese retirees and interviewed 8 relevant medical services providers in-depth. Guided by the Andersen Healthcare Utilisation Model, we managed and analysed the data, using QSR NVivo 10 software and the directed content analysis method. We interviewed participants at Japan Clubs and their offices. 30 Japanese retirees who live in Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh, and 8 medical services providers. We identified health beliefs, medical symptoms and health insurance as the 3 most important themes, respectively, representing the 3 dimensions within the Andersen Healthcare Utilisation Model. Additionally, language barriers, voluntary health repatriation to Japan and psychological support were unique themes that influence healthcare service utilisation among Japanese retirees. The healthcare service utilisation among Japanese retirees in Malaysia could be partially explained by the Andersen Healthcare Utilisation Model, together with some factors that were unique findings to this study. Healthcare service utilisation among Japanese retirees in Malaysia could be improved by alleviating negative health beliefs through awareness programmes for Japanese retirees about the healthcare systems and cultural aspects of medical care in Malaysia. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

A new platform for RFID research in Vietnam

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tran, Ai Nhan; Nguyen, Son Dat; Thai Pham, Duc Hoang; Nguyen, Thuat Tran; Dang, Chien Mau; Fribourg-Blanc, Eric

2010-01-01

Radio-Frequency IDentification (RFID) is a technology that has been emerging for less than a decade as the primary choice to exchange information between objects and their environment. Most of the challenges arise due to the passive nature of the tags placed on objects. The absence of a local power source implies that power management is critical for efficient work of the data exchange link. This paper presents the platform under development at the Laboratory for Nanotechnology to study these challenges. The primary goal of the platform is to implement the complete chain from design and simulation of tags to antenna measurements and field tests of tags through fabrication of real tags on flexible substrates. This structure allows for fundamental and practical studies of new concepts in sensing and wireless networks based on passive tags. A description of the actual achievements is also included

Explanatory factors for first and second-generation non-western women's inadequate prenatal care utilisation: a prospective cohort study.

Science.gov (United States)

Boerleider, Agatha W; Manniën, Judith; van Stenus, Cherelle M V; Wiegers, Therese A; Feijen-de Jong, Esther I; Spelten, Evelien R; Devillé, Walter L J M

2015-04-21

Little research into non-western women's prenatal care utilisation in industrialised western countries has taken generational differences into account. In this study we examined non-western women's prenatal care utilisation and its explanatory factors according to generational status. Data from 3300 women participating in a prospective cohort of primary midwifery care clients (i.e. women with no complications or no increased risk for complications during pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium who receive maternity care by autonomous midwives) in the Netherlands (the DELIVER study) was used. Gestational age at entry and the total number of prenatal visits were aggregated into an index. The extent to which potential factors explained non-western women's prenatal care utilisation was assessed by means of blockwise logistic regression analyses and percentage changes in odds ratios. The unadjusted odds of first and second-generation non-western women making inadequate use of prenatal care were 3.26 and 1.96 times greater than for native Dutch women. For the first generation, sociocultural factors explained 43% of inadequate prenatal care utilisation, socioeconomic factors explained 33% and demographic and pregnancy factors explained 29%. For the second generation, sociocultural factors explained 66% of inadequate prenatal care utilisation. Irrespective of generation, strategies to improve utilisation should focus on those with the following sociocultural characteristics (not speaking Dutch at home, no partner or a first-generation non-Dutch partner). For the first generation, strategies should also focus on those with the following demographic, pregnancy and socioeconomic characteristics (aged ≤ 19 or ≥ 36, unplanned pregnancies, poor obstetric histories (extra-uterine pregnancy, molar pregnancy or abortion), a low educational level, below average net household income and no supplementary insurance.

A systematic review of social networking sites: innovative platforms for health research targeting adolescents and young adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Bu Kyung; Calamaro, Christina

2013-09-01

To review the evidence to determine if social networking sites (SNS) are effective tools for health research in the adolescent and young adult populations. Systematic review of published research articles focused on use of SNS for youth health research. Seventeen articles were selected that met the following criteria: used SNS at any stage of study, participants between 13 and 25 years of age, English language, and both international and national studies. Reviewers categorized selected studies based on the way SNS were used. Utilization of SNS for effectively implementing research with adolescents and young adults include (a) recruitment, (b) intervention, and (c) measurement. Four findings about advantages of using SNS apparent in this review are (a) ease of access to youth, (b) cost effectiveness in recruitment, (c) ease of intervention, and (d) reliable screening venue of mental status and high-risk behaviors. Although this literature review showed relatively minimal research to date on the use of SNS for research targeting adolescents and young adults, the impact of using SNS for health research is of considerable importance for researchers as well as participants. With careful focus, SNS can become a valuable platform to access, recruit, and deliver health interventions in a cost-effective manner to youth populations as well as hard-to-reach minority or underserved populations. The evidence demonstrates the usefulness of SNS as innovative platforms for health promotion among adolescents and young adults. © 2013 Sigma Theta Tau International.

Improving awareness for energy conservation in industry by means of the PINCHLENI computer code; Promotion de l'utilisation rationnelle de l'energie dans l'industrie par PINCHLENI

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Marechal, F.; Favrat, D.

2002-07-01

A computer system for the promotion of the rational use of energy in the industry has been developed. It combines the PINCHLENI software developed by the LENI (Laboratory of Industrial Energy Systems) of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Lausanne, Switzerland) and the web-based platform EXSYS developed initially by the LASSC (Laboratory for the Analysis and the Synthesis of Chemical Systems) at the University of Liege, Belgium with the support of the European Commission. It represents an efficient platform for solving process integration problems. A web site allowing free download of the tools has been developed. It includes a users' data base, a FAQ (frequently asked questions) and a bug reporting section that will allow a more efficient and easier maintenance of the software tools. The Windows version of PINCHLENI has been stabilized and a communication interface with the EXSYS platform has been developed. This system is an efficient system for computing the process integration including the optimal integration of energy conversion technologies like combustion, gas turbines, steam network, Rankine cycles, heat pumps and refrigeration cycles. This system is particularly well suited for solving site scale problems (as demonstrated in an industrial site application solved during this project). A courseware (in English language) helps learning the utilisation of the software. It is composed of online manuals and teaching materials for the theoretical backgrounds, a FAQ list with a search engine as well as a hypertext tutorial document illustrating the application of the two computer platforms for solving a small example. Results of this research project will be found on the LENI web site at URL http://leniwww.epfl.ch/. (author)

Adaptations of Personal Health Record Platform for Medical Research on Chronic Diseases

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Krukowski

2015-05-01

Full Text Available The article reports on experiences in e-Health platforms and services for supporting medical research into the causes and relationships among physiological parameters and health problems concerning different chronic diseases. The Personal Health Record (PHR is a way of standardizing electronic management of medical information between patients and their physicians, including medical bodies collaborating in providing integrated medical care services. We describe roles and aims behind electronic health records, follow with applicable legal and standardizations frameworks and relevant European activities, leading to the presentation of common commercial and open-source implementations of such systems, concluding with the indication of specific adaptations enabling a use of stored personal health data for scientific research into causes and evaluation of chronic illnesses. We describe ethical and privacy concerns that are relevant to using and exchanging electronic health information.

Research on University Network Teaching Platform (Blackboard in Teaching Management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gou Zhao Xia

2016-01-01

Full Text Available With rapid development of online education; teaching platform based on the network, as a new instructional mode has become a hot topic in online teaching. In this paper, the he teaching situation and existing problems on online was analyzed by comparing the difference between network teaching platform and traditional classroom teaching. Then the strategies of network teaching management and the case, which is focusing on the characteristics of Blackboard with the application of network teaching management was presents.

Moving Virtual Research Environments from high maintenance Stovepipes to Multi-purpose Sustainable Service-oriented Science Platforms

Science.gov (United States)

Klump, Jens; Fraser, Ryan; Wyborn, Lesley; Friedrich, Carsten; Squire, Geoffrey; Barker, Michelle; Moloney, Glenn

2017-04-01

The researcher of today is likely to be part of a team distributed over multiple sites that will access data from an external repository and then process the data on a public or private cloud or even on a large centralised supercomputer. They are increasingly likely to use a mixture of their own code, third party software and libraries, or even access global community codes. These components will be connected into a Virtual Research Environments (VREs) that will enable members of the research team who are not co-located to actively work together at various scales to share data, models, tools, software, workflows, best practices, infrastructures, etc. Many VRE's are built in isolation: designed to meet a specific research program with components tightly coupled and not capable of being repurposed for other use cases - they are becoming 'stovepipes'. The limited number of users of some VREs also means that the cost of maintenance per researcher can be unacceptably high. The alternative is to develop service-oriented Science Platforms that enable multiple communities to develop specialised solutions for specific research programs. The platforms can offer access to data, software tools and processing infrastructures (cloud, supercomputers) through globally distributed, interconnected modules. In Australia, the Virtual Geophysics Laboratory (VGL) was initially built to enable a specific set of researchers in government agencies access to specific data sets and a limited number of tools, that is now rapidly evolving into a multi-purpose Earth science platform with access to an increased variety of data, a broader range of tools, users from more sectors and a diversity of computational infrastructures. The expansion has been relatively easy, because of the architecture whereby data, tools and compute resources are loosely coupled via interfaces that are built on international standards and accessed as services wherever possible. In recent years, investments in

Identification of platform levels

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mortensen, Niels Henrik

2005-01-01

reduction, ability to launch a wider product portfolio without increasing resources and reduction of complexity within the whole company. To support the multiple product development process, platform based product development has in many companies such as Philips, VW, Ford etc. proven to be a very effective...... product development in one step and therefore the objective of this paper is to identify levels of platform based product development. The structure of this paper is as follows. First the applied terminology for platforms will be briefly explained and then characteristics between single and multi product...... development will be examined. Based on the identification of the above characteristics five platform levels are described. The research presented in this paper is a result of MSc, Ph.D projects at the Technical University of Denmark and consultancy projects within the organisation of Institute of Product...

Missed Opportunities: Emergency Contraception Utilisation by ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Although contraceptives, including emergency contraceptives, are widely available free at public health facilities in South Africa, rates of teenage and unintended pregnancy are high. This paper analyses awareness and utilisation of emergency contraception amongst 193 young women (aged 15-24 years) attending public ...

A farm platform approach to optimizing temperate grazing-livestock systems: metrics for trade-off assessments and future innovations

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, Paul; Takahashi, Taro; Blackwell, Martin; Cardenas, Laura; Collins, Adrian; Dungait, Jennifer; Eisler, Mark; Hawkins, Jane; Misselbrook, Tom; Mcauliffe, Graham; Mcfadzean, Jamie; Murray, Phil; Orr, Robert; Jordana Rivero, M.; Wu, Lianhai; Lee, Michael

2017-04-01

Global agriculture is at a critical juncture when competing requirements for maximal production and minimal pollution have led to the concept of sustainable intensification. Livestock production, especially ruminant livestock is central to this debate. Ruminants make an important contribution to global food security by converting feed that is unsuitable for human consumption to high value protein, demand for which is currently increasing at an unprecedented rate. Sustainable intensification of ruminant livestock production may be applied to pastoral grazing, mixed-cropping, feedlot and housed production systems. All these systems have associated environmental risks such as water and air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and soil degradation, as well as issues affecting production efficiency, product quality and consumer acceptability, such as reduced animal fertility, health and welfare, reflected in the development of agricultural sustainability policies. Further, in many societies livestock represent a resource far greater than just food, e.g. fibre, draught, fertiliser, fuel, bank and social. These challenges necessitate multidisciplinary solutions that can only be properly researched, implemented and tested in real-world production systems which are suited to their geographical and climatic production practice, e.g. temperate grassland. The North Wyke Farm Platform (http://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/farmplatform) was established during 2010 as a UK national capability for collaborative research, training and knowledge exchange in agro-environmental sciences. Its remit is to research agricultural productivity and ecosystem responses to different management practices for beef and sheep production in lowland temperate grasslands. Following construction, a typical beef and sheep system based on permanent pasture receiving chemical fertilisers on first grade pasture (>60% perennial ryegrass) was implemented across the 67.2 ha farm platform in order to obtain baseline

The climate impact of energy peat utilisation - comparison and sensitivity analysis of Finnish and Swedish results

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Holmgren, Kristina; Kirkinen, Johanna; Savolainen, Ilkka

2006-06-15

The climate impact of energy peat utilisation have been studied both in Finland by VTT Technical Research Centre and in Sweden by IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute Ltd. The main objective of this study is to compare the results of earlier studies by VTT and IVL and to perform a sensitivity analysis of previous and new results. The scientific approach of the two studies is very similar. The climate impact of peat utilisation is considered from a life-cycle point of view by taking into account all phases of the peat utilisation chain. Peat reserves can be both sinks and sources of greenhouse gas emissions as well as there are both uptake and emissions of greenhouse gases during the utilisation chain. The net impact of the utilisation chain is assessed as the climate impact due to the utilisation chain minus the climate impact of non-utilisation chain. The instantaneous radiative forcing and accumulated radiative forcing are used in both studies as the indicator of the climate impact. Radiative forcing is calculated on the basis of the concentration changes due to emissions and uptake of greenhouse gases. The differences in the models for calculating concentrations and radiative forcing are minor. There are some differences in the definitions and boundaries of the considered peat utilisation chains, although the differences in the results due to differences in the chain definitions are small. The main reason for the differences in results between the two studies is differences in emission (and uptake) estimates for the after-treatment phase and the non-utilisation chain. Both Swedish and Finnish studies show that the use of cultivated peatland for energy peat utilisation results in lower climate impact than using coal (within 100 years). Both studies show that the use of pristine mires for peat production will result in larger climate impact than the use of already drained peatlands. The climate impact of peat utilisation chains where fens and forestry

The climate impact of energy peat utilisation - comparison and sensitivity analysis of Finnish and Swedish results

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Holmgren, Kristina; Kirkinen, Johanna; Savolainen, Ilkka

2006-06-01

The climate impact of energy peat utilisation have been studied both in Finland by VTT Technical Research Centre and in Sweden by IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute Ltd. The main objective of this study is to compare the results of earlier studies by VTT and IVL and to perform a sensitivity analysis of previous and new results. The scientific approach of the two studies is very similar. The climate impact of peat utilisation is considered from a life-cycle point of view by taking into account all phases of the peat utilisation chain. Peat reserves can be both sinks and sources of greenhouse gas emissions as well as there are both uptake and emissions of greenhouse gases during the utilisation chain. The net impact of the utilisation chain is assessed as the climate impact due to the utilisation chain minus the climate impact of non-utilisation chain. The instantaneous radiative forcing and accumulated radiative forcing are used in both studies as the indicator of the climate impact. Radiative forcing is calculated on the basis of the concentration changes due to emissions and uptake of greenhouse gases. The differences in the models for calculating concentrations and radiative forcing are minor. There are some differences in the definitions and boundaries of the considered peat utilisation chains, although the differences in the results due to differences in the chain definitions are small. The main reason for the differences in results between the two studies is differences in emission (and uptake) estimates for the after-treatment phase and the non-utilisation chain. Both Swedish and Finnish studies show that the use of cultivated peatland for energy peat utilisation results in lower climate impact than using coal (within 100 years). Both studies show that the use of pristine mires for peat production will result in larger climate impact than the use of already drained peatlands. The climate impact of peat utilisation chains where fens and forestry

Advancing Translational Space Research Through Biospecimen Sharing: Amplified Impact of Studies Utilizing Analogue Space Platforms

Science.gov (United States)

Staten, B.; Moyer, E.; Vizir, V.; Gompf, H.; Hoban-Higgins, T.; Lewis, L.; Ronca, A.; Fuller, C. A.

2016-01-01

Biospecimen Sharing Programs (BSPs) have been organized by NASA Ames Research Center since the 1960s with the goal of maximizing utilization and scientific return from rare, complex and costly spaceflight experiments. BSPs involve acquiring otherwise unused biological specimens from primary space research experiments for distribution to secondary experiments. Here we describe a collaboration leveraging Ames expertise in biospecimen sharing to magnify the scientific impact of research informing astronaut health funded by the NASA Human Research Program (HRP) Human Health Countermeasures (HHC) Element. The concept expands biospecimen sharing to one-off ground-based studies utilizing analogue space platforms (e.g., Hindlimb Unloading (HLU), Artificial Gravity) for rodent experiments, thereby significantly broadening the range of research opportunities with translational relevance for protecting human health in space and on Earth.

The Phenomenon of Youtubers and their Utilisation in Marketing

OpenAIRE

Tauchenová, Kateřina

2014-01-01

This master´s thesis is called The Phenomenon of Youtubers and their Utilisation in Marketing. It presents Youtubers as idols of today´s young people and introduces options of utilization of their power for marketing purposes. The first chapter introduces the reader to the general matters of online marketing and offers basic knowledge about this area. The second chapter is dedicated to social networks and their utilisation in marketing field. The third chapter introduces the topic YouTube. It...

Effective utilisation of generation Y Quantity Surveyors

African Journals Online (AJOL)

together and tested by means of open interview discussions with senior QS professionals. ... employers could better utilise generation Y employees. 2. Literature review .... Literature was reviewed by using search engines (Emerald, Business.

Launching platforms for user-generated content

OpenAIRE

Batista, Guilherme Luís Caroço

2015-01-01

Field lab: Entrepreneurial and innovative ventures This paper intends to discuss and absorb the Best Practices employed by successful User- Generated Content (UGC)1 platforms and constitute a guide on how to launch a platform without having a cyclical lack of content and users. Research shows that companies have resorted to integration with mature UGC platforms, and providing content by themselves, in an initial state. I conclude that integration possibilities should be explore...

Design of neutron detectors utilising luminescent glass

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Spowart, A.R.

1983-01-01

Impetus for the development of new neutron detector designs has derived from the worldwide commissioning of neutron spallation sources. The design concepts, and principal methods of utilisation of these major installations, have been recently reviewed. Their principal feature of interest is their broadband neutron emission allowing neutron investigations of all types of structure in materials from biological molecules to steels. Conventional neutron detectors are gas-filled devices, based on BF/sub 3/ or /sup 3/He gas. Their major advantage is their intrinsically low background count. Their principal disadvantage is their slow response time (10-100 μs), high cost and relative lack of flexibility in design to cope with large areas or complex geometry detection. They are, however, long established and the research facilities around the world have a heavy investment in the interpretative hardware for gas detectors

Research on acceleration method of reactor physics based on FPGA platforms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, C.; Yu, G.; Wang, K.

2013-01-01

The physical designs of the new concept reactors which have complex structure, various materials and neutronic energy spectrum, have greatly improved the requirements to the calculation methods and the corresponding computing hardware. Along with the widely used parallel algorithm, heterogeneous platforms architecture has been introduced into numerical computations in reactor physics. Because of the natural parallel characteristics, the CPU-FPGA architecture is often used to accelerate numerical computation. This paper studies the application and features of this kind of heterogeneous platforms used in numerical calculation of reactor physics through practical examples. After the designed neutron diffusion module based on CPU-FPGA architecture achieves a 11.2 speed up factor, it is proved to be feasible to apply this kind of heterogeneous platform into reactor physics. (authors)

Relationship between the utilisation profile of individual joints and their susceptibility to primary osteoarthritis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alexander, C.J.

1989-01-01

Two subjects were studied for 1 to 3 weeks during the course of their normal domestic activities. Utilisation profiles were derived for ten joints, using a systematic time-series sampling technique adapted from behavioural biology. At each joint the proportion of the available range utilised was noted. The results were compared with the known regional prevalence of primary osteoarthritis. There was a correlation between the degree to which a joint was incompletely utilised, and its susceptibility to osteoarthritis. The hypothesis is advanced that primary osteoarthritis may be due to incomplete joint utilisation. (orig.)

Utilisation of community pharmacists by the general public in Malaysia.

Science.gov (United States)

Chua, Siew Siang; Lim, Kien Ping; Lee, Hong Gee

2013-02-01

The study was conducted to assess how the general public in the Klang Valley, Malaysia, utilised community pharmacists. This was a prospective observational study which documented interactions between community pharmacists and their customers. A researcher was stationed in 10 participating community pharmacies around the Klang Valley to observe and record all the interactions, using a structured data-collection form. KEYS FINDINGS: Interactions between 1914 customers and the pharmacists of the 10 community pharmacies were recorded. A total of 2199 requests were made by these customers. The main types of request were for medications by brand name (32.2%), advice on minor health problems (25.9%) and for health supplements (11.7%). Only 65 prescriptions were received by the community pharmacies; that is, fewer than two prescriptions per pharmacy per day. The pharmacists provided counselling for only 54.4% of the requests where a medication or health supplement was dispensed. Counselling by pharmacist was significantly associated with the type of request (P Malaysia was to purchase a particular medication. Few prescriptions were filled at community pharmacies in Malaysia, indicating the under-utilisation of community pharmacists as a safety net for prescribed medications in primary care. © 2012 The Authors. IJPP © 2012 Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

The European Photovoltaic Technology Platform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nowak, S.; Aulich, H.; Bal, J.L.; Dimmler, B.; Garnier, A.; Jongerden, G.; Luther, J.; Luque, A.; Milner, A.; Nelson, D.; Pataki, I.; Pearsall, N.; Perezagua, E.; Pietruszko, S.; Rehak, J.; Schellekens, E.; Shanker, A.; Silvestrini, G.; Sinke, W.; Willemsen, H.

2006-05-01

The European Photovoltaic Technology Platform is one of the European Technology Platforms, a new instrument proposed by the European Commission. European Technology Platforms (ETPs) are a mechanism to bring together all interested stakeholders to develop a long-term vision to address a specific challenge, create a coherent, dynamic strategy to achieve that vision and steer the implementation of an action plan to deliver agreed programmes of activities and optimise the benefits for all parties. The European Photovoltaic Technology Platform has recently been established to define, support and accompany the implementation of a coherent and comprehensive strategic plan for photovoltaics. The platform will mobilise all stakeholders sharing a long-term European vision for PV, helping to ensure that Europe maintains and improves its industrial position. The platform will realise a European Strategic Research Agenda for PV for the next decade(s). Guided by a Steering Committee of 20 high level decision-makers representing all relevant European PV Stakeholders, the European PV Technology Platform comprises 4 Working Groups dealing with the subjects policy and instruments; market deployment; science, technology and applications as well as developing countries and is supported by a secretariat

Policy framework for utilisation. A pillar of better accessibility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2008-01-01

The goals and frameworks for traffic and transport policy for the Netherlands to 2020 are described in the Mobility Document. Whereas government policy previously viewed mobility as a problem or as something permissible, the assumption is now that mobility is a must. Mobility, for people as well as goods, is a prerequisite for society and the economy to function well. The Mobility Document contains ambitious goals to deal with current and anticipated traffic and transport problems: door to door, faster, cleaner and safer. Three interrelated pillars are to help achieve these goals: Building, Pricing and Utilisation. Work is being done on the Building and Pricing pillars; Utilisation is elaborated further in this policy framework. The Policy Framework for Utilisation is an elaboration of the Mobility Document for the 2008-2020 period and aims for faster, cleaner, safer travel from door to door. The purpose of this policy framework is to describe the direction of development of utilisation, in terms of content as well as process, to indicate actions that are required and to provide perspective on the expected effects. The policy framework is in line with current developments or plans, caters to new opportunities (technological and otherwise), encourages the innovative potential of the market and provides room for joint ventures between the government and the market. It will result in actions for the short term and provide direction for activities and developments for the longer term

AURORA BOREALIS: a polar-dedicated European Research Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Wolff-Boenisch, Bonnie; Egerton, Paul; Thiede, Joern; Roberto, Azzolini; Lembke-Jene, Lester

2010-05-01

Polar research and in particular the properties of northern and southern high latitude oceans are currently a subject of intense scientific debate and investigations, because they are subject to rapid and dramatic climatic variations. Polar regions react more rapidly and intensively to global change than other regions of the earth. A shrinking of the Arctic sea-ice cover, potentially leading to an opening of sea passages to the north of North America and Eurasia, on the long to a "blue" Arctic Ocean would additionally have a strong impact on transport, commerce and tourism bearing potential risk for humans and complex ecosystems in the future. In spite of their critical role processes and feedbacks, especially in winter but not exclusively, are virtually unknown: The Arctic Ocean for example, it is the only basin of the world's oceans that has essentially not been sampled by the drill ships of the Deep-Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) or the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) and its long-term environmental history and tectonic structure is therefore poorly known. Exceptions are the ODP Leg 151 and the more recent very successful ACEX-expedition of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) in 2004. To help to address the most pressing questions regarding climate change and related processes, a Pan-European initiative in the field of Earth system science has been put in place: AURORA BOREALIS is the largest environmental research infrastructure on the ESFRI roadmap of the European Community. AURORA BOREALIS is a very powerful research icebreaker, which will enable year-round operations in the Arctic and the Antarctic as well as in the adjacent ocean basins. Equipped with its drilling rig, the vessel is also capable to explore the presently completely unknown Arctic deep-sea floor. Last but not least, the ship is a floating observatory and mobile monitoring platform that permits to measure on a long-term basis comprehensive time series in all research fields relevant to

Caregiver perceptions of mental health problems and treatment utilisation in siblings of children with mental health problems.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Nylanda; Furber, Gareth; Roberts, Rachel; Winefield, Helen

2016-01-01

Siblings of children with mental health problems (MHPs) have been found to have higher rates of psychopathology and impaired psychosocial functioning compared to control children. It is not yet known how these siblings are managed within the clinical service context (e.g., are they assessed for mental health problems? Do they receive appropriate psychological treatment?). The following brief report describes a pilot study which aimed to explore (a) the rate of caregiver-identified MHPs in siblings and (b) the proportion of siblings receiving psychiatric or psychosocial treatment or support (i.e., treatment utilisation). Eighty-five caregivers of children receiving treatment at CAMHS were interviewed about the mental health and treatment utilisation of their siblings. The findings revealed a high rate of caregiver-identified MHPs in siblings (34.1%) and a high rate of treatment utilisation (85.7%). The findings suggest that, for the vast majority, when siblings of children with MHPs are identified by their caregivers as having MHPs, they are receiving some kind of support and treatment. Implications for mental health service costs are discussed and recommendations for future research are outlined.

How to identify, assess and utilise mobile medical applications in clinical practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Aungst, T D; Clauson, K A; Misra, S; Lewis, T L; Husain, I

2014-02-01

There are thousands of medical applications for mobile devices targeting use by healthcare professionals. However, several factors related to the structure of the existing market for medical applications create significant barriers preventing practitioners from effectively identifying mobile medical applications for individual professional use. To define existing market factors relevant to selection of medical applications and describe a framework to empower clinicians to identify, assess and utilise mobile medical applications in their own practice. Resources available on the Internet regarding mobile medical applications, guidelines and published research on mobile medical applications. Mobile application stores (e.g. iTunes, Google Play) are not effective means of identifying mobile medical applications. Users of mobile devices that desire to implement mobile medical applications into practice need to carefully assess individual applications prior to utilisation. Searching and identifying mobile medical applications requires clinicians to utilise multiple references to determine what application is best for their individual practice methods. This can be done with a cursory exploration of mobile application stores and then moving onto other available resources published in the literature or through Internet resources (e.g. blogs, medical websites, social media). Clinicians must also take steps to ensure that an identified mobile application can be integrated into practice after carefully reviewing it themselves. Clinicians seeking to identify mobile medical application for use in their individual practice should use a combination of app stores, published literature, web-based resources, and personal review to ensure safe and appropriate use. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

An FPGA Scalable Software Defined Radio Platform Design for Educational and Research Purposes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcos Hervás

2016-06-01

Full Text Available In a digital modem design, the integration of the Analog to Digital Converters (ADC and Digital to Analog Converters (DAC with the core processor is usually a major issue for the designer. In this paper an FPGA scalable Software Defined Radio platform based on a Spartan-6 as a control unit is presented, developed for both educational and research purposes, which can fit the different application requirements in terms of analog front-end performance, processing unit and cost. The resolution and sampling frequency of the analog front-end are its main adjustable parameters. The processing core requirements involve the FPGA and the communication ports. A multidisciplinary working group was required to design a high performance system for both analog front-end and digital processing core in terms of signal integrity and electromagnetic compatibility. The platform has 5 different peripheral ports ranging from 16 kbps to 2.5 Gbps. The communication ports allow our students to develop a high range of applications for both on-site and online courses applying teaching methodology based on learning by doing using a real system to help them to reach other transversal skills.

PROBA-V Mission Exploitation Platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erwin Goor

2016-07-01

Full Text Available As an extension of the PROBA-Vegetation (PROBA-V user segment, the European Space Agency (ESA, de Vlaamse Instelling voor Technologisch Onderzoek (VITO, and partners TRASYS and Spacebel developed an operational Mission Exploitation Platform (MEP to drastically improve the exploitation of the PROBA-V Earth Observation (EO data archive, the archive from the historical SPOT-VEGETATION mission, and derived products by researchers, service providers, and thematic users. The analysis of the time series of data (petabyte range is addressed, as well as the large scale on-demand processing of the complete archive, including near real-time data. The platform consists of a private cloud environment, a Hadoop-based processing environment and a data manager. Several applications are released to the users, e.g., a full resolution viewing service, a time series viewer, pre-defined on-demand processing chains, and virtual machines with powerful tools and access to the data. After an initial release in January 2016 a research platform was deployed gradually, allowing users to design, debug, and test applications on the platform. From the PROBA-V MEP, access to, e.g., Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 data will be addressed as well.

Disentangling Competition Among Platform Driven Strategic Groups

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kazan, Erol; Tan, Chee-Wee; Lim, Eric T. K.

2018-01-01

for the mobile payment market in the United Kingdom as our empirical setting. By conceptualizing digital platforms as layered modular architectures and embracing the theoretical lens of strategic groups, this study supplements prior research by deriving a taxonomy of platform profiles that is grounded...... delivery architecture. The preceding attributes of value creation architecture and value delivery architecture aided us in identifying six profiles associated with mobile payment platforms, which in turn led us to advance three competitive strategies that could be pursued by digital platforms in network...

Development of a Modular Robotic Platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Claudiu Ioan Cirebea

2014-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper a modular robotic platform is presented, for students and researchers laboratory work based on the Matlab-Simulink and dSpace real time control platform. The goal of this combination is to stimulate and to experiment with real time hardware and software in courses where mobile robotics is adopted as a motivating platform to introduce mechatronics competencies. Its many possibilities for modifications and extensions make experiments very easy. We used, for example, an omnidirectional mobile robot configuration with three Swedish wheels, whose kinematic model was simulated using Simulink. For real-time control, of the robot, the developed model has been implemented using DSpace platform DS1103.

The Creative Platform

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Byrge, Christian; Hansen, Søren

whether you consider thirdgrade teaching, human-resource development, or radical new thinking in product development in a company. The Creative Platform was developed at Aalborg University through a series of research-and-development activities in collaboration with educational institutions and private...

Development of a Historical Hydrological online research and application platform for Switzerland - Historical Hydrological Atlas of Switzerland (HHAS)

Science.gov (United States)

Wetter, Oliver

2017-04-01

It is planned to develop and maintain a historical hydrological online platform for Switzerland, which shall be specially designed for the needs of research and federal, cantonal or private institutions being interested in hydrological risk assessment and protection measures. The aim is on the one hand to facilitate the access to raw data which generally is needed for further historical hydrological reconstruction and quantification, so that future research will be achieved in significantly shorter time. On the other hand, new historical hydrological research results shall be continuously included in order to establish this platform as a useful tool for the assessment of hydrological risk by including the long term experience of reconstructed pre-instrumental hydrological extreme events like floods and droughts. Meteorological parameters that may trigger extreme hydrological events, like monthly or seasonally resolved reconstructions of temperature and precipitation shall be made accessible in this platform as well. The ultimate goal will be to homogenise the reconstructed hydrological extreme events which usually appeared in the pre anthropogenic influence period under different climatological as well as different hydrological regimes and topographical conditions with the present day state. Long term changes of reconstructed small- to extreme flood seasonality, based on municipal accounting records, will be included in the platform as well. This helps - in combination with the before mentioned meteorological parameters - to provide an increased understanding of the major changes in the generally complex overall system that finally causes hydrological extreme events. The goal of my presentation at the Historical Climatology session is to give an overview about the applied historical climatological and historical hydrological methodologies that are applied on the historical raw data (evidence) to reconstruct pre instrumental hydrological events and meteorological

Research progress of anti-icing/deicing technologies for polar ships and offshore platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

XIE Qiang

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The polar regions present adverse circumstances of high humidity and strong air-sea exchange. As such, the surfaces of ships and platforms (oil exploiting and drilling platforms serving in polar regions can easily be frozen by ice accretion, which not only affects the operation of the equipment but also threatens safety. This paper summarizes the status of the anti-icing/deicing technologies of both China and abroad for polar ships and offshore platforms, and introduces the various effects of ice accretion on polar ships and offshore platforms, and the resulting safety impacts. It then reviews existing anti-icing/deicing technologies and methods of both China and abroad, including such active deicing methods as electric heating, infrared heating and ultrasonic guided wave deicing, as well as such passive deicing methods as super hydrophobic coating, sacrificial coating, aqueous lubricating layer coating and low cross-link density (with interfacial slippage coating, summarizes their applicability to polar ships and offshore platforms, and finally discusses their advantages/disadvantages.

Determinants of utilisation differences for cancer medicines in Belgium, Scotland and Sweden.

Science.gov (United States)

Ferrario, Alessandra

2017-12-01

Little comparative evidence is available on utilisation of cancer medicines in different countries and its determinants. The aim of this study was to develop a statistical model to test the correlation between utilisation and possible determinants in selected European countries. A sample of 31 medicines for cancer treatment that obtained EU-wide marketing authorisation between 2000 and 2012 was selected. Annual data on medicines' utilisation covering the in- and out-patient public sectors were obtained from national authorities between 2008 and 2013. Possible determinants of utilisation were extracted from HTA reports and complemented by contacts with key informants. A longitudinal mixed effect model was fitted to test possible determinants of medicines utilisation in Belgium, Scotland and Sweden. In the all-country model, the number of indications reimbursed positively correlated with increased consumption of medicines [one indication 2.6, 95% CI (1.8-3.6); two indications 2.4, 95% CI (1.4-4.3); three indications 4.9, 95% CI (2.2-10.9); all P marketing authorisation [1.2, 95% CI (1.02-1.4); p marketing authorisation. Prices had a negative effect on consumption in Belgium and Sweden. The positive impact of financial MEAs in Scotland suggests that the latter may remove the regressive effect of list prices on consumption.

How scientific visions matter: insights from three long-term socio-ecological research (LTSER) platforms under construction in Europe

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mauz, I.; Peltola, T.; Granjou, C.; Bommel, van S.; Buijs, A.E.

2012-01-01

Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER) has been introduced to change the current approach to ecology and turn it into a big science. LTSER Platforms are currently being created across Europe. They are expected to enhance ecology's capacity to produce useful knowledge for facing global

Substrate utilisation by plant-cell cultures

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fowler, M W

1982-01-01

Plant cell cultures have been grown on a wide range of carbon sources in addition to the traditional ones of sucrose and glucose. Biomass yields and growth rates vary greatly between the different carbon sources and there is a variation in response between different cell cultures to individual carbon sources. Some attempts have been made to grow cell cultures on 'waste' and related carbon sources, such as lactose, maltose, starch, molasses and milk whey. Only maltose was found to support growth to anything near the levels observed with glucose and sucrose. In the case of molasses carbon source cell growth was either non-existent or only just measurable. All the data point to glucose as being the most suitable carbon source, principally on the grounds of biomass yield and growth rate. It should be noted, however, that other carbon sources do appear to have a major (positive) influence on natural product synthesis. Uptake into the cell is an important aspect of carbohydrate utilisation. There is strong evidence that from disaccharides upwards, major degradation to smaller units occurs before uptake. In some cases the necessary enzymes appear to be excreted into the culture broth, in others they may be located within the cell wall; invertase that hydrolyses sucrose is a good example. Once the products of carbohydrate degradation and mobilisation enter the cell they may suffer one of two fates, oxidation or utilisation for biosynthesis. The precise split between these two varies depending on such factors as cell growth rate, cell size, nutrient broth composition and carbohydrate status of the cells. In general rapidly growing cells have a high rate of oxidation, whereas cells growing more slowly tend to be more directed towards biosynthesis. Carbohydrate utilisation is a key area of study, underpinning as it does both biomass yield and natural product synthesis. (Refs. 13).

Contrasting platform thinking and product modularization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Boer, Henrike Engele Elisabeth; Persson, Magnus

2015-01-01

Product modularization and platform thinking are both practices that seek to alleviate the negative impact of product customization and variety on internal operations by relying on economies of substitution. Through the use of a standardized pool of components and interfaces, these practices aim...... to create a broad spectrum of product choices. At first sight, product modularization and platform thinking are very similar. The difference between these practices can, however, be found in the manner in which they employ standardization. Where product modularization focuses on creating standardized...... variants. There is a general lack of research addressing the contingency factors that dictate the appropriateness of the use of product modularization and platform thinking in different contexts. To our knowledge, no large-scale empirical research has been reported in which the two concepts, contextual...

IMPROVING THE EFFECTIVENESS AND UTILISATION OF THE INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING FUNCTION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gordon Lister

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Research work carried out by the University of Cape Town has examined the following questions:
- are industrial engineering techniques being used in industry?
- what are the reasons for not using the various techniques?
- what factors that can be addressed by industrial engineers, are inhibiting the improvement of manufacturing productivity?
- are industrial engineers being utilised in the most effective t"ay? Investigations in South African and overseas companies have indicated some barriers to acceptance that have to be overcome. This paper identifies key elements which, if implemented or adopted, will improve the effectiveness of both industrial engineers, and the intrOduction of industrial engineering techniques.

Do mature innovation platforms make a difference in agricultural research for development? a meta-analysis of case studies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schut, Marc; Cadilhon, Jean-Joseph; Misiko, Michael; Dror, Iddo

2018-01-01

Innovation Platforms (IPs) have become a popular vehicle in agricultural research for development (AR4D). The IP promise is that integrating scientific and local knowledge results in innovations that can have impact at scale. Many studies have uncovered how IPs work in various countries, value

Multiply disadvantaged: Health and service utilisation factors faced by homeless injecting drug consumers in Australia.

Science.gov (United States)

Whittaker, Elizabeth; Swift, Wendy; Roxburgh, Amanda; Dietze, Paul; Cogger, Shelley; Bruno, Raimondo; Sindicich, Natasha; Burns, Lucy

2015-07-01

Homelessness status is strongly correlated with higher rates of substance use. Few studies, however, examine the complex relationship between housing status and substance use in people who inject drugs (PWID). This study extends previous research by comparing the physical and mental health status and service utilisation rates between stably housed and homeless PWID. A cross-sectional sample of 923 PWID were recruited for the 2012 Illicit Drug Reporting System. Multivariate models were generated addressing associations between homelessness and the domains of demographics; substance use; and health status, service utilisation and criminal justice system contact, with significant correlates entered into a final multivariate model. Two-thirds of the PWID sample were male. The median age was 39 years and 16% identified as Indigenous. Almost one-quarter (23%) reported that they were homeless. Homeless PWID were significantly more likely to be unemployed [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 2.83, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.26, 6.34], inject in public (AOR 2.01, 95% CI 1.38, 3.18), have poorer mental health (AOR 0.98, 95% CI 0.97, 1.00), report schizophrenia (AOR 2.31, 95% CI 1.16, 4.60) and have a prison history (AOR 1.53, 95% CI 1.05, 2.21) than stably housed PWID. Findings highlight the challenge of mental health problems for homeless PWID. Our results demonstrate that further research that evaluates outcomes of housing programs accommodating PWID, particularly those with comorbid mental health disorders, is warranted. Results also emphasise the need to better utilise integrated models of outreach care that co-manage housing and mental health needs. © 2015 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.

Health and health care utilisation among asylum seekers and refugees in the Netherlands: design of a study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Devillé Walter

2004-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background This article discusses the design of a study on the prevalence of health problems (both physical and mental and the utilisation of health care services among asylum seekers and refugees in the Netherlands, including factors that may be related to their health and their utilisation of these services. Methods/Design The study will include random samples of adult asylum seekers and refugees from Afghanistan, Iran and Somali (total planned sample of 600, as these are among the largest groups within the reception centres and municipalities in the Netherlands. The questionnaire that will be used will include questions on physical health (chronic and acute diseases and somatization, mental health (Hopkins Symptoms Checklist-25 and Harvard Trauma Questionnaire, utilisation of health care services, pre- and post-migratory traumatic experiences, life-style, acculturation, social support and socio-demographic background. The questionnaire has gone through a translation process (translation and back-translation, several checks and a pilot-study and cross-cultural adaptation. Respondents will be interviewed by bilingual and bicultural interviewers who will be specifically trained for this purpose. This article discusses the selection of the study population, the chosen outcome measures, the translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the measurement instrument, the training of the interviewers and the practical execution of the study. The information provided may be useful for other researchers in this relatively new field of epidemiological research among various groups of asylum seekers and refugees.

tranSMART: An Open Source and Community-Driven Informatics and Data Sharing Platform for Clinical and Translational Research.

Science.gov (United States)

Athey, Brian D; Braxenthaler, Michael; Haas, Magali; Guo, Yike

2013-01-01

tranSMART is an emerging global open source public private partnership community developing a comprehensive informatics-based analysis and data-sharing cloud platform for clinical and translational research. The tranSMART consortium includes pharmaceutical and other companies, not-for-profits, academic entities, patient advocacy groups, and government stakeholders. The tranSMART value proposition relies on the concept that the global community of users, developers, and stakeholders are the best source of innovation for applications and for useful data. Continued development and use of the tranSMART platform will create a means to enable "pre-competitive" data sharing broadly, saving money and, potentially accelerating research translation to cures. Significant transformative effects of tranSMART includes 1) allowing for all its user community to benefit from experts globally, 2) capturing the best of innovation in analytic tools, 3) a growing 'big data' resource, 4) convergent standards, and 5) new informatics-enabled translational science in the pharma, academic, and not-for-profit sectors.

Design and Research of Service Platform for Protection and Dissemination of Cultural Heritage Resources of The Silk Road in the Territory of China

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, L.; Zhang, W.; Zeng, S. J.; Na, W.; Yang, H.; Huang, J.; Tan, X. D.; Sun, Z. J.

2015-08-01

The Silk Road, a major traffic route across the Eurasia continent, has been a convergence for the exchange, communication and dissemination of various cultures such as nations, materials, religions and arts for more than two thousand years. And the cultural heritage along the long and complicate route has been also attractive. In recent years, the Silk Road - the Road Network along the Chang'an-Tianshan Mountain has been listed in the Directory of World Cultural Heritage. The rare and rich cultural resources along the Silk Road, especially those in the territory of China, have attracted attentions of the world. This article describes the research ideas, methods, processes and results of the planning design on the internet-based dissemination services platform system for cultural heritage resources. First of all, it has defined the targeting for dissemination services and the research methods applied for the Silk Road heritage resources, based on scientific and objective spatial measurement and research on history and geography, to carry on the excavation of values of cultural resource for the target users. Then, with the front-end art exhibit by means of innovative IT, time and space maps of cultural heritage resources, interactive graphics display, panoramic three-dimensional virtual tour, and the Silk Road topics as the main features, a comprehensive and multi-angle cultural resources dissemination services platform is built. The research core of the platform is a demand-oriented system design on the basis of cultural resources and features as the fundamental, the value of contemporary manifestation as the foundation, and cultural dissemination and service as a starting point. This platform has achieved, temporal context generalization, interest profiles extension, online and offline adaptation, and other prominent innovations. On the basis of routes heritage resource protection and dissemination services with complex relationship between time and space, and the

Demand forecasting and information platform in tourism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Li Yue

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Information asymmetry and the bullwhip effect have been serious problems in the tourism supply chain. Based on platform theory, this paper established a mathematical model to explore the inner mechanism of a platform’s influence on stakeholders’ ability to forecast demand in tourism. Results showed that the variance of stakeholders’ demand predictions with a platform was smaller than the variance without a platform, which meant that a platform would improve predictions of demand for stakeholders. The higher information-processing ability of the platform also had other effects on demand forecasting. Research on the inner logic of the platform’s influence on stakeholders has important theoretical and realistic value. This area is worthy of further study.

Phytosociology and plant community utilisation by vervet monkeys of the Blydeberg Conservancy, Limpopo Province

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A.S. Barret

2006-12-01

Full Text Available The plant communities of the Blydeberg Conservancy were investigated as part of a research project on the foraging ecology of vervet monkeys Cercopithecus aethiops pygerythrus (senso lato in mixed lowveld bushveld and sour lowveld bushveld areas. To date there are no formal management plans for vervet monkeys. This is attributed to the limited knowledge of vervets and their utilisation of and impacts on ecosystems. From a TWINSPAN classification refined by Braun-Blanquet procedures, ten plant communities that can be placed into four major groups were identified. A classification and description of these communities, including a vegetation map are presented. Diagnostic species as well as prominent and less conspicuous species of tree, shrub, herb and grass strata are outlined. Of the ten available plant communities, the vervets utilised only six during the study period. There was an abundant supply of various food sources throughout the year, with movement patterns mostly coinciding with the fruiting times of several tree and other plant species.

Contemporary engagement with social media amongst hernia surgery specialists.

Science.gov (United States)

Lui, D H; McDonald, J J; de Beaux, A; Tulloh, B; Brady, R R W

2017-08-01

Healthcare professional engagement is increasing. This study aims to identify levels of adoption and engagement of several social media platforms by a large international cohort of hernia surgery specialists. Hernia specialists attending the 38th International Congress of the European Hernia Society were identified. A manual search was then performed on Twitter, ResearchGate, and LinkedIn to identify those who had named accounts. Where accounts were identified, data on markers of utilisation were assessed. 759 surgeons (88.5% male) from 57 countries were identified. 334 surgeons (44%) engaged with a social media platform. 39 (5.1%) had Twitter accounts, 189 (24.9%) had ResearchGate accounts and 265 (34.9%) had LinkedIn accounts. 137 surgeons (18.1%) had accounts on 2 or more social media platforms. There was no gender association with social media account ownership (p > 0.05). Engagement in one social media platform was associated with increased engagement and utilisation on other platforms; LinkedIn users were more likely to have Twitter accounts (p social media amongst Hernia surgeons is similar to other surgical specialities. Geographical variation in SM engagement is seen. Engagement with one SM platform is associated with presence on multiple platforms.

Collaborative and cognitive network platforms : Vision and research challenges

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Onur, E.; Durmus, Y.; Hawas, M.G.; Heemstra de Groot, S.M.; Niemegeers, I.G.M.M.

2011-01-01

In this paper, we present a visionary concept referred to as Collaborative and Cognitive Network Platforms (CCNPs) as a future-proof solution for creating a dependable, self-organizing and self-managing communication substrate for effective ICT solutions to societal problems. CCNP creates a

Inequalities in utilisation of general practitioner and specialist services in 9 European countries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mielck Andreas

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The aim of this study is to describe the magnitude of educational inequalities in utilisation of general practitioner (GP and specialist services in 9 European countries. In addition to West European countries, we have included 3 Eastern European countries: Hungary, Estonia and Latvia. To cover the gap in knowledge we pay a special attention to the magnitude of inequalities among patients with chronic conditions. Methods Data on the use of GP and specialist services were derived from national health surveys of Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands and Norway. For each country and education level we calculated the absolute prevalence and relative inequalities in utilisation of GP and specialist services. In order to account for the need for care, the results were adjusted by the measure of self-assessed health. Results People with lower education used GP services equally often in most countries (except Belgium and Germany compared with those with a higher level of education. At the same time people with a higher education used specialist care services significantly more often in all countries, except in the Netherlands. The general pattern of educational inequalities in utilisation of specialist care was similar for both men and women. Inequalities in utilisation of specialist care were equally large in Eastern European and in Western European countries, except for Latvia where the inequalities were somewhat larger. Similarly, large inequalities were found in the utilisation of specialist care among patients with chronic diseases, diabetes, and hypertension. Conclusions We found large inequalities in the utilisation of specialist care. These inequalities were not compensated by utilisation of GP services. Of particular concern is the presence of inequalities among patients with a high need for specialist care, such as those with chronic diseases.

Inequalities in utilisation of general practitioner and specialist services in 9 European countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Stirbu, Irina; Kunst, Anton E; Mielck, Andreas; Mackenbach, Johan P

2011-10-31

The aim of this study is to describe the magnitude of educational inequalities in utilisation of general practitioner (GP) and specialist services in 9 European countries. In addition to West European countries, we have included 3 Eastern European countries: Hungary, Estonia and Latvia. To cover the gap in knowledge we pay a special attention to the magnitude of inequalities among patients with chronic conditions. Data on the use of GP and specialist services were derived from national health surveys of Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands and Norway. For each country and education level we calculated the absolute prevalence and relative inequalities in utilisation of GP and specialist services. In order to account for the need for care, the results were adjusted by the measure of self-assessed health. People with lower education used GP services equally often in most countries (except Belgium and Germany) compared with those with a higher level of education. At the same time people with a higher education used specialist care services significantly more often in all countries, except in the Netherlands. The general pattern of educational inequalities in utilisation of specialist care was similar for both men and women. Inequalities in utilisation of specialist care were equally large in Eastern European and in Western European countries, except for Latvia where the inequalities were somewhat larger. Similarly, large inequalities were found in the utilisation of specialist care among patients with chronic diseases, diabetes, and hypertension. We found large inequalities in the utilisation of specialist care. These inequalities were not compensated by utilisation of GP services. Of particular concern is the presence of inequalities among patients with a high need for specialist care, such as those with chronic diseases. © 2011 Stirbu et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

E-Sourcing platforms as reasonable marketing tools for suppliers

OpenAIRE

Göbl, Martin; Greiter, Thomas

2014-01-01

Research questions: E-sourcing platforms offer purchasing organisations often easy access to a high number of relevant suppliers, their goods and services and the accord-ing prices. For the suppliers, e-sourcing platforms are a good and easy pos-sibility to present their products and services to the relevant buyers and to get in contact with potential customers. Subject of this research will be the question, whether e-sourcing platforms are also a reasonable marketing tool for suppliers in or...

The National Cohort of Dairy Farms--a data collection platform for mastitis research in Canada.

Science.gov (United States)

Reyher, K K; Dufour, S; Barkema, H W; Des Côteaux, L; Devries, T J; Dohoo, I R; Keefe, G P; Roy, J-P; Scholl, D T

2011-03-01

Costs and feasibility of extensive sample collection and processing are major obstacles to mastitis epidemiology research. Studies are often consequentially limited, and fundamental mastitis researchers rarely have the opportunity to conduct their work in epidemiologically valid populations. To mitigate these limitations, the Canadian Bovine Mastitis Research Network has optimized research funds by creating a data collection platform to provide epidemiologically meaningful data for several simultaneous research endeavors. This platform consists of a National Cohort of Dairy Farms (NCDF), Mastitis Laboratory Network, and Mastitis Pathogen Culture Collection. This paper describes the implementation and operation of the NCDF, explains its sampling protocols and data collection, and documents characteristics, strengths and limitations of these data for current and potential users. The NCDF comprises 91 commercial dairy farms in 6 provinces sampled over a 2-yr period. Primarily Holstein-Friesian herds participating in Dairy Herd Improvement milk recording were selected in order to achieve a uniform distribution among 3 strata of bulk tank somatic cell counts and to reflect regional proportions of freestall housing systems. Standardized protocols were implemented for repeated milk samplings on clinical mastitis cases, fresh and randomly selected lactating cows, and cows at dry-off and after calving. Just fewer than 133,000 milk samples were collected. Demographic and production data were recorded at individual cow and farm levels. Health management data are documented and extensive questionnaire data detailing farm management and cleanliness information are also captured. The Laboratory Network represents coordinated regional mastitis bacteriology laboratories using standardized procedures. The Culture Collection archives isolates recovered from intramammary infections of cows in the NCDF and contains over 16,500 isolates, all epidemiologically cross-referenced between

MO-E-18C-05: Global Health Catalyst: A Novel Platform for Enhancing Access to Medical Physics Education and Research Excellence (AMPERE)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ngwa, W; Moreau, M; Asana, L

2014-01-01

Purpose: To develop a platform for catalyzing collaborative global Cancer Care Education and Research (CaRE), with a prime focus on enhancing Access to Medical Physics Education and Research Excellence (AMPERE) Methods: An analysis of over 50 global health collaborations between partners in the U.S. and low and middle income countries (LMIC) in Africa was carried out to assess the models of collaborations in Education and Research and relative success. A survey was carried out with questions including: the nature of the collaboration, how it was initiated, impact of culture and other factors, and recommendations for catalyzing/enhancing such collaborations. An online platform called Global Health Catalyst was developed for enhancing AMPERE. Results: The analysis yielded three main models for global health collaborations with survey providing key recommendations on how to enhance such collaborations. Based on this, the platform was developed, and customized to allow Medical Physicists and other Radiation oncology (RadOnc) professionals interested in participating in Global health to readily do so e.g. teach an online course module, participate in training Medical Physicists or other RadOnc health professionals in LMIC, co-mentor students, residents or postdocs, etc. The growing list of features on the platform also include: a feature to enable people to easily find each other, form teams, operate more effectively as partners from different disciplines, institutions, nations and cultural backgrounds, share tools and technologies, obtain seed funding to develop curricula and/or embark upon new areas of investigation, and participate in humanitarian outreach: remote treatment planning assistance, and participation in virtual Chart Rounds, etc. Conclusion: The developed Global Health Catalyst platform could enable any Medical Physicist or RadoOnc professional interested in global health to readily participate in the Education/training of next generation Rad

MO-E-18C-05: Global Health Catalyst: A Novel Platform for Enhancing Access to Medical Physics Education and Research Excellence (AMPERE)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ngwa, W [Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA (United States); University of Massachusetts, Lowell, Massachusetts (United States); Moreau, M [University of Massachusetts, Lowell, Massachusetts (United States); Asana, L [African Renaissance Ambassador Corp, Orlando, FL (United States)

2014-06-15

Purpose: To develop a platform for catalyzing collaborative global Cancer Care Education and Research (CaRE), with a prime focus on enhancing Access to Medical Physics Education and Research Excellence (AMPERE) Methods: An analysis of over 50 global health collaborations between partners in the U.S. and low and middle income countries (LMIC) in Africa was carried out to assess the models of collaborations in Education and Research and relative success. A survey was carried out with questions including: the nature of the collaboration, how it was initiated, impact of culture and other factors, and recommendations for catalyzing/enhancing such collaborations. An online platform called Global Health Catalyst was developed for enhancing AMPERE. Results: The analysis yielded three main models for global health collaborations with survey providing key recommendations on how to enhance such collaborations. Based on this, the platform was developed, and customized to allow Medical Physicists and other Radiation oncology (RadOnc) professionals interested in participating in Global health to readily do so e.g. teach an online course module, participate in training Medical Physicists or other RadOnc health professionals in LMIC, co-mentor students, residents or postdocs, etc. The growing list of features on the platform also include: a feature to enable people to easily find each other, form teams, operate more effectively as partners from different disciplines, institutions, nations and cultural backgrounds, share tools and technologies, obtain seed funding to develop curricula and/or embark upon new areas of investigation, and participate in humanitarian outreach: remote treatment planning assistance, and participation in virtual Chart Rounds, etc. Conclusion: The developed Global Health Catalyst platform could enable any Medical Physicist or RadoOnc professional interested in global health to readily participate in the Education/training of next generation Rad

Unraveling Platform Strategies: A Review from an Organizational Ambidexterity Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xing Wan

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Platform strategies, which highlight the interdependence in and evolution of business ecosystems, are increasingly relevant for sustainable business models in the digital era. So far, platform research has existed as a fragmented body of insights from different fields, but an integrated theoretical perspective can lead to a more coherent understanding of the research overall. Organizational ambidexterity emphasizes the balance between exploration and exploitation, which is particularly conducive to understanding the sustainability of a firm. Using an organizational ambidexterity perspective, the authors analyze five platform strategies: pricing, openness, integration, differentiation, and envelopment. This paper provides a systematic review of the theoretical and empirical studies in leading management, economics, and information systems journals from 2000 to 2016. The findings show that platform strategies can help platform owners achieve ambidexterity by domain, temporal, and organizational separation. Finally, this paper proposes an agenda for future research.

Geothermal energy utilisation in Slowakia and its future development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sidorová Marína

2004-09-01

Full Text Available Owing to favourable geological conditions Slovakia is a country abundant in occurrence of low-enthalpy sources. The government of the state sponsors new renewable ecological energy sources, among which belongs geothermal energy. Geothermal water is utilized for recreation (swimming pools, spas, agriculture (heating of greenhouses, fishing and heating of houses. Effectivity of utilisation is about 30 % due to its seasonal use. That is why the annual house-heating and hot water supply from geothermal sources are supported. Recently company Slovgeoterm has initiated heating of greenhouses in Podhajska and heating of hospital and 1231 flats in town Galanta. Nowadays, research for the biggest geothermal project in the Middle Europe – construction in Košice basin has started.

CyberTORCS: An Intelligent Vehicles Simulation Platform for Cooperative Driving

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ming Yang

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Simulation platforms play an important role in helping intelligent vehicle research, especially for the research of cooperative driving due to the high cost and risk of the real experiments. In order to ease and bring more convenience for cooperative driving tests, we introduce an intelligent vehicle simulation platform, called CyberTORCS, for the research in cooperative driving. Details of the simulator modules including vehicle body control, vehicle visualization modeling and track visualization modeling are presented. Two simulation examples are given to validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed simulation platform.

Genome-wide associations for feed utilisation complex in primiparous Holstein–Friesian dairy cows from experimental research herds in four European countries

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Veerkamp, R.F.; Coffey, M.P.; Berry, D.P.; Haas, de Y.; Strandberg, E.; Bovenhuis, H.; Calus, M.P.L.; Wall, E.

2012-01-01

Genome-wide association studies for difficult-to-measure traits are generally limited by the sample size with accurate phenotypic data. The objective of this study was to utilise data on primiparous Holstein–Friesian cows from experimental farms in Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and

Space Science Cloud: a Virtual Space Science Research Platform Based on Cloud Model

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Xiaoyan; Tong, Jizhou; Zou, Ziming

Through independent and co-operational science missions, Strategic Pioneer Program (SPP) on Space Science, the new initiative of space science program in China which was approved by CAS and implemented by National Space Science Center (NSSC), dedicates to seek new discoveries and new breakthroughs in space science, thus deepen the understanding of universe and planet earth. In the framework of this program, in order to support the operations of space science missions and satisfy the demand of related research activities for e-Science, NSSC is developing a virtual space science research platform based on cloud model, namely the Space Science Cloud (SSC). In order to support mission demonstration, SSC integrates interactive satellite orbit design tool, satellite structure and payloads layout design tool, payload observation coverage analysis tool, etc., to help scientists analyze and verify space science mission designs. Another important function of SSC is supporting the mission operations, which runs through the space satellite data pipelines. Mission operators can acquire and process observation data, then distribute the data products to other systems or issue the data and archives with the services of SSC. In addition, SSC provides useful data, tools and models for space researchers. Several databases in the field of space science are integrated and an efficient retrieve system is developing. Common tools for data visualization, deep processing (e.g., smoothing and filtering tools), analysis (e.g., FFT analysis tool and minimum variance analysis tool) and mining (e.g., proton event correlation analysis tool) are also integrated to help the researchers to better utilize the data. The space weather models on SSC include magnetic storm forecast model, multi-station middle and upper atmospheric climate model, solar energetic particle propagation model and so on. All the services above-mentioned are based on the e-Science infrastructures of CAS e.g. cloud storage and

Determinants of Antenatal Healthcare Utilisation by Pregnant Women in Third Trimester in Peri-Urban Ghana

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jones Asafo Akowuah

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Access to quality healthcare still remains a major challenge in the efforts at reversing maternal morbidity and mortality. Despite the availability of established maternal health interventions, the health of the expectant mother and the unborn child remains poor due to low utilisation of interventions. The study examined the socioeconomic determinants of antenatal care utilisation in peri-urban Ghana using pregnant women who are in their third trimester. Two-stage sampling technique was used to sample 200 pregnant women who were in their third trimester from the District Health Information Management System software. Well-structured questionnaire was the instrument used to collect data from respondents. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics including binary logit regression model were used to analyse the data with the help of SPSS and STATA software. The results showed varying utilisation levels of ANC. From the regression result, age, household size, and occupational status were identified as the important socioeconomic determinants of antenatal care utilisation among the respondents. The important system factors which influence antenatal care utilisation by the respondents are distance to ANC, quality of service, and service satisfaction. The study concludes that socioeconomic and health system factors are important determinants of antenatal care utilisation. Stepping up of interventions aimed at improving the socioeconomic status and addressing health system and proximity challenges could be helpful in improving antenatal care utilisation by pregnant women in Ghana.

Evaluation of Variable Refrigerant Flow Systems Performance on Oak Ridge National Laboratory s Flexible Research Platform: Part 3 Simulation Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Im, Piljae [ORNL; Cho, Heejin [Mississippi State University (MSU); Kim, Dongsu [Mississippi State University (MSU); Cox, Sam [Mississippi State University (MSU)

2016-08-01

This report provides second-year project simulation results for the multi-year project titled “Evaluation of Variable Refrigeration Flow (VRF) system on Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)’s Flexible Research Platform (FRP).”

Design and research on the platform of network manufacture product electronic trading

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Zude; Liu, Quan; Jiang, Xuemei

2003-09-01

With the rapid globalization of market and business, E-trading affects every manufacture enterprise. However, the security of network manufacturing products of transmission on Internet is very important. In this paper we discussed the protocol of fair exchange and platform for network manufacture products E-trading based on fair exchange protocol and digital watermarking techniques. The platform realized reliable and copyright protection.

Waste drilling-fluid-utilising microorganisms in a tropical mangrove swamp oilfield location

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Benka-Coker, M.O.; Olumagin, A. [Benin Univ. (Nigeria). Dept. of Microbiology

1995-12-31

Waste drilling-fluid-utilising microorganisms were isolated from drilling-mud cuttings, soil and creek water from a mangrove swamp oilfield location in the Delta area of Nigeria using waste drilling-fluid as the substrate. Eighteen bacterial isolates obtained were identified as species of Staphylococcus, Acinetobacter, Alcaligenes, Serratia, Clostridium, Enterobacter, Klebsiella, Nocardia, Bacillus, Actinomyces, Micrococcus and Pseudomonas, while the genera of fungi isolated were Penicillium, Cladosporium and Fusarium. Even though drilling-fluid-utilising genera were in higher numbers in the soil than in the two other sources examined, the percentages of the total heterotrophic bacteria that utilised waste drilling-fluid were 6.02 in the drilling-mud cuttings, 0.83 in creek water and 0.42 in soil. The screen tests for biodegradation potential of the bacterial isolates showed that, even though all the isolates were able to degrade and utilise the waste fluid for growth, species of Alcaligenes and Micrococcus were more active degraders of the waste. The significance of the results in environmental management in oil-producing areas of Nigeria is discussed. (Author)

Waste drilling-fluid-utilising microorganisms in a tropical mangrove swamp oilfield location

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Benka-Coker, M.O.; Olumagin, A.

1995-01-01

Waste drilling-fluid-utilising microorganisms were isolated from drilling-mud cuttings, soil and creek water from a mangrove swamp oilfield location in the Delta area of Nigeria using waste drilling-fluid as the substrate. Eighteen bacterial isolates obtained were identified as species of Staphylococcus, Acinetobacter, Alcaligenes, Serratia, Clostridium, Enterobacter, Klebsiella, Nocardia, Bacillus, Actinomyces, Micrococcus and Pseudomonas, while the genera of fungi isolated were Penicillium, Cladosporium and Fusarium. Even though drilling-fluid-utilising genera were in higher numbers in the soil than in the two other sources examined, the percentages of the total heterotrophic bacteria that utilised waste drilling-fluid were 6.02 in the drilling-mud cuttings, 0.83 in creek water and 0.42 in soil. The screen tests for biodegradation potential of the bacterial isolates showed that, even though all the isolates were able to degrade and utilise the waste fluid for growth, species of Alcaligenes and Micrococcus were more active degraders of the waste. The significance of the results in environmental management in oil-producing areas of Nigeria is discussed. (Author)

Energetic utilisation of biomass in Hungary

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barotfi, I.

1994-01-01

Energetic utilisation of biomass has been known since prehistoric times and was only pushed into the background by the technological developments of the last century. The energy crisis and, more recently, environmental problems have now brought it back to the fore, and efforts are being made worldwide to find modern technical applications for biomass and contribute to its advance. (orig.) [de

Utilisation of Used Palm Oil as an Alternative Fuel in Thailand

Science.gov (United States)

Permchart, W.; Tanatvanit, S.

2007-10-01

This paper summarises the overview of the current situation of alternative energies in Thailand. The utilisation of bio-diesel as an alternative energy in two economic sectors (i.e. transport and industrial sectors), which have the largest energy consumption in the country, is mainly presented because it has seemed to be the most promising project among various energy conservation projects of the Thai government. Actually, there is another bio-fuel project, namely, the ethanol project for blending with gasoline to produce gasohol (E10) used in gasoline engines, which has been developed and already become to an important policy for energy conservation of the country. Due to much more large number of diesel has been utilised, the bio-diesel project has been the first priority one to solve the petroleum crisis problems. However, it is remarked that the utilisation of bio-diesel as an alternative fuel seems to be unsatisfactory because of various reasons. Some issues in terms of both government policies and technical problems have not been clearly addressed. Therefore, this paper not only presents the utilisation of bio-diesel in these two sectors but also discusses the production processes, characterisations and some experimental testing results of bio-diesel.

Impediments to Effective Utilisation of Information and Communication Technology Tools in Selected Universities in the North-Eastern Nigeria

Science.gov (United States)

Momoh, Mustapha

2010-01-01

This study examined the impediments to effective use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools in Nigerian universities. Series of research conducted on the factors militating against computerisation indicated that, there were impediments to effective utilisation of ICT tools in most developing countries. In the light of this, the…

Experimental platforms for behavioral experiments on social-ecological systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marco A. Janssen

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Recently, there has been an increased interest in using behavioral experiments to study hypotheses on the governance of social-ecological systems. A diversity of software tools are used to implement such experiments. We evaluated various publicly available platforms that could be used in research and education on the governance of social-ecological systems. The aims of the various platforms are distinct, and this is noticeable in the differences in their user-friendliness and their adaptability to novel research questions. The more easily accessible platforms are useful for prototyping experiments and for educational purposes to illustrate theoretical concepts. To advance novel research aims, more elaborate programming experience is required to either implement an experiment from scratch or adjust existing experimental software. There is no ideal platform best suited for all possible use cases, but we have provided a menu of options and their associated trade-offs.

Design for game based learning platforms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Birgitte Holm; Meyer, Bente

2010-01-01

This paper focuses on the challenges related to the design of game based learning platforms for formal learning contexts that are inspired by the pupil's leisure time related use of web 2.0. The paper is based on the project Serious Games on a Global Market Place (2007-2011) founded by the Danish...... of web 2.0 and integrates theories of learning, didactics, games, play, communication, multimodality and different pedagogical approaches. In relation to the introduced model the teacher role is discussed.......This paper focuses on the challenges related to the design of game based learning platforms for formal learning contexts that are inspired by the pupil's leisure time related use of web 2.0. The paper is based on the project Serious Games on a Global Market Place (2007-2011) founded by the Danish...... Council for Strategic Research, in which an online game-based platform for English as a foreign language in primary school is studied. The paper presents a model for designing for game based learning platforms. This design is based on cultural and ethnographic based research on children's leisure time use...

Innovative and applied research on big data platforms of smart heritage

Science.gov (United States)

Qiu, J.; Li, J.; Sun, H.

2015-08-01

Big data has huge commercial value and potential. Under the background of big data, a heritage site is faced with a number of questions and challenges such as, how to accelerate industrial innovation, benign competition and the creation of new business value. Based on the analysis of service data from the national archaeological site and park, Yuan Ming Yuan, this paper investigates the common problems of site management operations such as, inappropriate cultural interpretation, insufficient consumer demand and so on. In order to solve these operational problems, a new service system called the "one platform - three systems" was put forward. This system includes the smart heritage platform and three management systems: the smart heritage management system, the 3-O (Online-Offline-Onsite) service system and the digital explanation system. Combined with the 3-O marketing operation, the platform can realize bidirectional interaction between heritage site management units and tourists, which can also benefit visitors to the heritage site by explaining the culture and history of the heritage site, bring about more demand for cultural information and expand the social and economic benefits.

Comparison of growth factor signalling pathway utilisation in cultured normal melanocytes and melanoma cell lines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Ji Eun; Stones, Clare; Joseph, Wayne R; Leung, Euphemia; Finlay, Graeme J; Shelling, Andrew N; Phillips, Wayne A; Shepherd, Peter R; Baguley, Bruce C

2012-01-01

The phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K-PKB), mitogen activated protein kinase (MEK-ERK) and the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR- p70S6K), are thought to regulate many aspects of tumour cell proliferation and survival. We have examined the utilisation of these three signalling pathways in a number of cell lines derived from patients with metastatic malignant melanoma of known PIK3CA, PTEN, NRAS and BRAF mutational status. Western blotting was used to compare the phosphorylation status of components of the PI3K-PKB, MEK-ERK and mTOR-p70S6K signalling pathways, as indices of pathway utilisation. Normal melanocytes could not be distinguished from melanoma cells on the basis of pathway utilisation when grown in the presence of serum, but could be distinguished upon serum starvation, where signalling protein phosphorylation was generally abrogated. Surprisingly, the differential utilisation of individual pathways was not consistently associated with the presence of an oncogenic or tumour suppressor mutation of genes in these pathways. Utilisation of the PI3K-PKB, MEK-ERK and mTOR-p70S6K signalling pathways in melanoma, as determined by phosphorylation of signalling components, varies widely across a series of cell lines, and does not directly reflect mutation of genes coding these components. The main difference between cultured normal melanocytes and melanoma cells is not the pathway utilisation itself, but rather in the serum dependence of pathway utilisation

Design of a Maglev Vibration Test Platform for the Research of Maglev Vehicle-girder Coupled Vibration Problem

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhou Danfeng

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The maglev vehicle-girder coupled vibration problem has been encountered in many maglev test or commercial lines, which significantly degrade the performance of the maglev train. In previous research on the principle of the coupled vibration problem, it has been discovered that the fundamental model of the maglev girder can be simplified as a series of mass-spring resonators of different but related resonance frequencies, and that the stability of the vehicle-girder coupled system can be investigated by separately examining the stability of each mass-spring resonator – electromagnet coupled system. Based on this conclusion, a maglev test platform, which includes a single electromagnetic suspension control system, is built for experimental study of the coupled vibration problem. The guideway of the test platform is supported by a number of springs so as to change its flexibility. The mass of the guideway can also be changed by adjusting extra weights attached to it. By changing the flexibility and mass of the guideway, the rules of the maglev vehicle-girder coupled vibration problem are to be examined through experiments, and related theory on the vehicle-girder self-excited vibration proposed in previous research is also testified.

Strategies Used by Professors through Virtual Educational Platforms in Face-to-Face Classes: A View from the Chamilo Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Valencia, Heriberto Gonzalez; Villota Enriquez, Jackeline Amparo; Agredo, Patricia Medina

2017-01-01

This study consisted in characterizing the strategies used by professors; implemented through virtual educational platforms. The context of this research were the classrooms of the Santiago de Cali University and the virtual space of the Chamilo virtual platform, where two professors from the Faculty of Education of the same university…

The effect of non-response on estimates of health care utilisation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gundgaard, Jens; Ekholm, Orla; Hansen, Ebba Holme

2008-01-01

BACKGROUND: Non-response in health surveys may lead to bias in estimates of health care utilisation. The magnitude, direction and composition of the bias are usually not well known. When data from health surveys are merged with data from registers at the individual level, analyses can reveal non......-response bias. Our aim was to estimate the composition, direction and magnitude of non-response bias in the estimation of health care costs in two types of health interview surveys. METHODS: The surveys were (1) a national personal interview survey of 22 484 Danes (2) a telephone interview survey of 5000 Danes...... living in Funen County. Data were linked with register information on health care utilisation in hospitals and primary care. Health care utilisation was estimated for respondents and non-respondents, and the difference was explained by a decomposition method of bias components. RESULTS: The surveys...

SU-E-T-157: CARMEN: A MatLab-Based Research Platform for Monte Carlo Treatment Planning (MCTP) and Customized System for Planning Evaluation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baeza, J.A.; Ureba, A.; Jimenez-Ortega, E.; Barbeiro, A.R.; Plaza, A. Leal; Lagares, J.I.

2015-01-01

Purpose: Although there exist several radiotherapy research platforms, such as: CERR, the most widely used and referenced; SlicerRT, which allows treatment plan comparison from various sources; and MMCTP, a full MCTP system; it is still needed a full MCTP toolset that provides users complete control of calculation grids, interpolation methods and filters in order to “fairly” compare results from different TPSs, supporting verification with experimental measurements. Methods: This work presents CARMEN, a MatLab-based platform including multicore and GPGPU accelerated functions for loading RT data; designing treatment plans; and evaluating dose matrices and experimental data.CARMEN supports anatomic and functional imaging in DICOM format, as well as RTSTRUCT, RTPLAN and RTDOSE. Besides, it contains numerous tools to accomplish the MCTP process, managing egs4phant and phase space files.CARMEN planning mode assist in designing IMRT, VMAT and MERT treatments via both inverse and direct optimization. The evaluation mode contains a comprehensive toolset (e.g. 2D/3D gamma evaluation, difference matrices, profiles, DVH, etc.) to compare datasets from commercial TPS, MC simulations (i.e. 3ddose) and radiochromic film in a user-controlled manner. Results: CARMEN has been validated against commercial RTPs and well-established evaluation tools, showing coherent behavior of its multiple algorithms. Furthermore, CARMEN platform has been used to generate competitive complex treatment that has been published in comparative studies. Conclusion: A new research oriented MCTP platform with a customized validation toolset has been presented. Despite of being coded with a high-level programming language, CARMEN is agile due to the use of parallel algorithms. The wide-spread use of MatLab provides straightforward access to CARMEN’s algorithms to most researchers. Similarly, our platform can benefit from the MatLab community scientific developments as filters, registration algorithms

SU-E-T-157: CARMEN: A MatLab-Based Research Platform for Monte Carlo Treatment Planning (MCTP) and Customized System for Planning Evaluation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Baeza, J.A.; Ureba, A.; Jimenez-Ortega, E.; Barbeiro, A.R.; Plaza, A. Leal [Universidad de Sevilla, Departamento de Fisiologia Medica y Biofisica, Seville (Spain); Lagares, J.I. [Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas, Medioambientales y Tecnologicas (CIEMAT), Madrid (Spain)

2015-06-15

Purpose: Although there exist several radiotherapy research platforms, such as: CERR, the most widely used and referenced; SlicerRT, which allows treatment plan comparison from various sources; and MMCTP, a full MCTP system; it is still needed a full MCTP toolset that provides users complete control of calculation grids, interpolation methods and filters in order to “fairly” compare results from different TPSs, supporting verification with experimental measurements. Methods: This work presents CARMEN, a MatLab-based platform including multicore and GPGPU accelerated functions for loading RT data; designing treatment plans; and evaluating dose matrices and experimental data.CARMEN supports anatomic and functional imaging in DICOM format, as well as RTSTRUCT, RTPLAN and RTDOSE. Besides, it contains numerous tools to accomplish the MCTP process, managing egs4phant and phase space files.CARMEN planning mode assist in designing IMRT, VMAT and MERT treatments via both inverse and direct optimization. The evaluation mode contains a comprehensive toolset (e.g. 2D/3D gamma evaluation, difference matrices, profiles, DVH, etc.) to compare datasets from commercial TPS, MC simulations (i.e. 3ddose) and radiochromic film in a user-controlled manner. Results: CARMEN has been validated against commercial RTPs and well-established evaluation tools, showing coherent behavior of its multiple algorithms. Furthermore, CARMEN platform has been used to generate competitive complex treatment that has been published in comparative studies. Conclusion: A new research oriented MCTP platform with a customized validation toolset has been presented. Despite of being coded with a high-level programming language, CARMEN is agile due to the use of parallel algorithms. The wide-spread use of MatLab provides straightforward access to CARMEN’s algorithms to most researchers. Similarly, our platform can benefit from the MatLab community scientific developments as filters, registration algorithms

An exploratory study on the utilisation of resilience by middle adolescents in reconstituted families following divorce

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Suzette Ebersohn

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Every year thousands of core families disintegrate through divorce, and in the ensuing restructuring of the family system the child has to cope with various development challenges, such as divided membership of two micro family systems and complexities that result at the mesosystemic level. Achieving positive development outcomes in the presence of challenging living circumstances entails complex interactive processes. The aim of the study was to understand the concomitant, reciprocal and/or responsive dynamics of middle adolescents' use of their inherent resilience potential in their movement back and forth between their two reconstituted family systems after the parents' divorce. The study was grounded in the qualitative interpretivist paradigm, and used a multiple case study as research design and a narrative format for description. A purposive sample of four white Afrikaans-speaking middle adolescents participated in the research. Findings revealed that middle adolescents of divorced parents utilise their resilience potential in a systemic manner, which requires a solid base provided by the meso system. Hence the utilisation of resilience relies at the very minimum on a functional relationship of cooperation between the biological parents.

CILogon: An Integrated Identity and Access Management Platform for Science

Science.gov (United States)

Basney, J.

2016-12-01

When scientists work together, they use web sites and other software to share their ideas and data. To ensure the integrity of their work, these systems require the scientists to log in and verify that they are part of the team working on a particular science problem. Too often, the identity and access verification process is a stumbling block for the scientists. Scientific research projects are forced to invest time and effort into developing and supporting Identity and Access Management (IAM) services, distracting them from the core goals of their research collaboration. CILogon provides an IAM platform that enables scientists to work together to meet their IAM needs more effectively so they can allocate more time and effort to their core mission of scientific research. The CILogon platform enables federated identity management and collaborative organization management. Federated identity management enables researchers to use their home organization identities to access cyberinfrastructure, rather than requiring yet another username and password to log on. Collaborative organization management enables research projects to define user groups for authorization to collaboration platforms (e.g., wikis, mailing lists, and domain applications). CILogon's IAM platform serves the unique needs of research collaborations, namely the need to dynamically form collaboration groups across organizations and countries, sharing access to data, instruments, compute clusters, and other resources to enable scientific discovery. CILogon provides a software-as-a-service platform to ease integration with cyberinfrastructure, while making all software components publicly available under open source licenses to enable re-use. Figure 1 illustrates the components and interfaces of this platform. CILogon has been operational since 2010 and has been used by over 7,000 researchers from more than 170 identity providers to access cyberinfrastructure including Globus, LIGO, Open Science Grid

Software platform virtualization in chemistry research and university teaching.

Science.gov (United States)

Kind, Tobias; Leamy, Tim; Leary, Julie A; Fiehn, Oliver

2009-11-16

Modern chemistry laboratories operate with a wide range of software applications under different operating systems, such as Windows, LINUX or Mac OS X. Instead of installing software on different computers it is possible to install those applications on a single computer using Virtual Machine software. Software platform virtualization allows a single guest operating system to execute multiple other operating systems on the same computer. We apply and discuss the use of virtual machines in chemistry research and teaching laboratories. Virtual machines are commonly used for cheminformatics software development and testing. Benchmarking multiple chemistry software packages we have confirmed that the computational speed penalty for using virtual machines is low and around 5% to 10%. Software virtualization in a teaching environment allows faster deployment and easy use of commercial and open source software in hands-on computer teaching labs. Software virtualization in chemistry, mass spectrometry and cheminformatics is needed for software testing and development of software for different operating systems. In order to obtain maximum performance the virtualization software should be multi-core enabled and allow the use of multiprocessor configurations in the virtual machine environment. Server consolidation, by running multiple tasks and operating systems on a single physical machine, can lead to lower maintenance and hardware costs especially in small research labs. The use of virtual machines can prevent software virus infections and security breaches when used as a sandbox system for internet access and software testing. Complex software setups can be created with virtual machines and are easily deployed later to multiple computers for hands-on teaching classes. We discuss the popularity of bioinformatics compared to cheminformatics as well as the missing cheminformatics education at universities worldwide.

Conversion and utilisation of biomass from Swedish agriculture; Foeraedling och avsaettning av jordbruksbaserade biobraenslen

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Boerjesson, Paal

2007-05-15

Biomass feedstock from agriculture can be refined and converted into several different energy carriers and utilised for different energy services, such as production of heat, electricity or transportation fuel. The feedstock may be residues and by-products, such as straw and manure, or energy crops cultivated under different conditions depending on variations in regional and local conditions. Similar variations exist in the regional and local conditions for the refining and utilisation of the bioenergy and its by-products. The overall aim of this report is to analyse and describe the technical and physical conditions of different agriculture-based bioenergy systems using the existing infrastructure and potential new systems expected to be developed in the future. To which extent this technical/physical potential will be utilised in the future depends mainly on economic conditions and financial considerations. These aspects are not included in this study. Furthermore, potential possibilities to utilise existing infrastructure within the forest industry are not included. The report starts with an analysis and description of the energy efficiency of different bioenergy systems, from the production of the biomass to the final use of the refined energy carrier, expressed as the amount of heat, electricity or transportation fuel produced per hectare and year. The possibilities to co-produce different energy carries in bio-refineries are also analysed. The next part of the report includes an analysis of the variation in the regional conditions for the conversion and utilisation of the different energy carriers, based on existing infrastructure, for instance, district heating systems, individual heating systems, combined heat and power production, utilisation of by-products as feed in animal production, utilisation of digestion residues as fertilisers, the supply of forest fuels, etc. The report also includes a discussion of the environmental impact of an increased

Technical Research on the Electric Power Big Data Platform of Smart Grid

OpenAIRE

Ruiguang MA; Haiyan Wang; Quanming Zhang; Yuan Liang

2017-01-01

Through elaborating on the associated relationship among electric power big data, cloud computing and smart grid, this paper put forward general framework of electric power big data platform based on the smart grid. The general framework of the platform is divided into five layers, namely data source layer, data integration and storage layer, data processing and scheduling layer, data analysis layer and application layer. This paper makes in-depth exploration and studies the integrated manage...

An Experimental Platform for Autonomous Bus Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Héctor Montes

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, with highly developed instrumentation, sensing and actuation technologies, it is possible to foresee an important advance in the field of autonomous and/or semi-autonomous transportation systems. Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS have been subjected to very active research for many years, and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT is one area of major interest. Among the most promising transport infrastructures, the articulated bus is an interesting, low cost, high occupancy capacity and friendly option. In this paper, an experimental platform for research on the automatic control of an articulated bus is presented. The aim of the platform is to allow full experimentation in real conditions for testing technological developments and control algorithms. The experimental platform consists of a mobile component (a commercial articulated bus fully instrumented and a ground test area composed of asphalt roads inside the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC premises. This paper focuses also on the development of a human machine interface to ease progress in control system evaluation. Some experimental results are presented in order to show the potential of the proposed platform.

An overview on development and application of an experimental platform for quantitative cardiac imaging research in rabbit models of myocardial infarction.

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Yuanbo; Bogaert, Jan; Oyen, Raymond; Ni, Yicheng

2014-10-01

To exploit the advantages of using rabbits for cardiac imaging research and to tackle the technical obstacles, efforts have been made under the framework of a doctoral research program. In this overview article, by cross-referencing the current literature, we summarize how we have developed a preclinical cardiac research platform based on modified models of reperfused myocardial infarction (MI) in rabbits; how the in vivo manifestations of cardiac imaging could be closely matched with those ex vivo macro- and microscopic findings; how these imaging outcomes could be quantitatively analyzed, validated and demonstrated; and how we could apply this cardiac imaging platform to provide possible solutions to certain lingering diagnostic and therapeutic problems in experimental cardiology. In particular, tissue components in acute cardiac ischemia have been stratified and characterized, post-infarct lipomatous metaplasia (LM) as a common but hardly illuminated clinical pathology has been identified in rabbit models, and a necrosis avid tracer as well as an anti-ischemic drug have been successfully assessed for their potential utilities in clinical cardiology. These outcomes may interest the researchers in the related fields and help strengthen translational research in cardiovascular diseases.

Central American and Caribbean Citizen Security Platform | IDRC ...

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

Collaborative research platform This initiative will establish a real and virtual space known as the Central American and Caribbean Security Platform. It will bring together the region's scholars, practitioners, attorneys, journalists, and other stakeholders into regular, constructive dialogue with specialists dedicated to finding ...

Research of MOOC Platform Based “Internet +”

OpenAIRE

Wang Guang Xing; Chen Yan

2016-01-01

This paper is devoted to examining the construction of MOOC platform based “Internet +”. It firstly introduced the “Internet+” model, the “Internet + education” influence and the significance of education. Then, it analyzed the existing problems in the development of the current MOOC, and put forward the model of “Internet + MOOC” through the method of software engineering. It explored the advantage of “Internet + MOOC” mode and promoting the function to the education teaching. This paper put...

Microneedle Platforms for Cell Analysis

KAUST Repository

Kavaldzhiev, Mincho

2017-11-01

-dependent delivery rate has been found. The electromagnetic delivery concept is particularly promising for future in-vivo applications. Finally, the micro-needle platforms developed in this work will provide researchers with new capabilities that will help them to further advance the field of mechanobiology, drug delivery treatments, stem cells research and more. The proposed platforms are capable of applying various stimuli, analyzing cell responses in real time, drug delivery, and they also have the potential to add additional functionalities in the future.

Systems Biology-Based Platforms to Accelerate Research of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Science.gov (United States)

Oh, Soo Jin; Choi, Young Ki; Shin, Ok Sarah

2018-03-01

Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) pose a major threat to public health and security. Given the dynamic nature and significant impact of EIDs, the most effective way to prevent and protect against them is to develop vaccines in advance. Systems biology approaches provide an integrative way to understand the complex immune response to pathogens. They can lead to a greater understanding of EID pathogenesis and facilitate the evaluation of newly developed vaccine-induced immunity in a timely manner. In recent years, advances in high throughput technologies have enabled researchers to successfully apply systems biology methods to analyze immune responses to a variety of pathogens and vaccines. Despite recent advances, computational and biological challenges impede wider application of systems biology approaches. This review highlights recent advances in the fields of systems immunology and vaccinology, and presents ways that systems biology-based platforms can be applied to accelerate a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms of immunity against EIDs. © Copyright: Yonsei University College of Medicine 2018.

Capturing stakeholders´ views on oil palm-based biofuel and biomass utilisation in Malaysia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Darshini, Dina; Dwivedi, Puneet; Glenk, Klaus

2013-01-01

Malaysia is the world′s second largest producer of palm oil and generates surplus palm biomass waste that can be used for bioenergy development. Malaysia aims to diversify its energy portfolio by investing into renewable energy mostly to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels. This paper captures synergetic and conflicting interests of key stakeholders, who play an important role in shaping the regulatory and business environment in Malaysia′s renewable energy sector. Particularly, this research analyses the perceptions of three stakeholder groups (government agencies, industry players, and non-governmental organisations) regarding palm-based biofuel and biomass utilisation in Malaysia by combining Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis with an Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) framework. Overall, results show a greater sense of optimism among the three stakeholder groups for the development of palm-based biomass utilisation in Malaysia, compared to the development of first generation palm-oil based biodiesel. We discuss the findings in light of on-going debates and policy processes, highlighting some key issues that need to be addressed in order to meet oil-palm related targets set in Malaysia’s ambitious renewable energy plan. - Highlights: • Optimism of stakeholders is greater for palm biomass utilisation than palm biodiesel. • The negative overall outlook for palm biodiesel is perhaps a symptom of hindsight. • Palm biodiesel: strengths (18%), weaknesses (34%), opportunities (23%), and threats (25%). • Palm biomass: strengths (42%), weaknesses (23%), opportunities (15%), and threats (21%). • Views of stakeholder groups are relevant to meeting Malaysia´s renewables target

Progress towards Sustainable Utilisation and Management of Food Wastes in the Global Economy.

Science.gov (United States)

Ghosh, Purabi R; Fawcett, Derek; Sharma, Shashi B; Poinern, Gerrard Eddy Jai

2016-01-01

In recent years, the problem of food waste has attracted considerable interest from food producers, processors, retailers, and consumers alike. Food waste is considered not only a sustainability problem related to food security, but also an economic problem since it directly impacts the profitability of the whole food supply chain. In developed countries, consumers are one of the main contributors to food waste and ultimately pay for all wastes produced throughout the food supply chain. To secure food and reduce food waste, it is essential to have a comprehensive understanding of the various sources of food wastes throughout the food supply chain. The present review examines various reports currently in the literature and quantifies waste levels and examines the trends in wastage for various food sectors such as fruit and vegetable, fisheries, meat and poultry, grain, milk, and dairy. Factors contributing to food waste, effective cost/benefit food waste utilisation methods, sustainability and environment considerations, and public acceptance are identified as hurdles in preventing large-scale food waste processing. Thus, we highlight the need for further research to identify and report food waste so that government regulators and food supply chain stakeholders can actively develop effective waste utilisation practices.

Utilisation of Library Information Resources among Generation Z Students: Facts and Fiction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oghenere Gabriel Salubi

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Generation Z was the foremost generation to have prevalent access to the Internet from an early age. Technology has strongly influenced this generation in terms of communication, education and consequently their academic information behaviour. With the next generation of scholars already being trained, in a decade, most of the researchers will be mainly digital natives. This study sought to establish the library information resources use pattern in relation to users’ preferred information media in order to render better academic information services to library users. A total of 390 respondents were surveyed at the Nelson Mandela University and the University of Fort Hare using quantitative and qualitative methods. Most of the respondents, 82.3%, were aged between 18 and 23 years; while the average library use time was two hours daily. The most utilised library resource is the Wi-Fi with e-books and e-journals found to be lowly utilised. Records from the E-librarians revealed that undergraduate students account for no more than 6% of total users of electronic databases with 62.3% of the respondents preferring print information resources. Better understanding of library users’ demographics and information media preference is essential in proving the right kind of information services to Generation Z library users.

Utilisation of podiatry services in Australia under the Medicare Enhanced Primary Care program, 2004-2008.

Science.gov (United States)

Menz, Hylton B

2009-10-30

In 2004, as an extension of the Enhanced Primary Care (EPC) program, the Australian Government introduced a policy of providing Medicare rebates for allied health services provided to patients with chronic or complex health conditions. The objective of this study was to evaluate the utilisation of podiatry services provided under this scheme between 2004 and 2008. Data pertaining to the Medicare item 10962 for the calendar years 2004-2008 were extracted from the Australian Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) database and cross-tabulated by sex and age. Descriptive analyses were undertaken to assess sex and age differences in the number of consultations provided and to assess for temporal trends over the five-year assessment period. The total cost to Medicare over this period was also determined. During the 2004-2008 period, a total of 1,338,044 EPC consultations were provided by podiatrists in Australia. Females exhibited higher utilisation than males (63 versus 37%), and those aged over 65 years accounted for 75% of consultations. There was a marked increase in the number of consultations provided from 2004 to 2008, and the total cost of providing EPC podiatry services during this period was $62.9 M. Podiatry services have been extensively utilised under the EPC program by primary care patients, particularly older women, and the number of services provided has increased dramatically between 2004 and 2008. Further research is required to determine whether the EPC program enhances clinical outcomes compared to standard practice.

Sludge utilisation in agriculture: possibilities and prospects in Greece.

Science.gov (United States)

Andreadakis, A D; Mamals, D; Gavalaki, E; Kampylafka, S

2002-01-01

The paper presents the prospects for agricultural utilisation of the sludge produced from wastewater treatment plants in Greece and more specifically focuses on a critical review of the legislatory framework, determination of the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the produced sludges, examination of possible sludge treatment methods and evaluation of the possibilities and prospects of sludge utilisation on the basis of the above considerations. Landfilling is practically the only route to sludge disposal in Greece. However, in view of the anticipated future restrictions for landfilling within the European Union, this method is clearly a short-term solution and alternative options, including agricultural reuse, must be implemented. The results of a recent survey are presented and discussed in relation to this need.

Stratospheric Platforms for Monitoring Purposes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Konigorski, D.; Gratzel, U.; Obersteiner, M.; Schneidereit, M.

2010-01-01

Stratospheric platforms are emerging systems based on challenging technology. Goal is to create a platform, payload, and mission design which is able to complement satellite services on a local scale. Applications are close to traditional satellite business in telecommunication, navigation, science, and earth observation and include for example mobile telecommunications, navigation augmentation, atmospheric research, or border control. Stratospheric platforms could potentially support monitoring activities related to safeguards, e.g. by imagery of surfaces, operational conditions of nuclear facilities, and search for undeclared nuclear activities. Stratospheric platforms are intended to be flown in an altitude band between 16 and 30 km, above 16-20 km to take advantage of usually lower winds facilitating station keeping, below 30 km to limit the challenges to achieve a reasonable payload at acceptable platform sizes. Stratospheric platforms could substitute satellites which are expensive and lack upgrade capabilities for new equipment. Furthermore they have practically an unlimited time over an area of interest. It is intended to keep the platforms operational and maintenance free on a 24/7 basis with an average deployment time of 3 years. Geostationary satellites lack resolution. Potential customers like Armed Forces, National Agencies and commercial customers have indicated interest in the use of stratospheric platforms. Governmental entities are looking for cheaper alternatives to communications and surveillance satellites and stratospheric platforms could offer the following potential advantages: Lower operational cost than satellite or UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) constellation (fleet required); Faster deployment than satellite constellation; Repositioning capability and ability to loiter as required; Persistent long-term real-time services over a fairly large regional spot; Surge capability: Able to extend capability (either monitoring or communications

SmartR: an open-source platform for interactive visual analytics for translational research data.

Science.gov (United States)

Herzinger, Sascha; Gu, Wei; Satagopam, Venkata; Eifes, Serge; Rege, Kavita; Barbosa-Silva, Adriano; Schneider, Reinhard

2017-07-15

In translational research, efficient knowledge exchange between the different fields of expertise is crucial. An open platform that is capable of storing a multitude of data types such as clinical, pre-clinical or OMICS data combined with strong visual analytical capabilities will significantly accelerate the scientific progress by making data more accessible and hypothesis generation easier. The open data warehouse tranSMART is capable of storing a variety of data types and has a growing user community including both academic institutions and pharmaceutical companies. tranSMART, however, currently lacks interactive and dynamic visual analytics and does not permit any post-processing interaction or exploration. For this reason, we developed SmartR , a plugin for tranSMART, that equips the platform not only with several dynamic visual analytical workflows, but also provides its own framework for the addition of new custom workflows. Modern web technologies such as D3.js or AngularJS were used to build a set of standard visualizations that were heavily improved with dynamic elements. The source code is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License and is freely available on GitHub: https://github.com/transmart/SmartR . reinhard.schneider@uni.lu. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press.

Hydrocarbon-utilising micro-organisms from Dona Paula Bay, Goa

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Bhosle, N.B.; Mavinkurve, S.

Twenty-three hydrocarbon-utilising bacteria and one yeast were isolated, using enrichment techniques, from water and sediment samples. Vibrio and Pseudomonas were the predominant genera. Of the different organisms screened, Bacillus, Candida...

An Investigation of Digital Payment Platform Designs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kazan, Erol; Damsgaard, Jan

2014-01-01

This paper focuses on the triumph march of mobile phones that currently are annexing music players, navigation devices, and cameras as separate physical objects. The next target is set on payment. Through synthesizing available literature, we construct a framework for studying digital payment...... platforms that combines platform, technology and business design aspects. The framework is applied to conduct a comparative case study of digital payment platforms. Four types of market actors are considered: banks, mobile network operators, merchants, and startups, which are incumbents and disrupters....... By hosting third-party services, payment instruments are evolving from single-purpose to multi-functional ones. Our research extends existing payment literature from the MSP perspective to emphasize certain digital payment platform components, which impact strategies and complementary products....

Fresh water generators onboard a floating platform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tewari, P.K.; Verma, R.K.; Misra, B.M.; Sadhulkan, H.K.

1997-01-01

A dependable supply of fresh water is essential for any ocean going vessel. The operating and maintenance personnel on offshore platforms and marine structures also require a constant and regular supply of fresh water to meet their essential daily needs. A seawater thermal desalination unit onboard delivers good quality fresh water from seawater. The desalination units developed by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) suitable for ocean going vessels and offshore platforms have been discussed. Design considerations of such units with reference to floating platforms and corrosive environments have been presented. The feasibility of coupling a low temperature vacuum evaporation (LTVE) desalination plant suitable for an onboard floating platform to a PHWR nuclear power plant has also been discussed. (author). 1 ref., 3 figs, 2 tabs

Utilisation of geothermal energy by the municipal works in Neubrandenburg

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jahnke, H.

1994-01-01

A long distance energy supply plant has been operated on the basis of geothermal energy in Neubrandenburg since September 1988. At present it is still the largest heat generation plant for the utilisation of low thermal pore storage in Germany. The setup and the function of the plant are explained. After the municipal works of Neubrandenburg took over the plant, it was redesigned in order to give a better guarantee for the supply, to improve the economic efficiency and to minimise the environmental impact. At present long distance energy can be provided at a price of 99,00 DM/Mwh for 2000 utilisation hours per year. (BWI) [de

Utilisation of hepatocellular carcinoma screening in Australians at risk of hepatitis B virus-related carcinoma and prescribed anti-viral therapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Sheppard-Law, Suzanne; Zablotska-Manos, Iryna; Kermeen, Melissa; Holdaway, Susan; Lee, Alice; George, Jacob; Zekry, Amany; Maher, Lisa

2018-07-01

To investigate hepatocellular carcinoma screening utilisation and factors associated with utilisation among patients prescribed hepatitis B virus anti-viral therapy and at risk of hepatocellular carcinoma. The incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma has increased in Australia over the past three decades with chronic hepatitis B virus infection a major contributor. hepatocellular carcinoma surveillance programs aim to detect cancers early enabling curative treatment options, longer survival and longer times to recurrence. Multi-site cross-sectional survey. An online study questionnaire was administered to eligible participants attending three Sydney tertiary hospitals. Data were grouped into six mutually exclusive hepatocellular carcinoma risk factor categories as per American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases guidelines. All analyses were undertaken in STATA. Logistic regression was used to assess the associations between covariates and screening utilisation. Multivariate models described were assessed using the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness of fit. Of the 177 participants, 137 (77.4%) self-reported that US had been performed in the last six months. Awareness that screening should be performed and knowing the correct frequency of US screening were independently associated with screening utilisation. Participants who knew that screening should be undertaken were three times more likely to have had pretreatment education or were prescribed hepatitis B virus anti-viral treatment for >4 years. Participants reporting a family history of hepatocellular carcinoma were less likely to know that screening should be undertaken every 6 months. While utilisation of hepatocellular carcinoma surveillance programs was higher in this study than in previous reports, strategies to further improve surveillance remain necessary. Findings from this research form the basis for proposing strategies to improve utilisation of hepatocellular carcinoma screening, inform hepatitis B virus

Utilisation of chemically treated coal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bezovska, M.

2002-01-01

The numerous application of coal with high content of humic substances are known. They are used in many branches of industry. The complex study of the composition of coal from upper Nitra mines has directed research to its application in the field of ecology and agriculture. The effective sorption layers of this coal and their humic acids can trap a broad spectrum of toxic harmful substances present in industrial wastes, particularly heavy metals. A major source of humic acids is coal - the most abundant and predominant product of plant residue coalification. All ranks of coal contain humic acids but lignite from Novaky deposit represents the most easily available and concentrated from of humic acids. The possibilities of utilisation of humic acids to remove heavy metals from waste waters was studied. The residual concentrations of the investigated metals in the aqueous phase were determined by AAs. From the results follows that the samples of coals humic acids can be used for the heavy metal removal from metal solutions and the real acid mine water. Oxidised coal with high content of humic acids and nitrogen is used in agriculture as fertilizer. Humic acids are active component in coal and can help to utilize almost quantitatively nitrogen in soil. The humic substances block and stabilize toxic metal residues already present in soil. (author)

High-performance hybrid-fibre concrete : Development and utilisation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Markovic, I.

2006-01-01

Although concrete is the most utilised building material nowdays, this material has a large shortcoming: it has a good resistance against compressive stresses, but a very low resistance against tensile stresses. Usual way to solve this problem is the application of steel reinforcement in concrete

WindS@UP: The e-Science Platform for WindScanner.eu

Science.gov (United States)

Gomes, Filipe; Correia Lopes, João; Laginha Palma, José; Frölén Ribeiro, Luís

2014-06-01

The WindScanner e-Science platform architecture and the underlying premises are discussed. It is a collaborative platform that will provide a repository for experimental data and metadata. Additional data processing capabilities will be incorporated thus enabling in-situ data processing. Every resource in the platform is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), enabling an unequivocally identification of the field(s) campaign(s) data sets and metadata associated with the data set or experience. This feature will allow the validation of field experiment results and conclusions as all managed resources will be linked. A centralised node (Hub) will aggregate the contributions of 6 to 8 local nodes from EC countries and will manage the access of 3 types of users: data-curator, data provider and researcher. This architecture was designed to ensure consistent and efficient research data access and preservation, and exploitation of new research opportunities provided by having this "Collaborative Data Infrastructure". The prototype platform-WindS@UP-enables the usage of the platform by humans via a Web interface or by machines using an internal API (Application Programming Interface). Future work will improve the vocabulary ("application profile") used to describe the resources managed by the platform.

“Modular Biospheres” New testbed platforms for public environmental education and research

Science.gov (United States)

Nelson, M.; Dempster, W. F.; Allen, J. P.

This paper will review the potential of a relatively new type of testbed platform for environmental education and research because of the unique advantages resulting from their material closure and separation from the outside environment. These facilities which we term "modular biospheres", have emerged from research centered on space life support research but offer a wider range of application. Examples of this type of facility include the Bios-3 facility in Russia, the Japanese CEEF (Closed Ecological Experiment Facility), the NASA Kennedy Space Center Breadboard facility, the Biosphere 2 Test Module and the Laboratory Biosphere. Modular biosphere facilities offer unique research and public real-time science education opportunities. Ecosystem behavior can be studied since initial state conditions can be precisely specified and tracked over different ranges of time. With material closure (apart from very small air exchange rate which can be determined), biogeochemical cycles between soil and soil microorganisms, water, plants, and atmosphere can be studied in detail. Such studies offer a major advance from studies conducted with phytotrons which because of their small size, limit the number of organisms to a very small number, and which crucially do not have a high degree of atmospheric, water and overall material closure. Modular biospheres take advantage of the unique properties of closure, as representing a distinct system "metabolism" and therefore are essentially a "mini-world". Though relatively large in comparison with most phytotrons and ecological microcosms, which are now standard research and educational tools, modular biospheres are small enough that they can be economically reconfigured to reflect a changing research agenda. Some design elements include lighting via electric lights and/or sunlight, hydroponic or soil substrate for plants, opaque or glazed structures, and variable volume chambers or other methods to handle atmospheric pressure

Payment Platform

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hjelholt, Morten; Damsgaard, Jan

2012-01-01

thoroughly and substitute current payment standards in the decades to come. This paper portrays how digital payment platforms evolve in socio-technical niches and how various technological platforms aim for institutional attention in their attempt to challenge earlier platforms and standards. The paper...... applies a co-evolutionary multilevel perspective to model the interplay and processes between technology and society wherein digital payment platforms potentially will substitute other payment platforms just like the credit card negated the check. On this basis this paper formulate a multilevel conceptual...

Utilisation of family planning techniques among women: an ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Utilisation of family planning by women will promote sustainable development and general wellbeing of women at the rural community. The study assessed utilization of family planning techniques among women in the rural area of Lagos state. Sixty respondents were randomly selected for the study. Structured interview ...

Contextual and individual factors associated with dental services utilisation by Brazilian adults: A multilevel analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Herkrath, Fernando José; Vettore, Mario Vianna; Werneck, Guilherme Loureiro

2018-01-01

Inequalities in the utilisation of dental services in Brazil are remarkable. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of contextual and individual factors with the utilisation of dental services by Brazilian adults using the Andersen's behavioural model. Individual-level data from 27,017 adults residents in the State capitals who were interviewed in the 2013 Brazilian National Health Survey were pooled with contextual city-level data. The outcomes were non-utilisation of dental services and last dental visit over 12 months ago. Individual predisposing variables were age, sex, race/skin colour, schooling and social network. Individual enabling variables included income, health insurance and registration in primary health care. Individual need variables were self-perceived dental health and self-reported missing teeth. Multilevel logistic regression models were performed to estimate odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) of the association of contextual and individual predisposing, enabling and need-related variables with dental services outcomes. Predisposing (OR = 0.89; 95% CI 0.81-0.97) and enabling (OR = 0.90; 95% CI 0.85-0.96) contextual factors were associated with non-utilisation of dental services. Individual predisposing (sex, race/skin colour, schooling), enabling (income, health insurance) and need (self-perceived oral health, missing teeth) were associated with non-utilisation of dental services and last dental visit over 12 months ago. The latter was also associated with other individual predisposing (age, social network) and need (eating difficulties due to oral problems) characteristics. Individual and contextual determinants influenced dental services utilisation in Brazilian adults. These factors should be on the policy agenda and considered in the organisation of health services aiming to reduce oral health inequalities related to access and utilisation of dental services.

Health Care Transformation Through Collaboration on Open-Source Informatics Projects: Integrating a Medical Applications Platform, Research Data Repository, and Patient Summarization

Science.gov (United States)

McCoy, Allison B; Wright, Adam; Wattanasin, Nich; Sittig, Dean F; Murphy, Shawn N

2013-01-01

Background The Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Projects (SHARP) program seeks to conquer well-understood challenges in medical informatics through breakthrough research. Two SHARP centers have found alignment in their methodological needs: (1) members of the National Center for Cognitive Informatics and Decision-making (NCCD) have developed knowledge bases to support problem-oriented summarizations of patient data, and (2) Substitutable Medical Apps, Reusable Technologies (SMART), which is a platform for reusable medical apps that can run on participating platforms connected to various electronic health records (EHR). Combining the work of these two centers will ensure wide dissemination of new methods for synthesized views of patient data. Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside (i2b2) is an NIH-funded clinical research data repository platform in use at over 100 sites worldwide. By also working with a co-occurring initiative to SMART-enabling i2b2, we can confidently write one app that can be used extremely broadly. Objective Our goal was to facilitate development of intuitive, problem-oriented views of the patient record using NCCD knowledge bases that would run in any EHR. To do this, we developed a collaboration between the two SHARPs and an NIH center, i2b2. Methods First, we implemented collaborative tools to connect researchers at three institutions. Next, we developed a patient summarization app using the SMART platform and a previously validated NCCD problem-medication linkage knowledge base derived from the National Drug File-Reference Terminology (NDF-RT). Finally, to SMART-enable i2b2, we implemented two new Web service “cells” that expose the SMART application programming interface (API), and we made changes to the Web interface of i2b2 to host a “carousel” of SMART apps. Results We deployed our SMART-based, NDF-RT-derived patient summarization app in this SMART-i2b2 container. It displays a problem-oriented view of

Health care transformation through collaboration on open-source informatics projects: integrating a medical applications platform, research data repository, and patient summarization.

Science.gov (United States)

Klann, Jeffrey G; McCoy, Allison B; Wright, Adam; Wattanasin, Nich; Sittig, Dean F; Murphy, Shawn N

2013-05-30

The Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Projects (SHARP) program seeks to conquer well-understood challenges in medical informatics through breakthrough research. Two SHARP centers have found alignment in their methodological needs: (1) members of the National Center for Cognitive Informatics and Decision-making (NCCD) have developed knowledge bases to support problem-oriented summarizations of patient data, and (2) Substitutable Medical Apps, Reusable Technologies (SMART), which is a platform for reusable medical apps that can run on participating platforms connected to various electronic health records (EHR). Combining the work of these two centers will ensure wide dissemination of new methods for synthesized views of patient data. Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside (i2b2) is an NIH-funded clinical research data repository platform in use at over 100 sites worldwide. By also working with a co-occurring initiative to SMART-enabling i2b2, we can confidently write one app that can be used extremely broadly. Our goal was to facilitate development of intuitive, problem-oriented views of the patient record using NCCD knowledge bases that would run in any EHR. To do this, we developed a collaboration between the two SHARPs and an NIH center, i2b2. First, we implemented collaborative tools to connect researchers at three institutions. Next, we developed a patient summarization app using the SMART platform and a previously validated NCCD problem-medication linkage knowledge base derived from the National Drug File-Reference Terminology (NDF-RT). Finally, to SMART-enable i2b2, we implemented two new Web service "cells" that expose the SMART application programming interface (API), and we made changes to the Web interface of i2b2 to host a "carousel" of SMART apps. We deployed our SMART-based, NDF-RT-derived patient summarization app in this SMART-i2b2 container. It displays a problem-oriented view of medications and presents a line-graph display of

Impact of product platforms on lean production systems : evidence from industrial machinery manufacturing

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Alblas, A.A.; Wortmann, J.C.

2012-01-01

The present study describes the effects of product platform changes on lean production systems. Current research into product platforms focuses mostly on the development stage. However, although the initial development of platforms is an important issue, product platforms often evolve during later

NEON's Mobile Deployment Platform: A research tool for integrating ecological processes across scales

Science.gov (United States)

Sanclements, M.

2016-12-01

Here we provide an update on construction of the five NEON Mobile Deployment Platforms (MDPs) as well as a description of the infrastructure and sensors available to researchers in the near future. Additionally, we include information (i.e. timelines and procedures) on requesting MDPs for PI led projects. The MDPs will provide the means to observe stochastic or spatially important events, gradients, or quantities that cannot be reliably observed using fixed location sampling (e.g. fires and floods). Due to the transient temporal and spatial nature of such events, the MDPs are designed to accommodate rapid deployment for time periods up to 1 year. Broadly, the MDPs are comprised of infrastructure and instrumentation capable of functioning individually or in conjunction with one another to support observations of ecological change, as well as education, training and outreach. More specifically, the MDPs include the capability to make tower based measures of ecosystem exchange, radiation, and precipitation in conjunction with baseline soils data such as CO2 flux, and soil temperature and moisture. An aquatics module is also available with the MDP to facilitate research integrating terrestrial and aquatic processes. Ultimately, the NEON MDPs provides a tool for linking PI led research to the continental scale data sets collected by NEON.

Intelligent tools for building a scientific information platform from research to implementation

CERN Document Server

Skonieczny, Łukasz; Rybiński, Henryk; Kryszkiewicz, Marzena; Niezgódka, Marek

2014-01-01

This book is a selection of results obtained within three years of research performed under SYNAT—a nation-wide scientific project aiming at creating an infrastructure for scientific content storage and sharing for academia, education and open knowledge society in Poland. The book is intended to be the last of the series related to the SYNAT project. The previous books, titled “Intelligent Tools for Building a Scientific Information Platform” and “Intelligent Tools for Building a Scientific Information Platform: Advanced Architectures and Solutions”, were published as volumes 390 and 467 in Springer's Studies in Computational Intelligence. Its contents is based on the SYNAT 2013 Workshop held in Warsaw. The papers included in this volume present an overview and insight into information retrieval, repository systems, text processing, ontology-based systems, text mining, multimedia data processing and advanced software engineering, addressing the problems of implementing intelligent tools for building...

Utilisation of information technology to support information and knowledge management by lawyers in Polokwane City

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Solomon Bopape

2010-01-01

Full Text Available A revolution in information and communication technology is taking place in the world. With this technological revolution, information and knowledge are also considered as crucial assets for every organization. Law firms are regarded as one of the industries which are information and knowledge-intensive. The utilization of information technology can play an essential role in supporting information and knowledge management in law firms. An investigation into the extent to which lawyers or law firms in Polokwane city utilize information technology to support information and knowledge management was conducted through a survey questionnaire based on the Technology Acceptance Model. The findings of this research showed that lawyers utilise information technology systems or applications that are common, such as word processing, e-mail, client billing and online databases for searching legal information. Other information and knowledge management tools, such as Intranets, extranets and web portals, were the least and non-utilised applications by these lawyers. The main reason for non-utilization of such systems may be linked to non- exposure to information technology and unfamiliarity with information and knowledge management tools. It is, therefore, recommended that legal schools should include, in their curriculum, modules on the application and role of information technology in the legal practice. Recommendations for future research related to this subject are also provided.

Energy analysis of various grassland utilisation systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jozef Ržonca

2005-01-01

Full Text Available In 2003 and 2004 was carried out the energy analysis of the different types of permanent grassland utilization on the Hrubý Jeseník locality. There were estimated values of the particular entrances of additional energy. Energy entrances moved according to the pratotechnologies from 2.17 GJ. ha–1 to 22.70 GJ.ha–1. The biggest share on energy entrances had fertilizers. It was 84.93% by the nitrogen fertilisation. The most energy benefit of brutto and nettoenergy was marked by the low intensive utilisation (33.40 GJ.ha–1 NEL and 32.40 GJ.ha–1 NEV on average. The highest value of energy efficiency (13.23% was marked by the low intensive utilization of permanent grassland. By using of higher doses of industrial fertilizers has energy efficiency decreased. From view of energy benefit and intensiveness on energy entrances it appears the most available utilisation of permanent grassland with three cuts per year (first cut on May 31st at the latest, every next after 60 days or two cuts per year (first cut on July 15th, next cuts after 90 days.

To fractionate municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash: Key for utilisation?

Science.gov (United States)

Sormunen, Laura Annika; Rantsi, Riina

2015-11-01

For the past decade, the Finnish waste sector has increasingly moved from the landfilling of municipal solid waste towards waste incineration. New challenges are faced with the growing amounts of municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash, which are mainly landfilled at the moment. Since this is not a sustainable or a profitable solution, finding different utilisation applications for the municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash is crucial. This study reports a comprehensive analysis of bottom ash properties from one waste incineration plant in Finland, which was first treated with a Dutch bottom ash recovery technique called advanced dry recovery. This novel process separates non-ferrous and ferrous metals from bottom ash, generating mineral fractions of different grain sizes (0-2 mm, 2-5 mm, 5-12 mm and 12-50 mm). The main aim of the study was to assess, whether the advanced bottom ash treatment technique, producing mineral fractions of different grain sizes and therefore properties, facilitates the utilisation of municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash in Finland. The results were encouraging; the bottom ash mineral fractions have favourable behaviour against the frost action, which is especially useful in the Finnish conditions. In addition, the leaching of most hazardous substances did not restrict the utilisation of bottom ash, especially for the larger fractions (>5 mm). Overall, this study has shown that the advanced bottom ash recovering technique can be one solution to increase the utilisation of bottom ash and furthermore decrease its landfilling in Finland. © The Author(s) 2015.

Facilitating nurses' knowledge of the utilisation of reflexology in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2012-05-18

May 18, 2012 ... scientific evidence on the utilisation of reflexology as CAM modality to promote .... reflexology therapy, zone therapy and foot massage and ...... perceived quality of care and cultural beliefs', Family Pracfice 21(6), 654−660.

YARP: Yet Another Robot Platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lorenzo Natale

2008-11-01

Full Text Available We describe YARP, Yet Another Robot Platform, an open-source project that encapsulates lessons from our experience in building humanoid robots. The goal of YARP is to minimize the effort devoted to infrastructure-level software development by facilitating code reuse, modularity and so maximize research-level development and collaboration. Humanoid robotics is a "bleeding edge" field of research, with constant flux in sensors, actuators, and processors. Code reuse and maintenance is therefore a significant challenge. We describe the main problems we faced and the solutions we adopted. In short, the main features of YARP include support for inter-process communication, image processing as well as a class hierarchy to ease code reuse across different hardware platforms. YARP is currently used and tested on Windows, Linux and QNX6 which are common operating systems used in robotics.

Utilisation of podiatry services in Australia under the Medicare Enhanced Primary Care program, 2004-2008

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Menz Hylton B

2009-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In 2004, as an extension of the Enhanced Primary Care (EPC program, the Australian Government introduced a policy of providing Medicare rebates for allied health services provided to patients with chronic or complex health conditions. The objective of this study was to evaluate the utilisation of podiatry services provided under this scheme between 2004 and 2008. Methods Data pertaining to the Medicare item 10962 for the calendar years 2004-2008 were extracted from the Australian Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS database and cross-tabulated by sex and age. Descriptive analyses were undertaken to assess sex and age differences in the number of consultations provided and to assess for temporal trends over the five-year assessment period. The total cost to Medicare over this period was also determined. Results During the 2004-2008 period, a total of 1,338,044 EPC consultations were provided by podiatrists in Australia. Females exhibited higher utilisation than males (63 versus 37%, and those aged over 65 years accounted for 75% of consultations. There was a marked increase in the number of consultations provided from 2004 to 2008, and the total cost of providing EPC podiatry services during this period was $62.9 M. Conclusion Podiatry services have been extensively utilised under the EPC program by primary care patients, particularly older women, and the number of services provided has increased dramatically between 2004 and 2008. Further research is required to determine whether the EPC program enhances clinical outcomes compared to standard practice.

Service platforms management strategy: case study of an interior design firm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leonel Del Rey de Melo Filho

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Platform management is a strategic tool for firms of various sizes, although it demands studies in the service sector. The aim of this paper is to investigate a use of platform management, designed to reach flexibility and operational dynamics in service projects. The studied platform is evaluated as a strategic resource in a particular case. The contributions of the service platform were explored from Resource-Based View (RBV and Service Marketing (SM perspectives, to study their effects on firms’ performance. The research strategy used was an exploratory case study in an interior design firm. The data collection techniques included a participant observation, document analysis and a focus group with firm managers. The research demonstrated that platform management is a strategic resource that assists with the planning of internal capabilities, market positioning, and provides better customer service.

Homogeneous catalysis for the conversion of biomass and biomass-derived platform chemicals

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Deuss, Peter J.; Barta, Katalin; de Vries, Johannes G.

2014-01-01

The transition from a petroleum-based infrastructure to an industry which utilises renewable resources is one of the key research challenges of the coming years. Biomass, consisting of inedible plant material that does not compete with our food production, is a suitable renewable feedstock. In

Developing and Testing a New Measurement Instrument for Documenting Instrumental Knowledge Utilisation: The Degrees of Knowledge Utilization (DoKU) Scale

Science.gov (United States)

Bøllingtoft Knudsen, Søren

2018-01-01

Focus on evidence-based policymaking is greater than ever, and public spending on evaluations is rising. A primary merit of these expenditures is that politicians actually use new knowledge instrumentally--to influence and inform decision making. Nevertheless, we know surprisingly little about whether and how research-based knowledge is utilised.…

Environmental assessment of incinerator residue utilisation

OpenAIRE

Toller, Susanna; Kärrman, Erik; Gustafsson, Jon Petter; Magnusson, Y.

2009-01-01

Incineration ashes may be treated either as a waste to be dumped in landfill, or as a resource that is suit able for re-use. In order to choose the best management scenario, knowledge is needed on the potential environmental impact that may be expected, including not only local, but also regional and global impact. In this study. A life cycle assessment (LCA) based approach Was Outlined for environmental assessment of incinerator residue utilisation, in which leaching of trace elements as wel...

Research on Hydrodynamic Interference Suppression of Bottom-Mounted Monitoring Platform with Fairing Structure

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Zhen; Zheng, Yi; Mao, Yu-feng; Wang, Ya-zhou; Yu, Yan-ting; Liu, Hong-ning

2018-03-01

In the disturbance of unsteady flow field under the sea, the monitoring accuracy and precision of the bottom-mounted acoustic monitoring platform will decrease. In order to reduce the hydrodynamic interference, the platform wrapped with fairing structure and separated from the retrieval unit is described. The suppression effect evaluation based on the correlation theory of sound pressure and particle velocity for spherical wave in infinite homogeneous medium is proposed and the difference value between them is used to evaluate the hydrodynamic restraining performance of the bottom-mounted platform under far field condition. Through the sea test, it is indicated that the platform with sparse layers fairing structure (there are two layers for the fairing, in which the inside layer is 6-layers sparse metal net, and the outside layer is 1-layer polyester cloth, and then it takes sparse layers for short) has no attenuation in the sound pressure response to the sound source signal, but obvious suppression in the velocity response to the hydrodynamic noise. The effective frequency of the fairing structure is decreased below 10 Hz, and the noise magnitude is reduced by 10 dB. With the comparison of different fairing structures, it is concluded that the tighter fairing structure can enhance the performance of sound transmission and flow restraining.

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.

Health services utilisation disparities between English speaking and non-English speaking background Australian infants

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chen Jack

2010-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background To examine the differences in health services utilisation and the associated risk factors between infants from non-English speaking background (NESB and English speaking background (ESB within Australia. Methods We analysed data from a national representative longitudinal study, the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC which started in 2004. We used survey logistic regression coupled with survey multiple linear regression to examine the factors associated with health services utilisation. Results Similar health status was observed between the two groups. In comparison to ESB infants, NESB infants were significantly less likely to use the following health services: maternal and child health centres or help lines (odds ratio [OR] 0.56; 95% confidence intervals [CI], 0.40-0.79; maternal and child health nurse visits (OR 0.68; 95% CI, 0.49-0.95; general practitioners (GPs (OR 0.58; 95% CI, 0.40-0.83; and hospital outpatient clinics (OR 0.54; 95% CI, 0.31-0.93. Multivariate analysis results showed that the disparities could not be fully explained by the socioeconomic status and language barriers. The association between English proficiency and the service utilised was absent once the NESB was taken into account. Maternal characteristics, family size and income, private health insurance and region of residence were the key factors associated with health services utilisation. Conclusions NESB infants accessed significantly less of the four most frequently used health services compared with ESB infants. Maternal characteristics and family socioeconomic status were linked to health services utilisation. The gaps in health services utilisation between NESB and ESB infants with regard to the use of maternal and child health centres or phone help, maternal and child health nurse visits, GPs and paediatricians require appropriate policy attentions and interventions.

WindS@UP: The e-Science Platform for WindScanner.eu

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gomes, Filipe; Palma, José Laginha; Lopes, João Correia; Ribeiro, Luís Frölén

2014-01-01

The WindScanner e-Science platform architecture and the underlying premises are discussed. It is a collaborative platform that will provide a repository for experimental data and metadata. Additional data processing capabilities will be incorporated thus enabling in-situ data processing. Every resource in the platform is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), enabling an unequivocally identification of the field(s) campaign(s) data sets and metadata associated with the data set or experience. This feature will allow the validation of field experiment results and conclusions as all managed resources will be linked. A centralised node (Hub) will aggregate the contributions of 6 to 8 local nodes from EC countries and will manage the access of 3 types of users: data-curator, data provider and researcher. This architecture was designed to ensure consistent and efficient research data access and preservation, and exploitation of new research opportunities provided by having this C ollaborative Data Infrastructure . The prototype platform-WindS@UP-enables the usage of the platform by humans via a Web interface or by machines using an internal API (Application Programming Interface). Future work will improve the vocabulary ( a pplication profile ) used to describe the resources managed by the platform

Biochem-Env, a platform of environmental biochemistry for research in ecology and ecotoxicology

OpenAIRE

Grondin, Virginie; Nelieu, Sylvie; Crouzet, Olivier; Hedde, Mickaël; Mougin, Christian

2016-01-01

The consortium AnaEE-France (http://www.anaee-s.fr) aims at understanding and predicting the biodiversity and ecosystems dynamics in a context of global change. It will allow improving the understanding of biotic processes/environment interactions, mobilizing experimental and modelling platforms devoted to the biology of continental ecosystems, both terrestrial and aquatic. In this context, the objectives of the platform Biochem-Env (http://www.biochemenv.fr) are to provide skills and innovat...

Progress towards Sustainable Utilisation and Management of Food Wastes in the Global Economy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Purabi R. Ghosh

2016-01-01

Full Text Available In recent years, the problem of food waste has attracted considerable interest from food producers, processors, retailers, and consumers alike. Food waste is considered not only a sustainability problem related to food security, but also an economic problem since it directly impacts the profitability of the whole food supply chain. In developed countries, consumers are one of the main contributors to food waste and ultimately pay for all wastes produced throughout the food supply chain. To secure food and reduce food waste, it is essential to have a comprehensive understanding of the various sources of food wastes throughout the food supply chain. The present review examines various reports currently in the literature and quantifies waste levels and examines the trends in wastage for various food sectors such as fruit and vegetable, fisheries, meat and poultry, grain, milk, and dairy. Factors contributing to food waste, effective cost/benefit food waste utilisation methods, sustainability and environment considerations, and public acceptance are identified as hurdles in preventing large-scale food waste processing. Thus, we highlight the need for further research to identify and report food waste so that government regulators and food supply chain stakeholders can actively develop effective waste utilisation practices.

Progress towards Sustainable Utilisation and Management of Food Wastes in the Global Economy

Science.gov (United States)

Ghosh, Purabi R.; Fawcett, Derek; Sharma, Shashi B.

2016-01-01

In recent years, the problem of food waste has attracted considerable interest from food producers, processors, retailers, and consumers alike. Food waste is considered not only a sustainability problem related to food security, but also an economic problem since it directly impacts the profitability of the whole food supply chain. In developed countries, consumers are one of the main contributors to food waste and ultimately pay for all wastes produced throughout the food supply chain. To secure food and reduce food waste, it is essential to have a comprehensive understanding of the various sources of food wastes throughout the food supply chain. The present review examines various reports currently in the literature and quantifies waste levels and examines the trends in wastage for various food sectors such as fruit and vegetable, fisheries, meat and poultry, grain, milk, and dairy. Factors contributing to food waste, effective cost/benefit food waste utilisation methods, sustainability and environment considerations, and public acceptance are identified as hurdles in preventing large-scale food waste processing. Thus, we highlight the need for further research to identify and report food waste so that government regulators and food supply chain stakeholders can actively develop effective waste utilisation practices. PMID:27847805

A drug utilisation study investigating prescribed daily doses of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

and drug groups. Design. Retrospective drug utilisation study using data .... drugs that were prescribed 20 or fewer times during the period under ... occurs in women and men at different ages and with different severity. group. On average, men ...

Glass melting and its innovation potentials: The combination of transversal and longitudinal circulations and its influence on space utilisation

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Polák, M.; Němec, Lubomír

2011-01-01

Roč. 357, 16-17 (2011), s. 3108-3116 ISSN 0022-3093 R&D Projects: GA MPO 2A-1TP1/063 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z40320502 Keywords : space utilisation * sand dissolution * bubble removal * flow patterns * model furnace Subject RIV: JH - Ceramics, Fire-Resistant Materials and Glass Impact factor: 1.537, year: 2011

Utilisation of a community-based health facility in a low-income urban community in Ibadan, Nigeria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ayodeji M. Adebayo

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Background: Primary healthcare is established to ensure that people have access to health services through facilities located in their community. However, utilisation of health facilities in Nigeria remains low in many communities. Aim: To assess the utilisation of community-based health facility (CBHF amongst adults in Ibadan, Nigeria. Settings: A low-income community in Ibadan North West Local Government Area of Oyo State.Methods:A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a simple random sampling technique to select one adult per household in all 586 houses in the community. A semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect information on respondents’ sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge and utilisation of the CBHF. Data analysis included descriptive statistics and association testing using the Chi-square test at p = 0.05. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 46.5 ± 16.0 years; 46.0% were men and 81.0% married; 26% had no formal education and 38.0% had secondary-level education and above; traders constituted 52.0% of the sample; and 85.2% were of low socioeconomic standing; 90%had patronised the CBHF. The main reasons for non-utilisation were preference for general hospitals (13.8% and self-medication (12.1%. Respondents who had secondary education and above, were in a higher socioeconomic class, who had good knowledge of the facility and were satisfied with care, utilised the CBHF three months significantly more than their counterparts prior to the study (p < 0.05. However, only satisfaction with care was found to be a significant predictor of utilisation of the CBHF. Conclusion: The utilisation of the CBHF amongst adults in the study setting is high, driven mostly by satisfaction with the care received previously. Self-medication, promoted by uncontrolled access to drugs through pharmacies and patent medicine stores, threatens this high utilisation.

Description and principles of use of an automatic control device usable, in particular, in analytical chemistry; Description et principes d'utilisation d'un dispositif de commande automatique utilisable, en particulier, en chimie analytique

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rigaudiere, Roger; Jeanmaire, Lucien [Commissariat a l' Energie Atomique - CEA, Centre d' Etudes Nucleaires de Fontenay-aux-Roses, Direction de la Protection et de la Surete Radiologiques, Departement de la Protection Sanitaire, Section de Controle Sanitaire (France)

1969-07-01

This note describes an automatic control device for the programming of about 20 different functions, chronologically and during a given time. Any voltage can be chosen at the output to perform the different functions. Three examples of utilisation taken in analytical chemistry are given to illustrate the possibilities offered by this device, but its domain of use is much more universal and independent of the type of functions [French] Description d'un dispositif de commande automatique destine a programmer une vingtaine de fonctions differentes dans l'ordre et pendant le temps desire. Aux bornes d'utilisation de ce dispositif, on peut choisir a volonte du 24 V continu, du 220 V alternatif ou un contact de court-circuit pour realiser les fonctions elles-memes. Afin d'illustrer concretement les possibilites de cet appareil, il est donne trois exemples d'utilisation empruntes a la chimie analytique pour laquelle il a ete prevu initialement. En realite, son domaine d'utilisation est beaucoup plus universel, car il est relativement independant de la nature des fonctions. (auteurs)

Model Infrastruktur dan Manajemen Platform Server Berbasis Cloud Computing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mulki Indana Zulfa

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Cloud computing is a new technology that is still very rapidly growing. This technology makes the Internet as the main media for the management of data and applications remotely. Cloud computing allows users to run an application without having to think about infrastructure and its platforms. Other technical aspects such as memory, storage, backup and restore, can be done very easily. This research is intended to modeling the infrastructure and management of computer platform in computer network of Faculty of Engineering, University of Jenderal Soedirman. The first stage in this research is literature study, by finding out the implementation model in previous research. Then the result will be combined with a new approach to existing resources and try to implement directly on the existing server network. The results showed that the implementation of cloud computing technology is able to replace the existing platform network.

Influence of the crude oil type to platforming effects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kafedzhiski, Branko; Crvenkova, Suzana; Zikovski, Toni

1999-01-01

Platforming is one of the most subtleties processing in refinery industry and it is permanent source for research and finding out the higher optimum degree. Optimum of the last effects of platforming directly depends on many parameters. One of the more important parameters is the type of the crude. The purpose of this work is presenting positive and negative effect to the platforming parameters caused by different types of crude in OCTA Crude Oil Refinery - Skopje (Macedonia). (Author)

Study on concept of web-based reactor piping design data platform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Yu; Zhou Yu; Dong Jianling; Meng Yang

2005-01-01

For solving the piping design problems such as design data deficiency, designer communication inconvenience and design project inconsistence, Reactor Piping Design Database Platform, which is the main part of the Integrated Nuclear Project Research Platform, is proposed by analyzing the nuclear piping designs in detail. The functions and system structures of the platform are described in the paper for the sake of the realization of the Reactor Piping Design Database Platform. The platform is constituted by web-based management interface, AutoPlant selected as CAD software, and relation database management system (DBMS). (authors)

Platform thinking for services: the case of human resources

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hofman, Erwin; Meijerink, Jeroen Gerard

2015-01-01

This paper tests the utility of platform thinking, a design principle that has so far been applied to product development yet under-researched in service settings, for improving the value of services. A key principle of platform thinking is to balance the reuse of service components with the

Cost (non)-recovery by platform technology facilities in the Bio21 Cluster.

Science.gov (United States)

Gibbs, Gerard; Clark, Stella; Quinn, Julieanne; Gleeson, Mary Joy

2010-04-01

Platform technologies (PT) are techniques or tools that enable a range of scientific investigations and are critical to today's advanced technology research environment. Once installed, they require specialized staff for their operations, who in turn, provide expertise to researchers in designing appropriate experiments. Through this pipeline, research outputs are raised to the benefit of the researcher and the host institution. Platform facilities provide access to instrumentation and expertise for a wide range of users beyond the host institution, including other academic and industry users. To maximize the return on these substantial public investments, this wider access needs to be supported. The question of support and the mechanisms through which this occurs need to be established based on a greater understanding of how PT facilities operate. This investigation was aimed at understanding if and how platform facilities across the Bio21 Cluster meet operating costs. Our investigation found: 74% of platforms surveyed do not recover 100% of direct operating costs and are heavily subsidized by their home institution, which has a vested interest in maintaining the technology platform; platform managers play a major role in establishing the costs and pricing of the facility, normally in a collaborative process with a management committee or institutional accountant; and most facilities have a three-tier pricing structure recognizing internal academic, external academic, and commercial clients.

The Platformization of the Web: Making Web Data Platform Ready

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Helmond, A.

2015-01-01

In this article, I inquire into Facebook’s development as a platform by situating it within the transformation of social network sites into social media platforms. I explore this shift with a historical perspective on, what I refer to as, platformization, or the rise of the platform as the dominant

Utilisation and Management Changes in South Kyrgyzstan's Mountain Forests

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Matthias Schmidt

2005-01-01

Using political ecology as its conceptual framework, this paper focuses on the changes in forest utilisation and management of South Kyrgyzstan's walnut-fruit forests over the last century. The aim of this study on human-environment interactions is to investigate the relationship between actors on the one side, their interests and demands, and the forests and forested lands on the other. Forest resource utilisation and management - and even the recognition of different forest products as resources - are connected with political and socio-economic conditions that change with time. The walnut-fruit forests of South Kyrgyzstan are unique, characterised by high biodiversity and a multiplicity of usable products; and they have been utilised for a long time. Centralised and formal management of the forests started with the Russian occupation and was strengthened under Soviet rule, when the region became a part of the USSR. During this era, a state forest administration that was structured from Moscow all the way down to the local level drew up detailed plans and developed procedures for utilising the different forest products. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the socio-political and economic frame conditions have changed significantly, which has brought not only the sweeping changes in the managing institutions, but also the access rights and interests in the forest resources. At present, the region is suffering from a high unemployment rate, which has resulted in the forests' gaining considerable importance in the livelihood strategies of the local population. Political and economic liberalization, increased communication and trans-regional exchange relations have opened the door for international companies and agents interested in the valuable forest products. Today, walnut wood and burls, walnuts, wild apples and mushrooms are all exported to various countries in the world. Scientists and members of various international organisations stress the ecological

CERN Neutrino Platform Hardware

CERN Document Server

Nelson, Kevin

2017-01-01

My summer research was broadly in CERN's neutrino platform hardware efforts. This project had two main components: detector assembly and data analysis work for ICARUS. Specifically, I worked on assembly for the ProtoDUNE project and monitored the safety of ICARUS as it was transported to Fermilab by analyzing the accelerometer data from its move.

CHANGES IN THE LEVEL AND STRUCTURE OF UTILISATION OF SERVICES IN POLISH AND GERMAN AGRICULTURE IN 1998-2012

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Małgorzata Kołodziejczak

2014-03-01

Full Text Available The aim of the paper was to present the differences in the level and structure of utilisation of services in Polish and German agriculture. An attempt to define the factors influencing these values was also done. The research covered the share of agricultural services, veterinary expenses and financial intermediation services in intermediate consumption, the value of the studied services per 1 hectare of agricultural land, 1 AWU or 1 DJP, as well as services absorptivity of agricultural production. It was proved that although a significant difference between the role of these services in Poland and Germany still exists, in many cases in 2012 it was not so considerable as in 1998. It can be also assumed that further absorption of funds from the European Union will stimulate investment processes in Polish agriculture, and progressive improvement in utilisation of services by Polish agriculture.

Towards A Framework of Digital Payment Platform Design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kazan, Erol; Damsgaard, Jan

This paper focuses on the triumph march of mobile phones that currently are annexing music players, navigation devices, and cameras as separate physical objects. The next target is set on payment. Through synthesizing available literature, we construct a framework for studying digital payment...... platforms that combines platform, technology and business design aspects. The framework is applied to conduct a comparative case study of digital payment platforms. Four types of market actors are considered: banks, mobile network operators, merchants, and startups, which are incumbents and disrupters....... By hosting third-party services, payment instruments are evolving from single-purpose to multi-functional ones. Our research extends existing payment literature from the MSP perspective to emphasize certain digital payment platform components, which impact strategies and complementary products....

Contribution to global computation infrastructure: inter-platform delegation, integration of standard services and application to high-energy physics; Contribution aux infrastructures de calcul global: delegation inter plates-formes, integration de services standards et application a la physique des hautes energies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lodygensky, Oleg [Laboratoire de Recherche en Informatique, Laboratoire de l' Accelerateur Lineaire, Bat. 200, 91898 Orsay Cedex (France)

2006-07-01

The generalization and implementation of the current information resources, particularly the large storing capacities and the networks allow conceiving new methods of work and ways of entertainment. Centralized stand-alone, monolithic computing stations have been gradually replaced by distributed client-tailored architectures which in turn are challenged by the new distributed systems called 'pair-by pair' systems. This migration is no longer with the specialists' realm but users of more modest skills get used with this new techniques for e-mailing commercial information and exchanging various sorts of files on a 'equal-to-equal' basis. Trade, industry and research as well make profits largely of the new technique called 'grid', this new technique of handling information at a global scale. The present work concerns the grid utilisation for computation. A synergy was created with Paris-Sud University at Orsay, between the Information Research Laboratory (LRI) and the Linear Accelerator Laboratory (LAL) in order to foster the works on grid infrastructure of high research interest for LRI and offering new working methods for LAL. The results of the work developed within this inter-disciplinary-collaboration are based on XtremWeb, the research and production platform for global computation elaborated at LRI. First one presents the current status of the large-scale distributed systems, their basic principles and user-oriented architecture. The XtremWeb is then described focusing the modifications which were effected upon both architecture and implementation in order to fulfill optimally the requirements imposed to such a platform. Then one presents studies with the platform allowing a generalization of the inter-grid resources and development of a user-oriented grid adapted to special services, as well,. Finally one presents the operation modes, the problems to solve and the advantages of this new platform for the high-energy research

CERN un physicien dénonce des utilisations militaires

CERN Multimedia

2001-01-01

André Gsponer, ancien chercheur au CERN, a écrit un rapport qui dénone les utilisations militaires développées par certains Etat, dont l'Irak, sur la base des technologies mises au point au CERN (1 page).

The research of a gyro-stabilized platform and POS application technology in airborne remote sensing

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Jiang; Du, Qi

2009-07-01

The distortion of the collected images usually takes place since the attitude changes along with the flying aerocraft on airborne remote sensing. In order to get original images without distortion, it is necessary to use professional gyro-stabilized platform. In addition to this, another solution of correcting the original image distortion is to utilize later geometric rectification using position & orientation system ( POS ) data. The third way is to utilize medium-accuracy stabilized platform to control the distortion at a tolerant range, and then make use of the data obtained by high-solution posture measure system to correct the low-quality remote sensing images. The third way which takes advantage of both techniques is better than using only one of the two other ways. This paper introduces several kinds of structural forms of gyro-stabilized platforms, and POS acquiring instruments respectively. Then, the essay will make some analysis of their advantages and disadvantages, key technologies and the application experiment of the third method. After the analysis, the thesis discusses the design of the gyro-stabilized platform. The thesis provides crucial information not only for the application technology of gyro-stabilized platform and POS but also for future development.

Landscape Utilisation, Animal Behaviour and Hendra Virus Risk.

Science.gov (United States)

Field, H E; Smith, C S; de Jong, C E; Melville, D; Broos, A; Kung, N; Thompson, J; Dechmann, D K N

2016-03-01

Hendra virus causes sporadic fatal disease in horses and humans in eastern Australia. Pteropid bats (flying-foxes) are the natural host of the virus. The mode of flying-fox to horse transmission remains unclear, but oro-nasal contact with flying-fox urine, faeces or saliva is the most plausible. We used GPS data logger technology to explore the landscape utilisation of black flying-foxes and horses to gain new insight into equine exposure risk. Flying-fox foraging was repetitious, with individuals returning night after night to the same location. There was a preference for fragmented arboreal landscape and non-native plant species, resulting in increased flying-fox activity around rural infrastructure. Our preliminary equine data logger study identified significant variation between diurnal and nocturnal grazing behaviour that, combined with the observed flying-fox foraging behaviour, could contribute to Hendra virus exposure risk. While we found no significant risk-exposing difference in individual horse movement behaviour in this study, the prospect warrants further investigation, as does the broader role of animal behaviour and landscape utilisation on the transmission dynamics of Hendra virus.

Temperature profile from NOAA Ship RESEARCHER and other platforms as part of the ARP (Global Atmospheric Research Program) Atlantic Tropical Experiment from 1974-08-28 to 1974-09-20 (NODC Accession 7800314)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Temperature profile data were collected using BT and XBT from NOAA Ship RESEARCHER and other platforms in the TOGA area - Atlantic from 28 August 1974 to 20...

Updating the Micro-Tom TILLING platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Okabe, Yoshihiro; Ariizumi, Tohru; Ezura, Hiroshi

2013-03-01

The dwarf tomato variety Micro-Tom is regarded as a model system for functional genomics studies in tomato. Various tomato genomic tools in the genetic background of Micro-Tom have been established, such as mutant collections, genome information and a metabolomic database. Recent advances in tomato genome sequencing have brought about a significant need for reverse genetics tools that are accessible to the larger community, because a great number of gene sequences have become available from public databases. To meet the requests from the tomato research community, we have developed the Micro-Tom Targeting-Induced Local Lesions IN Genomes (TILLING) platform, which is comprised of more than 5000 EMS-mutagenized lines. The platform serves as a reverse genetics tool for efficiently identifying mutant alleles in parallel with the development of Micro-Tom mutant collections. The combination of Micro-Tom mutant libraries and the TILLING approach enables researchers to accelerate the isolation of desirable mutants for unraveling gene function or breeding. To upgrade the genomic tool of Micro-Tom, the development of a new mutagenized population is underway. In this paper, the current status of the Micro-Tom TILLING platform and its future prospects are described.

MycoCAP - Mycobacterium Comparative Analysis Platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Choo, Siew Woh; Ang, Mia Yang; Dutta, Avirup; Tan, Shi Yang; Siow, Cheuk Chuen; Heydari, Hamed; Mutha, Naresh V R; Wee, Wei Yee; Wong, Guat Jah

2015-12-15

Mycobacterium spp. are renowned for being the causative agent of diseases like leprosy, Buruli ulcer and tuberculosis in human beings. With more and more mycobacterial genomes being sequenced, any knowledge generated from comparative genomic analysis would provide better insights into the biology, evolution, phylogeny and pathogenicity of this genus, thus helping in better management of diseases caused by Mycobacterium spp.With this motivation, we constructed MycoCAP, a new comparative analysis platform dedicated to the important genus Mycobacterium. This platform currently provides information of 2108 genome sequences of at least 55 Mycobacterium spp. A number of intuitive web-based tools have been integrated in MycoCAP particularly for comparative analysis including the PGC tool for comparison between two genomes, PathoProT for comparing the virulence genes among the Mycobacterium strains and the SuperClassification tool for the phylogenic classification of the Mycobacterium strains and a specialized classification system for strains of Mycobacterium abscessus. We hope the broad range of functions and easy-to-use tools provided in MycoCAP makes it an invaluable analysis platform to speed up the research discovery on mycobacteria for researchers. Database URL: http://mycobacterium.um.edu.my.

Upgrade of The Cyber R and D Platform

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ko, Chang Seong; Lee, Kyung Jong; Yang, Tae Chun; Kim, Tae Sung; Hong, Hyun Joo [Kyungsung Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2007-02-15

Recently, it is necessary to demonstrate the program and experience the safety of radiation disposal by themselves. The objective of this research is to develop a cyber-based performance assessment program for the radiation disposal which is fit for Korean environment. This research covers the following four areas: - Development of Java-based MDPSA pre-processor - Linking MDPSA code to pre and post-processor. - Linking MDPSA code to Cyber R and D platform - Modification of the Cyber R and D platform. The results of this research can be used as a PR database for the central and local government. Using the web-based system, any person or interest group can plug in the system and experience the safety and clarity of the atomic energy and radiation disposal. Also, within the KAERI, research-related knowledge can be stored as a structured format. This enables the sharing, reusability, transparency, reliability and transferability of research results, and promotes the efficiency of research efforts within and outside of research team.

Upgrade of The Cyber R and D Platform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ko, Chang Seong; Lee, Kyung Jong; Yang, Tae Chun; Kim, Tae Sung; Hong, Hyun Joo

2007-02-01

Recently, it is necessary to demonstrate the program and experience the safety of radiation disposal by themselves. The objective of this research is to develop a cyber-based performance assessment program for the radiation disposal which is fit for Korean environment. This research covers the following four areas: - Development of Java-based MDPSA pre-processor - Linking MDPSA code to pre and post-processor. - Linking MDPSA code to Cyber R and D platform - Modification of the Cyber R and D platform. The results of this research can be used as a PR database for the central and local government. Using the web-based system, any person or interest group can plug in the system and experience the safety and clarity of the atomic energy and radiation disposal. Also, within the KAERI, research-related knowledge can be stored as a structured format. This enables the sharing, reusability, transparency, reliability and transferability of research results, and promotes the efficiency of research efforts within and outside of research team

Platform for systems medicine research and diagnostic applications in psychotic disorders-The METSY project

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Frank, Elisabeth; Maier, Dieter; Pajula, Juha

2018-01-01

with detailed metabolic characterisation and multi-variate network analysis is essential in order to identify how lipid dysregulation may contribute to psychotic disorders. A decision support system, integrating clinical, neuropsychological and neuroimaging data, was also developed in order to aid clinical......Psychotic disorders are associated with metabolic abnormalities including alterations in glucose and lipid metabolism. A major challenge in the treatment of psychosis is to identify patients with vulnerable metabolic profiles who may be at risk of developing cardiometabolic co...... these endocannabinoid abnormalities relate to metabolic changes in psychosis. Here we review recent research in the field of metabolic co-morbidities in psychotic disorders as well as the methods to study them and potential links to the endocannabinoid system. We also describe the bioinformatics platforms developed...

Cross-Platform Learning: On the Nature of Children's Learning from Multiple Media Platforms

Science.gov (United States)

Fisch, Shalom M.

2013-01-01

It is increasingly common for an educational media project to span several media platforms (e.g., TV, Web, hands-on materials), assuming that the benefits of learning from multiple media extend beyond those gained from one medium alone. Yet research typically has investigated learning from a single medium in isolation. This paper reviews several…

L'utilisation avisée de l'eau au service des villes en pleine croissance

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

... durables axées sur l'utilisation des eaux pluviales et le recyclage des eaux usées urbaines. ... L'utilisation avisée de l'eau au service des villes en pleine croissance ... Traitement des eaux usées à Mexico – équilibre entre les bienfaits et les ...

Evaluation of methane-utilising bacteria products as feed ingredients for monogastric animals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Øverland, Margareth; Tauson, Anne-Helene; Shearer, Karl

2010-01-01

ingredients for animals. We present results from earlier work and recent findings concerning bacterial protein, including the production process, chemical composition, effects on nutrient digestibility, metabolism, and growth performance in several monogastric species, including pigs, broiler chickens, mink......Bacterial proteins represent a potential future nutrient source for monogastric animal production because they can be grown rapidly on substrates with minimum dependence on soil, water, and climate conditions. This review summarises the current knowledge on methane-utilising bacteria as feed...... Methylococcus capsulatus (Bath), is a promising source of protein based on criteria such as amino acid composition, digestibility, and animal performance and health. Future research challenges include modified downstream processing to produce value-added products, and improved understanding of factors...

Virtual interconnection platform initiative scoping study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liu, Yong [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Kou, Gefei [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Pan, Zuohong [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Liu, Yilu [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); King Jr., Thomas J. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

2016-01-01

Due to security and liability concerns, the research community has limited access to realistic large-scale power grid models to test and validate new operation and control methodologies. It is also difficult for industry to evaluate the relative value of competing new tools without a common platform for comparison. This report proposes to develop a large-scale virtual power grid model that retains basic features and represents future trends of major U.S. electric interconnections. This model will include realistic power flow and dynamics information as well as a relevant geospatial distribution of assets. This model will be made widely available to the research community for various power system stability and control studies and can be used as a common platform for comparing the efficacies of various new technologies.

Impacts of high utilisation pressure on biodiversity components in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study aimed to quantify and evaluate the effects of heavy land utilisation, mainly grazing, on plant species richness and diversity, species abundance, vegetation structure and soil characteristics in a communal area in Colophospermum mopane dominated savanna in southern Africa. The treatment was benchmarked ...

University technology platform of anticipatory learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leonid Davidovich Gitelman

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The innovative development sets large-scale and challenging tasks, which need to be addressed in the lack-of-knowledge conditions and require the coordination and integration of numerous expert structures, which are scattered around the world and have different status and competencies. One of the mechanisms of integrating the partners’ intellectual and financial resources is provided by the technology platforms. The article discusses the nature and functions of technology platforms and analyzes the experience of their application in different countries with a special emphasis on universities. The article gives an overview of the various interpretations of technology platform concepts. It also describes the development and implementation of the technological platform at the Ural Federal University (research and education centre ‘ENGEC’, which was targeted at organizing anticipatory learning in the sphere of energy engineering and high-tech industries; its mechanism and role in improving different university activities and processes are shown. This platform is based on the original methodology ‘Integrated System of Consulting, Training, and Transformation’ (ISCT, which includes authentic methods and technologies, which are used in the educational process. A significant advantage of this methodology is that it can be applied in university education as well as in corporate training integrated with innovative activities.

Power in the loop real time simulation platform for renewable energy generation

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yang; Shi, Wenhui; Zhang, Xing; He, Guoqing

2018-02-01

Nowadays, a large scale of renewable energy sources has been connecting to power system and the real time simulation platform is widely used to carry out research on integration control algorithm, power system stability etc. Compared to traditional pure digital simulation and hardware in the loop simulation, power in the loop simulation has higher accuracy and degree of reliability. In this paper, a power in the loop analog digital hybrid simulation platform has been built and it can be used not only for the single generation unit connecting to grid, but also for multiple new energy generation units connecting to grid. A wind generator inertia control experiment was carried out on the platform. The structure of the inertia control platform was researched and the results verify that the platform is up to need for renewable power in the loop real time simulation.

Topology-oblivious optimization of MPI broadcast algorithms on extreme-scale platforms

KAUST Repository

Hasanov, Khalid

2015-11-01

© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Significant research has been conducted in collective communication operations, in particular in MPI broadcast, on distributed memory platforms. Most of the research efforts aim to optimize the collective operations for particular architectures by taking into account either their topology or platform parameters. In this work we propose a simple but general approach to optimization of the legacy MPI broadcast algorithms, which are widely used in MPICH and Open MPI. The proposed optimization technique is designed to address the challenge of extreme scale of future HPC platforms. It is based on hierarchical transformation of the traditionally flat logical arrangement of communicating processors. Theoretical analysis and experimental results on IBM BlueGene/P and a cluster of the Grid\\'5000 platform are presented.

Caregiver experiences of racism and child healthcare utilisation: cross-sectional analysis from New Zealand.

Science.gov (United States)

Paine, Sarah-Jane; Harris, Ricci; Stanley, James; Cormack, Donna

2018-03-23

Children's exposure to racism via caregiver experience (vicarious racism) is associated with poorer health and development. However, the relationship with child healthcare utilisation is unknown. We aimed to investigate (1) the prevalence of vicarious racism by child ethnicity; (2) the association between caregiver experiences of racism and child healthcare utilisation; and (3) the contribution of caregiver socioeconomic position and psychological distress to this association. Cross-sectional analysis of two instances of the New Zealand Health Survey (2006/2007: n=4535 child-primary caregiver dyads; 2011/2012: n=4420 dyads). Children's unmet need for healthcare, reporting no usual medical centre and caregiver-reported dissatisfaction with their child's medical centre. The prevalence of reporting 'any' experience of racism was higher among caregivers of indigenous Māori and Asian children (30.0% for both groups in 2006/2007) compared with European/Other children (14.4% in 2006/2007). Vicarious racism was independently associated with unmet need for child's healthcare (OR=2.30, 95% CI 1.65 to 3.20) and dissatisfaction with their child's medical centre (OR=2.00, 95% CI 1.26 to 3.16). Importantly, there was a dose-response relationship between the number of reported experiences of racism and child healthcare utilisation (eg, unmet need: 1 report of racism, OR=1.89, 95% CI 1.34 to 2.67; 2+ reports of racism, OR=3.06, 95% CI 1.27 to 7.37). Adjustment for caregiver psychological distress attenuated the association between caregiver experiences of racism and child healthcare utilisation. Vicarious racism is a serious health problem in New Zealand disproportionately affecting Māori and Asian children and significantly impacting children's healthcare utilisation. Tackling racism may be an important means of improving inequities in child healthcare utilisation. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All

The Melbourne East Monash General Practice Database (MAGNET: Using data from computerised medical records to create a platform for primary care and health services research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Danielle Mazza

2016-07-01

Full Text Available The Melbourne East MonAsh GeNeral PracticE DaTabase (MAGNET research platform was launched in 2013 to provide a unique data source for primary care and health services research in Australia.  MAGNET contains information from the computerised records of 50 participating general practices and includes data from the computerised medical records of more than 1,100,000 patients.  The data extracted is patient-level episodic information and includes a variety of fields related to patient demographics and historical clinical information, along with the characteristics of the participating general practices.  While there are limitations to the data that is currently available, the MAGNET research platform continues to investigate other avenues for improving the breadth and quality of data, with the aim of providing a more comprehensive picture of primary care in Australia

The Melbourne East Monash General Practice Database (MAGNET): Using data from computerised medical records to create a platform for primary care and health services research.

Science.gov (United States)

Mazza, Danielle; Pearce, Christopher; Turner, Lyle Robert; De Leon-Santiago, Maria; McLeod, Adam; Ferriggi, Jason; Shearer, Marianne

2016-07-04

The Melbourne East MonAsh GeNeral PracticE DaTabase (MAGNET) research platform was launched in 2013 to provide a unique data source for primary care and health services research in Australia.  MAGNET contains information from the computerised records of 50 participating general practices and includes data from the computerised medical records of more than 1,100,000 patients.  The data extracted is patient-level episodic information and includes a variety of fields related to patient demographics and historical clinical information, along with the characteristics of the participating general practices.  While there are limitations to the data that is currently available, the MAGNET research platform continues to investigate other avenues for improving the breadth and quality of data, with the aim of providing a more comprehensive picture of primary care in Australia.

Comparison of gene coverage of mouse oligonucleotide microarray platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Medrano Juan F

2006-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The increasing use of DNA microarrays for genetical genomics studies generates a need for platforms with complete coverage of the genome. We have compared the effective gene coverage in the mouse genome of different commercial and noncommercial oligonucleotide microarray platforms by performing an in-house gene annotation of probes. We only used information about probes that is available from vendors and followed a process that any researcher may take to find the gene targeted by a given probe. In order to make consistent comparisons between platforms, probes in each microarray were annotated with an Entrez Gene id and the chromosomal position for each gene was obtained from the UCSC Genome Browser Database. Gene coverage was estimated as the percentage of Entrez Genes with a unique position in the UCSC Genome database that is tested by a given microarray platform. Results A MySQL relational database was created to store the mapping information for 25,416 mouse genes and for the probes in five microarray platforms (gene coverage level in parenthesis: Affymetrix430 2.0 (75.6%, ABI Genome Survey (81.24%, Agilent (79.33%, Codelink (78.09%, Sentrix (90.47%; and four array-ready oligosets: Sigma (47.95%, Operon v.3 (69.89%, Operon v.4 (84.03%, and MEEBO (84.03%. The differences in coverage between platforms were highly conserved across chromosomes. Differences in the number of redundant and unspecific probes were also found among arrays. The database can be queried to compare specific genomic regions using a web interface. The software used to create, update and query the database is freely available as a toolbox named ArrayGene. Conclusion The software developed here allows researchers to create updated custom databases by using public or proprietary information on genes for any organisms. ArrayGene allows easy comparisons of gene coverage between microarray platforms for any region of the genome. The comparison presented here

Creating a Knowledge Translation Platform: nine lessons from the Zambia Forum for Health Research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kasonde Joseph M

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract The concept of the Knowledge Translation Platform (KTP provides cohesion and leadership for national–level knowledge translation efforts. In this review, we discuss nine key lessons documenting the experience of the Zambia Forum for Health Research, primarily to inform and exchange experience with the growing community of African KTPs. Lessons from ZAMFOHR’s organizational development include the necessity of selecting a multi-stakeholder and -sectoral Board of Directors; performing comprehensive situation analyses to understand not only the prevailing research-and-policy dynamics but a precise operational niche; and selecting a leader that bridges the worlds of research and policy. Programmatic lessons include focusing on building the capacity of both policy-makers and researchers; building a database of local evidence and national-level actors involved in research and policy; and catalyzing work in particular issue areas by identifying leaders from the research community, creating policy-maker demand for research evidence, and fostering the next generation by mentoring both up-and-coming researchers and policy–makers. Ultimately, ZAMFOHR’s experience shows that an African KTP must pay significant attention to its organizational details. A KTP must also invest in the skill base of the wider community and, more importantly, of its own staff. Given the very real deficit of research-support skills in most low-income countries – in synthesis, in communications, in brokering, in training – a KTP must spend significant time and resources in building these types of in-house expertise. And lastly, the role of networking cannot be underestimated. As a fully-networked KTP, ZAMFOHR has benefited from the innovations of other KTPs, from funding opportunities and partnerships, and from invaluable technical support from both African and northern colleagues.

Robot-assisted surgery: an emerging platform for human neuroscience research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anthony Michael Jarc

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Classic studies in human sensorimotor control use simplified tasks to uncover fundamental control strategies employed by the nervous system. Such simple tasks are critical for isolating specific features of motor, sensory, or cognitive processes, and for inferring causality between these features and observed behavioral changes. However, it remains unclear how these theories translate to complex sensorimotor tasks or to natural behaviors. Part of the difficulty in performing such experiments has been the lack of appropriate tools for measuring complex motor skills in real-world contexts. Robot-assisted surgery (RAS provides an opportunity to overcome these challenges by enabling unobtrusive measurements of user behavior. In addition, a continuum of tasks with varying complexity – from simple tasks such as those in classic studies to highly complex tasks such as a surgical procedure – can be studied using RAS platforms. Finally, RAS includes a diverse participant population of inexperienced users all the way to expert surgeons. In this perspective, we illustrate how the characteristics of RAS systems make them compelling platforms to extend many theories in human neuroscience, as well as, to develop new theories altogether.

"Where On Mars?": An Open Planetary Mapping Platform for Researchers, Educators, and the General Public

Science.gov (United States)

Manaud, Nicolas; Carter, John; Boix, Oriol

2016-10-01

The "Where On Mars?" project is essentially the evolution of an existing outreach product developed in collaboration between ESA and CartoDB; an interactive map visualisation of the ESA's ExoMars Rover candidate landing sites (whereonmars.co). Planetary imagery data and maps are increasingly produced by the scientific community, and shared typically as images, in scientific publications, presentations or public outreach websites. However, this media lacks of interactivity and contextual information available for further exploration, making it difficult for any audience to relate one location-based information to another. We believe that interactive web maps are a powerful way of telling stories, engaging with and educating people who, over the last decade, have become familiar with tools such as Google Maps. A few planetary web maps exist but they are either too complex for non-experts, or are closed-systems that do not allows anyone to publish and share content. The long-term vision for the project is to provide researchers, communicators, educators and a worldwide public with an open planetary mapping and social platform enabling them to create, share, communicate and consume research-based content. We aim for this platform to become the reference website everyone will go to learn about Mars and other planets in our Solar System; just like people head to Google Maps to find their bearings or any location-based information. The driver is clearly to create for people an emotional connection with Mars. The short-term objectives for the project are (1) to produce and curate an open repository of basemaps, geospatial data sets, map visualisations, and story maps; (2) to develop a beautifully crafted and engaging interactive map of Mars. Based on user-generated content, the underlying framework should (3) make it easy to create and share additional interactive maps telling specific stories.

Investment utilisation, adjustment costs, and technical efficiency in Danish pig farms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olsen, Jakob Vesterlund; Henningsen, Arne

In this paper, we present a theoretical model for adjustment costs and investment utilisation that illustrates their causes and types and shows in which phases of an investment they occur. Furthermore, we develop an empirical framework for analysing the size and the timing of adjustment costs...... that investments have a negative effect on farm efficiency in the year of the investment and the year after accruing from adjustment costs. There is a large positive effect on efficiency two and three years after the investment. The farmer’s age and the farm size significantly influence technical efficiency......, as well as the effect of investments on adjustment costs and investment utilisation. These results are robust to different ways of measuring capital....

Techno-Economic Models for Optimised Utilisation of Jatropha curcas Linnaeus under an Out-Grower Farming Scheme in Ghana

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Isaac Osei

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Techno-economic models for optimised utilisation of jatropha oil under an out-grower farming scheme were developed based on different considerations for oil and by-product utilisation. Model 1: Out-grower scheme where oil is exported and press cake utilised for compost. Model 2: Out-grower scheme with six scenarios considered for the utilisation of oil and by-products. Linear programming models were developed based on outcomes of the models to optimise the use of the oil through profit maximisation. The findings revealed that Model 1 was financially viable from the processors’ perspective but not for the farmer at seed price of $0.07/kg. All scenarios considered under Model 2 were financially viable from the processors perspective but not for the farmer at seed price of $0.07/kg; however, at seed price of $0.085/kg, financial viability was achieved for both parties. Optimising the utilisation of the oil resulted in an annual maximum profit of $123,300.

Collaborative Development Planning Model of Supporting Product in Platform Innovation Ecosystem

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wei Zhang

2014-01-01

Full Text Available In order to improve the market value of the product, the platform enterprise often participates in the development process of supporting product of emerging industry’s platform innovation ecosystem. This paper puts forward a revenue sharing contract between the platform company and the supporting company by creating a collaborative development model of the supporting product in the ecosystem, and this paper studies the platform enterprise investment resource property's (complementary or substitution impact on the supporting enterprise R&D efforts and the revenue sharing factor and analyzes collaborative development mechanism of supporting product of emerging industry platform innovation ecosystem. The research indicates that when platform enterprise and supporting enterprise's resources are complementary, the supporting enterprise R&D effort level and revenue sharing coefficient increase as the platform company’s investment increases. When platform enterprise and supporting enterprise's resources are substitutive, the supporting enterprise’s R&D effort level and revenue sharing coefficient decrease as the platform company’s investment increases.

CROPPER: a metagene creator resource for cross-platform and cross-species compendium studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Paananen, Jussi; Storvik, Markus; Wong, Garry

2006-09-22

Current genomic research methods provide researchers with enormous amounts of data. Combining data from different high-throughput research technologies commonly available in biological databases can lead to novel findings and increase research efficiency. However, combining data from different heterogeneous sources is often a very arduous task. These sources can be different microarray technology platforms, genomic databases, or experiments performed on various species. Our aim was to develop a software program that could facilitate the combining of data from heterogeneous sources, and thus allow researchers to perform genomic cross-platform/cross-species studies and to use existing experimental data for compendium studies. We have developed a web-based software resource, called CROPPER that uses the latest genomic information concerning different data identifiers and orthologous genes from the Ensembl database. CROPPER can be used to combine genomic data from different heterogeneous sources, allowing researchers to perform cross-platform/cross-species compendium studies without the need for complex computational tools or the requirement of setting up one's own in-house database. We also present an example of a simple cross-platform/cross-species compendium study based on publicly available Parkinson's disease data derived from different sources. CROPPER is a user-friendly and freely available web-based software resource that can be successfully used for cross-species/cross-platform compendium studies.

DATABASE REPLICATION IN HETEROGENOUS PLATFORM

OpenAIRE

Hendro Nindito; Evaristus Didik Madyatmadja; Albert Verasius Dian Sano

2014-01-01

The application of diverse database technologies in enterprises today is increasingly a common practice. To provide high availability and survavibality of real-time information, a database replication technology that has capability to replicate databases under heterogenous platforms is required. The purpose of this research is to find the technology with such capability. In this research, the data source is stored in MSSQL database server running on Windows. The data will be replicated to MyS...

Cross-Platform Technologies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Cristina ENACHE

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Cross-platform - a concept becoming increasingly used in recent years especially in the development of mobile apps, but this consistently over time and in the development of conventional desktop applications. The notion of cross-platform software (multi-platform or platform-independent refers to a software application that can run on more than one operating system or computing architecture. Thus, a cross-platform application can operate independent of software or hardware platform on which it is execute. As a generic definition presents a wide range of meanings for purposes of this paper we individualize this definition as follows: we will reduce the horizon of meaning and we use functionally following definition: a cross-platform application is a software application that can run on more than one operating system (desktop or mobile identical or in a similar way.

Application of a Smartphone Metabolomics Platform to the Authentication of Schisandra sinensis.

Science.gov (United States)

Kwon, Hyuk Nam; Phan, Hong-Duc; Xu, Wen Jun; Ko, Yoon-Joo; Park, Sunghyouk

2016-05-01

Herbal medicines have been used for a long time all around the world. Since the quality of herbal preparations depends on the source of herbal materials, there has been a strong need to develop methods to correctly identify the origin of materials. To develop a smartphone metabolomics platform as a simpler and low-cost alternative for the identification of herbal material source. Schisandra sinensis extracts from Korea and China were prepared. The visible spectra of all samples were measured by a smartphone spectrometer platform. This platform included all the necessary measures built-in for the metabolomics research: data acquisition, processing, chemometric analysis and visualisation of the results. The result of the smartphone metabolomics platform was compared to that of NMR-based metabolomics, suggesting the feasibility of smartphone platform in metabolomics research. The smartphone metabolomics platform gave similar results to the NMR method, showing good separation between Korean and Chinese materials and correct predictability for all test samples. With its accuracy and advantages of affordability, user-friendliness, and portability, the smartphone metabolomics platform could be applied to the authentication of other medicinal plants. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Utilisation of outpatient services at Red Cross War Memorial ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The demand for outpatient services continues to grow at Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital (RCCH). To determine current utilisation patterns, we conducted a 2-week survey in the outpatient department (OPD). In addition, we reviewed the RCCH Annual Reports for the period 1961 - 1988. Annual outpatient ...

Data sharing platforms for de-identified data from human clinical trials.

Science.gov (United States)

Huser, Vojtech; Shmueli-Blumberg, Dikla

2018-04-01

Data sharing of de-identified individual participant data is being adopted by an increasing number of sponsors of human clinical trials. In addition to standardizing data syntax for shared trial data, semantic integration of various data elements is the focus of several initiatives that define research common data elements. This perspective article, in the first part, compares several data sharing platforms for de-identified clinical research data in terms of their size, policies and supported features. In the second part, we use a case study approach to describe in greater detail one data sharing platform (Data Share from National Institute of Drug Abuse). We present data on the past use of the platform, data formats offered, data de-identification approaches and its use of research common data elements. We conclude with a summary of current and expected future trends that facilitate secondary research use of data from completed human clinical trials.

General Data Acquisition Platform for Wireless Sensor Network Based on CC2538

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yang Zhi-Jun

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Wireless sensor networks are the hotspots of current research and have very wide application prospects. Its front end is a sensor that can sense and check the external world. This paper takes temperature and humidity as the research object, and builds a wireless sensor network data acquisition platform by combining the Internet of things and the WeChat public platform. The platform uses DHT11 temperature and humidity sensors and CC2538 sensor nodes to obtain the relevant data, through the server and database for data access. The combination with WeChat public platform not only allows us to view the temperature and humidity in the WeChat public, but also allows us to understand the environmental changes of the relevant detection area more conveniently and quickly. The effectiveness of the platform is also demonstrated by the collection of temperature and humidity data.

Utilisation of chemically treated coal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bežovská Mária

2002-03-01

Full Text Available The numerous application of coal with high content of humic substances are known. They are used in many branches of industry. The complex study of the composition of coal from upper Nitra mines has directed research to its application in the field of ecology and agriculture. The effective sorption layers of this coal and their humic acids can to trap a broad spectrum of toxic harmful substances present in industrial wastes, particularly heavy metals. A major source of humic acids is coal - the most abundant and predominant product of plant residue coalification. All ranks of coal containt humic acids but lignite from Nováky deposit represents the most easily available and concentrated form of humic acids. Deep oxidation of coal by HNO3 oxidation - degradation has been performed to produce water-soluble-organic acids. The possibilities of utilisation of oxidised coal and humic acids to remove heavy metals from waste waters was studied. The residual concentrations of the investigated metals in the aqueous phase were determined by AAs. From the results follows that the samples of oxidised coal and theirs humic acids can be used for the heavy metal removal from metal solutions and the real acid mine water.Oxidised coal with a high content of humic acids and nitrogen is used in agriculture a fertilizer. Humic acids are active component in coal and help to utilize almost quantitatively nitrogen in soil. The humic substances block and stabiliz toxic metal residues already present in soil.

Diurnal Cycles of High Resolution Land Surface Temperatures (LSTs) Determined from UAV Platforms Across a Range of Surface Types

Science.gov (United States)

McCabe, M.; Rosas Aguilar, J.; Parkes, S. D.; Aragon, B.

2017-12-01

Observation of land surface temperature (LST) has many practical uses, from studying boundary layer dynamics and land-atmosphere coupling, to investigating surface properties such as soil moisture status, heat stress and surface heat fluxes. Typically, LST is observed via satellite based sensors such as LandSat or via point measurements using IR radiometers. These measurements provide either good spatial coverage and resolution or good temporal coverage. However, neither are able to provide the needed spatial and temporal resolution for many of the research applications described above. Technological developments in the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), together with small thermal frame cameras, has enabled a capacity to overcome this spatiotemporal constraint. Utilising UAV platforms to collect LST measurements across diurnal cycles provides an opportunity to study how meteorological and surface properties vary in both space and time. Here we describe the collection of LST data from a multi-rotor UAV across a study domain that is observed multiple times throughout the day. Flights over crops of Rhodes grass and alfalfa, along with a bare desert surface, were repeated with between 8 and 11 surveys covering the period from early morning to sunset. Analysis of the collected thermal imagery shows that the constructed LST maps illustrate a strong diurnal cycle consistent with expected trends, but with considerable spatial and temporal variability observed within and between the different domains. These results offer new insights into the dynamics of land surface behavior in both dry and wet soil conditions and at spatiotemporal scales that are unable to be replicated using traditional satellite platforms.

Balancing platform control and external contribution in third-party development: the boundary resources model

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ghazawneh, Ahmad; Henfridsson, Ola

2013-01-01

Prior research documents the significance of using platform boundary resources (e.g. application programming interfaces) for cultivating platform ecosystems through third-party development. However, there are few, if any, theoretical accounts of this relationship. To this end, this paper proposes......-party development: self-resourcing, regulation-based securing, diversity resourcing and sovereignty securing. Our research extends and complements existing platform literature and contributes new knowledge about an alternative form of system development...

Influence of the type of crude oil to platforming effects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kafedzhiski, Branko; Crvenkova, Suzana; Zikovski, Toni

1999-01-01

Platforming in one of the most subtleties processing in refinery industry and it is permanent source for research and finding out the higher optimum degree. Optimum of the last effects of platforming directly depends on many parameters. One of more important parameters is the type of crude. The purpose of this work is presenting positive and negative effect to the platforming parameters caused by different types of crude in OCTA-Crude Oil Refinery -Skopje, Macedonia. (Original)

CLOUD BASED WEB 3D GIS TAIWAN PLATFORM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

W.-F. Tsai

2012-09-01

Full Text Available This article presents the status of the web 3D GIS platform, which has been developed in the National Applied Research Laboratories. The purpose is to develop a global earth observation 3D GIS platform for applications to disaster monitoring and assessment in Taiwan. For quick response to preliminary and detailed assessment after a natural disaster occurs, the web 3D GIS platform is useful to access, transfer, integrate, display and analyze the multi-scale huge data following the international OGC standard. The framework of cloud service for data warehousing management and efficiency enhancement using VMWare is illustrated in this article.

Exploring the extent to which ELT students utilise smartphones for ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Zehra

2015-11-09

Nov 9, 2015 ... aimed to explore the extent to which English Language Teaching (ELT) students utilise ... Given the fact that almost all students have a personal smartphone, and use it ..... ears as a disadvantage for smartphones (Kétyi,.

Reconfigurable, Intelligently-Adaptive, Communication System, an SDR Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Roche, Rigoberto J.; Shalkhauser, Mary Jo; Hickey, Joseph P.; Briones, Janette C.

2016-01-01

The Space Telecommunications Radio System (STRS) provides a common, consistent framework to abstract the application software from the radio platform hardware. STRS aims to reduce the cost and risk of using complex, configurable and reprogrammable radio systems across NASA missions. The NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) team made a software defined radio (SDR) platform STRS compliant by adding an STRS operating environment and a field programmable gate array (FPGA) wrapper, capable of implementing each of the platforms interfaces, as well as a test waveform to exercise those interfaces. This effort serves to provide a framework toward waveform development onto an STRS compliant platform to support future space communication systems for advanced exploration missions. The use of validated STRS compliant applications provides tested code with extensive documentation to potentially reduce risk, cost and e ort in development of space-deployable SDRs. This paper discusses the advantages of STRS, the integration of STRS onto a Reconfigurable, Intelligently-Adaptive, Communication System (RIACS) SDR platform, and the test waveform and wrapper development e orts. The paper emphasizes the infusion of the STRS Architecture onto the RIACS platform for potential use in next generation flight system SDRs for advanced exploration missions.

Design of verification platform for wireless vision sensor networks

Science.gov (United States)

Ye, Juanjuan; Shang, Fei; Yu, Chuang

2017-08-01

At present, the majority of research for wireless vision sensor networks (WVSNs) still remains in the software simulation stage, and the verification platforms of WVSNs that available for use are very few. This situation seriously restricts the transformation from theory research of WVSNs to practical application. Therefore, it is necessary to study the construction of verification platform of WVSNs. This paper combines wireless transceiver module, visual information acquisition module and power acquisition module, designs a high-performance wireless vision sensor node whose core is ARM11 microprocessor and selects AODV as the routing protocol to set up a verification platform called AdvanWorks for WVSNs. Experiments show that the AdvanWorks can successfully achieve functions of image acquisition, coding, wireless transmission, and obtain the effective distance parameters between nodes, which lays a good foundation for the follow-up application of WVSNs.

Association between subjective memory complaints and health care utilisation: a three-year follow up

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Waldorff, Frans Boch; Siersma, Volkert; Waldemar, Gunhild

2009-01-01

their general practitioner and reporting subjective memory complaints (SMC). METHODS: This study was conducted as a prospective cohort survey in general practice with three-year follow-up. Selected health care utilisation or costs relative to SMC adjusted for potential confounders were analyzed in a two......BACKGROUND: Subjective memory complaints (SMC) are common among elderly patients and little is know about the association between SMC and health care utilisation. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate health care utilisation during a three-year follow-up among elderly patients consulting......-part model where the incidence of use of a selected health care service were analyzed separately from the quantity of use for those that use the service. The former analyzed in a Poisson regression approach, the latter in a generalized linear regression model. RESULTS: A total 758 non-nursing home residents...

Continuous Platform Development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Ole Fiil

low risks and investments but also with relatively fuzzy results. When looking for new platform projects, it is important to make sure that the company and market is ready for the introduction of platforms, and to make sure that people from marketing and sales, product development, and downstream......, but continuous product family evolution challenges this strategy. The concept of continuous platform development is based on the fact that platform development should not be a one-time experience but rather an ongoing process of developing new platforms and updating existing ones, so that product family...

Research on website construction based on website group platform of Chengdu sport institution

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Zunyu

2018-04-01

This paper describes the necessity of website construction based on the website group of Chengdu sport institute, and discusses the technical features of the website group, Based on the website group platform architecture, the key technologies such as Web Service, AJAX, RSS and other key technologies are used to realize the construction of the website. Based on the website group platform architecture of the site, it effectively solves the information isolated island between the sites, and realizes the information sharing and resource integration. It is also more convenient that site and other sites have composed of site group integrated operation and maintenance.

Examen de l'utilisation et de la qualité du système de production de ...

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

Toshiba

de RFPd sur les plans du processus, de la production des rapports et de leur utilisation. ...... difficulté à utiliser l'outil servant à la préparation du RFPd. .... De plus, c'est l'un des rares instruments utilisés dans le secteur de la philanthropie dont.

SUPPLY AND UTILISATION OF FOOD CROPS IN GHANA, 1960 ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

ROP4

Due to that much attention has been placed on sustainable management of agricultural ... Supply (import and export) and utilisation (for food, feed, seed, farm manure, waste and other uses) of food crops have ..... Cassava is mainly used in non-poultry livestock production, i.e., for goats, sheep, pigs and some ruminants.

Briquetting of EAF Dust for its Utilisation in Metallurgical Processes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Magdziarz Aneta

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Dust generated at an electric arc furnace during steel production industry is still not a solved problem. Electric arc furnace dust (EAF is a hazardous solid waste. Sintering of well-prepared briquetted mixtures in a shaft furnace is one of possible methods of EAFD utilisation. Simultaneously some metal oxides from exhaust gases can be separated. In this way, various metals are obtained, particularly zinc is recovered. As a result, zinc-free briquettes are received with high iron content which can be used in the steelmaking process. The purpose of the research was selecting the appropriate chemical composition of briquettes of the required strength and coke content necessary for the reduction of zinc oxide in a shaft furnace. Based on the results of the research the composition of the briquettes was selected. The best binder hydrated lime and sugar molasses and the range of proper moisture of mixture to receive briquettes of high mechanical strength were also chosen and tested. Additionally, in order to determine the thermal stability for the selected mixtures for briquetting thermal analysis was performed. A technological line of briquetting was developed to apply in a steelworks.

Colloidal nanophotonics: the emerging technology platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Gaponenko, Sergey; Demir, Hilmi Volkan; Seassal, Christian; Woggon, Ulrike

2016-01-25

Dating back to decades or even centuries ago, colloidal nanophotonics during the last ten years rapidly extends towards light emitting devices, lasers, sensors and photonic circuitry to manifest itself as an emerging technology platform rather than an entirely academic research field.

Information from imagery: ISPRS scientific vision and research agenda

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Jun; Dowman, Ian; Li, Songnian; Li, Zhilin; Madden, Marguerite; Mills, Jon; Paparoditis, Nicolas; Rottensteiner, Franz; Sester, Monika; Toth, Charles; Trinder, John; Heipke, Christian

2016-05-01

With the increased availability of very high-resolution satellite imagery, terrain based imaging and participatory sensing, inexpensive platforms, and advanced information and communication technologies, the application of imagery is now ubiquitous, playing an important role in many aspects of life and work today. As a leading organisation in this field, the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) has been devoted to effectively and efficiently obtaining and utilising information from imagery since its foundation in the year 1910. This paper examines the significant challenges currently facing ISPRS and its communities, such as providing high-quality information, enabling advanced geospatial computing, and supporting collaborative problem solving. The state-of-the-art in ISPRS related research and development is reviewed and the trends and topics for future work are identified. By providing an overarching scientific vision and research agenda, we hope to call on and mobilise all ISPRS scientists, practitioners and other stakeholders to continue improving our understanding and capacity on information from imagery and to deliver advanced geospatial knowledge that enables humankind to better deal with the challenges ahead, posed for example by global change, ubiquitous sensing, and a demand for real-time information generation.

Measurement of the thermal utilisation factor of the reactor G1; Mesure du facteur d'utilisation thermique du reacteur G1

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Roullier, F; Schmitt, A P [Commissariat a l' Energie Atomique, Saclay (France). Centre d' Etudes Nucleaires

1957-07-01

The thermal utilisation factor of the lattice of the reactor G1 has been measured by applying the autoradiographic technique to thin detectors irradiated in the cell. The experimental apparatus is described, and the results compared with those obtained by calculation based on various formulae. The results of the study of the thermal flux distribution in a cell containing a thorium rod of the same diameter as the uranium rods in the lattice are also given. The precision of the measurements is discussed. Value found: f diameter 26 = 0.8949 {+-} 0,005. (author) [French] Le facteur d'utilisation thermique du reseau du reacteur G1 a ete mesure en appliquant la technique de l'autoradiographie a des detecteurs minces irradies dans la cellule. Les dispositifs experimentaux sont decrits et les resultats sont compares a ceux obtenus par le calcul a partir de diverses formules. Les resultats de l'etude de la distribution du flux thermique dans une cellule contenant une barre de thorium de meme diametre que les barres d'uranium du reseau sont egalement indiques. La precision des mesures est discutee. Valeur trouvee: f diametre 26 = 0,8949 {+-} 0,005. (author)

Utilisation of enzyme supplemented groundnut cake based diets by ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

A total of 300, twenty weeks old laying hens were used in a feeding trial to evaluate the utilisation of Peanut meal popularly called groundnut cake (GNC) based diets supplemented with enzymes by laying hens. Five dietary treatments were formulated to meet standard nutrient requirements of layers viz: 1. maize- soya ...

KYPO – A Platform for Cyber Defence Exercises

OpenAIRE

Čeleda Pavel; Čegan Jakub; Vykopal Jan; Tovarňák Daniel

2015-01-01

Correct and timely responses to cyber attacks are crucial for the effective implementation of cyber defence strategies and policies. The number of threats and ingenuity of attackers is ever growing, as is the need for more advanced detection tools, techniques and skilled cyber security professionals. KYPO – Cyber Exercise & Research Platform is focused on modelling and simulating complex computer systems and networks in a virtualized and separated environment. The platform enables realist...

Zinc uptake and utilisation in wetland rice as influenced by zinc sources

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Raja Rajan, A.

1994-01-01

Soil application of Zn is by far the most common and generally successful method of application to rice. Comparison of the effectiveness of soil applications of Zn necessarily involves simultaneous comparison of different sources. Applying Zn in combination with macronutrient fertilizers is convenient and allows more uniform distribution. Studies have indicated marked differences in Zn availability, uptake and utilisation resulting from the macronutrient fertilizer with which it is applied. This study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of a few sources of Zn on the yield, Zn uptake and utilisation in rice in two major rice grown soil series of Tamil Nadu. (author). 7 refs., 3 tabs

Geospatial Data Management Platform for Urban Groundwater

Science.gov (United States)

Gaitanaru, D.; Priceputu, A.; Gogu, C. R.

2012-04-01

Due to the large amount of civil work projects and research studies, large quantities of geo-data are produced for the urban environments. These data are usually redundant as well as they are spread in different institutions or private companies. Time consuming operations like data processing and information harmonisation represents the main reason to systematically avoid the re-use of data. The urban groundwater data shows the same complex situation. The underground structures (subway lines, deep foundations, underground parkings, and others), the urban facility networks (sewer systems, water supply networks, heating conduits, etc), the drainage systems, the surface water works and many others modify continuously. As consequence, their influence on groundwater changes systematically. However, these activities provide a large quantity of data, aquifers modelling and then behaviour prediction can be done using monitored quantitative and qualitative parameters. Due to the rapid evolution of technology in the past few years, transferring large amounts of information through internet has now become a feasible solution for sharing geoscience data. Furthermore, standard platform-independent means to do this have been developed (specific mark-up languages like: GML, GeoSciML, WaterML, GWML, CityML). They allow easily large geospatial databases updating and sharing through internet, even between different companies or between research centres that do not necessarily use the same database structures. For Bucharest City (Romania) an integrated platform for groundwater geospatial data management is developed under the framework of a national research project - "Sedimentary media modeling platform for groundwater management in urban areas" (SIMPA) financed by the National Authority for Scientific Research of Romania. The platform architecture is based on three components: a geospatial database, a desktop application (a complex set of hydrogeological and geological analysis

Determination of current loads of floating platform for special purposes

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Guang-ying; Yao, Yun-long; Zhao, Chen-yao

2017-08-01

This article studied a new floating offshore platform for special purposes, which was assembled by standard floating modules. The environmental load calculation of the platform is an important part of the research of the ocean platform, which has always been paid attention to by engineers. In addition to wave loads, the wind loads and current loads are also important environmental factors that affect the dynamic response of the offshore platform. The current loads on the bottom structure should not be ignored. By Fluent software, the hydrostatic conditions and external current loads of the platform were calculated in this paper. The coefficient which is independent of the current velocity, namely, current force coefficient, can be fitted through current loads, which can be used for the consequent hydrodynamic and mooring analyses.

The Epilepsy Phenome/Genome Project (EPGP) informatics platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Nesbitt, Gerry; McKenna, Kevin; Mays, Vickie; Carpenter, Alan; Miller, Kevin; Williams, Michael

2013-04-01

The Epilepsy Phenome/Genome Project (EPGP) is a large-scale, multi-institutional, collaborative network of 27 epilepsy centers throughout the U.S., Australia, and Argentina, with the objective of collecting detailed phenotypic and genetic data on a large number of epilepsy participants. The goals of EPGP are (1) to perform detailed phenotyping on 3750 participants with specific forms of non-acquired epilepsy and 1500 parents without epilepsy, (2) to obtain DNA samples on these individuals, and (3) to ultimately genotype the samples in order to discover novel genes that cause epilepsy. To carry out the project, a reliable and robust informatics platform was needed for standardized electronic data collection and storage, data quality review, and phenotypic analysis involving cases from multiple sites. EPGP developed its own suite of web-based informatics applications for participant tracking, electronic data collection (using electronic case report forms/surveys), data management, phenotypic data review and validation, specimen tracking, electroencephalograph and neuroimaging storage, and issue tracking. We implemented procedures to train and support end-users at each clinical site. Thus far, 3780 study participants have been enrolled and 20,957 web-based study activities have been completed using this informatics platform. Over 95% of respondents to an end-user satisfaction survey felt that the informatics platform was successful almost always or most of the time. The EPGP informatics platform has successfully and effectively allowed study management and efficient and reliable collection of phenotypic data. Our novel informatics platform met the requirements of a large, multicenter research project. The platform has had a high level of end-user acceptance by principal investigators and study coordinators, and can serve as a model for new tools to support future large scale, collaborative research projects collecting extensive phenotypic data. Copyright © 2012

The small-animal radiation research platform (SARRP): dosimetry of a focused lens system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Deng Hua [Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, MD (United States); Kennedy, Christopher W [Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, MD (United States); Armour, Elwood [Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, MD (United States); Tryggestad, Erik [Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, MD (United States); Ford, Eric [Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, MD (United States); McNutt, Todd [Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, MD (United States); Jiang Licai [OSMIC Inc., 1900 Taylor Rd., Auburn Hills, MI (United States); Wong, John [Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, MD (United States)

2007-05-21

A small animal radiation platform equipped with on-board cone-beam CT and conformal irradiation capabilities is being constructed for translational research. To achieve highly localized dose delivery, an x-ray lens is used to focus the broad beam from a 225 kVp x-ray tube down to a beam with a full width half maximum (FWHM) of approximately 1.5 mm in the energy range 40-80 keV. Here, we report on the dosimetric characteristics of the focused beam from the x-ray lens subsystem for high-resolution dose delivery. Using the metric of the average dose within a 1.5 mm diameter area, the dose rates at a source-to-surface distance (SSD) of 34 cm are 259 and 172 cGy min{sup -1} at 6 mm and 2 cm depths, respectively, with an estimated uncertainty of {+-}5%. The per cent depth dose is approximately 56% at 2 cm depth for a beam at 34 cm SSD.

The small-animal radiation research platform (SARRP): dosimetry of a focused lens system.

Science.gov (United States)

Deng, Hua; Kennedy, Christopher W; Armour, Elwood; Tryggestad, Erik; Ford, Eric; McNutt, Todd; Jiang, Licai; Wong, John

2007-05-21

A small animal radiation platform equipped with on-board cone-beam CT and conformal irradiation capabilities is being constructed for translational research. To achieve highly localized dose delivery, an x-ray lens is used to focus the broad beam from a 225 kVp x-ray tube down to a beam with a full width half maximum (FWHM) of approximately 1.5 mm in the energy range 40-80 keV. Here, we report on the dosimetric characteristics of the focused beam from the x-ray lens subsystem for high-resolution dose delivery. Using the metric of the average dose within a 1.5 mm diameter area, the dose rates at a source-to-surface distance (SSD) of 34 cm are 259 and 172 cGy min(-1) at 6 mm and 2 cm depths, respectively, with an estimated uncertainty of +/-5%. The per cent depth dose is approximately 56% at 2 cm depth for a beam at 34 cm SSD.

The small-animal radiation research platform (SARRP): dosimetry of a focused lens system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Deng Hua; Kennedy, Christopher W; Armour, Elwood; Tryggestad, Erik; Ford, Eric; McNutt, Todd; Jiang Licai; Wong, John

2007-01-01

A small animal radiation platform equipped with on-board cone-beam CT and conformal irradiation capabilities is being constructed for translational research. To achieve highly localized dose delivery, an x-ray lens is used to focus the broad beam from a 225 kVp x-ray tube down to a beam with a full width half maximum (FWHM) of approximately 1.5 mm in the energy range 40-80 keV. Here, we report on the dosimetric characteristics of the focused beam from the x-ray lens subsystem for high-resolution dose delivery. Using the metric of the average dose within a 1.5 mm diameter area, the dose rates at a source-to-surface distance (SSD) of 34 cm are 259 and 172 cGy min -1 at 6 mm and 2 cm depths, respectively, with an estimated uncertainty of ±5%. The per cent depth dose is approximately 56% at 2 cm depth for a beam at 34 cm SSD

A platform for real-time online health analytics during spaceflight

Science.gov (United States)

McGregor, Carolyn

Monitoring the health and wellbeing of astronauts during spaceflight is an important aspect of any manned mission. To date the monitoring has been based on a sequential set of discontinuous samplings of physiological data to support initial studies on aspects such as weightlessness, and its impact on the cardiovascular system and to perform proactive monitoring for health status. The research performed and the real-time monitoring has been hampered by the lack of a platform to enable a more continuous approach to real-time monitoring. While any spaceflight is monitored heavily by Mission Control, an important requirement within the context of any spaceflight setting and in particular where there are extended periods with a lack of communication with Mission Control, is the ability for the mission to operate in an autonomous manner. This paper presents a platform to enable real-time astronaut monitoring for prognostics and health management within space medicine using online health analytics. The platform is based on extending previous online health analytics research known as the Artemis and Artemis Cloud platforms which have demonstrated their relevance for multi-patient, multi-diagnosis and multi-stream temporal analysis in real-time for clinical management and research within Neonatal Intensive Care. Artemis and Artemis Cloud source data from a range of medical devices capable of transmission of the signal via wired or wireless connectivity and hence are well suited to process real-time data acquired from astronauts. A key benefit of this platform is its ability to monitor their health and wellbeing onboard the mission as well as enabling the astronaut's physiological data, and other clinical data, to be sent to the platform components at Mission Control at each stage when that communication is available. As a result, researchers at Mission Control would be able to simulate, deploy and tailor predictive analytics and diagnostics during the same spaceflight for

Design and Development of Fire Gridding Platform Based on Internet of Things

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wei San-Xi

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This article describes the construction background about fire gridding platform, reviews the research and progress in fire Internet of Things and fire gridding. The platform includes perception / execution layer, field control layer, network layer, center platform layer and application layer, which provide a good bonding about site control and remote monitoring. This article supplies a detail design for the main functions of application and task flow of fire hazard investigation. At the same time, a digital management platform was developed.

Improving the utilisation of management information systems in secondary schools

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bosker, R. J.; Branderhorst, E. M.; Visscher, A. J.

2007-01-01

Although most secondary schools do use management information systems (MISs), these systems tend not to be used to support higher order managerial activities but are currently primarily used for clerical purposes. This situation is unsatisfactory as MISs fully utilised could offer invaluable support

Scoping review and evaluation of SMS/text messaging platforms for mHealth projects or clinical interventions.

Science.gov (United States)

Iribarren, Sarah J; Brown, William; Giguere, Rebecca; Stone, Patricia; Schnall, Rebecca; Staggers, Nancy; Carballo-Diéguez, Alex

2017-05-01

Mobile technology supporting text messaging interventions (TMIs) continues to evolve, presenting challenges for researchers and healthcare professionals who need to choose software solutions to best meet their program needs. The objective of this review was to systematically identify and compare text messaging platforms and to summarize their advantages and disadvantages as described in peer-reviewed literature. A scoping review was conducted using four steps: 1) identify currently available platforms through online searches and in mHealth repositories; 2) expand evaluation criteria of an mHealth mobile messaging toolkit and integrate prior user experiences as researchers; 3) evaluate each platform's functions and features based on the expanded criteria and a vendor survey; and 4) assess the documentation of platform use in the peer-review literature. Platforms meeting inclusion criteria were assessed independently by three reviewers and discussed until consensus was reached. The PRISMA guidelines were followed to report findings. Of the 1041 potentially relevant search results, 27 platforms met inclusion criteria. Most were excluded because they were not platforms (e.g., guides, toolkits, reports, or SMS gateways). Of the 27 platforms, only 12 were identified in existing mHealth repositories, 10 from Google searches, while five were found in both. The expanded evaluation criteria included 22 items. Results indicate no uniform presentation of platform features and functions, often making these difficult to discern. Fourteen of the platforms were reported as open source, 10 focused on health care and 16 were tailored to meet needs of low resource settings (not mutually exclusive). Fifteen platforms had do-it-yourself setup (programming not required) while the remainder required coding/programming skills or setups could be built to specification by the vendor. Frequently described features included data security and access to the platform via cloud-based systems. Pay

Differences in home-based palliative care service utilisation of people with cancer and non-cancer conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Kralik, Debbie; Anderson, Barbara

2008-11-01

To identify home-based palliative care service utilisation by people with cancer and non-cancer conditions. Palliative care knowledge and skill have been derived from working with people with cancer. People with chronic conditions are now referred for home-based palliative care; however, there has been few studies published that have explored the impact of service utilisation by people with end-stage chronic conditions. The Australia-modified Karnofsky Performance Status (AKPS) scale was calculated for each person upon referral for home-based palliative care services to determine the functional capacity of the individual at the point of referral. Clients were divided into those with cancer diagnosis and those with non-cancer diagnosis. Service utilisation of the individual client was determined until separation from the palliative care service. The study was undertaken in 2007. The majority of people with cancer (63%) and non-cancer (71%) were assessed as having an AKPS score between 50-60. Thirty-one cancer clients (18·7%) and three non-cancer clients (7·1%) had an AKPS score between 70-90. This suggests that people with cancer are referred to palliative care services earlier than people with non-cancer conditions. People with non-cancer conditions were substantially higher users of home-based palliative care services over a longer period of time. Home-based palliative care service utilisation was higher for people with non-cancer conditions. Cost analysis research is recommended to delineate the actual costs of home-based palliative care service provision between people with cancer and non-cancer conditions. There is growing awareness of the need for palliative care services for people with non-cancer conditions. However, these services are provided for longer periods of time for this client group. Implications for practice are that the palliative care needs of people with non-cancer conditions may not be met within current palliative care service provision

Fish utilisation of wetland nurseries with complex hydrological connectivity.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ben Davis

Full Text Available The physical and faunal characteristics of coastal wetlands are driven by dynamics of hydrological connectivity to adjacent habitats. Wetlands on estuary floodplains are particularly dynamic, driven by a complex interplay of tidal marine connections and seasonal freshwater flooding, often with unknown consequences for fish using these habitats. To understand the patterns and subsequent processes driving fish assemblage structure in such wetlands, we examined the nature and diversity of temporal utilisation patterns at a species or genus level over three annual cycles in a tropical Australian estuarine wetland system. Four general patterns of utilisation were apparent based on CPUE and size-structure dynamics: (i classic nursery utlisation (use by recently settled recruits for their first year (ii interrupted peristence (iii delayed recruitment (iv facultative wetland residence. Despite the small self-recruiting 'facultative wetland resident' group, wetland occupancy seems largely driven by connectivity to the subtidal estuary channel. Variable connection regimes (i.e. frequency and timing of connections within and between different wetland units (e.g. individual pools, lagoons, swamps will therefore interact with the diversity of species recruitment schedules to generate variable wetland assemblages in time and space. In addition, the assemblage structure is heavily modified by freshwater flow, through simultaneously curtailing persistence of the 'interrupted persistence' group, establishing connectivity for freshwater spawned members of both the 'facultative wetland resident' and 'delayed recruitment group', and apparently mediating use of intermediate nursery habitats for marine-spawned members of the 'delayed recruitment' group. The diversity of utilisation pattern and the complexity of associated drivers means assemblage compositions, and therefore ecosystem functioning, is likely to vary among years depending on variations in hydrological

Globalisation and Labour Utilisation in Nigeria: Evidence from the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

sulaiman.adebowale

2007-12-05

Dec 5, 2007 ... the firms in the industry is determined solely by the dictates of ... L'étude examine l'impact de la mondialisation sur l'utilisation de la .... globalisation has been the most influential in government policy .... social, and has economic implications for both the individual worker ..... with the payment of low wages.

Factors associated with postnatal care utilisation in Rwanda: A secondary analysis of 2010 Demographic and Health Survey data.

Science.gov (United States)

Rwabufigiri, Bernard N; Mukamurigo, Judith; Thomson, Dana R; Hedt-Gautier, Bethany L; Semasaka, Jean Paul S

2016-05-31

Postnatal care (PNC) in the first seven days is important for preventing morbidity and mortality in mothers and new-borns. Sub-Saharan African countries, which account for 62 % of maternal deaths globally, have made major efforts to increase PNC utilisation, but utilisation rates remains low even in countries like Rwanda where PNC services are universally available for free. This study identifies key socio-economic and demographic factors associated with PNC utilisation in Rwanda to inform improved PNC policies and programs. This is a secondary analysis of the 2010 Demographic and Health Survey, a national multi-stage, cross-sectional survey. In bivariate analysis, we used chi-square tests to identify demographic and socio-economic factors associated with PNC utilisation at α = 0.1. Pearson's R statistic (r > 0.5) was used to identify collinear covariates, and to choose which covariate was more strongly associated with PNC utilisation. Manual backward stepwise logistic regression was performed on the remaining covariates to identify key factors associated with PNC utilisation at α = 0.05. All analyses were performed in Stata 13 adjusting for sampling weights, clustering, and stratification. Of the 2,748 women with a live birth in the last two years who answered question about PNC utilisation, 353 (12.8 %) returned for PNC services within seven days after birth. Three factors were positively associated with PNC use: delivering at a health facility (OR: 2.97; 95 % CI: 2.28-3.87), being married but not involved with one's own health care decision-making (OR: 1.69; 95 % CI: 1.17, 2.44) compared to being married and involved; and being in the second (OR: 1.46; 95 % CI: 1.01-2.09) or richest wealth quintile (OR: 2.04; 95 % CI: 1.27-3.29) compared to the poorest. Mother's older age at delivery was negatively associated with PNC use (20-29 - OR: 0.51, 95 % CI: 0.29-0.87; 30-39 - OR: 0.47, 95 % CI: 0.27-0.83; 40-49 - OR: 0.32, 95 % CI: 0.16-0.64). Low PNC

Yeast surface display platform for rapid discovery of conformationally selective nanobodies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

McMahon, Conor; Baier, Alexander S.; Pascolutti, Roberta

2018-01-01

this problem, we report a fully in vitro platform for nanobody discovery based on yeast surface display. We provide a blueprint for identifying nanobodies, demonstrate the utility of the library by crystallizing a nanobody with its antigen, and most importantly, we utilize the platform to discover...... conformationally selective nanobodies to two distinct human GPCRs. To facilitate broad deployment of this platform, the library and associated protocols are freely available for nonprofit research....

Utilisation des methodes modernes et reversibles de contraception ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Cette étude descriptive et transversale de 6 ans, allant du 1er Janvier 1999 au 10 Mai 2005 à la clinique de gynécologie obstétrique de l\\'hôpital Donka du CHU de Conakry, a fait ressortir le niveau d\\'utilisation des méthodes modernes de contraception et a permis d\\'élaboré des recommandations pour l\\'amélioration de la ...

High-Level Topology-Oblivious Optimization of MPI Broadcast Algorithms on Extreme-Scale Platforms

KAUST Repository

Hasanov, Khalid

2014-01-01

There has been a significant research in collective communication operations, in particular in MPI broadcast, on distributed memory platforms. Most of the research works are done to optimize the collective operations for particular architectures by taking into account either their topology or platform parameters. In this work we propose a very simple and at the same time general approach to optimize legacy MPI broadcast algorithms, which are widely used in MPICH and OpenMPI. Theoretical analysis and experimental results on IBM BlueGene/P and a cluster of Grid’5000 platform are presented.

The Utilisation of Music by Casino Managers: An Interview Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Bramley, Stephanie; Dibben, Nicola; Rowe, Richard

2016-12-01

Music is ubiquitous in retail and commercial environments, with some managers believing that music can enhance the customer experience, increase footfall and sales and improve consumer satisfaction. Casino gambling is popular in the United Kingdom and anecdotal evidence suggests that music is often present. However, little is known about the rationale for music use from the perspective of casino managers. In this study semi-structured interviews were conducted with five casino managers to establish their motivations for utilising music, the factors informing their choice of music and the extent to which music is used with the intention of influencing gambling behaviour. Results showed that casino managers utilised two types of music-recorded background music, often sourced via external music supply companies and live music. Live music was often situated away from the gaming floor and used primarily to accompany participation in non-gambling activities. Recorded background music was not used with the direct aim of influencing customers' gambling behaviour, but to create the right atmosphere for gambling and to promote certain moods within the casinos. To achieve these aims casino managers manipulated the tempo, volume and genre of the recorded background music. Casino managers also reported that some gamblers listen to music via portable music players, possibly with the intention of customising their gambling experience. This study is unique as it has provided a first-hand account of casino managers' implicit theories with regards to why they utilise music and the roles which music is considered to fulfil in casinos.

Environmental assessment of incinerator residue utilisation.

Science.gov (United States)

Toller, S; Kärrman, E; Gustafsson, J P; Magnusson, Y

2009-07-01

Incineration ashes may be treated either as a waste to be dumped in landfill, or as a resource that is suitable for re-use. In order to choose the best management scenario, knowledge is needed on the potential environmental impact that may be expected, including not only local, but also regional and global impact. In this study, A life cycle assessment (LCA) based approach was outlined for environmental assessment of incinerator residue utilisation, in which leaching of trace elements as well as other emissions to air and water and the use of resources were regarded as constituting the potential environmental impact from the system studied. Case studies were performed for two selected ash types, bottom ash from municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) and wood fly ash. The MSWI bottom ash was assumed to be suitable for road construction or as drainage material in landfill, whereas the wood fly ash was assumed to be suitable for road construction or as a nutrient resource to be recycled on forest land after biofuel harvesting. Different types of potential environmental impact predominated in the activities of the system and the use of natural resources and the trace element leaching were identified as being relatively important for the scenarios compared. The scenarios differed in use of resources and energy, whereas there is a potential for trace element leaching regardless of how the material is managed. Utilising MSWI bottom ash in road construction and recycling of wood ash on forest land saved more natural resources and energy than when these materials were managed according to the other scenarios investigated, including dumping in landfill.

The effect of rehabilitation on health-care utilisation in COPD patients in Copenhagen

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jacobsen, Ramune; Rusch, Ea; Andersen, Per Kragh

2014-01-01

INTRODUCTION: The Integrated Rehabilitation Programme for Chronic Conditions project (SIKS) implemented rehabilitation programmes for people with four chronic conditions in the local area within the Municipality of Copenhagen. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of ...... of Copenhagen with an assessment of the effect of a real-life intervention. It shows that the pulmonary rehabilitation programme introduced had the anticipated effects on health-care utilisation. The study also suggests that the methods used for evaluation were appropriate....... of rehabilitation on health-care utilisation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients as a subgroup of SIKS. METHODS: For the analyses, data from Danish National Registers' were obtained. The following outcomes were analysed: (i) COPD hospital admissions, (ii) COPD bed days, (iii) COPD outpatient...... rehabilitation and were matched with the intervention group according to propensity score calculated on the basis of patient socio-demographic characteristics and health-care utilisation pattern in 2 years prior to the rehabilitation programme. The effect was assessed by applying the principle of difference...

The smartphone as a platform for wearable cameras in health research.

Science.gov (United States)

Gurrin, Cathal; Qiu, Zhengwei; Hughes, Mark; Caprani, Niamh; Doherty, Aiden R; Hodges, Steve E; Smeaton, Alan F

2013-03-01

The Microsoft SenseCam, a small camera that is worn on the chest via a lanyard, increasingly is being deployed in health research. However, the SenseCam and other wearable cameras are not yet in widespread use because of a variety of factors. It is proposed that the ubiquitous smartphones can provide a more accessible alternative to SenseCam and similar devices. To perform an initial evaluation of the potential of smartphones to become an alternative to a wearable camera such as the SenseCam. In 2012, adults were supplied with a smartphone, which they wore on a lanyard, that ran life-logging software. Participants wore the smartphone for up to 1 day and the resulting life-log data were both manually annotated and automatically analyzed for the presence of visual concepts. The results were compared to prior work using the SenseCam. In total, 166,000 smartphone photos were gathered from 47 individuals, along with associated sensor readings. The average time spent wearing the device across all users was 5 hours 39 minutes (SD=4 hours 11 minutes). A subset of 36,698 photos was selected for manual annotation by five researchers. Software analysis of these photos supports the automatic identification of activities to a similar level of accuracy as for SenseCam images in a previous study. Many aspects of the functionality of a SenseCam largely can be replicated, and in some cases enhanced, by the ubiquitous smartphone platform. This makes smartphones good candidates for a new generation of wearable sensing devices in health research, because of their widespread use across many populations. It is envisioned that smartphones will provide a compelling alternative to the dedicated SenseCam hardware for a number of users and application areas. This will be achieved by integrating new types of sensor data, leveraging the smartphone's real-time connectivity and rich user interface, and providing support for a range of relatively sophisticated applications. Copyright © 2013

The impact of frailty on healthcare utilisation in Ireland: evidence from the Irish longitudinal study on ageing.

Science.gov (United States)

Roe, Lorna; Normand, Charles; Wren, Maev-Ann; Browne, John; O'Halloran, Aisling M

2017-09-05

To examine the impact of frailty on medical and social care utilisation among the Irish community-dwelling older population to inform strategies of integrated care for older people with complex needs. Participants aged ≥65 years from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) representative of the Irish community-dwelling older population were analysed (n = 3507). The frailty index was used to examine patterns of utilisation across medical and social care services. Multivariate logistic and negative binomial regression models were employed to examine the impact of frailty on service utilisation outcomes after controlling for other factors. The prevalence of frailty and pre-frailty was 24% (95% CI: 23, 26%) and 45% (95% CI: 43, 47%) respectively. Frailty was a significant predictor of utilisation of most social care and medical care services after controlling for the main correlates of frailty and observed individual effects. Frailty predicts utilisation of many different types of healthcare services rendering it a useful risk stratification tool for targeting strategies of integrated care. The pattern of care is predominantly medical as few of the frail older population use social care prompting questions about sub-groups of the frail older population with unmet care needs.

Advances in product family and product platform design methods & applications

CERN Document Server

Jiao, Jianxin; Siddique, Zahed; Hölttä-Otto, Katja

2014-01-01

Advances in Product Family and Product Platform Design: Methods & Applications highlights recent advances that have been made to support product family and product platform design and successful applications in industry. This book provides not only motivation for product family and product platform design—the “why” and “when” of platforming—but also methods and tools to support the design and development of families of products based on shared platforms—the “what”, “how”, and “where” of platforming. It begins with an overview of recent product family design research to introduce readers to the breadth of the topic and progresses to more detailed topics and design theory to help designers, engineers, and project managers plan, architect, and implement platform-based product development strategies in their companies. This book also: Presents state-of-the-art methods and tools for product family and product platform design Adopts an integrated, systems view on product family and pro...

Modal shapes optimization and feasibility analysis of NFAL platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bin WEI

2017-08-01

Full Text Available In order to avoid friction and scratching between the conveyor and the precision components when conveying object, an compact non-contact acoustic levitation prototype is designed, and the feasibility is theoretically and experimentally verified. The symmetry model is established through kinetic analysis with ANSYS. The modal and the coupled field computation at the central point of the transfer platform are simulated. The simulation results show that pure flexural or mixed flexural wave shapes appear with different wave numbers on the platform. Sweep frequency test is conducted on the compact platform prototype. The levitation experimental results confirm the feasibility of the ultrasound transfer process, the levitation frequency range and the mode of vibration. The theoretical and experimental results show that the optimal design of the modal and the carrying capacity of the driving platform is necessary according to different conditions. The research results provide a reference for the design of the mode and bandwidth of the ultrasonic levitation platform.

Increased utilisation of existing biogas plants; Oekat utnyttjande av befintliga biogasanlaeggningar

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lantz, Mikael

2007-09-15

The purpose of this study is to analyse how existing biogas plants in Sweden could be utilised more efficiently, by increase the organic loading rate, and to calculate the cost efficiency of such measures. Biogas plants treating sewage sludge are currently operated with low organic loading rates and it is likely that there could be a considerable potential of increased utilisation of existing capacity. However, disposal costs of digested sewage sludge have a great impact on the economic result. Thus, the cost must be low, below 200 - 850 SEK/tonne DS, for co-digestion of sewage sludge and organic household waste to be economic competitive, compared to building of a new reactor. For co-digestion plants, using manure and organic waste as feedstock, it is not possible to say whether it is more economic to increase the utilisation of existing capacity or to increase the reactor volume. Therefore, more specific studies are required for individual plants and cases. Regarding the need for a more sophisticated monitoring and control of the biogas process, it can be established that the utilisation of sewage sludge digestion plants could be increased considerably without exceptionally high organic loading rates, thus probably without any additional monitoring and control. However, indicated prices for such applications are probably acceptable compared to establishing a new reactor. For co-digestion plants, the scope for investments is smaller and more dependent on the alternative cost for new reactors. Also, any process disturbances, which may appear even at low organic loading rates, could be very costly and result in costs in the same range as for monitoring and control equipment. Finally, the reader should observe that the analyses conducted here assume that funding and physical space for additional reactors is available at the existing site. If not, there could be situations where it is economic interesting to increase the organic loading rate although cost estimates

Utilisation of insecticide treated nets among pregnant women in Gulu

African Journals Online (AJOL)

EB

Results: 35% of pregnant women (95% CI 31% - 38%) had utilised ITNs. Factors that promoted ... 0.050) and being single/widow/divorced (AOR 0.22, p-value 0.000). Conclusion: .... being engaged in business (OR = 1.56, 95% CI 1.08. - 2.26 ...

The significance of climate change in streams utilised by humans

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Verdonschot, P.F.M.

2009-01-01

To better understand the role of climate change in catchments that are already under pressure of human activities one needs to study past, current and future conditions. Therefore, the catchment of the river Vecht (The Netherlands), representative for many human utilised, medium-sized lowland river

A Research Roadmap for Complementary and Alternative Medicine

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fischer, F.; Lewith, G.; Witt, C. M.

2014-01-01

and affordability of CAM. We need to engage in research excellence and utilise comparative effectiveness approaches and mixed methods to obtain this data. Our recommendations are both strategic and methodological. They are presented for the consideration of researchers and funders while being designed to answer...... comparative effectiveness research utilising quantitative and qualitative methods should be considered to enable us to secure the greatest density of knowledge possible. Stakeholders, such as citizens, patients and providers, should be involved in every stage of developing the specific and relevant research...... make use of all the commonly accepted scientific research methods and employ those with utmost diligence combined in a mixed methods framework. Conclusions: We propose 6 core areas of research that should be investigated to achieve a robust knowledge base and to allow stakeholders to make informed...

Health and health care utilisation among asylum seekers and refugees in the Netherlands: design of a study.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gerritsen, A.A.M.; Bramsen, I.; Devillé, W.; Willigen, L.H.M. van; Hovens, J.E.; Ploeg, H.M. van der

2004-01-01

BACKGROUND: This article discusses the design of a study on the prevalence of health problems (both physical and mental) and the utilisation of health care services among asylum seekers and refugees in the Netherlands, including factors that may be related to their health and their utilisation of

Implementation and validation of a model of the MPI Stewart platform

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nieuwenhuizen, F.M.; Van Paasen, M.M.; Mulder, M.; Bülthoff, H.H.

2010-01-01

A simulated model of the MPI Stewart platform can be used to identify the influence of motion system characteristics on human control behaviour in active closed-loop control experiments on the SIMONA Research Simulator. In this paper, a previously identified model of the MPI Stewart platform was

Physical and thermal waste utilisation in the nonferrous metal industry; Stoffliche und thermische Abfallverwertung in der Nichteisenmetallindustrie

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sowa, F. [DMT-Gesellschaft fuer Forschung und Pruefung mbH, Essen (Germany)

1998-09-01

In its amended form the German Household Waste Technical Code favours physical and thermal utilisation of wastes against dumping. Industrial processes offer various ways of utilising wastes with a high calorific value, e.g. in nonferrous metal production. Besides portraying this branch of industry in Germany the present paper investigates to what extent this topic has already found coverage and what potential it holds for the utilisation of wastes. By way of example it describes a successful demonstration of the physical utilisation of sewage sludge in lead production. [Deutsch] Die Neugestaltung der TA Siedlungsabfall favorisiert die thermische und stoffliche Verwertung von Abfallstoffen gegenueber der Deponierung. Moeglichkeiten fuer die Verwertung heizwertreicher Abfaelle bieten auch industrielle Produktionsprozesse, z.B. auch in der Nichteisenmetallerzeugung. Neben einer Charakterisierung der Branche wird untersucht, inwieweit dieses Thema bereits aufgegriffen worden ist und welches Verwertungspotential zur Verfuegung steht. An einem Beispiel wird die erfolgreiche Demonstration der stofflichen Verwertung von Klaerschlamm in der Bleierzeugung dargestellt. (orig.)

Clinical Research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Irene

2016-01-01

This paper is about the logic of problem solving and the production of scientific knowledge through the utilisation of clinical research perspective. Ramp-up effectiveness, productivity, efficiency and organizational excellence are topics that continue to engage research and will continue doing so...... for years to come. This paper seeks to provide insights into ramp-up management studies through providing an agenda for conducting collaborative clinical research and extend this area by proposing how clinical research could be designed and executed in the Ramp- up management setting....

Renewable hydrogen utilisation for the production of methanol

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Galindo Cifre, P.; Badr, O.

2007-01-01

Electrolytic hydrogen production is an efficient way of storing renewable energy generated electricity and securing the contribution of renewables in the future electricity supply. The use of this hydrogen for the production of methanol results in a liquid fuel that can be utilised directly with minor changes in the existing infrastructure. To utilise the renewable generated hydrogen for production of renewable methanol, a sustainable carbon source is needed. This carbon can be provided by biomass or CO 2 in the flue gases of fossil fuel-fired power stations, cement factories, fermentation processes and water purification plants. Methanol production pathways via biomass gasification and CO 2 recovery from the flue gasses of a fossil fuel-fired power station have been reviewed in this study. The cost of methanol production from biomass was found to lie in the range of 300-400 EUR/tonne of methanol, and the production cost of CO 2 based methanol was between 500 and 600 EUR/tonne. Despite the higher production costs compared with methanol produced by conventional natural gas reforming (i.e. 100-200 EUR/tonne, aided by the low current price of natural gas), these new processes incorporate environmentally beneficial aspects that have to be taken into account. (author)

Cloud Based Earth Observation Data Exploitation Platforms

Science.gov (United States)

Romeo, A.; Pinto, S.; Loekken, S.; Marin, A.

2017-12-01

and the Amazon Web Services cloud. This work will present an overview of the TEPs and the multi-cloud EO data processing platform, and discuss their main achievements and their impacts in the context of distributed Research Infrastructures such as EPOS and EOSC.

Open-Source 3-D Platform for Low-Cost Scientific Instrument Ecosystem.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, C; Wijnen, B; Pearce, J M

2016-08-01

The combination of open-source software and hardware provides technically feasible methods to create low-cost, highly customized scientific research equipment. Open-source 3-D printers have proven useful for fabricating scientific tools. Here the capabilities of an open-source 3-D printer are expanded to become a highly flexible scientific platform. An automated low-cost 3-D motion control platform is presented that has the capacity to perform scientific applications, including (1) 3-D printing of scientific hardware; (2) laboratory auto-stirring, measuring, and probing; (3) automated fluid handling; and (4) shaking and mixing. The open-source 3-D platform not only facilities routine research while radically reducing the cost, but also inspires the creation of a diverse array of custom instruments that can be shared and replicated digitally throughout the world to drive down the cost of research and education further. © 2016 Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening.

Estimation of an optimal chemotherapy utilisation rate for cancer: setting an evidence-based benchmark for quality cancer care.

Science.gov (United States)

Jacob, S A; Ng, W L; Do, V

2015-02-01

There is wide variation in the proportion of newly diagnosed cancer patients who receive chemotherapy, indicating the need for a benchmark rate of chemotherapy utilisation. This study describes an evidence-based model that estimates the proportion of new cancer patients in whom chemotherapy is indicated at least once (defined as the optimal chemotherapy utilisation rate). The optimal chemotherapy utilisation rate can act as a benchmark for measuring and improving the quality of care. Models of optimal chemotherapy utilisation were constructed for each cancer site based on indications for chemotherapy identified from evidence-based treatment guidelines. Data on the proportion of patient- and tumour-related attributes for which chemotherapy was indicated were obtained, using population-based data where possible. Treatment indications and epidemiological data were merged to calculate the optimal chemotherapy utilisation rate. Monte Carlo simulations and sensitivity analyses were used to assess the effect of controversial chemotherapy indications and variations in epidemiological data on our model. Chemotherapy is indicated at least once in 49.1% (95% confidence interval 48.8-49.6%) of all new cancer patients in Australia. The optimal chemotherapy utilisation rates for individual tumour sites ranged from a low of 13% in thyroid cancers to a high of 94% in myeloma. The optimal chemotherapy utilisation rate can serve as a benchmark for planning chemotherapy services on a population basis. The model can be used to evaluate service delivery by comparing the benchmark rate with patterns of care data. The overall estimate for other countries can be obtained by substituting the relevant distribution of cancer types. It can also be used to predict future chemotherapy workload and can be easily modified to take into account future changes in cancer incidence, presentation stage or chemotherapy indications. Copyright © 2014 The Royal College of Radiologists. Published by

Keyword extraction, ranking, and organization for the neuroinformatics platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Usui, S; Palmes, P; Nagata, K; Taniguchi, T; Ueda, N

2007-04-01

Brain-related researches encompass many fields of studies and usually involve worldwide collaborations. Recognizing the value of these international collaborations for efficient use of resources and improving the quality of brain research, the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF) started to coordinate the effort of establishing neuroinformatics (NI) centers and portal sites among the different participating countries. These NI centers and portal sites will serve as the conduit for the interchange of information and brain-related resources among different countries. In Japan, several NI platforms under the support of NIJC (NI Japan Center) are being developed with one platform called, Visiome, already operating and publicly accessible at "http://www.platform.visiome.org". Each of these platforms requires their own set of keywords that represent important terms covering their respective fields of study. One important function of this predefined keyword list is to help contributors classify the contents of their contributions and group related resources. It is vital, therefore, that this predefined list should be properly chosen to cover the necessary areas. Currently, the process of identifying these appropriate keywords relies on the availability of human experts which does not scale well considering that different areas are rapidly evolving. This problem prompted us to develop a tool to automatically filter the most likely terms preferred by human experts. We tested the effectiveness of the proposed approach using the abstracts of the Vision Research Journal (VR) and Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science Journal (IOVS) as source files.

Architecture for an advanced biomedical collaboration domain for the European paediatric cancer research community (ABCD-4-E).

Science.gov (United States)

Nitzlnader, Michael; Falgenhauer, Markus; Gossy, Christian; Schreier, Günter

2015-01-01

Today, progress in biomedical research often depends on large, interdisciplinary research projects and tailored information and communication technology (ICT) support. In the context of the European Network for Cancer Research in Children and Adolescents (ENCCA) project the exchange of data between data source (Source Domain) and data consumer (Consumer Domain) systems in a distributed computing environment needs to be facilitated. This work presents the requirements and the corresponding solution architecture of the Advanced Biomedical Collaboration Domain for Europe (ABCD-4-E). The proposed concept utilises public as well as private cloud systems, the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) framework and web-based applications to provide the core capabilities in accordance with privacy and security needs. The utility of crucial parts of the concept was evaluated by prototypic implementation. A discussion of the design indicates that the requirements of ENCCA are fully met. A whole system demonstration is currently being prepared to verify that ABCD-4-E has the potential to evolve into a domain-bridging collaboration platform in the future.

MOSFET assessment of radiation dose delivered to mice using the Small Animal Radiation Research Platform (SARRP).

Science.gov (United States)

Ngwa, Wilfred; Korideck, Houari; Chin, Lee M; Makrigiorgos, G Mike; Berbeco, Ross I

2011-12-01

The Small Animal Radiation Research Platform (SARRP) is a novel isocentric irradiation system that enables state-of-the-art image-guided radiotherapy research to be performed with animal models. This paper reports the results obtained from investigations assessing the radiation dose delivered by the SARRP to different anatomical target volumes in mice. Surgically implanted metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFET) dosimeters were employed for the dose assessment. The results reveal differences between the calculated and measured dose of -3.5 to 0.5%, -5.2 to -0.7%, -3.9 to 0.5%, -5.9 to 2.5%, -5.5 to 0.5%, and -4.3 to 0% for the left kidney, liver, pancreas, prostate, left lung, and brain, respectively. Overall, the findings show less than 6% difference between the delivered and calculated dose, without tissue heterogeneity corrections. These results provide a useful assessment of the need for tissue heterogeneity corrections in SARRP dose calculations for clinically relevant tumor model sites.

The novel cloud application technology with virtual platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chen Ying-Chuan

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Virtualization technology of cloud application service is the major research issue in recent years. Our virtual platform can obtain a lot of advantages base on virtualization technology with suitable virtual machine solution that all system resources can deployed quickly and managed competently, and it has some features including the high capacity for reliability, elasticity and customization. In our virtual platform, there are many different application services are provided for cloud service style. For system computing resources, we need to share all of system and software resources using the virtualization technology is presented in related sections, and we proposed virtual and remote application technology to implement innovative, convenient and powerful cloud application service base on virtual platform. For users of our platform, they can easy to use any software and tools on demand with pay per use mode anytime, and they do not have specialized knowledge and ability of install and maintenance.

Web Platform for Sharing Modeling Software in the Field of Nonlinear Optics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dubenskaya Julia

2018-01-01

Full Text Available We describe the prototype of a Web platform intended for sharing software programs for computer modeling in the rapidly developing field of the nonlinear optics phenomena. The suggested platform is built on the top of the HUBZero open-source middleware. In addition to the basic HUBZero installation we added to our platform the capability to run Docker containers via an external application server and to send calculation programs to those containers for execution. The presented web platform provides a wide range of features and might be of benefit to nonlinear optics researchers.

Web Platform for Sharing Modeling Software in the Field of Nonlinear Optics

Science.gov (United States)

Dubenskaya, Julia; Kryukov, Alexander; Demichev, Andrey

2018-02-01

We describe the prototype of a Web platform intended for sharing software programs for computer modeling in the rapidly developing field of the nonlinear optics phenomena. The suggested platform is built on the top of the HUBZero open-source middleware. In addition to the basic HUBZero installation we added to our platform the capability to run Docker containers via an external application server and to send calculation programs to those containers for execution. The presented web platform provides a wide range of features and might be of benefit to nonlinear optics researchers.

Users and Programmers Guide for HPC Platforms in CIEMAT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Munoz Roldan, A.

2003-01-01

This Technical Report presents a description of the High Performance Computing platforms available to researchers in CIEMAT and dedicated mainly to scientific computing. It targets to users and programmers and tries to help in the processes of developing new code and porting code across platforms. A brief review is also presented about historical evolution in the field of HPC, ie, the programming paradigms and underlying architectures. (Author) 32 refs

Characteristics and utilisation of high-temperature (HTHP) filter dusts from pfb gasification of biomass

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ranta, J. [VTT Energy, Espoo (Finland)

1996-12-31

The aim of the study was to survey characteristics, utilisation and possible environmental impacts of solid wastes, i.e., in case of biomass, mainly high-temperature filter ash (HTHP) from pressurised fluidised-bed gasification (PFBG). The aim is to utilise solid wastes (slag, filter dust, additives) from biomass gasification instead of dumping. One alternative is recycling to the soil as liming material or fertiliser. It is expected that the ash recycled to forest soils changes the environment less than non-recycled ash. (orig.) 3 refs.

Characteristics and utilisation of high-temperature (HTHP) filter dusts from pfb gasification of biomass

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ranta, J [VTT Energy, Espoo (Finland)

1997-12-31

The aim of the study was to survey characteristics, utilisation and possible environmental impacts of solid wastes, i.e., in case of biomass, mainly high-temperature filter ash (HTHP) from pressurised fluidised-bed gasification (PFBG). The aim is to utilise solid wastes (slag, filter dust, additives) from biomass gasification instead of dumping. One alternative is recycling to the soil as liming material or fertiliser. It is expected that the ash recycled to forest soils changes the environment less than non-recycled ash. (orig.) 3 refs.

Platform-based production development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bossen, Jacob; Brunoe, Thomas Ditlev; Nielsen, Kjeld

2015-01-01

Platforms as a means for applying modular thinking in product development is relatively well studied, but platforms in the production system has until now not been given much attention. With the emerging concept of platform-based co-development the importance of production platforms is though...

Approche expérimentale de l'utilisation de glyphosate dans le ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Approche expérimentale de l'utilisation de glyphosate dans le contrôle de Melaleuca quinquenervia (Myrtaceae), une espèce envahissante dans la réserve communautaire de la forêt d'Analalava-Foulpointe (Madagascar)

Industry Platforms and New Industrial Policy in Russia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Svetlana V. Orekhova

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The article aims at clarifying Russian industrial policy as a result of business models changing and market reconstruction. The research bass on the hypothesis that the choice of the industrial policy administrative measures depends on the object of management. It is important to link government regulation of markets with corporate strategies. We reveal that modern economic systems based on using of electronic technologies, big data, and innovative activity. Technological platforms as the single organizational and economic mechanisms affect economic systems very much. We study the content and main characteristics of a business model, is called the "technological platform". We also identify the main required changes in industrial policy. We analyze the matching between scientific and technological scenarios of the Russian economic development and the technological platform. There are two areas of the new industrial policy. They are: a multi-sectoral approach to regulating and improving the quality of the national institutional environment. The industrial and cluster management approaches are inefficient in modern conditions. There is a need for each platform of its technological development scenario. We also clarify the role of the state in the functioning of technological platforms.

Utilising excess minibus-taxi capacity for South African townships tours

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rietjens, S.J.H.; Makoriwa, Collins; de Boer, S.J.

2006-01-01

This paper proposes an option for the utilisation of excess off-peak capacity of minibus-taxis in South Africa for township tours. The minibus-taxi system typically faces steep peak loads during rush hours with excess vehicle and person capacity available during off-hours. The advantages of the

Omnidirectional holonomic platforms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pin, F.G.; Killough, S.M.

1994-01-01

This paper presents the concepts for a new family of wheeled platforms which feature full omnidirectionality with simultaneous and independently controlled rotational and translational motion capabilities. The authors first present the orthogonal-wheels concept and the two major wheel assemblies on which these platforms are based. They then describe how a combination of these assemblies with appropriate control can be used to generate an omnidirectional capability for mobile robot platforms. The design and control of two prototype platforms are then presented and their respective characteristics with respect to rotational and translational motion control are discussed

Platform decommissioning costs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rodger, David

1998-01-01

There are over 6500 platforms worldwide contributing to the offshore oil and gas production industry. In the North Sea there are around 500 platforms in place. There are many factors to be considered in planning for platform decommissioning and the evaluation of options for removal and disposal. The environmental impact, technical feasibility, safety and cost factors all have to be considered. This presentation considers what information is available about the overall decommissioning costs for the North Sea and the costs of different removal and disposal options for individual platforms. 2 figs., 1 tab

Globus Nexus: A Platform-as-a-Service Provider of Research Identity, Profile, and Group Management.

Science.gov (United States)

Chard, Kyle; Lidman, Mattias; McCollam, Brendan; Bryan, Josh; Ananthakrishnan, Rachana; Tuecke, Steven; Foster, Ian

2016-03-01

Globus Nexus is a professionally hosted Platform-as-a-Service that provides identity, profile and group management functionality for the research community. Many collaborative e-Science applications need to manage large numbers of user identities, profiles, and groups. However, developing and maintaining such capabilities is often challenging given the complexity of modern security protocols and requirements for scalable, robust, and highly available implementations. By outsourcing this functionality to Globus Nexus, developers can leverage best-practice implementations without incurring development and operations overhead. Users benefit from enhanced capabilities such as identity federation, flexible profile management, and user-oriented group management. In this paper we present Globus Nexus, describe its capabilities and architecture, summarize how several e-Science applications leverage these capabilities, and present results that characterize its scalability, reliability, and availability.

Globus Nexus: A Platform-as-a-Service provider of research identity, profile, and group management

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chard, Kyle; Lidman, Mattias; McCollam, Brendan; Bryan, Josh; Ananthakrishnan, Rachana; Tuecke, Steven; Foster, Ian

2016-03-01

Globus Nexus is a professionally hosted Platform-as-a-Service that provides identity, profile and group management functionality for the research community. Many collaborative e-Science applications need to manage large numbers of user identities, profiles, and groups. However, developing and maintaining such capabilities is often challenging given the complexity of modern security protocols and requirements for scalable, robust, and highly available implementations. By outsourcing this functionality to Globus Nexus, developers can leverage best-practice implementations without incurring development and operations overhead. Users benefit from enhanced capabilities such as identity federation, flexible profile management, and user-oriented group management. In this paper we present Globus Nexus, describe its capabilities and architecture, summarize how several e-Science applications leverage these capabilities, and present results that characterize its scalability, reliability, and availability.

From Idea to Market: A Review of the Spanish Technology Platforms

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Castaño Marín, M.L.

2016-07-01

The European Commission and Member States have launched ifferent measures within the European Research Area in order to improve the well-being of the citizens and the competitiveness of Europe. The Spanish Technology Platforms have proven to be a successful instrument of public-private cooperation and play a role in key areas of innovation for economic development. Following the steps of the European Technology Platform, Spain supported the creation of an important network of National Technology Platforms. The Spanish Technology Platforms have adapted efficiently to the changes of the R&D&I system and nowadays they are a key instrument to build an economic model based on knowledge.

NERIS: European platform on preparedness for nuclear and radiological emergency response and recovery

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Duranova, T.; Bohunova, J.; Schneider, T.; Biduener, S.; Badelay, J.; Gallego, E.; Gering, F.; Hrdeman, F.; Dubreuil, G.; Murith, Ch.; Oughton, D.; Raskob, W.

2014-01-01

The NERIS platform was established in June 2010 to encourage European, national, regional and local authorities, technical support organisation, operators, professional organisations, research institutes, universities, and non-governmental organisations to cooperate and to facilitate access expertise and technology in maintaining competence in the field of nuclear emergency management and recovery for the benefit of European countries and citizens. 49 organisations are members of the NERIS Platform from 24 countries and 20 members are supporting organisations. The NERIS Association has been registered in August 2012 as a legal European Association under the French Law. It is operated by a management board of 10 members and the NERIS R and D Committee elaborates its strategic orientation. The NERIS Platform is linked to research projects, managed by KIT: - NERIS TP 'Towards a self sustaining European Technology Platform on Preparedness for Nuclear and Radiological Emergency Response and Recovery'. - PREPARE project on innovative integrative tools and platforms to be prepared for radiological emergencies and post-accident response in Europe. To set up a common reflection, cooperation have been established with European and international organisations: HERCA, ALLIANCE, CRPPH, ICRP and AIEA. To share issues on lessons learnt from the Fukushima accident, cooperation have been initiated with IGES (Institute for Global Environment Strategies) and with the Fukushima University. The NERIS Platform is also involved in the steering committee of the EC Project OPERRA, aiming at structuring the research in the field of radiation protection at the Horizon 2020. This paper will present the key components of the NERIS Platform and its objectives. (authors)

Product Platform Replacements

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sköld, Martin; Karlsson, Christer

2012-01-01

. To shed light on this unexplored and growing managerial concern, the purpose of this explorative study is to identify operational challenges to management when product platforms are replaced. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses a longitudinal field-study approach. Two companies, Gamma and Omega...... replacement was chosen in each company. Findings – The study shows that platform replacements primarily challenge managers' existing knowledge about platform architectures. A distinction can be made between “width” and “height” in platform replacements, and it is crucial that managers observe this in order...... to challenge their existing knowledge about platform architectures. Issues on technologies, architectures, components and processes as well as on segments, applications and functions are identified. Practical implications – Practical implications are summarized and discussed in relation to a framework...

Smart Makerspace: A Web Platform Implementation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gabriel Licks

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Makerspaces are creative and learning environments, home to activities such as fabrication processes and Do-It-Yourself (DIY tasks. However, containing equipment that are not commonly seen or handled, these spaces can look rather challenging to novice users. This paper is based on the Smart Makerspace research from Autodesk, which uses a smart workbench for an immersive instructional space for DIY tasks. Having its functionalities in mind and trying to overcome some of its limitations, we approach the concept building an immersive instructional space as a web platform. The platform, introduced to users in a makerspace, had a feedback that reflects its potential between novice and intermediate users, for creating facilitators and encouraging these users.

Stepwise hydrogeological characterisation utilising a geo-synthesis methodology - A case study from the Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory Project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saegusa, H.; Osawa, H.; Onoe, H.; Ohyama, T.; Takeuchi, R.; Takeuchi, S.

2009-01-01

The Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory (MIU) is now under construction by Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) in the Cretaceous Toki granite in the Tono area of central Japan. One of the main goals of the MIU project, which is a broad scientific study of the deep geological environment as a basis of research and development for geological disposal of nuclear wastes, is to establish comprehensive techniques for the investigation, analysis and assessment of the deep geological environment in fractured crystalline rock. For this purpose, a geo-synthesis methodology has been developed and will be tested in a dry run to determine if it produces the data required for repository design and associated integrated safety assessment modelling. Surface-based hydrogeological characterisation, intended to develop conceptual models of the deep geological environment based on an understanding of the undisturbed conditions before excavation of this URL, was carried out in a stepwise manner. This allows field investigations, construction of geological and hydrogeological models and interpretation of resultant groundwater flow simulations to develop in an iterative manner. Investigations have the goal of obtaining information on factors relevant to repository design, associated construction, operational and postclosure safety assessment, evaluation of the practicality of implementation and environmental impact assessment. Such factors include bulk hydraulic conductivity, the locations and properties of water conducting features, direct and indirect indicators of regional and local flow (e.g. based on chemistry or isotopes), etc. Following evaluation of pre-existing site information, field investigations began with fault mapping. This was followed by reflection seismic and vertical seismic profile surveys. In addition, a large programme of investigations was carried out in boreholes, including cross-hole tomography and hydraulic tests. Such input is utilised for the construction

Opening access to African scholarly content: Stellenbosch University's AOARI platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dr Reggie Raju

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Africa is viewed as a consumer of the world's knowledge production. A significant factor influencing this status is the low research output, with the main contributor to this status being minimum access to scholarly content to support research. Stellenbosch University, a leading research institution on the African continent, is committed to contributing to changing this status quo through the distribution of its own research output utilizing open sources. Given the challenges that have plagued Africa in developing processes for the distribution of their research, Stellenbosch University has developed the African Open Access Repository Initiative (AOARI which uses open source software for two platforms that support the ‘green’ and ‘gold’ route to sharing scholarly literature: Ubuntu is used as the operating system, DSpace is used for its repository and Open Journal Systems for its publication platform. It is anticipated that AOARI will be the bridge that facilitates the sharing of research output and nurtures a culture of research production in Africa.

Bambara nut: A review of utilisation, market potential and crop ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Bambara nut: A review of utilisation, market potential and crop improvement. ... smallholder households to obtain improved seed and invest more of their land and labour in the crop. ... is to make a greater contribution to household income and rural development in SSA. ... EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT

Paediatric utilisation of a teaching hospital and a community health ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

to Red Cross Children's Hospital (RXH) that could be more ... better access and perceived quality. S Atr Med ... tertiary resources, low levels of efficiency and staff ... However, central to improved patterns of utilisation is the .... the modei were: (/) age of the child; (it) duration of residence ... There was no significant association.

Improving the Utilisation of Management Information Systems in Secondary Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Bosker, R. J.; Branderhorst, E. M.; Visscher, A. J.

2007-01-01

Although most secondary schools do use management information systems (MISs), these systems tend not to be used to support higher order managerial activities but are currently primarily used for clerical purposes. This situation is unsatisfactory as MISs fully utilised could offer invaluable support to schools, which are increasingly being granted…

A Comparative Analysis of MOOC (Massive Open Online Course Platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria CONACHE

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The MOOC platforms have known a considerable development in recent years due to the enlargement of online space and the shifting between traditional to virtual activities. These plat-forms made it possible for people almost everywhere to take online academic courses offered by top universities via open access to web and with unlimited participation. Thus, it came naturally to us to address the question what makes them so successful? The purpose of this paper is to report comparatively MOOC platforms in terms of features, based on the user’s implication and demands. First, we chose four relevant lifelong learning platforms and then we structured three main categories for the platforms' qualification, depending on which we built our theory regarding the comparison between them. Our analysis consists of three sets of criteria: business model, course design and popularity among online users. Starting from this perspective, we built a range of representative factors for which we highlighted the major aspects for each plat-form in our comparative research

Using and Designing Platforms for In Vivo Education Experiments

OpenAIRE

Williams, Joseph Jay; Ostrow, Korinn; Xiong, Xiaolu; Glassman, Elena; Kim, Juho; Maldonado, Samuel G.; Li, Na; Reich, Justin; Hefferman, Neil

2015-01-01

In contrast to typical laboratory experiments, the everyday use of online educational resources by large populations and the prevalence of software infrastructure for A/B testing leads us to consider how platforms can embed in vivo experiments that do not merely support research, but ensure practical improvements to their educational components. Examples are presented of randomized experimental comparisons conducted by subsets of the authors in three widely used online educational platforms K...

CO2 abatement potential of wood utilisation. Wood as an energy carrier

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wegener, G.; Fruehwald, A.

1994-01-01

Forests as ecosystems not only supply the raw material wood but also exert an influence on soils, water resources and many other ecological factors; provide animals with a habitat; and offer as humans a place for recreation. Recently, forests and wood have become of interest to human civilisation from yet another aspect: they constitute a carbon storage. This means that forestry and the forest industries can help moderate the increase of atmospheric CO 2 concentrations, which is essentially the result of energetic utilisation of fossil fuels and considered the decisive factor underlying the greenhouse effect. Besides constituting a carbon storage, forests hold an additional CO 2 abatement potential which can be realised by continuous utilisation of wood. (orig./EF) [de

High resolution data from everyday life: coproducing a technically robust and engaging sensing platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matthew Machin

2017-04-01

We found it was feasible to integrate requirements from both researchers and patients when developing a sensing platform for dementia research. By seeking feedback from both user groups, we were better able to attend to device linkage requirements, platform functionality and acceptability, integrating these within development and procurement processes. Furthermore, we identified aspects of research setup and design that could support sustained engagement from participants, thereby improving data completeness and quality.

WCET Analysis of ARM Processors using Real-Time Model Checking

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Toft, Martin; Olesen, Mads Christian; Dalsgaard, Andreas

2009-01-01

This paper presents a flexible method that utilises real-time model checking to determine safe and sharp WCETs for processes running on hardware platforms featuring pipelining and caching.......This paper presents a flexible method that utilises real-time model checking to determine safe and sharp WCETs for processes running on hardware platforms featuring pipelining and caching....

Health insurance determines antenatal, delivery and postnatal care utilisation : evidence from the Ghana Demographic and Health Surveillance data

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Browne, Joyce L; Kayode, Gbenga A; Arhinful, Daniel; Fidder, Samuel A J; Grobbee, Diederick E; Klipstein-Grobusch, Kerstin

2016-01-01

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate the effect of maternal health insurance status on the utilisation of antenatal, skilled delivery and postnatal care. DESIGN: A population-based cross-sectional study. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: We utilised the 2008 Demographic and Health Survey data of Ghana,

Sewage sludge utilisation and disposal alternatives and their comparison; Puhdistamolietteiden hyoedyntaemis- ja loppusijoitusvaihtoehdot sekae niiden vertailu

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Paatero, P.

2001-07-01

Sludge production will presumably not decrease in future. At present agricultural use of sludge is unstable and landfilling will most probably be restricted in the following years. The objective of this thesis is to gather information on options for sludge treatment and utilisation and to compare these options in order to find the best possible solution for future alternatives of sludge utilisation. Finnish and international literature as well as Finnish and EU legislation have been reviewed. Furthermore the mentoring group of this thesis as well as other experts in Finland have been used as a source of information. Sludge contains not only plant nutrients and organic matter but also varying quantities of a number of more or less hazardous substances. The quality and quantity of sewage sludge are described and possible health and environmental risks caused by sewage sludge are pointed out. The legislation linked to sludge utilisation and its demands are also presented. The sludge processing methods reviewed are: thickening, lime stabilisation, aerobic digestion, anaerobic digestion, composting and mechanical and thermal drying. In addition, the positive and negative sides of the stabilisation processes are looked at in greater detail. Agricultural use, landscaping, forestry, landfill, incineration, sludge derived products and newer processing technologies are reviewed as sludge utilisation options. Their environmental impacts, positive and negative sides and practical feasibility are evaluated. Various treatment utilisation combinations are also compared. Furthermore a rough cost assessment is presented. The optimal utilisation alternative has to be chosen case by case. The best use of plant nutrients and valuable organic matter is obtained in agricultural use or in landscaping. In the present situation it is difficult to enhance the portion of agricultural use, and landscaping is restricted by a low demand on the market. Incineration is an expensive option and can

Learning Management Platform for CyberCIEGE

Science.gov (United States)

2011-12-01

CLE is a platform that allows academic and research collaboration and it is built on open pedagogy and open standard [16]. In those situations...C. Irvine, “Active learning with the CyberCIEGE video game,” in Proceedings of the 4th Conference on Cyber Security Experimentation and Test, 2011

Mind control: The secret weapon utilised by religious cults to control their followers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S.P. Pretorius

2004-07-01

Full Text Available The aim of this article is to create awareness of the dangers of religious cults. The process utilised by these cults to recruit members and to control their lives is so subtle that members are led to believe that they joined out of their own free will. A brief discussion of what religious cults are as well as how they function is followed by an explanation of mind control and how it is utilised by cults. This article maintains that mind control is the secret weapon with which leaders of cults lure their followers under false pretences to mislead, control and make them dependent on the cult.

Developing an Open Source, Reusable Platform for Distributed Collaborative Information Management in the Early Detection Research Network

Science.gov (United States)

Hart, Andrew F.; Verma, Rishi; Mattmann, Chris A.; Crichton, Daniel J.; Kelly, Sean; Kincaid, Heather; Hughes, Steven; Ramirez, Paul; Goodale, Cameron; Anton, Kristen;

Application of GNSS Methods for Monitoring Offshore Platform Deformation

Science.gov (United States)

Myint, Khin Cho; Nasir Matori, Abd; Gohari, Adel

2018-03-01

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) has become a powerful tool for high-precision deformation monitoring application. Monitoring of deformation and subsidence of offshore platform due to factors such as shallow gas phenomena. GNSS is the technical interoperability and compatibility between various satellite navigation systems such as modernized GPS, Galileo, reconstructed GLONASS to be used by civilian users. It has been known that excessive deformation affects platform structurally, causing loss of production and affects the efficiency of the machinery on board the platform. GNSS have been proven to be one of the most precise positioning methods where by users can get accuracy to the nearest centimeter of a given position from carrier phase measurement processing of GPS signals. This research is aimed at using GNSS technique, which is one of the most standard methods to monitor the deformation of offshore platforms. Therefore, station modeling, which accounts for the spatial correlated errors, and hence speeds up the ambiguity resolution process is employed. It was found that GNSS combines the high accuracy of the results monitoring the offshore platforms deformation with the possibility of survey.

Utilising the Mass Media for the Promotion of Religious Activities in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Utilising the Mass Media for the Promotion of Religious Activities in Nigeria. ... The media have the ability to communicate religious messages that will enable ... to promote moral attitudes in our people, which will in turn, lead to development in ...

SciLite: a platform for displaying text-mined annotations as a means to link research articles with biological data

Science.gov (United States)

Talo, Francesco; Ide-Smith, Michele; Gobeill, Julien; Carter, Jacob; Batista-Navarro, Riza; Ananiadou, Sophia; Ruch, Patrick; McEntyre, Johanna

2017-01-01

The tremendous growth in biological data has resulted in an increase in the number of research papers being published. This presents a great challenge for scientists in searching and assimilating facts described in those papers. Particularly, biological databases depend on curators to add highly precise and useful information that are usually extracted by reading research articles. Therefore, there is an urgent need to find ways to improve linking literature to the underlying data, thereby minimising the effort in browsing content and identifying key biological concepts.   As part of the development of Europe PMC, we have developed a new platform, SciLite, which integrates text-mined annotations from different sources and overlays those outputs on research articles. The aim is to aid researchers and curators using Europe PMC in finding key concepts more easily and provide links to related resources or tools, bridging the gap between literature and biological data. PMID:28948232

Product Platform Modeling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Rasmus

for customisation of products. In many companies these changes in the business environment have created a controversy between the need for a wide variety of products offered to the marketplace and a desire to reduce variation within the company in order to increase efficiency. Many companies use the concept...... other. These groups can be varied and combined to form different product variants without increasing the internal variety in the company. Based on the Theory of Domains, the concept of encapsulation in the organ domain is introduced, and organs are formulated as platform elements. Included......This PhD thesis has the title Product Platform Modelling. The thesis is about product platforms and visual product platform modelling. Product platforms have gained an increasing attention in industry and academia in the past decade. The reasons are many, yet the increasing globalisation...

An open-access platform for camera-trapping data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mario César Lavariega

2018-02-01

Full Text Available In southern Mexico, local communities have been playing important roles in the design and collection of wildlife data through camera-trapping in community-based monitoring of biodiversity projects. However, the methods used to store the data have limited their use in matters of decision-making and research. Thus, we present the Platform for Community-based Monitoring of Biodiversity (PCMB, a repository, which allows storage, visualization, and downloading of photographs captured by community-based monitoring of biodiversity projects in protected areas of southern Mexico. The platform was developed using agile software development with extensive interaction between computer scientists and biologists. System development included gathering data, design, built, database and attributes creation, and quality control. The PCMB currently contains 28,180 images of 6478 animals (69.4% mammals and 30.3% birds. Of the 32 species of mammals recorded in 18 PA since 2012, approximately a quarter of all photographs were of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus. Platforms permitting access to camera-trapping data are a valuable step in opening access to data of biodiversity; the PCMB is a practical new tool for wildlife management and research with data generated through local participation. Thus, this work encourages research on the data generated through the community-based monitoring of biodiversity projects in protected areas, to provide an important information infrastructure for effective management and conservation of wildlife.

Utilisation of the Magnetic Sensor in a Smartphone for Facile Magnetostatics Experiment: Magnetic Field Due to Electrical Current in Straight and Loop Wires

Science.gov (United States)

Septianto, R. D.; Suhendra, D.; Iskandar, F.

2017-01-01

This paper reports on the result of a research into the utilisation of a smartphone for the study of magnetostatics on the basis of experiments. The use of such a device gives great measurement result and thus it can replace magnetic sensor tools that are relatively expensive. For the best experimental result, firstly the position of the magnetic…

Using Social Media as a Managerial Platform for an Educational Development Project : Cofimvaba

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Van der Vyver, AG

2015-12-01

Full Text Available of the project use Whatsapp, a popular social media platform to engage in managerial communication. The researchers found that this unconventional platform proved to be an excellent anchor for managerial communication on the project....

The design and implementation of a network simulation platform

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Von Solms, S

2013-11-01

Full Text Available these events and their effects can enable researchers to identify these threats and find ways to counter them. In this paper we present the design of a network simulation platform which can enable researchers to study dynamic behaviour of networks, network...

SeqHound: biological sequence and structure database as a platform for bioinformatics research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dumontier Michel

2002-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background SeqHound has been developed as an integrated biological sequence, taxonomy, annotation and 3-D structure database system. It provides a high-performance server platform for bioinformatics research in a locally-hosted environment. Results SeqHound is based on the National Center for Biotechnology Information data model and programming tools. It offers daily updated contents of all Entrez sequence databases in addition to 3-D structural data and information about sequence redundancies, sequence neighbours, taxonomy, complete genomes, functional annotation including Gene Ontology terms and literature links to PubMed. SeqHound is accessible via a web server through a Perl, C or C++ remote API or an optimized local API. It provides functionality necessary to retrieve specialized subsets of sequences, structures and structural domains. Sequences may be retrieved in FASTA, GenBank, ASN.1 and XML formats. Structures are available in ASN.1, XML and PDB formats. Emphasis has been placed on complete genomes, taxonomy, domain and functional annotation as well as 3-D structural functionality in the API, while fielded text indexing functionality remains under development. SeqHound also offers a streamlined WWW interface for simple web-user queries. Conclusions The system has proven useful in several published bioinformatics projects such as the BIND database and offers a cost-effective infrastructure for research. SeqHound will continue to develop and be provided as a service of the Blueprint Initiative at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute. The source code and examples are available under the terms of the GNU public license at the Sourceforge site http://sourceforge.net/projects/slritools/ in the SLRI Toolkit.

Chiral DOTA chelators as an improved platform for biomedical imaging and therapy applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Dai, Lixiong; Jones, Chloe M; Chan, Wesley Ting Kwok; Pham, Tiffany A; Ling, Xiaoxi; Gale, Eric M; Rotile, Nicholas J; Tai, William Chi-Shing; Anderson, Carolyn J; Caravan, Peter; Law, Ga-Lai

2018-02-27

Despite established clinical utilisation, there is an increasing need for safer, more inert gadolinium-based contrast agents, and for chelators that react rapidly with radiometals. Here we report the syntheses of a series of chiral DOTA chelators and their corresponding metal complexes and reveal properties that transcend the parent DOTA compound. We incorporated symmetrical chiral substituents around the tetraaza ring, imparting enhanced rigidity to the DOTA cavity, enabling control over the range of stereoisomers of the lanthanide complexes. The Gd chiral DOTA complexes are shown to be orders of magnitude more inert to Gd release than [GdDOTA] - . These compounds also exhibit very-fast water exchange rates in an optimal range for high field imaging. Radiolabeling studies with (Cu-64/Lu-177) also demonstrate faster labelling properties. These chiral DOTA chelators are alternative general platforms for the development of stable, high relaxivity contrast agents, and for radiometal complexes used for imaging and/or therapy.

Introducing Platform Interactions Model for Studying Multi-Sided Platforms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Staykova, Kalina; Damsgaard, Jan

2018-01-01

Multi-Sided Platforms (MSPs) function as socio-technical entities that facilitate direct interactions between various affiliated to them constituencies through developing and managing IT architecture. In this paper, we aim to explain the nature of the platform interactions as key characteristic o...

Energy modelling platforms for policy and strategy support

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dyner, I.

2000-01-01

The energy field has been dominated by 'hard' modelling approaches by researchers from engineering and economics discipline. The recent trend towards a more liberalised environment moves away from central planning to market-based resource allocation, leading to the creation and use of strategic tools, with much 'softer' specifications, in the 'system-thinking' tradition. This paper presents the use of system dynamics in a generalised way, to provide a platform for integrated energy analysis. Issues of modularity and policy evolution are important in the design of the modelling platform to facilitate its use, and reuse. Hence the concepts of a platform, rather than a model, has to be implemented in a coherent way if it is to provide sustained value for ongoing support to both government policy and corporate strategy. (author)

Ethnic Variation in Service Utilisation among Children with Intellectual Disability

Science.gov (United States)

Dura-Vila, G.; Hodes, M.

2009-01-01

Background: This study examined whether service utilisation among children with intellectual disability (ID) varied by ethnic cultural group. Method: Survey carried out in four special schools in London. Information was provided by school teachers using case files, and 242 children aged 7 to 17 years with mild and moderate ID were identified.…

Healthcare utilisation of pregnant women who experience sciatica, leg cramps and/or varicose veins: A cross-sectional survey of 1835 pregnant women.

Science.gov (United States)

Hall, Helen; Lauche, Romy; Adams, Jon; Steel, Amie; Broom, Alex; Sibbritt, David

2016-02-01

Common discomforts of pregnancy experienced in the lower extremity include sciatica, leg cramps and varicose veins. Whilst research attention has focused on aetiology and outcomes, the health service utilisation of pregnant women suffering from these complaints has been largely overlooked. To examine the health status and health service utilisation profile of pregnant women experiencing sciatica, leg cramps or varicose veins. Linear and logistic regression was applied to a cross-sectional survey of a pregnant women drawn from the 1973 to 1978 cohort (aged 31-36 years in 2009), of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (n=1835). Participant's demographics, health status and health service utilisation were compared for all three complaints based upon three subgroups (yes, sought help; yes, did not seek help; no). A number of women experienced sciatica (22.1%), leg cramps (18.2%) or varicose veins (9.4%). Of these, a greater proportion of women with sciatica (79.3%) or varicose veins (71.5%) sought help for their condition compared with women with leg cramps (46.7%). Comparisons between women with the conditions of interest who did seek help and those who did not only found that women with a university degree were 0.29 (95% CI: 0.10, 0.85) times less likely to seek help for their condition compared to women with a school only education. Further research examining all health seeking behaviour and treatment use of pregnant women who experience lower extremity problems is required in order to facilitate safe, effective and coordinated maternity care to further support these women during pregnancy. Copyright © 2015 Australian College of Midwives. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Business analysis for a sustainable, multi-stakeholder ecosystem for leveraging the Electronic Health Records for Clinical Research (EHR4CR) platform in Europe.

Science.gov (United States)

Dupont, Danielle; Beresniak, Ariel; Sundgren, Mats; Schmidt, Andreas; Ainsworth, John; Coorevits, Pascal; Kalra, Dipak; Dewispelaere, Marc; De Moor, Georges

2017-01-01

The Electronic Health Records for Clinical Research (EHR4CR) technological platform has been developed to enable the trustworthy reuse of hospital electronic health records data for clinical research. The EHR4CR platform can enhance and speed up clinical research scenarios: protocol feasibility assessment, patient identification for recruitment in clinical trials, and clinical data exchange, including for reporting serious adverse events. Our objective was to seed a multi-stakeholder ecosystem to enable the scalable exploitation of the EHR4CR platform in Europe, and to assess its economic sustainability. Market analyses were conducted by a multidisciplinary task force to define an EHR4CR emerging ecosystem and multi-stakeholder value chain. This involved mapping stakeholder groups and defining their unmet needs, incentives, potential barriers for adopting innovative solutions, roles and interdependencies. A comprehensive business model, value propositions, and sustainability strategies were developed accordingly. Using simulation modelling (including Monte Carlo simulations) and a 5-year horizon, the potential financial outcomes of the business model were forecasted from the perspective of an EHR4CR service provider. A business ecosystem was defined to leverage the EHR4CR multi-stakeholder value chain. Value propositions were developed describing the expected benefits of EHR4CR solutions for all stakeholders. From an EHR4CR service provider's viewpoint, the business model simulation estimated that a profitability ratio of up to 1.8 could be achieved at year 1, with potential for growth in subsequent years depending on projected market uptake. By enhancing and speeding up existing processes, EHR4CR solutions promise to transform the clinical research landscape. The ecosystem defined provides the organisational framework for optimising the value and benefits for all stakeholders involved, in a sustainable manner. Our study suggests that the exploitation of EHR4CR

Design & Evaluation of an Accessible Hybrid Violin Platform

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Overholt, Daniel; Gelineck, Steven

2014-01-01

We introduce and describe the initial evaluation of a new accessible (easily replicable) augmented violin prototype. Our research is focused on the user experience when playing such hybrid physical- digital instruments, and exploration of novel interactive performance techniques. The goal of wider...... platform accessibility for players and other researchers is approached via a simple ‘do-it-yourself’ design described herein. All hardware and software elements are open- source, and the build process requires minimal electronics skills. Cost has also been kept to a minimum where possible. Our initial...... that incorporates orientation/gesture sensors as well, with the resulting sound amplified and rendered via small speakers mounted directly to the instrument. The platform combines all necessary elements for digitally-mediated interactive performance; the need for a traditional computer only arises when developing...

Artistic and Engineering Design of Platform-Based Production Systems: A Study of Swedish Architectural Practice

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gustav Jansson

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Research on platform-based production systems for house-building has focused on production and manufacturing issues. The aim of this research is to explore how the architectural design process contributes to the industrialised house-building industry from the perspective of creative design work. It also aims to describe how constraints affect architectural design work in the engineer-to-order context, when using platform-based production systems. Architects with experience in using platform-based building systems with different degrees of constraints were interviewed regarding creative aspects of the design work. The interviews, together with documents relating to platform constraints, were then analysed from the perspective of artistic and engineering design theories. The results show the benefits and issues of using platform constraints, both with prefabrication of volumetric modules, as well as prefabricated slab and wall elements. The study highlights a major research gap by describing how architectural work, from both the creative artistic and engineering design perspectives, is affected by constraints in the building platform: (1 the architectural design work goes through a series of divergent and convergent processes where the divergent processes are explorative and the convergent processes are solution-oriented; and (2, there is a trade-off between creativity and efficiency in the design work. Open parameters for layout design are key to architectural creativity, while predefinition supports efficiency. The results also provide an understanding of the potential for creativity in artistic and engineering work tasks through different phases in design, and how they are related to constraints in the platform. The main limitation of the research is the number of interviewed architects who had different background experiences of working with different types of platform constraints. More studies are needed to confirm the observations and to

Assessment of frog meat utilisation in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Frogs are among the most threatened species of wildlife in IUCN red list. Its utilisation in Ibadan, a major depot in western Nigeria was therefore conducted with the aim of assessing the forms and trend of use; and amongst others, reasons for frog meat consumption. Data for the study were collected through questionnaire, ...

Deterrents on the Over Utilisation of Stand Alone Photovoltaic (PV ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

At inception of the programme, systems were either undersized, or over utilised as clients did not reveal their usage needs in an attempt to reduce costs. This resulted in battery failures and other system breakdowns. The NPVREP categorised systems in order to alleviate the problem of under sizing and/or over utilization of ...

Utilisation of mobile health by medical doctors in a Zimbabwean ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Background: Mobile Health is the utilisation of mobile devices like cellphones and tablets for the delivery of health care. It is an up and coming intervention promising to benefit health services. Recent mobile health studies have tended to focus on mHealth for data collection and surveillance rather than on actual patient care ...

Energy Consumption Management of Virtual Cloud Computing Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Lin

2017-11-01