Development and validation of an open source quantification tool for DSC-MRI studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Gordaliza, P M; Mateos-Pérez, J M; Montesinos, P; Guzmán-de-Villoria, J A; Desco, M; Vaquero, J J

2015-03-01

This work presents the development of an open source tool for the quantification of dynamic susceptibility-weighted contrast-enhanced (DSC) perfusion studies. The development of this tool is motivated by the lack of open source tools implemented on open platforms to allow external developers to implement their own quantification methods easily and without the need of paying for a development license. This quantification tool was developed as a plugin for the ImageJ image analysis platform using the Java programming language. A modular approach was used in the implementation of the components, in such a way that the addition of new methods can be done without breaking any of the existing functionalities. For the validation process, images from seven patients with brain tumors were acquired and quantified with the presented tool and with a widely used clinical software package. The resulting perfusion parameters were then compared. Perfusion parameters and the corresponding parametric images were obtained. When no gamma-fitting is used, an excellent agreement with the tool used as a gold-standard was obtained (R(2)>0.8 and values are within 95% CI limits in Bland-Altman plots). An open source tool that performs quantification of perfusion studies using magnetic resonance imaging has been developed and validated using a clinical software package. It works as an ImageJ plugin and the source code has been published with an open source license. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

78 FR 65265 - Materials Technical Advisory Committee; Notice of Open Meeting

Science.gov (United States)

2013-10-31

.... Report on regime-based activities. 7. SHUTDOWN Feedback. 8. Public Comments and New Business. The open...; Notice of Open Meeting The Materials Technical Advisory Committee will meet on November 14, 2013, 10:00 a... materials and related technology. Agenda Open Session 1. Opening Remarks and Introductions. 2. Remarks from...

Reliability and validity analysis of the open-source Chinese Foot and Ankle Outcome Score (FAOS).

Science.gov (United States)

Ling, Samuel K K; Chan, Vincent; Ho, Karen; Ling, Fona; Lui, T H

2017-12-21

Develop the first reliable and validated open-source outcome scoring system in the Chinese language for foot and ankle problems. Translation of the English FAOS into Chinese following regular protocols. First, two forward-translations were created separately, these were then combined into a preliminary version by an expert committee, and was subsequently back-translated into English. The process was repeated until the original and back translations were congruent. This version was then field tested on actual patients who provided feedback for modification. The final Chinese FAOS version was then tested for reliability and validity. Reliability analysis was performed on 20 subjects while validity analysis was performed on 50 subjects. Tools used to validate the Chinese FAOS were the SF36 and Pain Numeric Rating Scale (NRS). Internal consistency between the FAOS subgroups was measured using Cronbach's alpha. Spearman's correlation was calculated between each subgroup in the FAOS, SF36 and NRS. The Chinese FAOS passed both reliability and validity testing; meaning it is reliable, internally consistent and correlates positively with the SF36 and the NRS. The Chinese FAOS is a free, open-source scoring system that can be used to provide a relatively standardised outcome measure for foot and ankle studies. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Remarks on the relation between different (open) string field theories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

De Alwis, S.P.

1987-01-01

It is shown that the different three-string vertices, related by conformal transformations, are in the same BRST cohomology class. We use this result to discuss the relation between different (open) string field theories. (orig.)

Validation of the openEHR archetype library by using OWL reasoning.

Science.gov (United States)

Menárguez-Tortosa, Marcos; Fernández-Breis, Jesualdo Tomás

2011-01-01

Electronic Health Record architectures based on the dual model architecture use archetypes for representing clinical knowledge. Therefore, ensuring their correctness and consistency is a fundamental research goal. In this work, we explore how an approach based on OWL technologies can be used for such purpose. This method has been applied to the openEHR archetype repository, which is the largest available one nowadays. The results of this validation are also reported in this study.

Phase 1 Validation Testing and Simulation for the WEC-Sim Open Source Code

Science.gov (United States)

Ruehl, K.; Michelen, C.; Gunawan, B.; Bosma, B.; Simmons, A.; Lomonaco, P.

2015-12-01

WEC-Sim is an open source code to model wave energy converters performance in operational waves, developed by Sandia and NREL and funded by the US DOE. The code is a time-domain modeling tool developed in MATLAB/SIMULINK using the multibody dynamics solver SimMechanics, and solves the WEC's governing equations of motion using the Cummins time-domain impulse response formulation in 6 degrees of freedom. The WEC-Sim code has undergone verification through code-to-code comparisons; however validation of the code has been limited to publicly available experimental data sets. While these data sets provide preliminary code validation, the experimental tests were not explicitly designed for code validation, and as a result are limited in their ability to validate the full functionality of the WEC-Sim code. Therefore, dedicated physical model tests for WEC-Sim validation have been performed. This presentation provides an overview of the WEC-Sim validation experimental wave tank tests performed at the Oregon State University's Directional Wave Basin at Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory. Phase 1 of experimental testing was focused on device characterization and completed in Fall 2015. Phase 2 is focused on WEC performance and scheduled for Winter 2015/2016. These experimental tests were designed explicitly to validate the performance of WEC-Sim code, and its new feature additions. Upon completion, the WEC-Sim validation data set will be made publicly available to the wave energy community. For the physical model test, a controllable model of a floating wave energy converter has been designed and constructed. The instrumentation includes state-of-the-art devices to measure pressure fields, motions in 6 DOF, multi-axial load cells, torque transducers, position transducers, and encoders. The model also incorporates a fully programmable Power-Take-Off system which can be used to generate or absorb wave energy. Numerical simulations of the experiments using WEC-Sim will be

Open Education Week Panel Discussion

OpenAIRE

Doolittle, Peter; Hart, Heath; Hartman, Greg; Seyam, Mohammed; Walz, Anita R.

2015-01-01

Introduction by Julie Speer, Associate Dean for Research & Informatics. Open remarks by Anita Walz, Assessment, Open Education & Online Learning Environments Librarian. Mohammed Seyam discusses the value of openly licensed material as a student, research, and graduate assistant. Heath Hart reflects on his adoption of an open educational resource and a (subscribed) online textbook in, “A Rousing Success and an Unmitigated Disaster.” Greg Hartman discusses his experiences authoring open-source ...

Opening Remarks: SciDAC 2007

Science.gov (United States)

Strayer, Michael

2007-09-01

Good morning. Welcome to Boston, the home of the Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins, baked beans, tea parties, Robert Parker, and SciDAC 2007. A year ago I stood before you to share the legacy of the first SciDAC program and identify the challenges that we must address on the road to petascale computing—a road E E Cummins described as `. . . never traveled, gladly beyond any experience.' Today, I want to explore the preparations for the rapidly approaching extreme scale (X-scale) generation. These preparations are the first step propelling us along the road of burgeoning scientific discovery enabled by the application of X- scale computing. We look to petascale computing and beyond to open up a world of discovery that cuts across scientific fields and leads us to a greater understanding of not only our world, but our universe. As part of the President's America Competitiveness Initiative, the ASCR Office has been preparing a ten year vision for computing. As part of this planning the LBNL together with ORNL and ANL hosted three town hall meetings on Simulation and Modeling at the Exascale for Energy, Ecological Sustainability and Global Security (E3). The proposed E3 initiative is organized around four programmatic themes: Engaging our top scientists, engineers, computer scientists and applied mathematicians; investing in pioneering large-scale science; developing scalable analysis algorithms, and storage architectures to accelerate discovery; and accelerating the build-out and future development of the DOE open computing facilities. It is clear that we have only just started down the path to extreme scale computing. Plan to attend Thursday's session on the out-briefing and discussion of these meetings. The road to the petascale has been at best rocky. In FY07, the continuing resolution provided 12% less money for Advanced Scientific Computing than either the President, the Senate, or the House. As a consequence, many of you had to absorb a no cost extension for your

Opening remarks: Preface

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Beck, Harold L.

2002-01-01

This special issue contains the proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements held 4-5 April 2001 in Arlington, Virginia. The theme of the meeting was 'Fallout from Atmospheric Nuclear Tests-Impact on Science and Society.' Between 1945 and 1980, over 500 nuclear weapons tests were conducted in the atmosphere by the United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, and China. This practice resulted in the release of large quantities of radioactive materials, which dispersed widely in the atmosphere and deposited on Earth's surface. The measurement of these so-called 'fallout' radionuclides in air, soil, and water and the evaluation of the transfer of these materials to the human body became a significant scientific endeavor. Many national and international monitoring projects were initiated, and extended studies were made of the fallout behavior. An historical overview of the testing and resultant monitoring programs, fallout mechanisms, and estimates of the resultant deposition of fallout is presented in the first paper in this Symposium. University and national laboratory scientists conducted a large number of research programs during the course of weapons tests and fallout. This research resulted in substantial improvements in low-level radioactivity metrology as well as significant advances in the understanding of atmospheric, ecological, and oceanographic processes. Many of these results are still highly pertinent to present-day environmental radiation issues related to the cleanup of contaminated sites, the decommissioning of contaminated facilities, and the assessment of accidents such as occurred at Three Mile Island and at Chernobyl. The results of these investigations were published in thousands of research papers and presented at a number of international conferences held over the processes. The radionuclides served as tracer materials in this regard. The initiation of research on radioactive fallout was the beginning of a new scientific era of opportunity and discovery using the radionuclides injected into the environment from weapons tests as a tool for studying such phenomena as atmospheric chemistry and ecological transfer processes and for developing new methods for the measurement and analysis of low levels of radioactive materials in environmental samples. Webb (1949), of the Eastman Kodak Company of Rochester, New York, was the first to report an occurrence of long-range fallout. He observed 'a new type of radioactive contaminant' in paper packing materials used to separate sensitive photographic films. This observation was made shortly after the first nuclear detonation on 16 July 1945 at Alamogordo, New Mexico, and the two events were immediately linked. During the war years Kodak had encountered radium-contaminated paper, caused by paper and cardboard salvaged and recycled from war plants where radium instrument dials were prepared. The company had therefore instigated a radiation-monitoring program. The paper contaminated by fallout was discovered in August 1945 in paper material that had been produced in Indiana from corn stalks grown in Iowa, some 1,600 km distant from the New Mexico test location. The contamination, identified as 141 Ce, had originated from dust particles deposited from the atmosphere, transferred to river water, and filtered out onto the paper raw material. Even though fallout was detected far from New Mexico as a result of the Trinity test, the systematic monitoring of long-range fallout did not begin until February 1951, 50 y ago. At that time, the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere began in earnest and it was first recognized that fallout formed in the tests could become widely distributed downrange of the test site. Thus, it seemed appropriate for the NCRP at their 2001 annual meeting to mark this 50 y since the initiation of the global fallout monitoring and research programs by providing a forum to look back at the fallout phenomenon and, in particular, at the impact of the resultant investigations on the atmospheric, ecological, oceanographic, and measurement sciences. These scientific achievements are reviewed in the papers in this Symposium volume discussing the 'Impact on Science'

Opening keynote remarks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reinwart, W.C.

1996-01-01

The outlook for western Canadian natural gas supply was introduced as the principal conference topic, with particular attention to U.S. Midwest markets and the new transportation options from Alberta and British Columbia. Prospects were considered to be excellent, with large connected surplus capacity envisaged well into the next century. Some of the advantages of Canada as a supplier were enumerated: a large resource base, excellent established infrastructure, technical competence, competitive pricing, and political stability

Remarks on time-dependent [current]-density functional theory for open quantum systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Yuen-Zhou, Joel; Aspuru-Guzik, Alán

2013-08-14

Time-dependent [current]-density functional theory for open quantum systems (OQS) has emerged as a formalism that can incorporate dissipative effects in the dynamics of many-body quantum systems. Here, we review and clarify some formal aspects of these theories that have been recently questioned in the literature. In particular, we provide theoretical support for the following conclusions: (1) contrary to what we and others had stated before, within the master equation framework, there is in fact a one-to-one mapping between vector potentials and current densities for fixed initial state, particle-particle interaction, and memory kernel; (2) regardless of the first conclusion, all of our recently suggested Kohn-Sham (KS) schemes to reproduce the current and particle densities of the original OQS, and in particular, the use of a KS closed driven system, remains formally valid; (3) the Lindblad master equation maintains the positivity of the density matrix regardless of the time-dependence of the Hamiltonian or the dissipation operators; (4) within the stochastic Schrödinger equation picture, a one-to-one mapping from stochastic vector potential to stochastic current density for individual trajectories has not been proven so far, except in the case where the vector potential is the same for every member of the ensemble, in which case, it reduces to the Lindblad master equation picture; (5) master equations may violate certain desired properties of the density matrix, such as positivity, but they remain as one of the most useful constructs to study OQS when the environment is not easily incorporated explicitly in the calculation. The conclusions support our previous work as formally rigorous, offer new insights into it, and provide a common ground to discuss related theories.

Validation of an open-formula, diagnostic real-time PCR method for 20-hr detection of Salmonella in animal feeds

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Löfström, Charlotta; Hoorfar, Jeffrey

2012-01-01

A comparative study of a 20-hr, non-commercial, open-formula PCR method and the standard culture-based method NMKL 187, for detection of Salmonella, was performed according to the validation protocol from the Nordic organization for validation of alternative microbiological methods (NordVal) on 81...

Automatic Integration Testbeds validation on Open Science Grid

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Caballero, J; Potekhin, M; Thapa, S; Gardner, R

2011-01-01

A recurring challenge in deploying high quality production middleware is the extent to which realistic testing occurs before release of the software into the production environment. We describe here an automated system for validating releases of the Open Science Grid software stack that leverages the (pilot-based) PanDA job management system developed and used by the ATLAS experiment. The system was motivated by a desire to subject the OSG Integration Testbed to more realistic validation tests. In particular those which resemble to every extent possible actual job workflows used by the experiments thus utilizing job scheduling at the compute element (CE), use of the worker node execution environment, transfer of data to/from the local storage element (SE), etc. The context is that candidate releases of OSG compute and storage elements can be tested by injecting large numbers of synthetic jobs varying in complexity and coverage of services tested. The native capabilities of the PanDA system can thus be used to define jobs, monitor their execution, and archive the resulting run statistics including success and failure modes. A repository of generic workflows and job types to measure various metrics of interest has been created. A command-line toolset has been developed so that testbed managers can quickly submit 'VO-like' jobs into the system when newly deployed services are ready for testing. A system for automatic submission has been crafted to send jobs to integration testbed sites, collecting the results in a central service and generating regular reports for performance and reliability.

Automatic Integration Testbeds validation on Open Science Grid

Science.gov (United States)

Caballero, J.; Thapa, S.; Gardner, R.; Potekhin, M.

2011-12-01

A recurring challenge in deploying high quality production middleware is the extent to which realistic testing occurs before release of the software into the production environment. We describe here an automated system for validating releases of the Open Science Grid software stack that leverages the (pilot-based) PanDA job management system developed and used by the ATLAS experiment. The system was motivated by a desire to subject the OSG Integration Testbed to more realistic validation tests. In particular those which resemble to every extent possible actual job workflows used by the experiments thus utilizing job scheduling at the compute element (CE), use of the worker node execution environment, transfer of data to/from the local storage element (SE), etc. The context is that candidate releases of OSG compute and storage elements can be tested by injecting large numbers of synthetic jobs varying in complexity and coverage of services tested. The native capabilities of the PanDA system can thus be used to define jobs, monitor their execution, and archive the resulting run statistics including success and failure modes. A repository of generic workflows and job types to measure various metrics of interest has been created. A command-line toolset has been developed so that testbed managers can quickly submit "VO-like" jobs into the system when newly deployed services are ready for testing. A system for automatic submission has been crafted to send jobs to integration testbed sites, collecting the results in a central service and generating regular reports for performance and reliability.

Conceptualization and validation of an open-source closed-loop deep brain stimulation system in rat.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Hemmings; Ghekiere, Hartwin; Beeckmans, Dorien; Tambuyzer, Tim; van Kuyck, Kris; Aerts, Jean-Marie; Nuttin, Bart

2015-04-21

Conventional deep brain stimulation (DBS) applies constant electrical stimulation to specific brain regions to treat neurological disorders. Closed-loop DBS with real-time feedback is gaining attention in recent years, after proved more effective than conventional DBS in terms of pathological symptom control clinically. Here we demonstrate the conceptualization and validation of a closed-loop DBS system using open-source hardware. We used hippocampal theta oscillations as system input, and electrical stimulation in the mesencephalic reticular formation (mRt) as controller output. It is well documented that hippocampal theta oscillations are highly related to locomotion, while electrical stimulation in the mRt induces freezing. We used an Arduino open-source microcontroller between input and output sources. This allowed us to use hippocampal local field potentials (LFPs) to steer electrical stimulation in the mRt. Our results showed that closed-loop DBS significantly suppressed locomotion compared to no stimulation, and required on average only 56% of the stimulation used in open-loop DBS to reach similar effects. The main advantages of open-source hardware include wide selection and availability, high customizability, and affordability. Our open-source closed-loop DBS system is effective, and warrants further research using open-source hardware for closed-loop neuromodulation.

Opening Remarks of the Opening Plenary

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Varjoranta, T.

2015-01-01

This is the twelfth international Safeguards Symposium, hosted by the IAEA. And once again it is being held in cooperation with the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management and the European Safeguards Research and Development Association. Our theme is Strategy, Implementation and People. Linking the three core processes of any business - the strategy, its implementation and the people doing the work - determines the success or failure of every organization. And the strength of the link between these three processes determines the degree to which a business is able to deliver what it wants to achieve. The IAEA is no exception. To achieve our vision, meet our obligations and fulfill the expectation of our Member States requires the careful and successful linking of strategy, implementation and people, and that is what we will all be focusing on during our deliberations this week. The primary objective of this symposium is to foster dialogue and information exchange between the IAEA and experts from Member States, the nuclear industry and the broader nuclear non-proliferation community

Remarkable Women in a Remarkable Age. On the Genesis of the English Public Sphere, 1642-1752

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eleonora Cappuccilli

2015-06-01

Full Text Available During the era of the English Revolutions and shortly after that, some spaces, albeit limited, of female visibility open up. Thanks to the window of opportunity caused by the collapse of censorship, the participation in the radical sects and in the Civil war, some remarkable women succeed in introducing themselves in the public sphere, shaping it since its very genesis. Moreover, analysing law institutions as jointure and feoffment, the attempt is to reconstruct some fragments of juridical female autonomy, which belie the total pervasiveness of coverture in the XVII century. As in private law, in public law women, in the role of queens, gain centrality: the principle of female authority, while safeguards the holding of the monarchical regime, destabilizes its patriarchal structure. Going through the works of Katherine Chidley, Margaret Cavendish, Damaris Masham and Mary Astell, the essay aims at reconstructing women's public voice, a voice which upsets the consolidated frames and subverts the established positions, questioning the same social hierarchies.

Concluding remarks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nariai, H.

2007-01-01

This document provides the speech presented by Hideki Nariai on May 2007 at the workshop on transparency of nuclear regulatory activities. It aims to propose concluding remarks concerning nuclear safety and the necessity to be transparent to the general public. (A.L.B.)

Open source posturography.

Science.gov (United States)

Rey-Martinez, Jorge; Pérez-Fernández, Nicolás

2016-12-01

The proposed validation goal of 0.9 in intra-class correlation coefficient was reached with the results of this study. With the obtained results we consider that the developed software (RombergLab) is a validated balance assessment software. The reliability of this software is dependent of the used force platform technical specifications. Develop and validate a posturography software and share its source code in open source terms. Prospective non-randomized validation study: 20 consecutive adults underwent two balance assessment tests, six condition posturography was performed using a clinical approved software and force platform and the same conditions were measured using the new developed open source software using a low cost force platform. Intra-class correlation index of the sway area obtained from the center of pressure variations in both devices for the six conditions was the main variable used for validation. Excellent concordance between RombergLab and clinical approved force platform was obtained (intra-class correlation coefficient =0.94). A Bland and Altman graphic concordance plot was also obtained. The source code used to develop RombergLab was published in open source terms.

Experimental Validation of Elliptical Fin-Opening Behavior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James M. Garner

2003-01-01

Full Text Available An effort to improve the performance of ordnance has led to the consideration of the use of folding elliptical fins for projectile stabilization. A second order differential equation was used to model elliptical fin deployment history and accounts for: deployment with respect to the geometric properties of the fin, the variation in fin aerodynamics during deployment, the initial yaw effect on fin opening, and the variation in deployment speed based on changes in projectile spin. This model supports tests conducted at the Transonic Experimental Facility, Aberdeen Proving Ground examining the opening behavior of these uniquely shaped fins. The fins use the centrifugal force from the projectile spin to deploy. During the deployment, the fin aerodynamic forces vary with angle-of-attack changes to the free stream. Model results indicate that projectile spin dominates the initial opening rates and aerodynamics dominate near the fully open state. The model results are examined to explain the observed behaviors, and suggest improvements for later designs.

Momentum distributions: opening remarks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Weigold, E.

1982-01-01

The problem of the hydrogen atom has played a central role in the development of quantum mechanics, beginning with Bohr's daring speculations. It was also the first problem tackled by Schroedinger with his new wave mechanics and similarly it was used by Heisenberg in his first papers as a prime example of the success of quantum mechanics. It has always played a central role in the teaching of quantum physics and has served as a most important heuristic tool, shaping our intuition and inspiring many expositions. The Schroedinger equation for the hydrogen atom is usually solved in the position representation, the solution to the equation being the wave functions psi/sub nlm/(r). If Schroedinger's equation is solved in the momentum representation instead of the coordinate representation, the absolute square of the corresponding momentum state wave function phi/sub nlm/(p) would give the momentum probability distribution of the electron in the state defined by the quantum numbers n, l and m. Three different types of collisions which can take place in the (e,2e) reaction on atomic hydrogen, which is a three body problem, are discussed

Plenary presentations - opening remarks

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Simon, R.M.

1993-12-31

I am pleased to be here today as one of the U.S. Co-Chairs for the Second U.S./Japan Workshop on Global Change. This series of workshops is an outgrowth of the 1988 bilateral agreement between the U.S. and Japanese governments on scientific and technological cooperation. That agreement called for comparable access to, and exchange of, information in scientific and technological fields, as well as the joint undertaking of cooperative activities for peaceful purposes in nationally important areas of science and technology. Meetings such as this were envisioned under the agreement to allow experts from both sides to discuss and exchange information on scientific and technological aspects of important problems and to identify research and development projects that might usefully be undertaken on a cooperative basis. The first U.S./Japan Workshop on Global Change focused on research needed to better understand how the global climate system operates, what the interactions are between the climate system and marine and terrestrial ecosystems, and how Earth systems might respond to global climatic changes.

Validation of an effective, low cost, Free/open access 3D-printed stethoscope

Science.gov (United States)

Pavlosky, Alexander; Glauche, Jennifer; Chambers, Spencer; Al-Alawi, Mahmoud; Yanev, Kliment

2018-01-01

The modern acoustic stethoscope is a useful clinical tool used to detect subtle, pathological changes in cardiac, pulmonary and vascular sounds. Currently, brand-name stethoscopes are expensive despite limited innovations in design or fabrication in recent decades. Consequently, the high cost of high quality, brand name models serves as a barrier to clinicians practicing in various settings, especially in low- and middle-income countries. In this publication, we describe the design and validation of a low-cost open-access (Free/Libre) 3D-printed stethoscope which is comparable to the Littmann Cardiology III for use in low-access clinics. PMID:29538426

Validation of Moticon?s OpenGo sensor insoles during gait, jumps, balance and cross-country skiing specific imitation movements

OpenAIRE

St?ggl, Thomas; Martiner, Alex

2016-01-01

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was the experimental validation of the OpenGo sensor insole system compared to PedarX sensor insole and AMTI force-plate systems. Sixteen healthy participants performed trials in walking, running, jumping (drop and counter movement jumps), imitation drills and balance, with simultaneous measures of all three systems. Detected ground contact and flight times with OpenGo during walking, running and jumping were similar to those of AMTI. Force?time curves revea...

External validation of the Cairns Prediction Model (CPM) to predict conversion from laparoscopic to open cholecystectomy.

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Alan Shiun Yew; Donohue, Peter O'; Gunnarsson, Ronny K; de Costa, Alan

2018-03-14

Valid and user-friendly prediction models for conversion to open cholecystectomy allow for proper planning prior to surgery. The Cairns Prediction Model (CPM) has been in use clinically in the original study site for the past three years, but has not been tested at other sites. A retrospective, single-centred study collected ultrasonic measurements and clinical variables alongside with conversion status from consecutive patients who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy from 2013 to 2016 in The Townsville Hospital, North Queensland, Australia. An area under the curve (AUC) was calculated to externally validate of the CPM. Conversion was necessary in 43 (4.2%) out of 1035 patients. External validation showed an area under the curve of 0.87 (95% CI 0.82-0.93, p = 1.1 × 10 -14 ). In comparison with most previously published models, which have an AUC of approximately 0.80 or less, the CPM has the highest AUC of all published prediction models both for internal and external validation. Crown Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Editorial - a remark you made

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yngve Nordkvelle

2007-12-01

Full Text Available ”A remark you made” is the title of a wonderful tune by the famous jazz-rock group “Weather Report”, issued on the influential “Heavy weather” LP some 30 years ago. In an age where planning and rationalizing is the main issue in most contexts, whether it’s a matter of studying, teaching, doing research or using a diet, “A remark you made” is a symbol of attending to the unplanned, unforeseen and often, unwanted. In most accounts on cognitive development one is overtly focused on the manageable, on the predictable and expected, and not so attentive to the opposite. “A remark you made” makes us think again and reconsider what might be of value, in what we otherwise might neglect. A remark made by Terry Anderson at a conference last year (2006 was rather telling. Anderson is the renown distance educator from Athabasca University, Alberta Canada, and editor of our fellow e-journal “The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning”. I recite it here totally from my own memory, and I have never approached him to have it verified, falsified or commented. That doesn’t matter in this context. Standing on the podium, he lowered his voice and asked if any Danes were present in the room. There weren’t! Then he explained that his argument might be presented differently with Danes present: “You see – Danes seem to think that learning alone is no longer possible!” That remark caused quite a good laugh, not the least because any comment – good or bad – about fellow Scandinavians generally is considered to be a good joke. But it was also a comment on how not only distance education, or open and flexible learning, but learning theory in general is driven by the sociocultural learning theory, - and according to Anderson, particularly so in Denmark! Our first contribution in this issue is about the theory of media theory developed by one of our editors: Lars Qvortrup. Lars is now the rector of the Danish �

The end of a remarkable era

CERN Multimedia

2011-01-01

An important era in particle physics is coming to an end: the US Department of Energy announced on Monday that it will not fund an extension to Tevatron running beyond 2011. It is a poignant moment for particle physics as we prepare to bid farewell to a machine that has changed our view of the Universe, and played a significant role in paving the way for the new era that is opening up with the LHC.   The Tevatron has been at the high-energy frontier of particle physics for over a quarter of a century. That’s a remarkable achievement by any account, and the physics results are there to prove it. As well as bringing us the discovery of the top quark in 1995, the Tevatron’s experiments have provided vitally important precision measurements covering the full spectrum of Standard Model physics, not to mention hints of what may lie beyond. With several months of running still to come, it would be a foolish gambler who bet against further new physics emerging before the Teva...

Concluding remarks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Patrick, W.C.

1996-01-01

This section contains the concluding remarks of the workshop on rock mechanics issues in repository design and performance assessment. Technical issues such as spatial variability of rock properties, rock mass strength, measurement of loads, evaluation of long-term seal performance, and integration of data into design were discussed. Programmatic issues such as development of a coherent and consistent design methodology and implementation of that methodology were also reiterated

Opening address

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ianko, L.

1993-01-01

This short talk was the opening remarks to the attendees at this conference, presented by the Scientific Secretary, IWG-LMNPP, of the IAEA. This meeting is an effort to aid research on problems related to the general area of nuclear plant aging and life management. In particular it addresses fracture properties of reactor materials and components, both as installed, and at end of service condition. A major concern is relating measurements made on laboratory samples to properties displayed by actual reactor components

OpenTox predictive toxicology framework: toxicological ontology and semantic media wiki-based OpenToxipedia.

Science.gov (United States)

Tcheremenskaia, Olga; Benigni, Romualdo; Nikolova, Ivelina; Jeliazkova, Nina; Escher, Sylvia E; Batke, Monika; Baier, Thomas; Poroikov, Vladimir; Lagunin, Alexey; Rautenberg, Micha; Hardy, Barry

2012-04-24

The OpenTox Framework, developed by the partners in the OpenTox project (http://www.opentox.org), aims at providing a unified access to toxicity data, predictive models and validation procedures. Interoperability of resources is achieved using a common information model, based on the OpenTox ontologies, describing predictive algorithms, models and toxicity data. As toxicological data may come from different, heterogeneous sources, a deployed ontology, unifying the terminology and the resources, is critical for the rational and reliable organization of the data, and its automatic processing. The following related ontologies have been developed for OpenTox: a) Toxicological ontology - listing the toxicological endpoints; b) Organs system and Effects ontology - addressing organs, targets/examinations and effects observed in in vivo studies; c) ToxML ontology - representing semi-automatic conversion of the ToxML schema; d) OpenTox ontology- representation of OpenTox framework components: chemical compounds, datasets, types of algorithms, models and validation web services; e) ToxLink-ToxCast assays ontology and f) OpenToxipedia community knowledge resource on toxicology terminology.OpenTox components are made available through standardized REST web services, where every compound, data set, and predictive method has a unique resolvable address (URI), used to retrieve its Resource Description Framework (RDF) representation, or to initiate the associated calculations and generate new RDF-based resources.The services support the integration of toxicity and chemical data from various sources, the generation and validation of computer models for toxic effects, seamless integration of new algorithms and scientifically sound validation routines and provide a flexible framework, which allows building arbitrary number of applications, tailored to solving different problems by end users (e.g. toxicologists). The OpenTox toxicological ontology projects may be accessed via the Open

Validation of open-surgery VR trainer

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sanders, A.J.B.; Luursema, J.M.; Warntjes, P.; Mastboom, W.J.B.; Geelkerken, R.H.; Klaase, J.M.; Rödel, S.G.J.; ten Cate Hoedemaker, H.O.; Kommers, P.A.M.; Verwey, W.B.; Kunst, E.E.; Westwood, James D.

2006-01-01

VREST (Virtual Reality Educational Surgical Tools) is developing a universal and autonomous simulation platform which can be used for training and assessment of medical students and for continuing education of physicians. With the VREST - Virtual Lichtenstein Trainer, simulating the open surgery

FastaValidator: an open-source Java library to parse and validate FASTA formatted sequences.

Science.gov (United States)

Waldmann, Jost; Gerken, Jan; Hankeln, Wolfgang; Schweer, Timmy; Glöckner, Frank Oliver

2014-06-14

Advances in sequencing technologies challenge the efficient importing and validation of FASTA formatted sequence data which is still a prerequisite for most bioinformatic tools and pipelines. Comparative analysis of commonly used Bio*-frameworks (BioPerl, BioJava and Biopython) shows that their scalability and accuracy is hampered. FastaValidator represents a platform-independent, standardized, light-weight software library written in the Java programming language. It targets computer scientists and bioinformaticians writing software which needs to parse quickly and accurately large amounts of sequence data. For end-users FastaValidator includes an interactive out-of-the-box validation of FASTA formatted files, as well as a non-interactive mode designed for high-throughput validation in software pipelines. The accuracy and performance of the FastaValidator library qualifies it for large data sets such as those commonly produced by massive parallel (NGS) technologies. It offers scientists a fast, accurate and standardized method for parsing and validating FASTA formatted sequence data.

Threats to Validity When Using Open-Ended Items in International Achievement Studies: Coding Responses to the PISA 2012 Problem-Solving Test in Finland

Science.gov (United States)

Arffman, Inga

2016-01-01

Open-ended (OE) items are widely used to gather data on student performance in international achievement studies. However, several factors may threaten validity when using such items. This study examined Finnish coders' opinions about threats to validity when coding responses to OE items in the PISA 2012 problem-solving test. A total of 6…

Structure validation of the Josephin domain of ataxin-3: Conclusive evidence for an open conformation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nicastro, Giuseppe; Habeck, Michael; Masino, Laura; Svergun, Dmitri I.; Pastore, Annalisa

2006-01-01

The availability of new and fast tools in structure determination has led to a more than exponential growth of the number of structures solved per year. It is therefore increasingly essential to assess the accuracy of the new structures by reliable approaches able to assist validation. Here, we discuss a specific example in which the use of different complementary techniques, which include Bayesian methods and small angle scattering, resulted essential for validating the two currently available structures of the Josephin domain of ataxin-3, a protein involved in the ubiquitin/proteasome pathway and responsible for neurodegenerative spinocerebellar ataxia of type 3. Taken together, our results demonstrate that only one of the two structures is compatible with the experimental information. Based on the high precision of our refined structure, we show that Josephin contains an open cleft which could be directly implicated in the interaction with polyubiquitin chains and other partners

Theories of superconductivity (a few remarks)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ginzburg, V.L.

1992-01-01

The early history in the development of superconductivity. Idea of pairing, Schafroth and BCS types of theories. Some remarks on present state of the microscopical theory of high-temperature superconductors (HTSC). Mean field macroscopic theory of superconductivity and its specific features in HTSC. About generalized macroscopic theory applicable in critical region. Concluding remarks. (orig.)

Remarks on stellar clusters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Teller, E.

1985-01-01

In the following, a few simple remarks on the evolution and properties of stellar clusters will be collected. In particular, globular clusters will be considered. Though details of such clusters are often not known, a few questions can be clarified with the help of primitive arguments. These are:- why are spherical clusters spherical, why do they have high densities, why do they consist of approximately a million stars, how may a black hole of great mass form within them, may they be the origin of gamma-ray bursts, may their invisible remnants account for the missing mass of our galaxy. The available data do not warrant a detailed evaluation. However, it is remarkable that exceedingly simple models can shed some light on the questions enumerated above. (author)

Seven remarkable days

CERN Document Server

This has been a truly remarkable seven days for CERN. Things have moved so fast that it has sometimes been hard to separate fact from fiction – all the more so since facts have often seemed too good to be true. It’s been a week of many firsts. Monday was the first time we’ve had two captured beams in the LHC. It’s the first time the LHC has functioned as a particle accelerator, boosting particles to the highest beam energy so far achieved at CERN. And it’s been a week in which we’ve seen the highest energy proton-proton collisions ever produced at CERN: our last hadron collider, the SPS was a proton-antiproton collider, a technically simpler machine than the LHC. This week’s successes are all the more remarkable precisely because of the complexity of the LHC. Unlike the SPS collider, it is two accelerators not one, making the job of commissioning nearly twice as difficult. I’d like to express my heartfelt thanks and congra...

OPENING REMARKS: Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing

Science.gov (United States)

Strayer, Michael

2006-01-01

as the national and regional electricity grid, carbon sequestration, virtual engineering, and the nuclear fuel cycle. The successes of the first five years of SciDAC have demonstrated the power of using advanced computing to enable scientific discovery. One measure of this success could be found in the President’s State of the Union address in which President Bush identified ‘supercomputing’ as a major focus area of the American Competitiveness Initiative. Funds were provided in the FY 2007 President’s Budget request to increase the size of the NERSC-5 procurement to between 100-150 teraflops, to upgrade the LCF Cray XT3 at Oak Ridge to 250 teraflops and acquire a 100 teraflop IBM BlueGene/P to establish the Leadership computing facility at Argonne. We believe that we are on a path to establish a petascale computing resource for open science by 2009. We must develop software tools, packages, and libraries as well as the scientific application software that will scale to hundreds of thousands of processors. Computer scientists from universities and the DOE’s national laboratories will be asked to collaborate on the development of the critical system software components such as compilers, light-weight operating systems and file systems. Standing up these large machines will not be business as usual for ASCR. We intend to develop a series of interconnected projects that identify cost, schedule, risks, and scope for the upgrades at the LCF at Oak Ridge, the establishment of the LCF at Argonne, and the development of the software to support these high-end computers. The critical first step in defining the scope of the project is to identify a set of early application codes for each leadership class computing facility. These codes will have access to the resources during the commissioning phase of the facility projects and will be part of the acceptance tests for the machines. Applications will be selected, in part, by breakthrough science, scalability, and

OPENING REMARKS: SciDAC: Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing

Science.gov (United States)

Strayer, Michael

2005-01-01

Good morning. Welcome to SciDAC 2005 and San Francisco. SciDAC is all about computational science and scientific discovery. In a large sense, computational science characterizes SciDAC and its intent is change. It transforms both our approach and our understanding of science. It opens new doors and crosses traditional boundaries while seeking discovery. In terms of twentieth century methodologies, computational science may be said to be transformational. There are a number of examples to this point. First are the sciences that encompass climate modeling. The application of computational science has in essence created the field of climate modeling. This community is now international in scope and has provided precision results that are challenging our understanding of our environment. A second example is that of lattice quantum chromodynamics. Lattice QCD, while adding precision and insight to our fundamental understanding of strong interaction dynamics, has transformed our approach to particle and nuclear science. The individual investigator approach has evolved to teams of scientists from different disciplines working side-by-side towards a common goal. SciDAC is also undergoing a transformation. This meeting is a prime example. Last year it was a small programmatic meeting tracking progress in SciDAC. This year, we have a major computational science meeting with a variety of disciplines and enabling technologies represented. SciDAC 2005 should position itself as a new corner stone for Computational Science and its impact on science. As we look to the immediate future, FY2006 will bring a new cycle to SciDAC. Most of the program elements of SciDAC will be re-competed in FY2006. The re-competition will involve new instruments for computational science, new approaches for collaboration, as well as new disciplines. There will be new opportunities for virtual experiments in carbon sequestration, fusion, and nuclear power and nuclear waste, as well as collaborations

Documenting open source migration processes for re-use

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Gerber, A

2010-10-01

Full Text Available There are several sources that indicate a remarkable increase in the adoption of open source software (OSS) into the technology infrastructure of organizations. In fact, the number of medium to large organizations without some OSS installations...

Structure and magnetic field of periodic permanent magnetic focusing system with open magnetic rings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Peng Long; Li Lezhong; Yang Dingyu; Zhu Xinghua; Li Yuanxun

2011-01-01

The magnetic field along the central axis for an axially magnetized permanent magnetic ring was investigated by analytical and finite element methods. For open magnetic rings, both calculated and measured results show that the existence of the radial magnetic field creates a remarkable cosine distribution field along the central axis. A new structure of periodic permanent magnet focusing system with open magnetic rings is proposed. The structure provides a satisfactory magnetic field with a stable peak value of 120 mT for a traveling wave tube system. - Research highlights: → For open magnetic rings, both calculated and measured results show that the existence of the radial magnetic field creates a remarkable cosine distribution field along the central axis. → A new structure of periodic permanent magnet (PPM) focusing system with open magnetic rings is proposed. → The new PPM focusing system with open magnetic rings meets the requirements for TWT system.

NRC closing remarks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Coffman, F.

1994-01-01

This section contains the edited transcript of the NRC closing remarks made by Mr. Franklin Coffman (Chief, Human Factors Branch, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research) and Dr. Cecil Thomas (Deputy Director, Division of Reactor Controls and Human Factors, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation). This editing consisted of minimal editing to correct grammar and remove extraneous references to microphone volume, etc

Windpower `96 opening session remarks

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ervin, C.A.

1996-12-31

Opinions on political factors affecting the U.S. market for wind power are presented in this paper. The position of the Assistant Secretary of the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Division of the U.S. Department of Energy is stated. Political aspects of renewable energy sources are reviewed. The link between clean energy sources and a clean environment is discussed. The role of the Federal Government in promoting clean energy sources is also discussed.

Open Syllable Once Again. Endogenous or Exogenous?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Raffaele Caldarelli

2013-02-01

Full Text Available After a brief reply to some critical remarks raised by Mario Enrietti in a paper published in “Studi Slavistici”, VI (2009, the Author tries to explain why Enrietti’s theory of an exogenous, namely Romance origin of the Slavic open syllable structure should be rejected.

Enhanced binding affinity, remarkable selectivity, and high capacity of CO 2 by dual functionalization of a rht-type metal-organic framework

KAUST Repository

Li, Baiyan

2011-12-23

Open and friendly: The smallest member of the rht-type metal-organic frameworks (MOFs, see picture) constructed by a hexacarboxylate ligand with a nitrogen-rich imino triazine backbone shows a significantly enhanced gas binding affinity relative to all other isoreticular rht-type MOFs. The high adsorption capacity and remarkable selectivity of CO 2 are attributed to the high density of open metal and Lewis basic sites in the framework. Copyright © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Open Science: Open source licenses in scientific research

OpenAIRE

Guadamuz, Andres

2006-01-01

The article examines the validity of OSS (open source software) licenses for scientific, as opposed to creative works. It draws on examples of OSS licenses to consider their suitability for the scientific community and scientific research.

Concluding Remarks: The Current Status and Future Prospects for GRB Astronomy

Science.gov (United States)

Gehrels, Neil

2009-01-01

We are in a remarkable period of discovery in GRB astronomy. The current satellites including Swift, Fermi. AGILE and INTEGRAL are detecting and observing bursts of all varieties. Increasing capabilities for follow-up observations on the ground and in space are leading to rapid and deep coverage across the electromagnetic spectrum, The future will see continued operation of the current experiments and with future missions like SVOM plus possible rni_Ssions like JANUS and EXIST. An exciting expansion of capabilities is occurring in areas of gravitational waves and neutrinos that could open new windows on the GRB phenomenon. Increased IR capabilities on the ground and with missions like JWST will enable further exploration of high redshift bursts. The future is bright.

Interacting open Wilson lines from noncommutative field theories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kiem, Youngjai; Lee, Sangmin; Rey, Soo-Jong; Sato, Haru-Tada

2002-01-01

In noncommutative field theories, it is known that the one-loop effective action describes the propagation of noninteracting open Wilson lines, obeying the flying dipole's relation. We show that the two-loop effective action describes the cubic interaction among 'closed string' states created by open Wilson line operators. Taking d-dimensional λ[Φ 3 ] * theory as the simplest setup, we compute the nonplanar contribution at a low-energy and large noncommutativity limit. We find that the contribution is expressible in a remarkably simple cubic interaction involving scalar open Wilson lines only and nothing else. We show that the interaction is purely geometrical and noncommutative in nature, depending only on the size of each open Wilson line

Remarks of Joseph Marrone

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marrone, J.

1985-01-01

The author's remarks are directed primarily at proposals that have been made that would substantially tort law with respect to radiation claims in order to ease the ability of claimants to recovery damages from defendants. The change would be based upon what had been assumed to be a ''scientific'' means of measuring the ''probability'' that exposure to ionizing radiation was the case of a cancer in a particular claimant. The remarks are divided into three parts: a summary description of the nuclear insurance pools, including the tort radiation claims filed against the pools; and a brief description of claims against the Federal Government and its contractors; an examination of the elementary principles of tort law, and an outline of the threat that has developed that would transform it into a hybrid social benefits program; and comment on the danger to the integrity of science when it is injected into the legislative process

The Validity of Subjective Performance Measures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Meier, Kenneth J.; Winter, Søren C.; O'Toole, Laurence J.

2015-01-01

to provide, and are highly policy specific rendering generalization difficult. But are perceptual performance measures valid, and do they generate unbiased findings? We examine these questions in a comparative study of middle managers in schools in Texas and Denmark. The findings are remarkably similar...

VULCAN: An Open-source, Validated Chemical Kinetics Python Code for Exoplanetary Atmospheres

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tsai, Shang-Min; Grosheintz, Luc; Kitzmann, Daniel; Heng, Kevin [University of Bern, Center for Space and Habitability, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012, Bern (Switzerland); Lyons, James R. [Arizona State University, School of Earth and Space Exploration, Bateman Physical Sciences, Tempe, AZ 85287-1404 (United States); Rimmer, Paul B., E-mail: shang-min.tsai@space.unibe.ch, E-mail: kevin.heng@csh.unibe.ch, E-mail: jimlyons@asu.edu [University of St. Andrews, School of Physics and Astronomy, St. Andrews, KY16 9SS (United Kingdom)

2017-02-01

We present an open-source and validated chemical kinetics code for studying hot exoplanetary atmospheres, which we name VULCAN. It is constructed for gaseous chemistry from 500 to 2500 K, using a reduced C–H–O chemical network with about 300 reactions. It uses eddy diffusion to mimic atmospheric dynamics and excludes photochemistry. We have provided a full description of the rate coefficients and thermodynamic data used. We validate VULCAN by reproducing chemical equilibrium and by comparing its output versus the disequilibrium-chemistry calculations of Moses et al. and Rimmer and Helling. It reproduces the models of HD 189733b and HD 209458b by Moses et al., which employ a network with nearly 1600 reactions. We also use VULCAN to examine the theoretical trends produced when the temperature–pressure profile and carbon-to-oxygen ratio are varied. Assisted by a sensitivity test designed to identify the key reactions responsible for producing a specific molecule, we revisit the quenching approximation and find that it is accurate for methane but breaks down for acetylene, because the disequilibrium abundance of acetylene is not directly determined by transport-induced quenching, but is rather indirectly controlled by the disequilibrium abundance of methane. Therefore we suggest that the quenching approximation should be used with caution and must always be checked against a chemical kinetics calculation. A one-dimensional model atmosphere with 100 layers, computed using VULCAN, typically takes several minutes to complete. VULCAN is part of the Exoclimes Simulation Platform (ESP; exoclime.net) and publicly available at https://github.com/exoclime/VULCAN.

Concluding remarks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vogt, E.

1989-05-01

The workshop has covered in a very interesting and complete way the basic physics issues to be addressed by the complementary facilities, in Canada and Japan, intended to explore the intensity-frontier of strong-interaction physics. Japan has its new KEK facilities and its future Japanese Hadron Project (JHP): Canada has its present TRIUMF laboratory and its future KAON Factory. Both JHP and KAON appear very near to final construction approval. The possibilities are very great for new joint programs between the two countries which can lead the world in the new strong interaction physics. These concluding remarks describe the general science basis and particularly the models for the internationalization of science needed to make these new collaborations thrive

Direct-contact condensers for open-cycle OTEC applications: Model validation with fresh water experiments for structured packings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bharathan, D.; Parsons, B.K.; Althof, J.A.

1988-10-01

The objective of the reported work was to develop analytical methods for evaluating the design and performance of advanced high-performance heat exchangers for use in open-cycle thermal energy conversion (OC-OTEC) systems. This report describes the progress made on validating a one-dimensional, steady-state analytical computer of fresh water experiments. The condenser model represents the state of the art in direct-contact heat exchange for condensation for OC-OTEC applications. This is expected to provide a basis for optimizing OC-OTEC plant configurations. Using the model, we examined two condenser geometries, a cocurrent and a countercurrent configuration. This report provides detailed validation results for important condenser parameters for cocurrent and countercurrent flows. Based on the comparisons and uncertainty overlap between the experimental data and predictions, the model is shown to predict critical condenser performance parameters with an uncertainty acceptable for general engineering design and performance evaluations. 33 refs., 69 figs., 38 tabs.

The SCEC Broadband Platform: A Collaborative Open-Source Software Package for Strong Ground Motion Simulation and Validation

Science.gov (United States)

Silva, F.; Maechling, P. J.; Goulet, C. A.; Somerville, P.; Jordan, T. H.

2014-12-01

The Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) Broadband Platform is a collaborative software development project involving geoscientists, earthquake engineers, graduate students, and the SCEC Community Modeling Environment. The SCEC Broadband Platform (BBP) is open-source scientific software that can generate broadband (0-100Hz) ground motions for earthquakes, integrating complex scientific modules that implement rupture generation, low and high-frequency seismogram synthesis, non-linear site effects calculation, and visualization into a software system that supports easy on-demand computation of seismograms. The Broadband Platform operates in two primary modes: validation simulations and scenario simulations. In validation mode, the Platform runs earthquake rupture and wave propagation modeling software to calculate seismograms for a well-observed historical earthquake. Then, the BBP calculates a number of goodness of fit measurements that quantify how well the model-based broadband seismograms match the observed seismograms for a certain event. Based on these results, the Platform can be used to tune and validate different numerical modeling techniques. In scenario mode, the Broadband Platform can run simulations for hypothetical (scenario) earthquakes. In this mode, users input an earthquake description, a list of station names and locations, and a 1D velocity model for their region of interest, and the Broadband Platform software then calculates ground motions for the specified stations. Working in close collaboration with scientists and research engineers, the SCEC software development group continues to add new capabilities to the Broadband Platform and to release new versions as open-source scientific software distributions that can be compiled and run on many Linux computer systems. Our latest release includes 5 simulation methods, 7 simulation regions covering California, Japan, and Eastern North America, the ability to compare simulation results

Excited states of open strings from N=4 SYM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dzienkowski, Eric

2015-01-01

We continue the analysis of building open strings stretched between giant gravitons from N=4 SYM by going to second order in perturbation theory using the three-loop dilatation generator from the field theory. In the process we build a Fock-like space of states using Cuntz oscillators which can be used to access the excited open string states. We find a remarkable cancellation among the excited states that shows the ground state energy is consistent with a fully relativistic dispersion relation.

On the Motivation and Foundation of Natural Time Analysis: Useful Remarks

Science.gov (United States)

Varotsos, Panayiotis A.; Sarlis, Nicholas V.; Skordas, Efthimios S.

2016-08-01

Since its introduction in 2001, natural time analysis has been applied to diverse fields with remarkable results. Its validity has not been doubted by any publication to date. Here, we indicate that frequently asked questions on the motivation and the foundation of natural time analysis are directly answered if one takes into account the following two key points that we have considered as widely accepted when natural time analysis was proposed: first, the aspects on the energy of a system forwarded by Max Planck in his Treatise on Thermodynamics; second, the theorem on the characteristic functions of probability distributions which Gauss called Ein Schönes Theorem der Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung (beautiful theorem of probability calculus). The case of the time series of earthquakes and of the precursory Seismic Electric Signals are discussed as typical examples.

ValWorkBench: an open source Java library for cluster validation, with applications to microarray data analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Giancarlo, R; Scaturro, D; Utro, F

2015-02-01

The prediction of the number of clusters in a dataset, in particular microarrays, is a fundamental task in biological data analysis, usually performed via validation measures. Unfortunately, it has received very little attention and in fact there is a growing need for software tools/libraries dedicated to it. Here we present ValWorkBench, a software library consisting of eleven well known validation measures, together with novel heuristic approximations for some of them. The main objective of this paper is to provide the interested researcher with the full software documentation of an open source cluster validation platform having the main features of being easily extendible in a homogeneous way and of offering software components that can be readily re-used. Consequently, the focus of the presentation is on the architecture of the library, since it provides an essential map that can be used to access the full software documentation, which is available at the supplementary material website [1]. The mentioned main features of ValWorkBench are also discussed and exemplified, with emphasis on software abstraction design and re-usability. A comparison with existing cluster validation software libraries, mainly in terms of the mentioned features, is also offered. It suggests that ValWorkBench is a much needed contribution to the microarray software development/algorithm engineering community. For completeness, it is important to mention that previous accurate algorithmic experimental analysis of the relative merits of each of the implemented measures [19,23,25], carried out specifically on microarray data, gives useful insights on the effectiveness of ValWorkBench for cluster validation to researchers in the microarray community interested in its use for the mentioned task. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Validity and Reliability of a Digital Inclinometer to Assess Knee Joint Position Sense in an Open Kinetic Chain.

Science.gov (United States)

Romero-Franco, Natalia; Montaño-Munuera, Juan Antonio; Fernández-Domínguez, Juan Carlos; Jiménez-Reyes, Pedro

2017-12-18

New methods are being validated to easily evaluate the knee joint position sense (JPS) due to its role in sports movement and the risk of injury. However, no studies to date have considered the open kinetic chain (OKC) technique, despite the biomechanical differences compared to closed kinetic chain movements. To analyze the validity and reliability of a digital inclinometer to measure the knee JPS in the OKC movement. The validity, inter-tester and intra-tester reliability of a digital inclinometer for measuring knee JPS were evaluated. Sports research laboratory. Eighteen athletes (11 males and 7 females; 28.4 ± 6.6 years; 71.9 ± 14.0 kg; 1.77 ± 0.09 m; 22.8 ± 3.2 kg/m 2 ) voluntary participated in this study. Absolute angular error (AAE), relative angular error (RAE) and variable angular error (VAE) of knee JPS in an OKC. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and standard error of the mean (SEM) were calculated to determine the validity and reliability of the inclinometer. Data showed excellent validity of the inclinometer to obtain proprioceptive errors compared to the video analysis in JPS tasks (AAE: ICC = 0.981, SEM = 0.08; RAE: ICC = 0.974, SEM = 0.12; VAE: ICC = 0.973, SEM = 0.07). Inter-tester reliability was also excellent for all the proprioceptive errors (AAE: ICC = 0.967, SEM = 0.04; RAE: ICC = 0.974, SEM = 0.03; VAE: ICC = 0.939, SEM = 0.08). Similar results were obtained for intra-tester reliability (AAE: ICC = 0.861, SEM = 0.1; RAE: ICC = 0.894, SEM = 0.1; VAE: ICC = 0.700, SEM = 0.2). The digital inclinometer is a valid and reliable method to assess the knee JPS in OKC. Sport professionals may evaluate the knee JPS to monitor its deterioration during training or improvements throughout the rehabilitation process.

The validity of open-source data when assessing jail suicides.

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, Amanda L; Scott, Jacqueline; Mellow, Jeff

2018-05-09

The Bureau of Justice Statistics' Deaths in Custody Reporting Program is the primary source for jail suicide research, though the data is restricted from general dissemination. This study is the first to examine whether jail suicide data obtained from publicly available sources can help inform our understanding of this serious public health problem. Of the 304 suicides that were reported through the DCRP in 2009, roughly 56 percent (N = 170) of those suicides were identified through the open-source search protocol. Each of the sources was assessed based on how much information was collected on the incident and the types of variables available. A descriptive analysis was then conducted on the variables that were present in both data sources. The four variables present in each data source were: (1) demographic characteristics of the victim, (2) the location of occurrence within the facility, (3) the location of occurrence by state, and (4) the size of the facility. Findings demonstrate that the prevalence and correlates of jail suicides are extremely similar in both open-source and official data. However, for almost every variable measured, open-source data captured as much information as official data did, if not more. Further, variables not found in official data were identified in the open-source database, thus allowing researchers to have a more nuanced understanding of the situational characteristics of the event. This research provides support for the argument in favor of including open-source data in jail suicide research as it illustrates how open-source data can be used to provide additional information not originally found in official data. In sum, this research is vital in terms of possible suicide prevention, which may be directly linked to being able to manipulate environmental factors.

Convergent validity between a discrete choice experiment and a direct, open-ended method: comparison of preferred attribute levels and willingness to pay estimates.

Science.gov (United States)

Marjon van der Pol; Shiell, Alan; Au, Flora; Johnston, David; Tough, Suzanne

2008-12-01

The Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) has become increasingly popular as a method for eliciting patient or population preferences. If DCE estimates are to inform health policy, it is crucial that the answers they provide are valid. Convergent validity is tested in this paper by comparing the results of a DCE exercise with the answers obtained from direct, open-ended questions. The two methods are compared in terms of preferred attribute levels and willingness to pay (WTP) values. Face-to-face interviews were held with 292 women in Calgary, Canada. Similar values were found between the two methods with respect to preferred levels for two out of three of the attributes examined. The DCE predicted less well for levels outside the range than for levels inside the range reaffirming the importance of extensive piloting to ensure appropriate level range in DCEs. The mean WTP derived from the open-ended question was substantially lower than the mean derived from the DCE. However, the two sets of willingness to pay estimates were consistent with each other in that individuals who were willing to pay more in the open-ended question were also willing to pay more in the DCE. The difference in mean WTP values between the two approaches (direct versus DCE) demonstrates the importance of continuing research into the different biases present across elicitation methods.

Concluding Remarks | Ewing | Rwanda Journal

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Rwanda Journal. Journal Home · ABOUT THIS JOURNAL · Advanced Search · Current Issue · Archives · Journal Home > Vol 2, No 2 (2015) >. Log in or Register to get access to full text downloads. Username, Password, Remember me, or Register. Concluding Remarks. Helen Ewing. Abstract. No Abstract. Full Text:.

Public meeting on radiation safety for industrial radiographerss: remarks, questions and answers at five NRC regional meetings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1978-11-01

Over the past several years thenumber of radiation overexposures experienced in the radiography industry has been higher than for any other single group of NRC licensees. To inform radiography licensees of NRC's concern fo these recurring overexposure incidents, NRC staff representatives met with licensees in a series of five regional meetings. At these meetings the staff presented prepared remarks and answered questions on NRC regulations and operations. The main purposes of the meetings were to express NRC's concern for the high incidence of overexposures, and to open a line of communication between the NRC and radiography licensees in an effort to achieve the common goal of improved radiation safety. The remarks presented by the staff and subjects discussed at these meetings included: the purpose, scope, findings and goals of the NRC inspection program; ways and means of incorporating safety into radiography operations; and case histories of overexposure incidents, with highlights of the causes and possible preventions. At each of the regional meetings the staff received a request for a copy of the prepared remarks and a consolidation of the questions and answers that were discussed. This document includes that information, and a copy is being provided to each organizaion or firm attending the regional meetings. Requests for other copies should be made in accordance with the directions printed inside the front cover of this document

Response to open-quote open-quote Comment on open-quote Electron acoustic surface waves in a two-electron component plasma close-quote close-quote close-quote [Phys. Fluids B 5, 4502 (1993)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bharuthram, R.; Misthry, S.S.; Yu, M.Y.

1996-01-01

Three points are discussed: (a) the models of boundary conditions; (b) the mean velocity of hot electrons and their density; (c) the validity of the term open-quote open-quote electron acoustic waves.close-quote close-quote

Introductory remarks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kiefer, Friedemann; Schulte-Merker, Stefan

2014-01-01

This introductory section briefly highlights the subsequent chapters in the context of recent findings and open questions in lymphatic vessel biology. It aims to provide a quick overview and orientation in the contents of this monograph collection.

Remarks on superconductive networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dominguez, D.; Lopez, A.R.N.; Simonin, J.M.

1989-01-01

Some remarks on the determination of the normal-superconductor phase boundary in random superconductive networks are made. A recently reported work by Soukoulis, Grest and Li which introduces weak links between nodes as these are removed in the site percolation problem is discussed. By the analysis of two simple geometries, it is shown that this procedure introduces spurious effects which mask the physical properties of the system. These affect in particular the field slope critical index and the sharpness of the normal-superconductor boundary. (Author)

Proxy magnetometry with the Dutch Open Telescope

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rutten, R.J.; Hammerschlag, R.H.; Sütterlin, P.; Bettonvil, F.C.M.

1999-01-01

Superb movies from the Dutch Open Telescope (DOT) on La Palma have proven the validity of the open concept of this innovative telescope for high-resolution imaging of the solar atmosphere. A five- camera speckle-burst registration system is being installed that should permit consistent and

Concluding Remarks: Experiment from a materials perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fisk, Z

2011-01-01

The author provides some remarks regarding the current status of experiments in strongly correlated electron systems. By construction, they are biased by the author's perspectives at the time of writing.

Catalytic ring opening of cyclic hydrocarbons in diesel fuels

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Calemma, V.; Ferrari, M. [Eni S.p.A., San Donato Milanese (Italy). R and M Div.; Rabl, S.; Haas, A.; Santi, D.; Weitkamp, J. [Stuttgart Univ. (Germany). Inst. of Chemical Technology

2013-11-01

An approach for high-aromatic streams upgrading, allowing to meet future diesel quality standards, is saturation of the aromatic structures followed by the selective breaking of endocyclic C-C bonds of naphthenic structures so formed to produce alkanes with the same number of carbon atoms as the starting molecule ('selective ring opening, SRO'). Although theoretically, SRO is a promising route for upgrading low-value feeds to high-quality products, in practice, it continues to be a challenge owing to its complex chemistry. Product characteristics, do not only depend on the composition of the feed, but also on the operating conditions and the nature of the catalyst. Very recently, novel catalysts ('HIgh-PErformance Ring Opening Catalysts, HIPEROCs') were developed which allow a very selective ring opening of the model compound decalin to paraffins without degradation of the carbon number. The hydroconversion of dearomatized Light Cycle Oil (DeAr-LCO) over the abovementioned catalysts resulted in a remarkable change of the chemical structure of the feed with a strong decrease of naphthenic structures with two or more condensed rings and a concomitant increase of alkyl-substituted cyclohexanes and open-chain alkanes. The changes occurring in the chemical structures of feedstock during hydroconversion resulted in a remarkable increase of the Cetane Index of the products up to 11 units. In the present contribution, we examine the main factors affecting activity and selectivity of SRO catalysts in the light of the recent literature dealing with the subject and we report on the recent advances in hydroconversion of refinery cuts such as DeAr- LCO over HIPEROCs. (orig.)

Evaluating the Validity and Applicability of Automated Essay Scoring in Two Massive Open Online Courses

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erin Dawna Reilly

2014-11-01

Full Text Available The use of massive open online courses (MOOCs to expand students’ access to higher education has raised questions regarding the extent to which this course model can provide and assess authentic, higher level student learning. In response to this need, MOOC platforms have begun utilizing automated essay scoring (AES systems that allow students to engage in critical writing and free-response activities. However, there is a lack of research investigating the validity of such systems in MOOCs. This research examined the effectiveness of an AES tool to score writing assignments in two MOOCs. Results indicated that some significant differences existed between Instructor grading, AES-Holistic scores, and AES-Rubric Total scores within two MOOC courses. However, use of the AES system may still be useful given instructors’ assessment needs and intent. Findings from this research have implications for instructional technology administrators, educational designers, and instructors implementing AES learning activities in MOOC courses.

Welcome and Opening Remarks [INIS Training Seminar 2013, Vienna (Austria), 7-11 October 2013

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Savic, Dobrica

2013-01-01

The main requirement of today’s nuclear information user is no longer the quantity of information, but rather the quality, relevance, and trustworthiness of the information source. The INIS Collection meets all these criteria, therefore representing a very valuable and useful collection of published information on the peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology. It is an irreplaceable information resource for education, as well as for the nuclear industry. Today, the major opportunity to further improve the INIS Collection lies in improving the quality of our records and in increasing the number of full-text, open source documents and related grey literature. Our users want a fast and complete information service, which includes access to actual documents, not only their metadata and bibliographic descriptions. We expect that you will be able to help us achieve this strategic goal

50 CFR 648.88 - Multispecies open access permit restrictions.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 50 Wildlife and Fisheries 8 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Multispecies open access permit... Management Measures for the NE Multispecies and Monkfish Fisheries § 648.88 Multispecies open access permit restrictions. (a) Handgear permit. A vessel issued a valid open access NE multispecies Handgear permit is...

2011 Asia Pacific Few-Body Conference Summary Remarks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gibson, B. F.

2013-01-01

These remarks represent the author’s personal perspective regarding ideas presented at this fifth Asia Pacific Conference on Few-Body Problems in Physics. They are not intended as a comprehensive summary of what we witnessed during this week of stimulating presentations and intense discussions. However, these remarks do characterize some of the physics we heard and some of the key questions raised. The ideas presented will hopefully outlive the rapporteurs who brought their work and that of others to our attention here in the International Hall of the Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, Republic of Korea. (author)

OpenBAN: An Open Building ANalytics Middleware for Smart Buildings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pandarasamy Arjunan

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Towards the realization of smart building applications, buildings are increasingly instrumented with diverse sensors and actuators. These sensors generate large volumes of data which can be analyzed for optimizing building operations. Many building energy management tasks such as energy forecasting, disaggregation, among others require complex analytics leveraging collected sensor data. While several standalone and cloud-based systems for archiving, sharing and visualizing sensor data have emerged, their support for analyzing sensor data streams is primitive and limited to rule-based actions based on thresholds and simple aggregation functions. We develop OpenBAN, an open source sensor data analytics middleware for buildings, to make analytics an integral component of modern smart building applications. OpenBAN provides a framework of extensible sensor data processing elements for identifying various building context, which different applications can leverage. We validate the capabilities of OpenBAN by developing three representative real-world applications which are deployed in our test-bed buildings: (i household energy disaggregation, (ii detection of sprinkler usage from water meter data, and (iii electricity demand forecasting. We also provide a preliminary system performance of OpenBAN when deployed in the cloud and locally.

Remarks on the clump theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krommes, J.A.

1986-07-01

Further details are provided of a soon-to-be published dialog [Phys. Fluids 29 (July, 1986)] which discussed the role of the small scales in fluid clump theory. It is argued that the approximation of the clump lifetime which is compatible with exponentially rapid separation of adjacent orbits is inappropriate for the description of the dynamically important large scales. Various other remarks are made relating to the analytic treatment of strong drift-wave-like turbulence

Remarks on the clump theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krommes, J.A.

1986-01-01

Further details are provided of a recently published dialog [Phys. Fluids 29 (July, 1986)] which discussed the role of the small scales in fluid clump theory. It is argued that the approximation of the clump lifetime which is compatible with exponentially rapid separation of adjacent orbits is inappropriate for the description of the dynamically important large scales. Various other remarks are made relating to the analytic treatment of strong drift-wave-like turbulence. (author)

Remarks on High Energy Evolution

OpenAIRE

Kovner, Alex; Lublinsky, Michael

2005-01-01

We make several remarks on the B-JIMWLK hierarchy. First, we present a simple and instructive derivation of this equation by considering an arbitrary projectile wave function with small number of valence gluons. We also generalize the equation by including corrections which incorporate effects of high density in the projectile wave function. Second, we systematically derive the dipole model approximation to the hierarchy. We show that in the dipole approximation the hierarchy has a simplifyin...

Validation of the Open Source Code_Aster Software Used in the Modal Analysis of the Fluid-filled Cylindrical Shell

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B D. Kashfutdinov

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The paper deals with a modal analysis of the elastic cylindrical shell with a clamped bottom partially filled with fluid in open source Code_Aster software using the finite element method. Natural frequencies and modes obtained in Code_Aster are compared to experimental and theoretical data. The aim of this paper is to prove that Code_Aster has all necessary tools for solving fluid structure interaction problems. Also, Code_Aster can be used in the industrial projects as an alternative to commercial software. The available free pre- and post-processors with a graphical user interface that is compatible with Code_Aster allow creating complex models and processing the results.The paper presents new validation results of open source Code_Aster software used to calculate small natural modes of the cylindrical shell partially filled with non-viscous compressible barotropic fluid under gravity field.The displacement of the middle surface of thin shell and the displacement of the fluid relative to the equilibrium position are described by coupled hydro-elasticity problem. The fluid flow is considered to be potential. The finite element method (FEM is used. The features of computational model are described. The resolution equation has symmetrical block matrices. To compare the results, is discussed the well-known modal analysis problem of cylindrical shell with flat non-deformable bottom, filled with a compressible fluid. The numerical parameters of the scheme were chosen in accordance with well-known experimental and analytical data. Three cases were taken into account: an empty, a partially filled and a full-filled cylindrical shell.The frequencies of Code_Aster are in good agreement with those, obtained in experiment, analytical solution, as well as with results obtained by FEM in other software. The difference between experiment and analytical solution in software is approximately the same. The obtained results extend a set of validation tests for

Enhancement of the Open National Combustion Code (OpenNCC) and Initial Simulation of Energy Efficient Engine Combustor

Science.gov (United States)

Miki, Kenji; Moder, Jeff; Liou, Meng-Sing

2016-01-01

In this paper, we present the recent enhancement of the Open National Combustion Code (OpenNCC) and apply the OpenNCC to model a realistic combustor configuration (Energy Efficient Engine (E3)). First, we perform a series of validation tests for the newly-implemented advection upstream splitting method (AUSM) and the extended version of the AUSM-family schemes (AUSM+-up). Compared with the analytical/experimental data of the validation tests, we achieved good agreement. In the steady-state E3 cold flow results using the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes(RANS), we find a noticeable difference in the flow fields calculated by the two different numerical schemes, the standard Jameson- Schmidt-Turkel (JST) scheme and the AUSM scheme. The main differences are that the AUSM scheme is less numerical dissipative and it predicts much stronger reverse flow in the recirculation zone. This study indicates that two schemes could show different flame-holding predictions and overall flame structures.

Solution of the dilaton problem in open bosonic string theories

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bern, Z. (Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)); Dunbar, D.C. (Liverpool Univ. (United Kingdom))

1991-01-01

One of the most remarkable features of string theories is that they seem to provide a framework for a consistent theory of quantum gravity which is unified with all other forces. String theories fall into the two basic, a priori equally interesting, categories of open and closed string theories. For the past five years virtually all attention has been focused on purely closed string theories even though the reincarnation of string theory began with the discovery of anomaly cancellation and finiteness in the Green-Schwarz open superstring. It is the authors' purpose in this essay to rekindle interest in open string theories as potential theories of nature, including gravity. All string theories naively contain a massless dilaton which couples with the strength of gravity in direct violation of experiment. They present a simple mechanism for giving the dilaton a mass in unoriented open bosonic string theories.

Solution of the dilaton problem in open bosonic string theories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bern, Z.; Dunbar, D.C.

1991-01-01

One of the most remarkable features of string theories is that they seem to provide a framework for a consistent theory of quantum gravity which is unified with all other forces. String theories fall into the two basic, a priori equally interesting, categories of open and closed string theories. For the past five years virtually all attention has been focused on purely closed string theories even though the reincarnation of string theory began with the discovery of anomaly cancellation and finiteness in the Green-Schwarz open superstring. It is the authors' purpose in this essay to rekindle interest in open string theories as potential theories of nature, including gravity. All string theories naively contain a massless dilaton which couples with the strength of gravity in direct violation of experiment. They present a simple mechanism for giving the dilaton a mass in unoriented open bosonic string theories

Validation philosophy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vornehm, D.

1994-01-01

To determine when a set of calculations falls within an umbrella of an existing validation documentation, it is necessary to generate a quantitative definition of range of applicability (our definition is only qualitative) for two reasons: (1) the current trend in our regulatory environment will soon make it impossible to support the legitimacy of a validation without quantitative guidelines; and (2) in my opinion, the lack of support by DOE for further critical experiment work is directly tied to our inability to draw a quantitative open-quotes line-in-the-sandclose quotes beyond which we will not use computer-generated values

Validation study of a computer-based open surgical trainer: SimPraxis(®) simulation platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Tran, Linh N; Gupta, Priyanka; Poniatowski, Lauren H; Alanee, Shaheen; Dall'era, Marc A; Sweet, Robert M

2013-01-01

Technological advances have dramatically changed medical education, particularly in the era of work-hour restrictions, which increasingly highlights a need for novel methods to teach surgical skills. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the validity of a novel, computer-based, interactive, cognitive simulator for training surgeons to perform pelvic lymph node dissection (PLND). Eight prostate cancer experts evaluated the content of the simulator. Contextual aspects of the simulator were rated on a five-point Likert scale. The experts and nine first-year residents completed a simulated PLND. Time and deviations were logged, and the results were compared between experts and novices using the Mann-Whitney test. Before training, 88% of the experts felt that a validated simulator would be useful for PLND training. After testing, 100% of the experts felt that it would be more useful than standard video training. Eighty-eight percent stated that they would like to see the simulator in the curriculum of residency programs and 56% thought it would be useful for accreditation purposes. The experts felt that the simulator aided in overall understanding, training indications, concepts and steps of the procedure, training how to use an assistant, and enhanced the knowledge of anatomy. Median performance times taken by experts and interns to complete a PLND procedure on the simulator were 12.62 and 23.97 minutes, respectively. Median deviation from the incorporated procedure pathway for experts was 24.5 and was 89 for novices. We describe an interactive, computer-based simulator designed to assist in mastery of the cognitive steps of an open surgical procedure. This platform is intuitive and flexible, and could be applied to any stepwise medical procedure. Overall, experts outperformed novices in their performance on the trainer. Experts agreed that the content was acceptable, accurate, and representative.

Open Rotor - Analysis of Diagnostic Data

Science.gov (United States)

Envia, Edmane

2011-01-01

NASA is researching open rotor propulsion as part of its technology research and development plan for addressing the subsonic transport aircraft noise, emission and fuel burn goals. The low-speed wind tunnel test for investigating the aerodynamic and acoustic performance of a benchmark blade set at the approach and takeoff conditions has recently concluded. A high-speed wind tunnel diagnostic test campaign has begun to investigate the performance of this benchmark open rotor blade set at the cruise condition. Databases from both speed regimes will comprise a comprehensive collection of benchmark open rotor data for use in assessing/validating aerodynamic and noise prediction tools (component & system level) as well as providing insights into the physics of open rotors to help guide the development of quieter open rotors.

Some remarks on the Bonnor-Swaminarayan solution

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Berezdivin, R.; Herrera, L.

1976-01-01

The letter re-examines the Bonnor-Swaminarayan solution with the aim to try a clarification of its physical interpretation. The radiative nature of the solution as suggested by Bicak is questioned and some remarks on this topic are given

Morphing Wing-Tip Open Loop Controller and its Validation During Wind Tunnel Tests at the IAR-NRC

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohamed Sadok GUEZGUEZ

2016-09-01

Full Text Available In this project, a wing tip of a real aircraft was designed and manufactured. This wing tip was composed of a wing and an aileron. The wing was equipped with a composite skin on its upper surface. This skin changed its shape (morphed by use of 4 electrical in-house developed actuators and 32 pressure sensors. These pressure sensors measure the pressures, and further the loads on the wing upper surface. Thus, the upper surface of the wing was morphed using these actuators with the aim to improve the aerodynamic performances of the wing-tip. Two types of ailerons were designed and manufactured: one aileron is rigid (non-morphed and one morphing aileron. This morphing aileron can change its shape also for the aerodynamic performances improvement. The morphing wing-tip internal structure is designed and manufactured, and is presented firstly in the paper. Then, the modern communication and control hardware are presented for the entire morphing wing tip equipped with actuators and sensors having the aim to morph the wing. The calibration procedure of the wing tip is further presented, followed by the open loop controller results obtained during wind tunnel tests. Various methodologies of open loop control are presented in this paper, and results obtained were obtained and validated experimentally through wind tunnel tests.

Analysis of an open-air swimming pool solar heating system by using an experimentally validated TRNSYS model

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ruiz, Elisa; Martinez, Pedro J. [Universidad Miguel Hernandez - Edificio Torreblanca, Avda. de la Universidad s/n, 03202 Elche (Spain)

2010-01-15

In the case of private outdoor swimming pools, seldom larger than 100 m{sup 2}, conventional auxiliary heating systems are being installed less and less. Solar heating is an option to extend the swimming season. The temperature evolution of an open-air swimming pool highly depends on the wind speed directly on the water surface, which at the same time is influenced by the surroundings of the pool. In this paper, the TRNSYS model of a private open-air pool with a 50-m{sup 2} surface was validated by registering the water temperature evolution and the meteorological data at the pool site. Evaporation is the main component of energy loss in swimming pools. Six different sets of constants found in literature were considered to evaluate the evaporative heat transfer coefficient with the purpose of finding the most suitable one for the TRNSYS pool model. In order to do that, the evolution of the pool water temperature predicted by the TRNSYS pool model was compared with the experimentally registered one. The simulation with TRNSYS of the total system, including the swimming pool and the absorber circuit integrated into the existing filter circuit, provided information regarding the increase of the pool temperature for different collector areas during the swimming season. This knowledge, together with the economic costs, support the decision about the absorber field size. (author)

Remarks about the hypothesis of limiting fragmentation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chou, T.T.; Yang, C.N.

1987-01-01

Remarks are made about the hypothesis of limiting fragmentation. In particular, the concept of favored and disfavored fragment distribution is introduced. Also, a sum rule is proved leading to a useful quantity called energy-fragmentation fraction. (author). 11 refs, 1 fig., 2 tabs

Sceptical remarks on the 'open' legal concept

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sendler, H.

1987-01-01

Undeterminate concepts of law are used in Atomic Energy Law and in many other legal fields. The author has the opinion, the undeterminate concepts of law signify a relocation of responsibility to the administration. After a period of control of the administration by courts, a reversal to more independence of the administration is required. (CW) [de

Polypyridyl iron(II) complexes showing remarkable photocytotoxicity ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

aditya

Polypyridyl iron(II) complexes showing remarkable photocytotoxicity in visible light. ADITYA GARAI a. , UTTARA BASU a. , ILA PANT b. , PATURU KONDAIAH*. ,b. AND. AKHIL R. CHAKRAVARTY*. ,a a. Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. 560012, India. E-mail: ...

Design and validation of an open-source library of dynamic reference frames for research and education in optical tracking.

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Alisa; Uneri, Ali; Silva, Tharindu De; Manbachi, Amir; Siewerdsen, Jeffrey H

2018-04-01

Dynamic reference frames (DRFs) are a common component of modern surgical tracking systems; however, the limited number of commercially available DRFs poses a constraint in developing systems, especially for research and education. This work presents the design and validation of a large, open-source library of DRFs compatible with passive, single-face tracking systems, such as Polaris stereoscopic infrared trackers (NDI, Waterloo, Ontario). An algorithm was developed to create new DRF designs consistent with intra- and intertool design constraints and convert to computer-aided design (CAD) files suitable for three-dimensional printing. A library of 10 such groups, each with 6 to 10 DRFs, was produced and tracking performance was validated in comparison to a standard commercially available reference, including pivot calibration, fiducial registration error (FRE), and target registration error (TRE). Pivot tests showed calibration error [Formula: see text], indistinguishable from the reference. FRE was [Formula: see text], and TRE in a CT head phantom was [Formula: see text], both equivalent to the reference. The library of DRFs offers a useful resource for surgical navigation research and could be extended to other tracking systems and alternative design constraints.

Design and Validation of an Open-Source, Partial Task Trainer for Endonasal Neuro-Endoscopic Skills Development: Indian Experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Ramandeep; Baby, Britty; Damodaran, Natesan; Srivastav, Vinkle; Suri, Ashish; Banerjee, Subhashis; Kumar, Subodh; Kalra, Prem; Prasad, Sanjiva; Paul, Kolin; Anand, Sneh; Kumar, Sanjeev; Dhiman, Varun; Ben-Israel, David; Kapoor, Kulwant Singh

2016-02-01

Box trainers are ideal simulators, given they are inexpensive, accessible, and use appropriate fidelity. The development and validation of an open-source, partial task simulator that teaches the fundamental skills necessary for endonasal skull-base neuro-endoscopic surgery. We defined the Neuro-Endo-Trainer (NET) SkullBase-Task-GraspPickPlace with an activity area by analyzing the computed tomography scans of 15 adult patients with sellar suprasellar parasellar tumors. Four groups of participants (Group E, n = 4: expert neuroendoscopists; Group N, n =19: novice neurosurgeons; Group R, n = 11: neurosurgery residents with multiple iterations; and Group T, n = 27: neurosurgery residents with single iteration) performed grasp, pick, and place tasks using NET and were graded on task completion time and skills assessment scale score. Group E had lower task completion times and greater skills assessment scale scores than both Group N and R (P ≤ 0.03, 0.001). The performance of Groups N and R was found to be equivalent; in self-assessing neuro-endoscopic skill, the participants in these groups were found to have equally low pretraining scores (4/10) with significant improvement shown after NET simulation (6, 7 respectively). Angled scopes resulted in decreased scores with tilted plates compared with straight plates (30° P ≤ 0.04, 45° P ≤ 0.001). With tilted plates, decreased scores were observed when we compared the 0° with 45° endoscope (right, P ≤ 0.008; left, P ≤ 0.002). The NET, a face and construct valid open-source partial task neuroendoscopic trainer, was designed. Presimulation novice neurosurgeons and neurosurgical residents were described as having insufficient skills and preparation to practice neuro-endoscopy. Plate tilt and endoscope angle were shown to be important factors in participant performance. The NET was found to be a useful partial-task trainer for skill building in neuro-endoscopy. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Carbon nanocages: a new support material for Pt catalyst with remarkably high durability.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xiao Xia; Tan, Zhe Hua; Zeng, Min; Wang, Jian Nong

2014-03-24

Low durability is the major challenge hindering the large-scale implementation of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) technology, and corrosion of carbon support materials of current catalysts is the main cause. Here, we describe the finding of remarkably high durability with the use of a novel support material. This material is based on hollow carbon nanocages developed with a high degree of graphitization and concurrent nitrogen doping for oxidation resistance enhancement, uniform deposition of fine Pt particles, and strong Pt-support interaction. Accelerated degradation testing shows that such designed catalyst possesses a superior electrochemical activity and long-term stability for both hydrogen oxidation and oxygen reduction relative to industry benchmarks of current catalysts. Further testing under conditions of practical fuel cell operation reveals almost no degradation over long-term cycling. Such a catalyst of high activity, particularly, high durability, opens the door for the next-generation PEMFC for "real world" application.

Closing remarks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reig, J.

2007-01-01

Good afternoon. Before providing the closing remarks on behalf of the NEA, I would like to take this opportunity and make some personal reflections, if you allow me Mr. Chairman. I have had the opportunity to take part in the three workshops on public communication organised by the NEA. In the first one in Paris in 2000, representing my country, Spain, and in the two last ones in Ottawa in 2004 and Tokyo today, on behalf of the NEA. The topics for the three workshops follow a logical order, first the focus was on investing in trust in a time when public communication was becoming a big challenge for the regulators. Second, maintaining and measuring public confidence to assess how credible regulators are in front of the public; and finally here in Tokyo, transparency, which is a basic element to achieve trust and credibility. In my view, a regulatory decision has three main components, it has to be technically sound. legally correct and well communicated. The emphasis in the early years was in the technical matters, till legal issues became a key element to achieve the political acceptance from governments and local authorities. Finally the public communication aspects resulted into a major effort and challenge to achieve social acceptance. (author)

Concluding theoretical remarks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ellis, J.

1986-01-01

My task in this talk is to review the happenings of this workshop from a theoretical perspective, and to emphasize lines for possible future research. My remarks are organized into a theoretical overview of the what, why, (mainly the hierarchy problem) how, (supersymmetry must be broken: softly or spontaneously, and if the latter, by means of a new U tilde(1) gauge group or through the chiral superfields) when (how heavy are supersymmetric partner particles in different types of theories) and where (can one find evidence for) supersymmetry. In the last part are discussed various ongoing and future searches for photinos γ tilde, gravitinos G tilde, the U vector boson, shiggses H tilde, squarks q tilde and sleptons l tilde, gluinos g tilde, winos W tilde and other gauginos, as well as hunts for indirect effects of supersymmetry, such as for example in baryon decay. Finally there is a little message of encouragement to our experimental colleagues, based on historical precedent. (orig.)

OpenCOR: a modular and interoperable approach to computational biology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alan eGarny

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Computational biologists have been developing standards and formats for nearly two decades, with the aim of easing the description and exchange of experimental data, mathematical models, simulation experiments, etc. One of those efforts is CellML (cellml.org, an XML-based markup language for the encoding of mathematical models.Early CellML-based environments include COR and OpenCell. However, both of those tools have limitations and were eventually replaced with OpenCOR (opencor.ws. OpenCOR is an open source modeling environment that is supported on Windows, Linux and OS X. It relies on a modular approach, which means that all of its features come in the form of plugins. Those plugins can be used to organize, edit, simulate and analyze models encoded in the CellML format.We start with an introduction to CellML and two of its early adopters, which limitations eventually led to the development of OpenCOR. We then go onto describing the general philosophy behind OpenCOR, as well as describing its openness and its development process. Next, we illustrate various aspects of OpenCOR, such as its user interface and some of the plugins that come bundled with it (e.g. its editing and simulation plugins. Finally, we discuss some of the advantages and limitations of OpenCOR before drawing some concluding remarks.

Remarks on the elaboration of an English–Spanish ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Spanish word-combination dictionary examined here, some concluding remarks are made with regard to the educational implications of this kind of dictionary primarily aimed at intermediate- to advanced-level Spanish-speaking EFL learners.

Soft Sensing of Non-Newtonian Fluid Flow in Open Venturi Channel Using an Array of Ultrasonic Level Sensors—AI Models and Their Validations

Science.gov (United States)

Viumdal, Håkon; Mylvaganam, Saba

2017-01-01

In oil and gas and geothermal installations, open channels followed by sieves for removal of drill cuttings, are used to monitor the quality and quantity of the drilling fluids. Drilling fluid flow rate is difficult to measure due to the varying flow conditions (e.g., wavy, turbulent and irregular) and the presence of drilling cuttings and gas bubbles. Inclusion of a Venturi section in the open channel and an array of ultrasonic level sensors above it at locations in the vicinity of and above the Venturi constriction gives the varying levels of the drilling fluid in the channel. The time series of the levels from this array of ultrasonic level sensors are used to estimate the drilling fluid flow rate, which is compared with Coriolis meter measurements. Fuzzy logic, neural networks and support vector regression algorithms applied to the data from temporal and spatial ultrasonic level measurements of the drilling fluid in the open channel give estimates of its flow rate with sufficient reliability, repeatability and uncertainty, providing a novel soft sensing of an important process variable. Simulations, cross-validations and experimental results show that feedforward neural networks with the Bayesian regularization learning algorithm provide the best flow rate estimates. Finally, the benefits of using this soft sensing technique combined with Venturi constriction in open channels are discussed. PMID:29072595

Opening remarks for a panel discussion on short-term vs long-term procurement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Courtenay, R.H.

1990-01-01

Long-term contracting in the late 1970's and early 1980's is blamed for some of the inequities that plague the uranium industry today. Utilities are obliged to pay prices far above prevailing levels and relatively low cost producers are forced to shut down while watching less efficient suppliers stay in business thanks to their long term supply agreements. Furthermore, it is argued that long-term contracts have contributed to supply instability by forcing the buildup of surplus inventories and by supporting excess incremental production by suppliers who have a baseload of long-term contracts. The depressed prices resulting from this oversupply are in turn jeopardizing future resource development and damaging supply reliability. In summary, the author's argument is that supply reliability will be greatly enhanced by the assurance of adequate primary supply from traditional sources such as Canada. This will not happen without long-term contracts. This conclusion may not be expected coming from a representative of Canada's largest uranium producer. But the final comment is less self serving. Many of the critics of long term contracts apparently expect a continuing and plentiful supply of East Bloc uranium to the spot market. A further question is to what extent East Bloc suppliers will eventually require long-term contracts in order to maintain production facilitates in economies that are no longer centrally planned, and where there is open competition for capital. Ultimately, reliability of supply from the non-traditional suppliers may also depend on long-term contracts

Network innovation through OpenFlow and SDN principles and design

CERN Document Server

Hu, Fei

2014-01-01

FUNDAMENTALSSDN /OpenFlow: Concepts and Applications; Ashley Gerrity and Fei HuAn OpenFlow Network Design Cycle; Pedro A. Aranda Gutiřrez and Diego R. LopezDESIGNIP Source Address Validation Solution with OpenFlow Extension and OpenRouter; Jun BiLanguage and Programming in SDN /OpenFlow; Muhammad Farooq and Fei HuControl and Management Software for SDNs; Natalia Castro Fernandes and Luiz Claudio Schara MagalhêsController Architecture and Performance in Software-Defined Networks; Ting Zhang and Fei HuMobile Applications on Global Clouds Using OpenFlow and Software-Defined Networking; Subharth

Perturbation Theory for Open Two-Level Nonlinear Quantum Systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Zhijie; Jiang Dongguang; Wang Wei

2011-01-01

Perturbation theory is an important tool in quantum mechanics. In this paper, we extend the traditional perturbation theory to open nonlinear two-level systems, treating decoherence parameter γ as a perturbation. By this virtue, we give a perturbative solution to the master equation, which describes a nonlinear open quantum system. The results show that for small decoherence rate γ, the ratio of the nonlinear rate C to the tunneling coefficient V (i.e., r = C/V) determines the validity of the perturbation theory. For small ratio r, the perturbation theory is valid, otherwise it yields wrong results. (general)

REvISITING PAul'S PARAdIGMATIC, SElf-CRITICAl REMARkS IN 1 ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

However, in 1 Corinthians 15:8-10 Paul openly admits about being in error in the past ..... Much has been written about the expression e[ktrwma in verse 8. This .... Collins 2008:120- .... The Gospel of John in cultural and rhetorical perspective.

The Earthquake Source Inversion Validation (SIV) - Project: Summary, Status, Outlook

Science.gov (United States)

Mai, P. M.

2017-12-01

Finite-fault earthquake source inversions infer the (time-dependent) displacement on the rupture surface from geophysical data. The resulting earthquake source models document the complexity of the rupture process. However, this kinematic source inversion is ill-posed and returns non-unique solutions, as seen for instance in multiple source models for the same earthquake, obtained by different research teams, that often exhibit remarkable dissimilarities. To address the uncertainties in earthquake-source inversions and to understand strengths and weaknesses of various methods, the Source Inversion Validation (SIV) project developed a set of forward-modeling exercises and inversion benchmarks. Several research teams then use these validation exercises to test their codes and methods, but also to develop and benchmark new approaches. In this presentation I will summarize the SIV strategy, the existing benchmark exercises and corresponding results. Using various waveform-misfit criteria and newly developed statistical comparison tools to quantify source-model (dis)similarities, the SIV platforms is able to rank solutions and identify particularly promising source inversion approaches. Existing SIV exercises (with related data and descriptions) and all computational tools remain available via the open online collaboration platform; additional exercises and benchmark tests will be uploaded once they are fully developed. I encourage source modelers to use the SIV benchmarks for developing and testing new methods. The SIV efforts have already led to several promising new techniques for tackling the earthquake-source imaging problem. I expect that future SIV benchmarks will provide further innovations and insights into earthquake source kinematics that will ultimately help to better understand the dynamics of the rupture process.

Validity and reliability of in-situ air conduction thresholds measured through hearing aids coupled to closed and open instant-fit tips.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Brien, Anna; Keidser, Gitte; Yeend, Ingrid; Hartley, Lisa; Dillon, Harvey

2010-12-01

Audiometric measurements through a hearing aid ('in-situ') may facilitate provision of hearing services where these are limited. This study investigated the validity and reliability of in-situ air conduction hearing thresholds measured with closed and open domes relative to thresholds measured with insert earphones, and explored sources of variability in the measures. Twenty-four adults with sensorineural hearing impairment attended two sessions in which thresholds and real-ear-to-dial-difference (REDD) values were measured. Without correction, significantly higher low-frequency thresholds in dB HL were measured in-situ than with insert earphones. Differences were due predominantly to differences in ear canal SPL, as measured with the REDD, which were attributed to leaking low-frequency energy. Test-retest data yielded higher variability with the closed dome coupling due to inconsistent seals achieved with this tip. For all three conditions, inter-participant variability in the REDD values was greater than intra-participant variability. Overall, in-situ audiometry is as valid and reliable as conventional audiometry provided appropriate REDD corrections are made and ambient sound in the test environment is controlled.

Opening A New Independent Pharmacy 101

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Azam Elabed

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Opening an independent pharmacy is a process that involves multiple components. The rationale of this project is to discuss different issues that must be investigated prior to opening a new independency pharmacy. This includes the location, structure of the corporation, start-up cost, picking a wholesaler, fulfilling state board requirements and Philadelphia requirements, having a valid license, making professional relationships, and knowing basic marketing research. Methods used include using the knowledge and expertise from an independent pharmacy owner, visiting pharmacies, and interviewing neighbors for basic marketing research. Many aspects of opening an independent pharmacy differ significantly from a retail pharmacy, as there are various issues within the pharmacy and outside the pharmacy that must be extensively researched prior to opening in order to be successful.   Type: Student Project

Web-Based Portfolio Assessment: Validation of an Open Source Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Collins, Regina; Elliot, Norbert; Klobucar, Andrew; Deek, Fadi P.

2013-01-01

Assessment of educational outcomes through purchased tests is commonplace in the evaluation of individual student ability and of educational programs. Focusing on the assessment of writing performance in a longitudinal study of first-time, full-time students (n = 598), this research describes the design, use, and assessment of an open-source…

Origin of Reduced Open-Circuit Voltage in Highly Efficient Small-Molecule-Based Solar Cells upon Solvent Vapor Annealing.

Science.gov (United States)

Deng, Wanyuan; Gao, Ke; Yan, Jun; Liang, Quanbin; Xie, Yuan; He, Zhicai; Wu, Hongbin; Peng, Xiaobin; Cao, Yong

2018-03-07

In this study, we demonstrate that remarkably reduced open-circuit voltage in highly efficient organic solar cells (OSCs) from a blend of phenyl-C 61 -butyric acid methyl ester and a recently developed conjugated small molecule (DPPEZnP-THD) upon solvent vapor annealing (SVA) is due to two independent sources: increased radiative recombination and increased nonradiative recombination. Through the measurements of electroluminescence due to the emission of the charge-transfer state and photovoltaic external quantum efficiency measurement, we can quantify that the open-circuit voltage losses in a device with SVA due to the radiative recombination and nonradiative recombination are 0.23 and 0.31 V, respectively, which are 0.04 and 0.07 V higher than those of the as-cast device. Despite of the reduced open-circuit voltage, the device with SVA exhibited enhanced dissociation of charge-transfer excitons, leading to an improved short-circuit current density and a remarkable power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 9.41%, one of the best for solution-processed OSCs based on small-molecule donor materials. Our study also clearly shows that removing the nonradiative recombination pathways and/or suppressing energetic disorder in the active layer would result in more long-lived charge carriers and enhanced open-circuit voltage, which are prerequisites for further improving the PCE.

Validating archetypes for the Multiple Sclerosis Functional Composite.

Science.gov (United States)

Braun, Michael; Brandt, Alexander Ulrich; Schulz, Stefan; Boeker, Martin

2014-08-03

Numerous information models for electronic health records, such as openEHR archetypes are available. The quality of such clinical models is important to guarantee standardised semantics and to facilitate their interoperability. However, validation aspects are not regarded sufficiently yet. The objective of this report is to investigate the feasibility of archetype development and its community-based validation process, presuming that this review process is a practical way to ensure high-quality information models amending the formal reference model definitions. A standard archetype development approach was applied on a case set of three clinical tests for multiple sclerosis assessment: After an analysis of the tests, the obtained data elements were organised and structured. The appropriate archetype class was selected and the data elements were implemented in an iterative refinement process. Clinical and information modelling experts validated the models in a structured review process. Four new archetypes were developed and publicly deployed in the openEHR Clinical Knowledge Manager, an online platform provided by the openEHR Foundation. Afterwards, these four archetypes were validated by domain experts in a team review. The review was a formalised process, organised in the Clinical Knowledge Manager. Both, development and review process turned out to be time-consuming tasks, mostly due to difficult selection processes between alternative modelling approaches. The archetype review was a straightforward team process with the goal to validate archetypes pragmatically. The quality of medical information models is crucial to guarantee standardised semantic representation in order to improve interoperability. The validation process is a practical way to better harmonise models that diverge due to necessary flexibility left open by the underlying formal reference model definitions.This case study provides evidence that both community- and tool-enabled review processes

A managerial approach to NASA's cultural changes open-system model

OpenAIRE

Long, Nicholas.

2007-01-01

This project describes NASA's culture during two important time periods (1958-1972) and (1996-2004) and explains its relative fit with its system components-task, people, resources, and structure. The open-system model is used to explain how system components affect culture and how culture affects them. During the first period (1958- 1972), NASA was established and it landed the first man on the moon, a remarkable accomplishment given the advances in science and technology required to com...

Development and validation of open-source software for DNA mixture interpretation based on a quantitative continuous model.

Science.gov (United States)

Manabe, Sho; Morimoto, Chie; Hamano, Yuya; Fujimoto, Shuntaro; Tamaki, Keiji

2017-01-01

In criminal investigations, forensic scientists need to evaluate DNA mixtures. The estimation of the number of contributors and evaluation of the contribution of a person of interest (POI) from these samples are challenging. In this study, we developed a new open-source software "Kongoh" for interpreting DNA mixture based on a quantitative continuous model. The model uses quantitative information of peak heights in the DNA profile and considers the effect of artifacts and allelic drop-out. By using this software, the likelihoods of 1-4 persons' contributions are calculated, and the most optimal number of contributors is automatically determined; this differs from other open-source software. Therefore, we can eliminate the need to manually determine the number of contributors before the analysis. Kongoh also considers allele- or locus-specific effects of biological parameters based on the experimental data. We then validated Kongoh by calculating the likelihood ratio (LR) of a POI's contribution in true contributors and non-contributors by using 2-4 person mixtures analyzed through a 15 short tandem repeat typing system. Most LR values obtained from Kongoh during true-contributor testing strongly supported the POI's contribution even for small amounts or degraded DNA samples. Kongoh correctly rejected a false hypothesis in the non-contributor testing, generated reproducible LR values, and demonstrated higher accuracy of the estimated number of contributors than another software based on the quantitative continuous model. Therefore, Kongoh is useful in accurately interpreting DNA evidence like mixtures and small amounts or degraded DNA samples.

Development and validation of open-source software for DNA mixture interpretation based on a quantitative continuous model.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sho Manabe

Full Text Available In criminal investigations, forensic scientists need to evaluate DNA mixtures. The estimation of the number of contributors and evaluation of the contribution of a person of interest (POI from these samples are challenging. In this study, we developed a new open-source software "Kongoh" for interpreting DNA mixture based on a quantitative continuous model. The model uses quantitative information of peak heights in the DNA profile and considers the effect of artifacts and allelic drop-out. By using this software, the likelihoods of 1-4 persons' contributions are calculated, and the most optimal number of contributors is automatically determined; this differs from other open-source software. Therefore, we can eliminate the need to manually determine the number of contributors before the analysis. Kongoh also considers allele- or locus-specific effects of biological parameters based on the experimental data. We then validated Kongoh by calculating the likelihood ratio (LR of a POI's contribution in true contributors and non-contributors by using 2-4 person mixtures analyzed through a 15 short tandem repeat typing system. Most LR values obtained from Kongoh during true-contributor testing strongly supported the POI's contribution even for small amounts or degraded DNA samples. Kongoh correctly rejected a false hypothesis in the non-contributor testing, generated reproducible LR values, and demonstrated higher accuracy of the estimated number of contributors than another software based on the quantitative continuous model. Therefore, Kongoh is useful in accurately interpreting DNA evidence like mixtures and small amounts or degraded DNA samples.

Remarks concerning two sympatric seedeaters Poliospiza spp. in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Turner, D.A., Finch, B.F, & Hunter, N.D. Remarks concerning the all-black coastal boubous. (Laniarius ... Currently, however, there is little evidence to support such a theory, and it is .... twigs with its beak in order to increase the size of the hole.

Chemical physics of electroactive materials: concluding remarks.

Science.gov (United States)

Rutland, Mark W

2017-07-01

It is an honour to be charged with providing the concluding remarks for a Faraday Discussion. As many have remarked before, it is nonetheless a prodigious task, and what follows is necessarily a personal, and probably perverse, view of a watershed event in the Chemical Physics of Electroactive materials. The spirit of the conference was captured in a single sentence during the meeting itself."It is the nexus between rheology, electrochemistry, colloid science and energy storage". The current scientific climate is increasingly dominated by a limited number of global challenges, and there is thus a tendency for research to resemble a football match played by 6 year olds, where everyone on the field chases the (funding) ball instead of playing to their "discipline". It is thus reassuring to see how the application of rigorous chemical physics is leading to ingenious new solutions for both energy storage and harvesting, via, for example, nanoactuation, electrowetting, ionic materials and nanoplasmonics. In fact, the same language of chemical physics allows seamless transition between applications as diverse as mechano-electric energy generation, active moisture transport and plasmonic shutters - even the origins of life were addressed in the context of electro-autocatalysis!

Multiple choice exams of medical knowledge with open books and web access? A validity study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

O'Neill, Lotte; Simonsen, Eivind Ortind; Knudsen, Ulla Breth

2015-01-01

Background: Open book tests have been suggested to lower test anxiety and promote deeper learning strategies. In the Aarhus University medical program, ¼ of the curriculum assess students’ medical knowledge with ‘open book, open web’ (OBOW) multiple choice examinations. We found little existing...

Remarkable long-range-systematic in the binding energies of α-nuclei. II

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gross, D.H.E.

2003-01-01

In this Letter I present further data that show the remarkable evidence for the existence of an α-cluster structure in the ground states of even-even N=Z nuclei. Such a remarkable systematic was observed 20 years ago Gross and Nemes [Phys. Lett. B 130 (1983) 131] for these nuclei at A≤72 and is extended here up to A=100

Development of REI meetings (concluding remarks)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roessler, K.

1988-01-01

It is an honour and a pleasure to deliver the concluding remarks of this Fourth International Conference on Radiation Effects in Insulators. After commenting upon the present meeting, the genesis of REI conferences, their aims and position relative to related meetings in radiation and ion implantation research will be treated, particularly in order to inform new-comers. The development of the last four REI meetings will be discussed on the base of a statistical analysis. Some recommendations and an outlook of future trends will be given. (orig.)

Planet Candidate Validation in K2 Crowded Fields

Science.gov (United States)

Rampalli, Rayna; Vanderburg, Andrew; Latham, David; Quinn, Samuel

2018-01-01

In just three years, the K2 mission has yielded some remarkable outcomes with the discovery of over 100 confirmed planets and 500 reported planet candidates to be validated. One challenge with this mission is the search for planets located in star-crowded regions. Campaign 13 is one such example, located towards the galactic plane in the constellation of Taurus. We subject the potential planetary candidates to a validation process involving spectroscopy to derive certain stellar parameters. Seeing-limited on/off imaging follow-up is also utilized in order to rule out false positives due to nearby eclipsing binaries. Using Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis, the best-fit parameters for each candidate are generated. These will be suitable for finding a candidate’s false positive probability through methods including feeding such parameters into the Validation of Exoplanet Signals using a Probabilistic Algorithm (VESPA). These techniques and results serve as important tools for conducting candidate validation and follow-up observations for space-based missions such as the upcoming TESS mission since TESS’s large camera pixels resemble K2’s star-crowded fields.

The European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO): Introductory Remarks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vervaele, J.A.E.

2018-01-01

These introductory remarks deal with the reasons why the EPPO is perceived by some as a controversial body. These reasons are mirrored with the problem identification and the causes thereof. The size of EU fraud and related corruption and money laundering, both at the income and expenditure side, is

Remarkable resilience of teeth.

Science.gov (United States)

Chai, Herzl; Lee, James J-W; Constantino, Paul J; Lucas, Peter W; Lawn, Brian R

2009-05-05

Tooth enamel is inherently weak, with fracture toughness comparable with glass, yet it is remarkably resilient, surviving millions of functional contacts over a lifetime. We propose a microstructural mechanism of damage resistance, based on observations from ex situ loading of human and sea otter molars (teeth with strikingly similar structural features). Section views of the enamel implicate tufts, hypomineralized crack-like defects at the enamel-dentin junction, as primary fracture sources. We report a stabilization in the evolution of these defects, by "stress shielding" from neighbors, by inhibition of ensuing crack extension from prism interweaving (decussation), and by self-healing. These factors, coupled with the capacity of the tooth configuration to limit the generation of tensile stresses in largely compressive biting, explain how teeth may absorb considerable damage over time without catastrophic failure, an outcome with strong implications concerning the adaptation of animal species to diet.

Remarkable recoveries: research and practice from a patient's perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Barasch, Marc Ian

2008-08-01

Mind-body therapies are often portrayed in the literature as self-palliative, adjunctive, and complementary, but rarely as contributive to cure. Many physicians continue to view them as acceptable indulgences so long as they are harmless and the patient remains fully compliant with a standard treatment regimen. The possibility that such modalities might help drive the healing process itself is infrequently acknowledged. This article addresses the topic of such therapies, examining remarkable recoveries in cancer, and suggesting the need for a "Remarkable Recovery Registry" to expand the literature on these cases. The author discusses the importance of complementary alternative medicine, and emotional and pyschologic support in the treatment regimen, and the need for health care providers and patients to work together to provide the best emotional environment for the healing process.

Open Source Cloud-Based Technologies for Bim

Science.gov (United States)

Logothetis, S.; Karachaliou, E.; Valari, E.; Stylianidis, E.

2018-05-01

This paper presents a Cloud-based open source system for storing and processing data from a 3D survey approach. More specifically, we provide an online service for viewing, storing and analysing BIM. Cloud technologies were used to develop a web interface as a BIM data centre, which can handle large BIM data using a server. The server can be accessed by many users through various electronic devices anytime and anywhere so they can view online 3D models using browsers. Nowadays, the Cloud computing is engaged progressively in facilitating BIM-based collaboration between the multiple stakeholders and disciplinary groups for complicated Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) projects. Besides, the development of Open Source Software (OSS) has been rapidly growing and their use tends to be united. Although BIM and Cloud technologies are extensively known and used, there is a lack of integrated open source Cloud-based platforms able to support all stages of BIM processes. The present research aims to create an open source Cloud-based BIM system that is able to handle geospatial data. In this effort, only open source tools will be used; from the starting point of creating the 3D model with FreeCAD to its online presentation through BIMserver. Python plug-ins will be developed to link the two software which will be distributed and freely available to a large community of professional for their use. The research work will be completed by benchmarking four Cloud-based BIM systems: Autodesk BIM 360, BIMserver, Graphisoft BIMcloud and Onuma System, which present remarkable results.

OPEN SOURCE CLOUD-BASED TECHNOLOGIES FOR BIM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Logothetis

2018-05-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a Cloud-based open source system for storing and processing data from a 3D survey approach. More specifically, we provide an online service for viewing, storing and analysing BIM. Cloud technologies were used to develop a web interface as a BIM data centre, which can handle large BIM data using a server. The server can be accessed by many users through various electronic devices anytime and anywhere so they can view online 3D models using browsers. Nowadays, the Cloud computing is engaged progressively in facilitating BIM-based collaboration between the multiple stakeholders and disciplinary groups for complicated Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC projects. Besides, the development of Open Source Software (OSS has been rapidly growing and their use tends to be united. Although BIM and Cloud technologies are extensively known and used, there is a lack of integrated open source Cloud-based platforms able to support all stages of BIM processes. The present research aims to create an open source Cloud-based BIM system that is able to handle geospatial data. In this effort, only open source tools will be used; from the starting point of creating the 3D model with FreeCAD to its online presentation through BIMserver. Python plug-ins will be developed to link the two software which will be distributed and freely available to a large community of professional for their use. The research work will be completed by benchmarking four Cloud-based BIM systems: Autodesk BIM 360, BIMserver, Graphisoft BIMcloud and Onuma System, which present remarkable results.

A Remarkable Recent Transition in the Solar Dynamo

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Jager, C.; Akasofu, S.-I.; Duhau, S.; Livingston, W.C.; Nieuwenhuijzen, H.; Potgieter, M.S.

2016-01-01

We summarize the major aspects of the remarkable, fairly long lasting period(∼ 2005 to ∼ 2010) of low solar activity, that we will call the Transition. It is the transitionalstage between the Grand Maximum of the 20th century and a forthcoming (most probablyRegular) episode of solar activity. The

Empirical tests of Zipf's law mechanism in open source Linux distribution.

Science.gov (United States)

Maillart, T; Sornette, D; Spaeth, S; von Krogh, G

2008-11-21

Zipf's power law is a ubiquitous empirical regularity found in many systems, thought to result from proportional growth. Here, we establish empirically the usually assumed ingredients of stochastic growth models that have been previously conjectured to be at the origin of Zipf's law. We use exceptionally detailed data on the evolution of open source software projects in Linux distributions, which offer a remarkable example of a growing complex self-organizing adaptive system, exhibiting Zipf's law over four full decades.

Performance modeling of hybrid MPI/OpenMP scientific applications on large-scale multicore supercomputers

KAUST Repository

Wu, Xingfu; Taylor, Valerie

2013-01-01

In this paper, we present a performance modeling framework based on memory bandwidth contention time and a parameterized communication model to predict the performance of OpenMP, MPI and hybrid applications with weak scaling on three large-scale multicore supercomputers: IBM POWER4, POWER5+ and BlueGene/P, and analyze the performance of these MPI, OpenMP and hybrid applications. We use STREAM memory benchmarks and Intel's MPI benchmarks to provide initial performance analysis and model validation of MPI and OpenMP applications on these multicore supercomputers because the measured sustained memory bandwidth can provide insight into the memory bandwidth that a system should sustain on scientific applications with the same amount of workload per core. In addition to using these benchmarks, we also use a weak-scaling hybrid MPI/OpenMP large-scale scientific application: Gyrokinetic Toroidal Code (GTC) in magnetic fusion to validate our performance model of the hybrid application on these multicore supercomputers. The validation results for our performance modeling method show less than 7.77% error rate in predicting the performance of hybrid MPI/OpenMP GTC on up to 512 cores on these multicore supercomputers. © 2013 Elsevier Inc.

Performance modeling of hybrid MPI/OpenMP scientific applications on large-scale multicore supercomputers

KAUST Repository

Wu, Xingfu

2013-12-01

In this paper, we present a performance modeling framework based on memory bandwidth contention time and a parameterized communication model to predict the performance of OpenMP, MPI and hybrid applications with weak scaling on three large-scale multicore supercomputers: IBM POWER4, POWER5+ and BlueGene/P, and analyze the performance of these MPI, OpenMP and hybrid applications. We use STREAM memory benchmarks and Intel\\'s MPI benchmarks to provide initial performance analysis and model validation of MPI and OpenMP applications on these multicore supercomputers because the measured sustained memory bandwidth can provide insight into the memory bandwidth that a system should sustain on scientific applications with the same amount of workload per core. In addition to using these benchmarks, we also use a weak-scaling hybrid MPI/OpenMP large-scale scientific application: Gyrokinetic Toroidal Code (GTC) in magnetic fusion to validate our performance model of the hybrid application on these multicore supercomputers. The validation results for our performance modeling method show less than 7.77% error rate in predicting the performance of hybrid MPI/OpenMP GTC on up to 512 cores on these multicore supercomputers. © 2013 Elsevier Inc.

Open boundary condition, Wilson flow and the scalar glueball mass

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chowdhury, Abhishek; Harindranath, A.; Maiti, Jyotirmoy

2014-01-01

A major problem with periodic boundary condition on the gauge fields used in current lattice gauge theory simulations is the trapping of topological charge in a particular sector as the continuum limit is approached. To overcome this problem open boundary condition in the temporal direction has been proposed recently. One may ask whether open boundary condition can reproduce the observables calculated with periodic boundary condition. In this work we find that the extracted lowest glueball mass using open and periodic boundary conditions at the same lattice volume and lattice spacing agree for the range of lattice scales explored in the range 3 GeV≤(1/a)≤5 GeV. The problem of trapping is overcome to a large extent with open boundary and we are able to extract the glueball mass at even larger lattice scale ≈ 5.7 GeV. To smoothen the gauge fields we have used recently proposed Wilson flow which, compared to HYP smearing, exhibits better systematics in the extraction of glueball mass. The extracted glueball mass shows remarkable insensitivity to the lattice spacings in the range explored in this work, 3 GeV≤(1/a)≤5.7 GeV.

A project manager's primer on data validation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ramos, S.J.

1991-01-01

While carrying out their central responsibility of conducting an environmental investigation in a high- quality, timely, and cost-effective manner, project managers also face a significant challenge due to the many inherent uncertainties associated with characterizing and remediating sites. From all aspects and considerations (health and financial risks; and technical, professional, and legal defensibility/credibility), the project manager must minimize the uncertainty associated with making decisions based on environmental data. A key objective for every project manager is to produce sufficient data of known and acceptable quality. In simple terms, the level of confidence in the gathered data directly relates to: (1) the upfront determination of the types and uses of the data needed (which drives the required quality of the data); (2) the ongoing verification that the prescribed methods by which the data are to be obtained and analyzed are being followed; and (3) the validation of the verified data to determine whether the preestablished data quality objectives have been met, therefore making the data adequate for their intended use(s). This paper focuses on the third clement of the equation for data quality, therefore implying that the first two elements (planning and verification) have been accomplished. The open-quotes Who,close quotes open-quotes What,close quotes open-quotes Why,close quotes open-quotes Whenclose quotes and open-quotes Howclose quotes of data validation are discussed in general terms

On-the-fly reduction of open loops

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Buccioni, Federico; Pozzorini, Stefano; Zoller, Max [Universitaet Zuerich, Physik-Institut, Zurich (Switzerland)

2018-01-15

Building on the open-loop algorithm we introduce a new method for the automated construction of one-loop amplitudes and their reduction to scalar integrals. The key idea is that the factorisation of one-loop integrands in a product of loop segments makes it possible to perform various operations on-the-fly while constructing the integrand. Reducing the integrand on-the-fly, after each segment multiplication, the construction of loop diagrams and their reduction are unified in a single numerical recursion. In this way we entirely avoid objects with high tensor rank, thereby reducing the complexity of the calculations in a drastic way. Thanks to the on-the-fly approach, which is applied also to helicity summation and for the merging of different diagrams, the speed of the original open-loop algorithm can be further augmented in a very significant way. Moreover, addressing spurious singularities of the employed reduction identities by means of simple expansions in rank-two Gram determinants, we achieve a remarkably high level of numerical stability. These features of the new algorithm, which will be made publicly available in a forthcoming release of the OpenLoops program, are particularly attractive for NLO multi-leg and NNLO real-virtual calculations. (orig.)

On-the-fly reduction of open loops

Science.gov (United States)

Buccioni, Federico; Pozzorini, Stefano; Zoller, Max

2018-01-01

Building on the open-loop algorithm we introduce a new method for the automated construction of one-loop amplitudes and their reduction to scalar integrals. The key idea is that the factorisation of one-loop integrands in a product of loop segments makes it possible to perform various operations on-the-fly while constructing the integrand. Reducing the integrand on-the-fly, after each segment multiplication, the construction of loop diagrams and their reduction are unified in a single numerical recursion. In this way we entirely avoid objects with high tensor rank, thereby reducing the complexity of the calculations in a drastic way. Thanks to the on-the-fly approach, which is applied also to helicity summation and for the merging of different diagrams, the speed of the original open-loop algorithm can be further augmented in a very significant way. Moreover, addressing spurious singularities of the employed reduction identities by means of simple expansions in rank-two Gram determinants, we achieve a remarkably high level of numerical stability. These features of the new algorithm, which will be made publicly available in a forthcoming release of the OpenLoops program, are particularly attractive for NLO multi-leg and NNLO real-virtual calculations.

Performance of a Code Migration for the Simulation of Supersonic Ejector Flow to SMP, MIC, and GPU Using OpenMP, OpenMP+LEO, and OpenACC Directives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. Couder-Castañeda

2015-01-01

Full Text Available A serial source code for simulating a supersonic ejector flow is accelerated using parallelization based on OpenMP and OpenACC directives. The purpose is to reduce the development costs and to simplify the maintenance of the application due to the complexity of the FORTRAN source code. This research follows well-proven strategies in order to obtain the best performance in both OpenMP and OpenACC. OpenMP has become the programming standard for scientific multicore software and OpenACC is one true alternative for graphics accelerators without the need of programming low level kernels. The strategies using OpenMP are oriented towards reducing the creation of parallel regions, tasks creation to handle boundary conditions, and a nested control of the loop time for the programming in offload mode specifically for the Xeon Phi. In OpenACC, the strategy focuses on maintaining the data regions among the executions of the kernels. Experiments for performance and validation are conducted here on a 12-core Xeon CPU, Xeon Phi 5110p, and Tesla C2070, obtaining the best performance from the latter. The Tesla C2070 presented an acceleration factor of 9.86X, 1.6X, and 4.5X compared against the serial version on CPU, 12-core Xeon CPU, and Xeon Phi, respectively.

Convergent Validity of Four Innovativeness Scales.

Science.gov (United States)

Goldsmith, Ronald E.

1986-01-01

Four scales of innovativeness were administered to two samples of undergraduate students: the Open Processing Scale, Innovativeness Scale, innovation subscale of the Jackson Personality Inventory, and Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory. Intercorrelations indicated the scales generally exhibited convergent validity. (GDC)

Opening remarks for the Fort Valley Centennial Celebration

Science.gov (United States)

G. Sam Foster

2008-01-01

The Rocky Mountain Research Station recognizes and values the contributions of our scientists and collaborators for their work over the past century at Fort Valley Experimental Forest. With the help of our partners and collaborators, Rocky Mountain Research Station is working to improve coordination across its research Program Areas and Experimental Forests and Ranges...

Welcome and Opening Remarks of the Technical Plenary

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chin, S.F.

2015-01-01

The IAEA has been entrusted by the international community to conduct verification activities and implement safeguards. The work of the IAEA in this important area contributes to the establishment of a robust global nuclear non-proliferation regime, which is one of the essential elements as we seek to promote peace and security around the world. Being the only international organisation with this special mandate, the integrity and the credibility of the Agency are therefore vital as the international community needs to know that they can trust that the safeguards conclusion for a particular country has been drawn by the Agency only after, amongst others, a meticulous inspection in the field and a thorough and objective evaluation of all safeguards-relevant information, free of all political influence. All these points have also been highlighted by DDG Varjoranta in his keynote address at the beginning of the technical plenary. So, the question is, which is the topic of this panel discussion, how does the IAEA ensure consistency in the area of safeguards? What lessons can be drawn from the past in order to further enhance consistency in safeguards implementation? In light of the changing nuclear landscape, and in particular the increasing complexity of nuclear facilities, what steps may be envisaged to ensure the objectivity and consistency of safeguards implementation

The Open role : some remarks on contemporary acting

OpenAIRE

Mažeikienė, Rūta

2006-01-01

Traditionally, actor is considered to be a theater artist, who represents the other during a theater play: it can be a fictional character or a real person, animated or inanimate stage object. However, the practice of contemporary theater questions such definition of actor. In analyzing certain roles, it is difficult to pinpoint what is the task of an actor: should (s)he perform a role of a fictional character, or address the audience by his/her own name, or to perform specific plastic / visu...

Opening remarks: regulatory initiatives toward improved technical specifications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Edison, G.E.

1985-01-01

In order to deal with the numerous problems that have evolved over the years with nuclear power plant technical specifications, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has undertaken some initiatives for improvement: 1) new operating licenses, 2) change to existing operating reactor technical specifications, 3) a broad-scoped reconsideration of the content of technical specifications, and 4) rule changes. It is believed that reliability and risk assessment techniques can be used in conjunction with manufacturer's recommendations and engineering judgment to better define the appropriate scope and depth for technical specification resulting in focusing attention on high risk-worth systems and avoidance of plant shutdown transients both intentionally and unintentionally through provisions of technical specifications

Safe and secure South Africa. Vehicle landmine protection validation testing

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Reinecke, JD

2008-11-01

Full Text Available The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of vehicle landmine protection validation testing in South Africa. A short history of validation test standards is given, followed by a summary of current open test standards in general use...

Unstable particles as open quantum systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Caban, Pawel; Rembielinski, Jakub; Smolinski, Kordian A.; Walczak, Zbigniew

2005-01-01

We present the probability-preserving description of the decaying particle within the framework of quantum mechanics of open systems, taking into account the superselection rule prohibiting the superposition of the particle and vacuum. In our approach the evolution of the system is given by a family of completely positive trace-preserving maps forming a one-parameter dynamical semigroup. We give the Kraus representation for the general evolution of such systems, which allows one to write the evolution for systems with two or more particles. Moreover, we show that the decay of the particle can be regarded as a Markov process by finding explicitly the master equation in the Lindblad form. We also show that there are remarkable restrictions on the possible strength of decoherence

Tools for open geospatial science

Science.gov (United States)

Petras, V.; Petrasova, A.; Mitasova, H.

2017-12-01

Open science uses open source to deal with reproducibility challenges in data and computational sciences. However, just using open source software or making the code public does not make the research reproducible. Moreover, the scientists face the challenge of learning new unfamiliar tools and workflows. In this contribution, we will look at a graduate-level course syllabus covering several software tools which make validation and reuse by a wider professional community possible. For the novices in the open science arena, we will look at how scripting languages such as Python and Bash help us reproduce research (starting with our own work). Jupyter Notebook will be introduced as a code editor, data exploration tool, and a lab notebook. We will see how Git helps us not to get lost in revisions and how Docker is used to wrap all the parts together using a single text file so that figures for a scientific paper or a technical report can be generated with a single command. We will look at examples of software and publications in the geospatial domain which use these tools and principles. Scientific contributions to GRASS GIS, a powerful open source desktop GIS and geoprocessing backend, will serve as an example of why and how to publish new algorithms and tools as part of a bigger open source project.

Open ISEmeter: An open hardware high-impedance interface for potentiometric detection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Salvador, C.; Carbajo, J.; Mozo, J. D.; Mesa, M. S.; Durán, E.; Alvarez, J. L.

2016-01-01

In this work, a new open hardware interface based on Arduino to read electromotive force (emf) from potentiometric detectors is presented. The interface has been fully designed with the open code philosophy and all documentation will be accessible on web. The paper describes a comprehensive project including the electronic design, the firmware loaded on Arduino, and the Java-coded graphical user interface to load data in a computer (PC or Mac) for processing. The prototype was tested by measuring the calibration curve of a detector. As detection element, an active poly(vinyl chloride)-based membrane was used, doped with cetyltrimethylammonium dodecylsulphate (CTA"+-DS"−). The experimental measures of emf indicate Nernstian behaviour with the CTA"+ content of test solutions, as it was described in the literature, proving the validity of the developed prototype. A comparative analysis of performance was made by using the same chemical detector but changing the measurement instrumentation.

Some Remarks on Stability of Generalized Equations

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Outrata, Jiří; Henrion, R.; Kruger, A.Y.

2013-01-01

Roč. 159, č. 3 (2013), s. 681-697 ISSN 0022-3239 R&D Projects: GA AV ČR IAA100750802; GA ČR(CZ) GAP201/12/0671 Institutional support: RVO:67985556 Keywords : Parameterized generalized equation * Regular and limiting coderivative * Constant rank CQ * Mathematical program with equilibrium constraints Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics Impact factor: 1.406, year: 2013 http://library.utia.cas.cz/separaty/2013/MTR/outrata-some remarks on stability of generalized equations.pdf

Test-driven verification/validation of model transformations

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

László LENGYEL; Hassan CHARAF

2015-01-01

Why is it important to verify/validate model transformations? The motivation is to improve the quality of the trans-formations, and therefore the quality of the generated software artifacts. Verified/validated model transformations make it possible to ensure certain properties of the generated software artifacts. In this way, verification/validation methods can guarantee different requirements stated by the actual domain against the generated/modified/optimized software products. For example, a verified/ validated model transformation can ensure the preservation of certain properties during the model-to-model transformation. This paper emphasizes the necessity of methods that make model transformation verified/validated, discusses the different scenarios of model transformation verification and validation, and introduces the principles of a novel test-driven method for verifying/ validating model transformations. We provide a solution that makes it possible to automatically generate test input models for model transformations. Furthermore, we collect and discuss the actual open issues in the field of verification/validation of model transformations.

PENGEMBANGAN MODUL DENGAN PENDEKATAN OPEN ENDED UNTUK MEMFASILITASI PENCAPAIAN LITERASI MATEMATIS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Agung Putra Wijaya

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This research and development aimed to develop module with an open ended approach to facilitate the achievement of mathematical literacy. This study was conducted only until the  field trial and the revision of product. The module was validated by experts with attention to aspects: matter, appearance, and practicality. Having been declared valid by experts, the test readability by the students was done. Based on the steps, it was obtained (1 the use of the module with an open ended approach in Linier Programmingwas expected by the students, (2 the module characteristics were in accordance with the curriculum and designed in accordance with the open-ended approach, (3 the experts responses to the module were appropriate in terms of aspects of matter, appearance, and practicality and (4 the students responses were good viewed by readability.

Performance Modeling of Hybrid MPI/OpenMP Scientific Applications on Large-scale Multicore Cluster Systems

KAUST Repository

Wu, Xingfu; Taylor, Valerie

2011-01-01

In this paper, we present a performance modeling framework based on memory bandwidth contention time and a parameterized communication model to predict the performance of OpenMP, MPI and hybrid applications with weak scaling on three large-scale multicore clusters: IBM POWER4, POWER5+ and Blue Gene/P, and analyze the performance of these MPI, OpenMP and hybrid applications. We use STREAM memory benchmarks to provide initial performance analysis and model validation of MPI and OpenMP applications on these multicore clusters because the measured sustained memory bandwidth can provide insight into the memory bandwidth that a system should sustain on scientific applications with the same amount of workload per core. In addition to using these benchmarks, we also use a weak-scaling hybrid MPI/OpenMP large-scale scientific application: Gyro kinetic Toroidal Code in magnetic fusion to validate our performance model of the hybrid application on these multicore clusters. The validation results for our performance modeling method show less than 7.77% error rate in predicting the performance of hybrid MPI/OpenMP GTC on up to 512 cores on these multicore clusters. © 2011 IEEE.

Performance Modeling of Hybrid MPI/OpenMP Scientific Applications on Large-scale Multicore Cluster Systems

KAUST Repository

Wu, Xingfu

2011-08-01

In this paper, we present a performance modeling framework based on memory bandwidth contention time and a parameterized communication model to predict the performance of OpenMP, MPI and hybrid applications with weak scaling on three large-scale multicore clusters: IBM POWER4, POWER5+ and Blue Gene/P, and analyze the performance of these MPI, OpenMP and hybrid applications. We use STREAM memory benchmarks to provide initial performance analysis and model validation of MPI and OpenMP applications on these multicore clusters because the measured sustained memory bandwidth can provide insight into the memory bandwidth that a system should sustain on scientific applications with the same amount of workload per core. In addition to using these benchmarks, we also use a weak-scaling hybrid MPI/OpenMP large-scale scientific application: Gyro kinetic Toroidal Code in magnetic fusion to validate our performance model of the hybrid application on these multicore clusters. The validation results for our performance modeling method show less than 7.77% error rate in predicting the performance of hybrid MPI/OpenMP GTC on up to 512 cores on these multicore clusters. © 2011 IEEE.

Collisionless shocks and upstream waves and particles: Introductory remarks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kennel, C.F.

1981-01-01

We discuss more aspects of collisionless shock theory that might be pertinent to the problem of upstream waves and particles. It is hoped that our qualititive remarks may be a useful guide for the general reader as he goes through the detailed papers to come

Some remarks on the statistical model of heavy ion collisions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koch, V.

2003-01-01

This contribution is an attempt to assess what can be learned from the remarkable success of this statistical model in describing ratios of particle abundances in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions

Open Data and Open Science for better Research in the Geo and Space Domain

Science.gov (United States)

Ritschel, B.; Seelus, C.; Neher, G.; Iyemori, T.; Koyama, Y.; Yatagai, A. I.; Murayama, Y.; King, T. A.; Hughes, S.; Fung, S. F.; Galkin, I. A.; Hapgood, M. A.; Belehaki, A.

2015-12-01

Main open data principles had been worked out in the run-up and finally adopted in the Open Data Charta at the G8 summit in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland in June 2013. Important principles are also valid for science data, such as Open Data by Default, Quality and Quantity, Useable by All, Releasing Data for Improved Governance, Releasing Data for Innovation. There is also an explicit relationship to such areas of high values as earth observation, education and geospatial data. The European union implementation plan of the Open Data Charta identifies among other things objectives such as making data available in an open format, enabling semantic interoperability, ensuring quality, documentation and where appropriate reconciliation across different data sources, implementing software solutionsallowing easy management, publication or visualization of datasets and simplifying clearance of intellectual property rights.Open Science is not just a list of already for a longer time known principles but stands for a lot of initiatives and projects around a better handling of scientific data and openly shared scientific knowledge. It is also about transparency in methodology and collection of data, availability and reuse of scientific data, public accessibility to scientific communication and using of social media to facility scientific collaboration. Some projects are concentrating on open sharing of free and open source software and even further hardware in kind of processing capabilities. In addition question about the mashup of data and publication and an open peer review process are addressed.Following the principles of open data and open science the newest results of the collaboration efforts in mashing up the data servers related to the Japanese IUGONET, the European Union ESPAS and the GFZ ISDC semantic Web projects will be presented here. The semantic Web based approach for the mashup is focusing on the design and implementation of a common but still distributed data

Validation study of a computer-based open surgical trainer: SimPraxis® simulation platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tran LN

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Linh N Tran,1 Priyanka Gupta,2 Lauren H Poniatowski,2 Shaheen Alanee,3 Marc A Dall’Era,4 Robert M Sweet21Department of Internal Medicine, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA, 2Department of Urology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 3Urology Service, Department of Surgery, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, 4Department of Urology, University of California, Davis, CA, USABackground: Technological advances have dramatically changed medical education, particularly in the era of work-hour restrictions, which increasingly highlights a need for novel methods to teach surgical skills. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the validity of a novel, computer-based, interactive, cognitive simulator for training surgeons to perform pelvic lymph node dissection (PLND.Methods: Eight prostate cancer experts evaluated the content of the simulator. Contextual aspects of the simulator were rated on a five-point Likert scale. The experts and nine first-year residents completed a simulated PLND. Time and deviations were logged, and the results were compared between experts and novices using the Mann–Whitney test.Results: Before training, 88% of the experts felt that a validated simulator would be useful for PLND training. After testing, 100% of the experts felt that it would be more useful than standard video training. Eighty-eight percent stated that they would like to see the simulator in the curriculum of residency programs and 56% thought it would be useful for accreditation purposes. The experts felt that the simulator aided in overall understanding, training indications, concepts and steps of the procedure, training how to use an assistant, and enhanced the knowledge of anatomy. Median performance times taken by experts and interns to complete a PLND procedure on the simulator were 12.62 and 23.97 minutes, respectively. Median deviation from the incorporated procedure pathway for experts was 24.5 and was 89 for novices

Some concluding remarks about cold moderator development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carpenter, J.M.

1990-01-01

This paper is the transcription of remarks made at the conclusion of the Workshop on Cold Neutron Sources held at the Los Angeles National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, March 5--7, 1990. Areas of interest include the following: scattering functions; cold moderator materials; radiation mixing of chemical composition; comparison of some pulsed moderator spectra; hydrogen mixtures; premoderators and shields; composite reflectors; exotic moderator materials; deuterated methanes; mixed moderator materials; and test facility availabilities. 2 refs., 4 figs., 1 tab

Some remarks on a scenario of supersymmetry in quantum mechanics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jannussis, A.; Tsohantzis, I; Vavougios, D.

1990-01-01

Some remarks are given on a recent paper of Lahiri, Kumar Roy and Bagchi who have constructed a scenario of supersymmetry in quantum mechanics by imposing a structure on the raising and lowering operators

Open ISEmeter: An open hardware high-impedance interface for potentiometric detection

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Salvador, C.; Carbajo, J.; Mozo, J. D., E-mail: jdaniel.mozo@diq.uhu.es [Applied Electrochemistry Laboratory, Faculty of Experimental Sciences, University of Huelva, Av. 3 de Marzo s/n., 21007 Huelva (Spain); Mesa, M. S.; Durán, E. [Department of Electronics Engineering, Computers and Automatic, ETSI, University of Huelva, Campus de La Rabida, 21810 Huelva (Spain); Alvarez, J. L. [Department of Information Technologies, ETSI, University of Huelva, Campus de La Rabida, 21810 Huelva (Spain)

2016-05-15

In this work, a new open hardware interface based on Arduino to read electromotive force (emf) from potentiometric detectors is presented. The interface has been fully designed with the open code philosophy and all documentation will be accessible on web. The paper describes a comprehensive project including the electronic design, the firmware loaded on Arduino, and the Java-coded graphical user interface to load data in a computer (PC or Mac) for processing. The prototype was tested by measuring the calibration curve of a detector. As detection element, an active poly(vinyl chloride)-based membrane was used, doped with cetyltrimethylammonium dodecylsulphate (CTA{sup +}-DS{sup −}). The experimental measures of emf indicate Nernstian behaviour with the CTA{sup +} content of test solutions, as it was described in the literature, proving the validity of the developed prototype. A comparative analysis of performance was made by using the same chemical detector but changing the measurement instrumentation.

OpenAPC. Open-Access-Publikationskosten als Open Data

OpenAIRE

Tullney, Marco

2015-01-01

Präsentationsfolien zum Vortrag „OpenAPC. Open-Access-Publikationskosten als Open Data“ in der Session „Ausgestaltung eines wissenschaftsadäquaten APC-Marktes: Grundsätze, Finanzierungsansätze und Management“ der Open-Access-Tage 2015 in Zürich (https://www.open-access.net/community/open-access-tage/open-access-tage-2015-zuerich/programm/#c1974)

Italian version of Dyspnoea-12: cultural-linguistic validation, quantitative and qualitative content validity study.

Science.gov (United States)

Caruso, Rosario; Arrigoni, Cristina; Groppelli, Katia; Magon, Arianna; Dellafiore, Federica; Pittella, Francesco; Grugnetti, Anna Maria; Chessa, Massimo; Yorke, Janelle

2018-01-16

Dyspnoea-12 is a valid and reliable scale to assess dyspneic symptom, considering its severity, physical and emotional components. However, it is not available in Italian version due to it was not yet translated and validated. For this reason, the aim of this study was to develop an Italian version Dyspnoea-12, providing a cultural and linguistic validation, supported by the quantitative and qualitative content validity. This was a methodological study, divided into two phases: phase one is related to the cultural and linguistic validation, phase two is related to test the quantitative and qualitative content validity. Linguistic validation followed a standardized translation process. Quantitative content validity was assessed computing content validity ratio (CVR) and index (I-CVIs and S-CVI) from expert panellists response. Qualitative content validity was assessed by the narrative analysis on the answers of three open-ended questions to the expert panellists, aimed to investigate the clarity and the pertinence of the Italian items. The translation process found a good agreement in considering clear the items in both the six involved bilingual expert translators and among the ten voluntary involved patients. CVR, I-CVIs and S-CVI were satisfactory for all the translated items. This study has represented a pivotal step to use Dyspnoea-12 amongst Italian patients. Future researches are needed to deeply investigate the Italian version of  Dyspnoea-12 construct validity and its reliability, and to describe how dyspnoea components (i.e. physical and emotional) impact the life of patients with cardiorespiratory diseases.

Global review of open access risk assessment software packages valid for global or continental scale analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Daniell, James; Simpson, Alanna; Gunasekara, Rashmin; Baca, Abigail; Schaefer, Andreas; Ishizawa, Oscar; Murnane, Rick; Tijssen, Annegien; Deparday, Vivien; Forni, Marc; Himmelfarb, Anne; Leder, Jan

2015-04-01

Over the past few decades, a plethora of open access software packages for the calculation of earthquake, volcanic, tsunami, storm surge, wind and flood have been produced globally. As part of the World Bank GFDRR Review released at the Understanding Risk 2014 Conference, over 80 such open access risk assessment software packages were examined. Commercial software was not considered in the evaluation. A preliminary analysis was used to determine whether the 80 models were currently supported and if they were open access. This process was used to select a subset of 31 models that include 8 earthquake models, 4 cyclone models, 11 flood models, and 8 storm surge/tsunami models for more detailed analysis. By using multi-criteria analysis (MCDA) and simple descriptions of the software uses, the review allows users to select a few relevant software packages for their own testing and development. The detailed analysis evaluated the models on the basis of over 100 criteria and provides a synopsis of available open access natural hazard risk modelling tools. In addition, volcano software packages have since been added making the compendium of risk software tools in excess of 100. There has been a huge increase in the quality and availability of open access/source software over the past few years. For example, private entities such as Deltares now have an open source policy regarding some flood models (NGHS). In addition, leaders in developing risk models in the public sector, such as Geoscience Australia (EQRM, TCRM, TsuDAT, AnuGA) or CAPRA (ERN-Flood, Hurricane, CRISIS2007 etc.), are launching and/or helping many other initiatives. As we achieve greater interoperability between modelling tools, we will also achieve a future wherein different open source and open access modelling tools will be increasingly connected and adapted towards unified multi-risk model platforms and highly customised solutions. It was seen that many software tools could be improved by enabling user

Fuzzy-logic based strategy for validation of multiplex methods: example with qualitative GMO assays.

Science.gov (United States)

Bellocchi, Gianni; Bertholet, Vincent; Hamels, Sandrine; Moens, W; Remacle, José; Van den Eede, Guy

2010-02-01

This paper illustrates the advantages that a fuzzy-based aggregation method could bring into the validation of a multiplex method for GMO detection (DualChip GMO kit, Eppendorf). Guidelines for validation of chemical, bio-chemical, pharmaceutical and genetic methods have been developed and ad hoc validation statistics are available and routinely used, for in-house and inter-laboratory testing, and decision-making. Fuzzy logic allows summarising the information obtained by independent validation statistics into one synthetic indicator of overall method performance. The microarray technology, introduced for simultaneous identification of multiple GMOs, poses specific validation issues (patterns of performance for a variety of GMOs at different concentrations). A fuzzy-based indicator for overall evaluation is illustrated in this paper, and applied to validation data for different genetically modified elements. Remarks were drawn on the analytical results. The fuzzy-logic based rules were shown to be applicable to improve interpretation of results and facilitate overall evaluation of the multiplex method.

Open Standards, Open Source, and Open Innovation: Harnessing the Benefits of Openness

Science.gov (United States)

Committee for Economic Development, 2006

2006-01-01

Digitization of information and the Internet have profoundly expanded the capacity for openness. This report details the benefits of openness in three areas--open standards, open-source software, and open innovation--and examines the major issues in the debate over whether openness should be encouraged or not. The report explains each of these…

Automated Assessment in Massive Open Online Courses

Science.gov (United States)

Ivaniushin, Dmitrii A.; Shtennikov, Dmitrii G.; Efimchick, Eugene A.; Lyamin, Andrey V.

2016-01-01

This paper describes an approach to use automated assessments in online courses. Open edX platform is used as the online courses platform. The new assessment type uses Scilab as learning and solution validation tool. This approach allows to use automated individual variant generation and automated solution checks without involving the course…

Static validation of licence conformance policies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Rene Rydhof; Nielson, Flemming; Nielson, Hanne Riis

2008-01-01

Policy conformance is a security property gaining importance due to commercial interest like Digital Rights Management. It is well known that static analysis can be used to validate a number of more classical security policies, such as discretionary and mandatory access control policies, as well...... as communication protocols using symmetric and asymmetric cryptography. In this work we show how to develop a Flow Logic for validating the conformance of client software with respect to a licence conformance policy. Our approach is sufficiently flexible that it extends to fully open systems that can admit new...

A swirl generator case study for OpenFOAM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Petit, O; Nilsson, H; Bosioc, A I; Susan-Resiga, R F; Muntean, S

2010-01-01

This work presents numerical results, using OpenFOAM, of the flow in the swirl flow generator test rig developed at Politehnica University of Timisoara, Romania. The work shows results computed by solving the unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes equations. The unsteady method couples the rotating and stationary parts using a sliding grid interface based on a GGI formulation. Turbulence is modeled using the standard k-ε model, and block structured wall function ICEM-Hexa meshes are used. The numerical results are validated against experimental LDV results, and against designed velocity profiles. The investigation shows that OpenFOAM gives results that are comparable to the experimental and designed profiles. This case study was presented at the 5th OpenFOAM Workshop, held in Gothenburg, Sweden, as a tutorial on how to treat turbomachinery applications in OpenFOAM.

Catch-up validation study of an in vitro skin irritation test method based on an open source reconstructed epidermis (phase II).

Science.gov (United States)

Groeber, F; Schober, L; Schmid, F F; Traube, A; Kolbus-Hernandez, S; Daton, K; Hoffmann, S; Petersohn, D; Schäfer-Korting, M; Walles, H; Mewes, K R

2016-10-01

To replace the Draize skin irritation assay (OECD guideline 404) several test methods based on reconstructed human epidermis (RHE) have been developed and were adopted in the OECD test guideline 439. However, all validated test methods in the guideline are linked to RHE provided by only three companies. Thus, the availability of these test models is dependent on the commercial interest of the producer. To overcome this limitation and thus to increase the accessibility of in vitro skin irritation testing, an open source reconstructed epidermis (OS-REp) was introduced. To demonstrate the capacity of the OS-REp in regulatory risk assessment, a catch-up validation study was performed. The participating laboratories used in-house generated OS-REp to assess the set of 20 reference substances according to the performance standards amending the OECD test guideline 439. Testing was performed under blinded conditions. The within-laboratory reproducibility of 87% and the inter-laboratory reproducibility of 85% prove a high reliability of irritancy testing using the OS-REp protocol. In addition, the prediction capacity was with an accuracy of 80% comparable to previous published RHE based test protocols. Taken together the results indicate that the OS-REp test method can be used as a standalone alternative skin irritation test replacing the OECD test guideline 404. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Empirical Performance of Cross-Validation With Oracle Methods in a Genomics Context.

Science.gov (United States)

Martinez, Josue G; Carroll, Raymond J; Müller, Samuel; Sampson, Joshua N; Chatterjee, Nilanjan

2011-11-01

When employing model selection methods with oracle properties such as the smoothly clipped absolute deviation (SCAD) and the Adaptive Lasso, it is typical to estimate the smoothing parameter by m-fold cross-validation, for example, m = 10. In problems where the true regression function is sparse and the signals large, such cross-validation typically works well. However, in regression modeling of genomic studies involving Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP), the true regression functions, while thought to be sparse, do not have large signals. We demonstrate empirically that in such problems, the number of selected variables using SCAD and the Adaptive Lasso, with 10-fold cross-validation, is a random variable that has considerable and surprising variation. Similar remarks apply to non-oracle methods such as the Lasso. Our study strongly questions the suitability of performing only a single run of m-fold cross-validation with any oracle method, and not just the SCAD and Adaptive Lasso.

Remarks on the low value obtained for the Hubble constant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jaakkola, Toivo

1975-01-01

Some remarks are made on the basis of the data given by Sandage and Tamman, suggesting that these authors have over-estimated the distances to the most luminous galaxies and obtained a value too low for the Hubble constant [fr

Diradical character dependences of the first and second hyperpolarizabilities of asymmetric open-shell singlet systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Nakano, Masayoshi; Champagne, Benoît

2013-06-28

The static first and second hyperpolarizabilities (referred to as β and γ, respectively) of asymmetric open-shell singlet systems have been investigated using the asymmetric two-site diradical model within the valence configuration interaction level of theory in order to reveal the effect of the asymmetric electron distribution on the diradical character and subsequently on β and γ. It is found that the increase of the asymmetric electron distribution causes remarkable changes in the amplitude and the sign of β and γ, and that their variations are intensified with the increase of the diradical character. These results demonstrate that the asymmetric open-shell singlet systems with intermediate diradical characters can exhibit further enhancements of β and γ as compared to conventional asymmetric closed-shell systems and also to symmetric open-shell singlet systems with intermediate diradical characters.

Reasons to temper enthusiasm about open access nursing journals.

Science.gov (United States)

de Jong, Gideon

2017-04-01

Open access is a relatively new phenomenon within nursing science. Several papers from various nursing journals have been published recently on the disadvantages of the traditional model of purchasing proprietary fee-based databases to access scholarly information. Just few nursing scholars are less optimistic about the possible benefits of open access nursing journals. A critical reflection on the merits and pitfalls of open access journals along insights from the literature and personal opinion. Two arguments are discussed, providing justification for tempering enthusiasm about open access journals. First, only research groups with sufficient financial resources can publish in open access journals. Second, open access has conflicting incentives, where the aim is to expand production at the expense of publishing quality articles; a business model that fits well into a neoliberal discourse. There are valid reasons to criticise the traditional publishers for the excessive costs of a single article, therefore preventing the dissemination of scholarly nursing information. On the contrary, the business model of open access publishers is no less imbued with the neoliberal tendency of lining the pockets.

Uranium in mining water of kaolin open pit in Zarów (Lower Silesia); methodology of determination and genetic remarks.

Science.gov (United States)

Chau, N D; Wyszomirski, P; Chruściel, E; Ochoński, A

1999-11-01

In this paper, a method of determination of uranium 238 and 234 in mining waters of Andrzej kaolin open pit in Zarów (Lower Silesia) is presented. The method is based on independent measurements of alpha and beta radiation intensities by means of a liquid scintillation spectrometer alpha/beta. The initial volume of water sample was 3 dm3, then it was diminished by chemical preparation to 6 cm3, and then 12 cm3 of scintillator was added. The lower limit of detection (for the measurement time of 8 h) for both 234U and 238U amounted to 0.02 Bq/dm3. For determination of the uranium content in ferruginous sediments precipitating from mining waters of the above-mentioned open pit, gamma ray spectrometry was used. The obtained results may be viewed as a contribution to studies on anomalous uranium concentration within this kaolin deposit. The elevated uranium content, in comparison with its average concentration in the Earth crust, is characteristic for parent rocks of Andrzej kaolin deposit, which are granitoids of Strzegom-Sobótka massif. In connection with it, the high uranium content can be observed not only in kaolin and weakly kaolinised granitoids from the deposit in question, but also in mining waters genetically related with them.

Accurate measurements of infinite dilution activity coefficients using gas chromatography with static-wall-coated open-tubular columns.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Qianqian; Su, Baogen; Luo, Xinyi; Xing, Huabin; Bao, Zongbi; Yang, Qiwei; Yang, Yiwen; Ren, Qilong

2012-11-06

Wall-coated open-tubular (WCOT) columns provide higher column efficiency and lower solute interfacial adsorption effect than packed columns. However, previous efforts used to measure the infinite dilution activity coefficient (γ(∞)) via a chromatographic technique have used packed columns, because the low carrier gas flow rate (U) and the small stationary phase amount (n(2)) in WCOT columns raise large errors. By rationally revising the γ(∞)-calculation equation for static-wall-coated open-tubular column, we observed that U and n(2) are not necessarily needed and the resulting error could be reduced, and WCOT column gas chromatography subsequently became a superior method for the accurate γ(∞) determination. In this study, we validate our revised γ(∞)-calculation equation by measuring γ(∞) in an ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate system, in which 55 organic compounds covering a wide range of functional groups were used as probe solutes and their γ(∞) values in the ionic liquid were determined at 40.0, 50.0, and 60.0 °C. Experimental error analysis shows that our revised equation remarkably reduces the error compared to the common γ(∞)-calculation equation. Our data is consistent with previously reported values obtained via other techniques, which further proves the credibility of our revised equation. The accurately determined γ(∞) values can be directly used to calculate the partial molar excess enthalpy, selectivity, and capacity, which will benefit for the rapid screening of solvents (especially ionic liquids) in separation approaches.

Changes in the CERN Firewall Openings

CERN Multimedia

Computer Security Team

2012-01-01

As agreed between departments and LHC experiments on the last ITSRM meeting, the default configuration of CERN’s outer perimeter firewall will be changed such that outgoing traffic from source ports 1-1023/tcp and 1-1023/udp will be blocked by default. Exceptions for NTP might be kept. These measures will be applied from Tuesday 13 March. Existing firewall openings for incoming traffic will not be affected. Currently, correct usage of the TCP and UDP protocol prevents the use of these lower ports when establishing a client connection and, indeed, the current outgoing traffic on these ports is remarkably low. Only misconfigured or “malicious” devices were observed using these ports. With this closure, such traffic will be blocked within CERN and without polluting the Internet. For comments and further information, please contact us at Computer.Security@cern.ch.

Discussant Remarks on Session: Statistical Aspects of Measuring the Internet

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cottrell, Les

1999-04-02

These remarks will briefly summarize what we learn from the talks in this session, and add some more areas in Internet Measurement that may provide challenges for statisticians. It will also point out some reasons why statisticians may be interested in working in this area.

Some remarks on word formation in Danish

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Götzsche, Hans

Abstract for the 25th Scandinavian Conference of Linguistics Some remarks on wordformation in Danish Some Danish word formation phenomena pose a problem for the linguist, being a predicament for analysis. In Danish a train leaves the station when it afgår ‘leaves’, while a minister may gå af......, there are some patterns for these Danish compounds concerning their internal semantics, in that the same lexical items may be used for different purposes depending on whether they are formed as a straightforward linear sequence (a word formation) or a reversed sequence (a phrase). The problem is (i) how the two...

The first ice skating rink in the world (Glaciarium) and it's remarkable inventor John Gamgee; De allereerste kunstijsbaan ter wereld en de opmerkelijke uitvinder John Gamgee

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Berends, E. [Grenco, Den Bosch (Netherlands)

2005-02-15

Some historical aspects are given of the development of the first ice skating rink (Glaciarium) that was opened in 1876 in Chelsea, London, UK. Also attention is paid to the inventor of the skating rink, professor dr. John Gamgee and some of the other inventions of this remarkable person. [Dutch] De historie van de eerste kunstijsbaan (Glaciarium) die in 1876 in Chelsea in Londen werd geopend, wordt uit de doeken gedaan. Daarnaast wordt aandacht geschonken aan de uitvinder, professor dr. John Gamgee, en worden enkele andere uitvindingen van deze opmerkelijke man belicht.

Assessment of crack opening area for leak rates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sharples, J.K.; Bouchard, P.J.

1997-01-01

This paper outlines the background to recommended crack opening area solutions given in a proposed revision to leak before break guidance for the R6 procedure. Comparisons with experimental and analytical results are given for some selected cases of circumferential cracks in cylinders. It is shown that elastic models can provide satisfactory estimations of crack opening displacement (and area) but they become increasingly conservative for values of L r greater than approximately 0.4. The Dugdale small scale yielding model gives conservative estimates of crack opening displacement with increasing enhancement for L r values greater than 0.4. Further validation of the elastic-plastic reference stress method for up to L r values of about 1.0 is presented by experimental and analytical comparisons. Although a more detailed method, its application gives a best estimate of crack opening displacement which may be substantially greater than small scale plasticity models. It is also shown that the local boundary conditions in pipework need to be carefully considered when evaluating crack opening area for through-wall bending stresses resulting from welding residual stresses or geometry discontinuities

The SCEC Broadband Platform: Open-Source Software for Strong Ground Motion Simulation and Validation

Science.gov (United States)

Silva, F.; Goulet, C. A.; Maechling, P. J.; Callaghan, S.; Jordan, T. H.

2016-12-01

The Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) Broadband Platform (BBP) is a carefully integrated collection of open-source scientific software programs that can simulate broadband (0-100 Hz) ground motions for earthquakes at regional scales. The BBP can run earthquake rupture and wave propagation modeling software to simulate ground motions for well-observed historical earthquakes and to quantify how well the simulated broadband seismograms match the observed seismograms. The BBP can also run simulations for hypothetical earthquakes. In this case, users input an earthquake location and magnitude description, a list of station locations, and a 1D velocity model for the region of interest, and the BBP software then calculates ground motions for the specified stations. The BBP scientific software modules implement kinematic rupture generation, low- and high-frequency seismogram synthesis using wave propagation through 1D layered velocity structures, several ground motion intensity measure calculations, and various ground motion goodness-of-fit tools. These modules are integrated into a software system that provides user-defined, repeatable, calculation of ground-motion seismograms, using multiple alternative ground motion simulation methods, and software utilities to generate tables, plots, and maps. The BBP has been developed over the last five years in a collaborative project involving geoscientists, earthquake engineers, graduate students, and SCEC scientific software developers. The SCEC BBP software released in 2016 can be compiled and run on recent Linux and Mac OS X systems with GNU compilers. It includes five simulation methods, seven simulation regions covering California, Japan, and Eastern North America, and the ability to compare simulation results against empirical ground motion models (aka GMPEs). The latest version includes updated ground motion simulation methods, a suite of new validation metrics and a simplified command line user interface.

Earth Observation for Citizen Science Validation, or Citizen Science for Earth Observation Validation? The Role of Quality Assurance of Volunteered Observations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Didier G. Leibovici

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Environmental policy involving citizen science (CS is of growing interest. In support of this open data stream of information, validation or quality assessment of the CS geo-located data to their appropriate usage for evidence-based policy making needs a flexible and easily adaptable data curation process ensuring transparency. Addressing these needs, this paper describes an approach for automatic quality assurance as proposed by the Citizen OBservatory WEB (COBWEB FP7 project. This approach is based upon a workflow composition that combines different quality controls, each belonging to seven categories or “pillars”. Each pillar focuses on a specific dimension in the types of reasoning algorithms for CS data qualification. These pillars attribute values to a range of quality elements belonging to three complementary quality models. Additional data from various sources, such as Earth Observation (EO data, are often included as part of the inputs of quality controls within the pillars. However, qualified CS data can also contribute to the validation of EO data. Therefore, the question of validation can be considered as “two sides of the same coin”. Based on an invasive species CS study, concerning Fallopia japonica (Japanese knotweed, the paper discusses the flexibility and usefulness of qualifying CS data, either when using an EO data product for the validation within the quality assurance process, or validating an EO data product that describes the risk of occurrence of the plant. Both validation paths are found to be improved by quality assurance of the CS data. Addressing the reliability of CS open data, issues and limitations of the role of quality assurance for validation, due to the quality of secondary data used within the automatic workflow, are described, e.g., error propagation, paving the route to improvements in the approach.

Concluding Remarks

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Budker, G. I. [Institute of Nuclear Physics, Siberian Department of the USSR Academy Of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Union Of Soviet Socialist Republics (Russian Federation)

1969-01-15

I feel that the changes which have taken place in science in the last few years open up new possibilities, about which I should like to say a few words. In 1951 we began work on thermonuclear reactions in the confident belief that we would solve the problem with a rush and immediately. I was assigned the task of ensuring that our future thermonuclear reactor would not get too much out of hand. It was like the story of the man who wished to invent a perpetual motion machine and had taken out a patent on a method for keeping it under control. This attitude stemmed from the successes in developing ''explosive thermonuclear reactors'', a task which was achieved within a very short period of time, leaving physicists with the impression that they could do everything - and do it fast. However, experience soon showed that here we had a scientific rather than a technological problem and that it would be necessary to study in detail the physics of plasmas - which we have now been doing for over ten years.

Pre-paid envelopes commemorating the 2013 Open Days

CERN Multimedia

2013-01-01

The post office on CERN's Prévessin site is still selling pre-paid envelopes commemorating the 2013 Open Days. Hurry while stocks last!   The special envelopes, which are valid in France for non-priority letters weighing up to 20 grams, are ideal for your Christmas and New Year correspondence. A set of ten envelopes, each featuring a different image, costs € 8.70 or 10 CHF. The post office is located in Building 866 on the Prévessin site and is open Mondays to Thursdays from 9.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m.

Globalisation, Trade Openness and Foreign Direct Investment in Romania

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dima Stela

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The paper analyses the trend of globalisation, trade openness and foreign direct investments (FDI in Romania and the link between them in the last 25 years. Data from UNCTAD, World Bank and KOF globalisation index were used in econometrical models testing the link between globalisation, trade openness and foreign direct investment. A strong positive and statistical validated link is found between globalisation and FDI, between trade openness and FDI, and between FDI and globalisation. In the context of Romanian economy, these three phenomena are interrelated and each of them is acting to potentiate the effect of the other. Moreover, a multivariate regression analysis emphasized the dependency between globalisation index and foreign direct investment, trade openness and market capitalisation. These results can be taken into account when national policies aiming to attract FDI and stimulating export-import activities are designed.

Validity and reliability of balance assessment software using the Nintendo Wii balance board: usability and validation.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Dae-Sung; Lee, GyuChang

2014-06-10

A balance test provides important information such as the standard to judge an individual's functional recovery or make the prediction of falls. The development of a tool for a balance test that is inexpensive and widely available is needed, especially in clinical settings. The Wii Balance Board (WBB) is designed to test balance, but there is little software used in balance tests, and there are few studies on reliability and validity. Thus, we developed a balance assessment software using the Nintendo Wii Balance Board, investigated its reliability and validity, and compared it with a laboratory-grade force platform. Twenty healthy adults participated in our study. The participants participated in the test for inter-rater reliability, intra-rater reliability, and concurrent validity. The tests were performed with balance assessment software using the Nintendo Wii balance board and a laboratory-grade force platform. Data such as Center of Pressure (COP) path length and COP velocity were acquired from the assessment systems. The inter-rater reliability, the intra-rater reliability, and concurrent validity were analyzed by an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) value and a standard error of measurement (SEM). The inter-rater reliability (ICC: 0.89-0.79, SEM in path length: 7.14-1.90, SEM in velocity: 0.74-0.07), intra-rater reliability (ICC: 0.92-0.70, SEM in path length: 7.59-2.04, SEM in velocity: 0.80-0.07), and concurrent validity (ICC: 0.87-0.73, SEM in path length: 5.94-0.32, SEM in velocity: 0.62-0.08) were high in terms of COP path length and COP velocity. The balance assessment software incorporating the Nintendo Wii balance board was used in our study and was found to be a reliable assessment device. In clinical settings, the device can be remarkably inexpensive, portable, and convenient for the balance assessment.

Open-Source Data and the Study of Homicide.

Science.gov (United States)

Parkin, William S; Gruenewald, Jeff

2015-07-20

To date, no discussion has taken place in the social sciences as to the appropriateness of using open-source data to augment, or replace, official data sources in homicide research. The purpose of this article is to examine whether open-source data have the potential to be used as a valid and reliable data source in testing theory and studying homicide. Official and open-source homicide data were collected as a case study in a single jurisdiction over a 1-year period. The data sets were compared to determine whether open-sources could recreate the population of homicides and variable responses collected in official data. Open-source data were able to replicate the population of homicides identified in the official data. Also, for every variable measured, the open-sources captured as much, or more, of the information presented in the official data. Also, variables not available in official data, but potentially useful for testing theory, were identified in open-sources. The results of the case study show that open-source data are potentially as effective as official data in identifying individual- and situational-level characteristics, provide access to variables not found in official homicide data, and offer geographic data that can be used to link macro-level characteristics to homicide events. © The Author(s) 2015.

CFD RANS Simulations on a Generic Conventional Scale Model Submarine: Comparison between Fluent and OpenFOAM

Science.gov (United States)

2015-09-01

UNCLASSIFIED UNCLASSIFIED CFD RANS Simulations on a Generic Conventional Scale Model Submarine: Comparison between Fluent and OpenFOAM ... OpenFOAM to replace some of the Fluent simulations. The fidelity of the Fluent code has been carefully validated, but the accuracy of parts of the... OpenFOAM code have not been so extensively tested. To test the accuracy of the OpenFOAM software, CFD simulations have been performed on the DSTO

Treatment of Bulbar Urethral Strictures. A Review, with Personal Critical Remarks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Willem Oosterlinck

2003-01-01

Full Text Available This is a review article on treatment of bulbar urethral strictures with personal critical remarks on newer developments. As a treatment of first intention there exists 4 options : dilatation, urethrotomy, end to end anastomosis and free graft, open urethroplasty. Success rate of dilatation and visual urethrotomy after 4 years is only 20 en 40 % respectively. Laser urethrotomy could not fulfill expectations. End to end anastomosis obtains a very high success rate but is only applicable for short strictures. Free graft urethroplasty obtains success rates of ± 80 %. There is considerable debate on the best material for grafting. Buccal mucosa graft is the new wave, but this is not based on scientific data. Whether this graft should be used dorsally or ventrally is also a point of discussion. In view of the good results published with both techniques it is probably of no importance. Intraluminal stents are not indicated for complicated cases and give only good results in those cases which can easily be treated with other techniques. Metal self-retaining urethral stent , resorbable stents and endoscopic urethroplasty is briefly discussed. Redo’s and complicated urethral strictures need often other solutions. Here skin flap from the penile skin and scrotal flap can be used. Advantages and drawbracks of both are discussed. There is still a place for two-stage procedures in complicated redo�s. The two-stage mesh-graft urethroplasty offers advantage over the use of scrotal skin. Some other rare techniques like substitution with bowel and pudendal thigh flap, to cover deep defects, are also discussed.

The role of research in nuclear regulation: Opening remarks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Taylor, J.M.

1997-01-01

More than 20 years ago, the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 created the USNRC and that same act provided for an office of nuclear regulatory research. It's what is called a statutory office within the NRC. In providing for an NRC research program, our Congress had several things to say about the character of the research that would be performed. First, NRC should perform such research as is necessary for the effective performance of the Commission's licensing and related regulatory functions. Second, the research may be characterized as confirmatory reassessment related to the safe operation and the protection of commercial reactors and other nuclear materials. Third, the NRC should have an independent capability for developing and analyzing technical information related to reactor safety, safeguards, and environmental protection in support of both the licensing and regulatory processes. Fourth, the research should not go beyond the need for confirmatory assessment, because the NRC should never be place in a position of having generated and then having to defend basic design data of its own. This has been and continues to be the role of research at the NRC. Somewhat different purposes might apply for regulatory agencies in other countries. Several regulatory agencies are represented here on this panel, so some of these difference may be discussed

Opening Remarks of the Acquisition Path Analysis Methodology Session

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Renis, T.

2015-01-01

An overview of the recent development work that has been done on acquisition path analysis, implementation of the methodologies within the Department of Safeguards, lessons learned and future areas for development will be provided. (author)

Terahertz radiation generation by lasers with remarkable efficiency in electron–positron plasma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Malik, Hitendra K.

2015-01-01

Photo-mixing of spatial-super-Gaussian lasers and electron–positron plasma are proposed for realizing a large amplitude nonlinear current in order to generate an efficient terahertz radiation. An external magnetic field together with a proper index of the lasers helps achieving controllable current and hence, the focused radiation of tunable frequency and power along with a remarkable efficiency of the scheme as ∼6%. - Highlights: • First proposal of photo-mixing of spatial-super-Gaussian (SSG) lasers in electron–positron (e–p) plasma. • Large amplitude nonlinear current due to the contribution of both the plasma species. • Magnetic field as an additional parameter for tunable THz radiation with a remarkable efficiency of ∼6%.

Remarks on Hamiltonian structures in G2-geometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cho, Hyunjoo; Salur, Sema; Todd, A. J.

2013-01-01

In this article, we treat G 2 -geometry as a special case of multisymplectic geometry and make a number of remarks regarding Hamiltonian multivector fields and Hamiltonian differential forms on manifolds with an integrable G 2 -structure; in particular, we discuss existence and make a number of identifications of the spaces of Hamiltonian structures associated to the two multisymplectic structures associated to an integrable G 2 -structure. Along the way, we prove some results in multisymplectic geometry that are generalizations of results from symplectic geometry

Open Source, Open Access, Open Review, Open Data. Initiativen zu mehr Offenheit in der digitalen Welt

OpenAIRE

Herb, Ulrich

2011-01-01

The article discusses the principles of openess, open access and open availability of information based on the examples of open access to scientific information, open government data, open geographical data and open source software.

Ground movement and deformation due to dewatering and open pit excavation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, B.; Yang, J.; Zhang, J.

1996-01-01

In the application of stochastic medium theory, it is assumed that ground movement process has the property of Markov Process. Based on superposition principle and rock consolidation principle, the ground movement and deformation due to dewatering and open pit excavation can be calculated. The comparison between the field measurements in Morwell Open Pit, Latrobe Valley (Victoria, Australia) and the calculated results shows the validity of the method in this paper. 5 refs

Examining assumptions regarding valid electronic monitoring of medication therapy: development of a validation framework and its application on a European sample of kidney transplant patients

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Steiger Jürg

2008-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Electronic monitoring (EM is used increasingly to measure medication non-adherence. Unbiased EM assessment requires fulfillment of assumptions. The purpose of this study was to determine assumptions needed for internal and external validity of EM measurement. To test internal validity, we examined if (1 EM equipment functioned correctly, (2 if all EM bottle openings corresponded to actual drug intake, and (3 if EM did not influence a patient's normal adherence behavior. To assess external validity, we examined if there were indications that using EM affected the sample representativeness. Methods We used data from the Supporting Medication Adherence in Renal Transplantation (SMART study, which included 250 adult renal transplant patients whose adherence to immunosuppressive drugs was measured during 3 months with the Medication Event Monitoring System (MEMS. Internal validity was determined by assessing the prevalence of nonfunctioning EM systems, the prevalence of patient-reported discrepancies between cap openings and actual intakes (using contemporaneous notes and interview at the end of the study, and by exploring whether adherence was initially uncharacteristically high and decreased over time (an indication of a possible EM intervention effect. Sample representativeness was examined by screening for differences between participants and non-participants or drop outs on non-adherence. Results Our analysis revealed that some assumptions were not fulfilled: 1 one cap malfunctioned (0.4%, 2 self-reported mismatches between bottle openings and actual drug intake occurred in 62% of the patients (n = 155, and 3 adherence decreased over the first 5 weeks of the monitoring, indicating that EM had a waning intervention effect. Conclusion The validity assumptions presented in this article should be checked in future studies using EM as a measure of medication non-adherence.

An open-source, self-explanatory touch screen in routine care. Validity of filling in the Bath measures on Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index, Function Index, the Health Assessment Questionnaire and Visual Analogue Scales in comparison with paper versions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schefte, David B; Hetland, Merete L

2010-01-01

The Danish DANBIO registry has developed open-source software for touch screens in the waiting room. The objective was to assess the validity of outcomes from self-explanatory patient questionnaires on touch screen in comparison with the traditional paper form in routine clinical care....

Openly Published Environmental Sensing (OPEnS) | Advancing Open-Source Research, Instrumentation, and Dissemination

Science.gov (United States)

Udell, C.; Selker, J. S.

2017-12-01

The increasing availability and functionality of Open-Source software and hardware along with 3D printing, low-cost electronics, and proliferation of open-access resources for learning rapid prototyping are contributing to fundamental transformations and new technologies in environmental sensing. These tools invite reevaluation of time-tested methodologies and devices toward more efficient, reusable, and inexpensive alternatives. Building upon Open-Source design facilitates community engagement and invites a Do-It-Together (DIT) collaborative framework for research where solutions to complex problems may be crowd-sourced. However, barriers persist that prevent researchers from taking advantage of the capabilities afforded by open-source software, hardware, and rapid prototyping. Some of these include: requisite technical skillsets, knowledge of equipment capabilities, identifying inexpensive sources for materials, money, space, and time. A university MAKER space staffed by engineering students to assist researchers is one proposed solution to overcome many of these obstacles. This presentation investigates the unique capabilities the USDA-funded Openly Published Environmental Sensing (OPEnS) Lab affords researchers, within Oregon State and internationally, and the unique functions these types of initiatives support at the intersection of MAKER spaces, Open-Source academic research, and open-access dissemination.

National open university of Nigeria (noun) students' perception of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper studied the perception and challenges of students of open and distance learning (ODL) mode. ODL is a welcome development in Nigeria educational system. Participants in this study were 500 NOUN students that were randomly selected from Abuja study center. A well structured and validated questionnaire ...

Functional segmentation of dynamic PET studies: Open source implementation and validation of a leader-follower-based algorithm.

Science.gov (United States)

Mateos-Pérez, José María; Soto-Montenegro, María Luisa; Peña-Zalbidea, Santiago; Desco, Manuel; Vaquero, Juan José

2016-02-01

We present a novel segmentation algorithm for dynamic PET studies that groups pixels according to the similarity of their time-activity curves. Sixteen mice bearing a human tumor cell line xenograft (CH-157MN) were imaged with three different (68)Ga-DOTA-peptides (DOTANOC, DOTATATE, DOTATOC) using a small animal PET-CT scanner. Regional activities (input function and tumor) were obtained after manual delineation of regions of interest over the image. The algorithm was implemented under the jClustering framework and used to extract the same regional activities as in the manual approach. The volume of distribution in the tumor was computed using the Logan linear method. A Kruskal-Wallis test was used to investigate significant differences between the manually and automatically obtained volumes of distribution. The algorithm successfully segmented all the studies. No significant differences were found for the same tracer across different segmentation methods. Manual delineation revealed significant differences between DOTANOC and the other two tracers (DOTANOC - DOTATATE, p=0.020; DOTANOC - DOTATOC, p=0.033). Similar differences were found using the leader-follower algorithm. An open implementation of a novel segmentation method for dynamic PET studies is presented and validated in rodent studies. It successfully replicated the manual results obtained in small-animal studies, thus making it a reliable substitute for this task and, potentially, for other dynamic segmentation procedures. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A broad view of model validation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsang, C.F.

1989-10-01

The safety assessment of a nuclear waste repository requires the use of models. Such models need to be validated to ensure, as much as possible, that they are a good representation of the actual processes occurring in the real system. In this paper we attempt to take a broad view by reviewing step by step the modeling process and bringing out the need to validating every step of this process. This model validation includes not only comparison of modeling results with data from selected experiments, but also evaluation of procedures for the construction of conceptual models and calculational models as well as methodologies for studying data and parameter correlation. The need for advancing basic scientific knowledge in related fields, for multiple assessment groups, and for presenting our modeling efforts in open literature to public scrutiny is also emphasized. 16 refs

Prediction, Detection, and Validation of Isotope Clusters in Mass Spectrometry Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hendrik Treutler

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Mass spectrometry is a key analytical platform for metabolomics. The precise quantification and identification of small molecules is a prerequisite for elucidating the metabolism and the detection, validation, and evaluation of isotope clusters in LC-MS data is important for this task. Here, we present an approach for the improved detection of isotope clusters using chemical prior knowledge and the validation of detected isotope clusters depending on the substance mass using database statistics. We find remarkable improvements regarding the number of detected isotope clusters and are able to predict the correct molecular formula in the top three ranks in 92 % of the cases. We make our methodology freely available as part of the Bioconductor packages xcms version 1.50.0 and CAMERA version 1.30.0.

Nationwide Genomic Study in Denmark Reveals Remarkable Population Homogeneity.

Science.gov (United States)

Athanasiadis, Georgios; Cheng, Jade Y; Vilhjálmsson, Bjarni J; Jørgensen, Frank G; Als, Thomas D; Le Hellard, Stephanie; Espeseth, Thomas; Sullivan, Patrick F; Hultman, Christina M; Kjærgaard, Peter C; Schierup, Mikkel H; Mailund, Thomas

2016-10-01

Denmark has played a substantial role in the history of Northern Europe. Through a nationwide scientific outreach initiative, we collected genetic and anthropometrical data from ∼800 high school students and used them to elucidate the genetic makeup of the Danish population, as well as to assess polygenic predictions of phenotypic traits in adolescents. We observed remarkable homogeneity across different geographic regions, although we could still detect weak signals of genetic structure reflecting the history of the country. Denmark presented genomic affinity with primarily neighboring countries with overall resemblance of decreasing weight from Britain, Sweden, Norway, Germany, and France. A Polish admixture signal was detected in Zealand and Funen, and our date estimates coincided with historical evidence of Wend settlements in the south of Denmark. We also observed considerably diverse demographic histories among Scandinavian countries, with Denmark having the smallest current effective population size compared to Norway and Sweden. Finally, we found that polygenic prediction of self-reported adolescent height in the population was remarkably accurate (R 2 = 0.639 ± 0.015). The high homogeneity of the Danish population could render population structure a lesser concern for the upcoming large-scale gene-mapping studies in the country. Copyright © 2016 by the Genetics Society of America.

Remarks on the thermopreferendum of palearctic bats in their natural habitats

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gaisler, Jiří

1970-01-01

This contribution comprises two remarks of ecological rather than physiological character. Contrary to Herter (1952), Herreid (1967), and Harmata (1969), I did not examine the temperature preference, or thermopreferendum, of bats under experimental conditions but concluded on it only on grounds of

Open source deformable image registration system for treatment planning and recurrence CT scans. Validation in the head and neck region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zukauskaite, Ruta; Brink, Carsten; Hansen, Christian Roenn; Bertelsen, Anders; Johansen, Joergen; Eriksen, Jesper Grau; Grau, Cai

2016-01-01

Clinical application of deformable registration (DIR) of medical images remains limited due to sparse validation of DIR methods in specific situations, e. g. in case of cancer recurrences. In this study the accuracy of DIR for registration of planning CT (pCT) and recurrence CT (rCT) images of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients was evaluated. Twenty patients treated with definitive IMRT for HNSCC in 2010-2012 were included. For each patient, a pCT and an rCT scan were used. Median interval between the scans was 8.5 months. One observer manually contoured eight anatomical regions-of-interest (ROI) twice on pCT and once on rCT. pCT and rCT images were deformably registered using the open source software elastix. Mean surface distance (MSD) and Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) between contours were used for validation of DIR. A measure for delineation uncertainty was estimated by assessing MSD from the re-delineations of the same ROI on pCT. DIR and manual contouring uncertainties were correlated with tissue volume and rigidity. MSD varied 1-3 mm for different ROIs for DIR and 1-1.5 mm for re-delineated ROIs performed on pCT. DSC for DIR varied between 0.58 and 0.79 for soft tissues and was 0.79 or higher for bony structures, and correlated with the volumes of ROIs (r = 0.5, p < 0.001) and tissue rigidity (r = 0.54, p < 0.001). DIR using elastix in HNSCC on planning and recurrence CT scans is feasible; an uncertainty of the method is close to the voxel size length of the planning CT images. (orig.) [de

Open source deformable image registration system for treatment planning and recurrence CT scans : Validation in the head and neck region.

Science.gov (United States)

Zukauskaite, Ruta; Brink, Carsten; Hansen, Christian Rønn; Bertelsen, Anders; Johansen, Jørgen; Grau, Cai; Eriksen, Jesper Grau

2016-08-01

Clinical application of deformable registration (DIR) of medical images remains limited due to sparse validation of DIR methods in specific situations, e. g. in case of cancer recurrences. In this study the accuracy of DIR for registration of planning CT (pCT) and recurrence CT (rCT) images of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients was evaluated. Twenty patients treated with definitive IMRT for HNSCC in 2010-2012 were included. For each patient, a pCT and an rCT scan were used. Median interval between the scans was 8.5 months. One observer manually contoured eight anatomical regions-of-interest (ROI) twice on pCT and once on rCT. pCT and rCT images were deformably registered using the open source software elastix. Mean surface distance (MSD) and Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) between contours were used for validation of DIR. A measure for delineation uncertainty was estimated by assessing MSD from the re-delineations of the same ROI on pCT. DIR and manual contouring uncertainties were correlated with tissue volume and rigidity. MSD varied 1-3 mm for different ROIs for DIR and 1-1.5 mm for re-delineated ROIs performed on pCT. DSC for DIR varied between 0.58 and 0.79 for soft tissues and was 0.79 or higher for bony structures, and correlated with the volumes of ROIs (r = 0.5, p elastix in HNSCC on planning and recurrence CT scans is feasible; an uncertainty of the method is close to the voxel size length of the planning CT images.

Assessment of crack opening area for leak rates

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sharples, J.K.; Bouchard, P.J.

1997-04-01

This paper outlines the background to recommended crack opening area solutions given in a proposed revision to leak before break guidance for the R6 procedure. Comparisons with experimental and analytical results are given for some selected cases of circumferential cracks in cylinders. It is shown that elastic models can provide satisfactory estimations of crack opening displacement (and area) but they become increasingly conservative for values of L{sub r} greater than approximately 0.4. The Dugdale small scale yielding model gives conservative estimates of crack opening displacement with increasing enhancement for L{sub r} values greater than 0.4. Further validation of the elastic-plastic reference stress method for up to L{sub r} values of about 1.0 is presented by experimental and analytical comparisons. Although a more detailed method, its application gives a best estimate of crack opening displacement which may be substantially greater than small scale plasticity models. It is also shown that the local boundary conditions in pipework need to be carefully considered when evaluating crack opening area for through-wall bending stresses resulting from welding residual stresses or geometry discontinuities.

Opening Session - Introductory remarks for Workshop on Accident Tolerant Fuel. OECD/NEA Workshop on Accident Tolerant Fuels, Workshop Expectations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dujardin, Thierry; Gulliford, Jim; Massara, Simone; Pasamehmetoglu, K.

2013-01-01

The workshop opened with the welcome address from Th. Dujardin (OECD/NEA), NEA Deputy Director. Th. Dujardin recalled the integrated NEA response to the dramatic Fukushima-Daiichi events performed by three standing technical committees: the Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA), the Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) and the Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health (CRPPH). J. Gulliford (OECD/NEA) placed the workshop in the context of the activities of the Nuclear Science Committee within the framework of the NEA response to Fukushima- Daiichi. K. Pasamehmetoglu (INL, US) explained the main goals of the workshop oriented towards defining requirements for selection among various options during the feasibility phase of the development process, and not towards identifying and proposing design solutions

An open source solution for an in-house built dynamic platform for the validation of stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy for VMAT and IMRT.

Science.gov (United States)

Munoz, Luis; Ziebell, Amy; Morton, Jason; Bhat, Madhava

2016-12-01

An in-house solution for the verification of dose delivered to a moving phantom as required for the clinical implementation of lung stereotactic ablative body radiation therapy was developed. The superior-inferior movement required to simulate tumour motion during a normal breathing cycle was achieved via the novel use of an Arduino Uno™, a low-cost open-source microcontroller board connected to a high torque servo motor. Slow CT imaging was used to acquire the image set and a 4D cone beam CT (4D-CBCT) verified the efficacy of contoured margins before treatment on the moving phantom. Treatment fields were delivered to a section of a CIRS™ anthropomorphic phantom. Dose verification to the dynamic phantom with Gafchromic EBT3 film using 3 %-1 mm gamma analysis acceptance criteria registered an absolute dose pass rate for IMRT and VMAT of 98 and 96.6 %, respectively. It was verified that 100 % of the PTV received the prescribed dose of 12 Gy per fraction using the dynamic phantom, and no major discrepancy between planned and measured results due to interplay between multileaf collimator sequences and target motion was observed. This study confirmed that the use of an in-house solution using open source hardware and software with existing quality assurance equipment was appropriate in validating a new treatment technique.

Validity and reliability of three definitions of hip osteoarthritis: Cross sectional and longitudinal approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M. Reijman (Max); J.M.W. Hazes (Mieke); H.A.P. Pols (Huib); R.M.D. Bernsen (Roos); B.W. Koes (Bart); S.M. Bierma-Zeinstra (Sita)

2004-01-01

textabstractObjectives: To compare the reliability and validity in a large open population of three frequently used radiological definitions of hip osteoarthritis (OA): Kellgren and Lawrence grade, minimal joint space (MJS), and Croft grade; and to investigate whether the validity of the three

Open access, open education resources and open data in Uganda ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

As a follow up to OpenCon 2014, International Federation of Medical Students' Associations (IFMSA) students organized a 3 day workshop Open Access, Open Education Resources and Open Data in Kampala from 15-18 December 2014. One of the aims of the workshop was to engage the Open Access movement in ...

Rapid development of medical imaging tools with open-source libraries.

Science.gov (United States)

Caban, Jesus J; Joshi, Alark; Nagy, Paul

2007-11-01

Rapid prototyping is an important element in researching new imaging analysis techniques and developing custom medical applications. In the last ten years, the open source community and the number of open source libraries and freely available frameworks for biomedical research have grown significantly. What they offer are now considered standards in medical image analysis, computer-aided diagnosis, and medical visualization. A cursory review of the peer-reviewed literature in imaging informatics (indeed, in almost any information technology-dependent scientific discipline) indicates the current reliance on open source libraries to accelerate development and validation of processes and techniques. In this survey paper, we review and compare a few of the most successful open source libraries and frameworks for medical application development. Our dual intentions are to provide evidence that these approaches already constitute a vital and essential part of medical image analysis, diagnosis, and visualization and to motivate the reader to use open source libraries and software for rapid prototyping of medical applications and tools.

A Human Open Field Test Reveals Thigmotaxis Related to Agoraphobic Fear.

Science.gov (United States)

Walz, Nora; Mühlberger, Andreas; Pauli, Paul

2016-09-01

Thigmotaxis refers to a specific behavior of animals (i.e., to stay close to walls when exploring an open space). Such behavior can be assessed with the open field test (OFT), which is a well-established indicator of animal fear. The detection of similar open field behavior in humans may verify the translational validity of this paradigm. Enhanced thigmotaxis related to anxiety may suggest the relevance of such behavior for anxiety disorders, especially agoraphobia. A global positioning system was used to analyze the behavior of 16 patients with agoraphobia and 18 healthy individuals with a risk for agoraphobia (i.e., high anxiety sensitivity) during a human OFT and compare it with appropriate control groups (n = 16 and n = 19). We also tracked 17 patients with agoraphobia and 17 control participants during a city walk that involved walking through an open market square. Our human OFT triggered thigmotaxis in participants; patients with agoraphobia and participants with high anxiety sensitivity exhibited enhanced thigmotaxis. This behavior was evident in increased movement lengths along the wall of the natural open field and fewer entries into the center of the field despite normal movement speed and length. Furthermore, participants avoided passing through the market square during the city walk, indicating again that thigmotaxis is related to agoraphobia. This study is the first to our knowledge to verify the translational validity of the OFT and to reveal that thigmotaxis, an evolutionarily adaptive behavior shown by most species, is related to agoraphobia, a pathologic fear of open spaces, and anxiety sensitivity, a risk factor for agoraphobia. Copyright © 2016 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Open-Source RTOS Space Qualification: An RTEMS Case Study

Science.gov (United States)

Zemerick, Scott

2017-01-01

NASA space-qualification of reusable off-the-shelf real-time operating systems (RTOSs) remains elusive due to several factors notably (1) The diverse nature of RTOSs utilized across NASA, (2) No single NASA space-qualification criteria, lack of verification and validation (V&V) analysis, or test beds, and (3) different RTOS heritages, specifically open-source RTOSs and closed vendor-provided RTOSs. As a leader in simulation test beds, the NASA IV&V Program is poised to help jump-start and lead the space-qualification effort of the open source Real-Time Executive for Multiprocessor Systems (RTEMS) RTOS. RTEMS, as a case-study, can be utilized as an example of how to qualify all RTOSs, particularly the reusable non-commercial (open-source) ones that are gaining usage and popularity across NASA. Qualification will improve the overall safety and mission assurance of RTOSs for NASA-agency wide usage. NASA's involvement in space-qualification of an open-source RTOS such as RTEMS will drive the RTOS industry toward a more qualified and mature open-source RTOS product.

Validation of Calculations in a Digital Thermometer Firmware

Science.gov (United States)

Batagelj, V.; Miklavec, A.; Bojkovski, J.

2014-04-01

State-of-the-art digital thermometers are arguably remarkable measurement instruments, measuring outputs from resistance thermometers and/or thermocouples. Not only that they can readily achieve measuring accuracies in the parts-per-million range, but they also incorporate sophisticated algorithms for the transformation calculation of the measured resistance or voltage to temperature. These algorithms often include high-order polynomials, exponentials and logarithms, and must be performed using both standard coefficients and particular calibration coefficients. The numerical accuracy of these calculations and the associated uncertainty component must be much better than the accuracy of the raw measurement in order to be negligible in the total measurement uncertainty. In order for the end-user to gain confidence in these calculations as well as to conform to formal requirements of ISO/IEC 17025 and other standards, a way of validation of these numerical procedures performed in the firmware of the instrument is required. A software architecture which allows a simple validation of internal measuring instrument calculations is suggested. The digital thermometer should be able to expose all its internal calculation functions to the communication interface, so the end-user can compare the results of the internal measuring instrument calculation with reference results. The method can be regarded as a variation of the black-box software validation. Validation results on a thermometer prototype with implemented validation ability show that the calculation error of basic arithmetic operations is within the expected rounding error. For conversion functions, the calculation error is at least ten times smaller than the thermometer effective resolution for the particular probe type.

Should essays and other "open-ended"-type questions retain a place in written summative assessment in clinical medicine?

Science.gov (United States)

Hift, Richard J

2014-11-28

Written assessments fall into two classes: constructed-response or open-ended questions, such as the essay and a number of variants of the short-answer question, and selected-response or closed-ended questions; typically in the form of multiple-choice. It is widely believed that constructed response written questions test higher order cognitive processes in a manner that multiple-choice questions cannot, and consequently have higher validity. An extensive review of the literature suggests that in summative assessment neither premise is evidence-based. Well-structured open-ended and multiple-choice questions appear equivalent in their ability to assess higher cognitive functions, and performance in multiple-choice assessments may correlate more highly than the open-ended format with competence demonstrated in clinical practice following graduation. Studies of construct validity suggest that both formats measure essentially the same dimension, at least in mathematics, the physical sciences, biology and medicine. The persistence of the open-ended format in summative assessment may be due to the intuitive appeal of the belief that synthesising an answer to an open-ended question must be both more cognitively taxing and similar to actual experience than is selecting a correct response. I suggest that cognitive-constructivist learning theory would predict that a well-constructed context-rich multiple-choice item represents a complex problem-solving exercise which activates a sequence of cognitive processes which closely parallel those required in clinical practice, hence explaining the high validity of the multiple-choice format. The evidence does not support the proposition that the open-ended assessment format is superior to the multiple-choice format, at least in exit-level summative assessment, in terms of either its ability to test higher-order cognitive functioning or its validity. This is explicable using a theory of mental models, which might predict that the

Phase radiation characteristics of an open-ended circular waveguide

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Shishkova, Anna; Pivnenko, Sergey; Kim, Oleksiy S.

2007-01-01

General analytical expressions are derived for the far-field amplitude and phase radiation patterns of an open-ended circular waveguide (OE-CWG) regardless of its radius or the operation frequency for the dominant and symmetric higher-order excitation modes. The derivation is based on the rigorous...... solution to the problem of diffraction at an open end of a waveguide proposed by Weinstein. The near-field amplitude and phase patterns of an OE-CWG are then calculated using the spherical wave expansion technique. The measurement of the radiation pattern of an OE-CWG was carried out to verify the validity...

Argonne to open new facility for advanced vehicle testing

CERN Multimedia

2002-01-01

Argonne National Laboratory will open it's Advanced Powertrain Research Facility on Friday, Nov. 15. The facility is North America's only public testing facility for engines, fuel cells, electric drives and energy storage. State-of-the-art performance and emissions measurement equipment is available to support model development and technology validation (1 page).

Was the Conconi test validated by sporting success, expert opinion ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Was the Conconi test validated by sporting success, expert opinion or good science? ... Open Access DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT ... Despite scientific evidence to the contrary, a popular incremental field test for endurance athletes (Conconi Test) ...

The OpenMOC method of characteristics neutral particle transport code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boyd, William; Shaner, Samuel; Li, Lulu; Forget, Benoit; Smith, Kord

2014-01-01

Highlights: • An open source method of characteristics neutron transport code has been developed. • OpenMOC shows nearly perfect scaling on CPUs and 30× speedup on GPUs. • Nonlinear acceleration techniques demonstrate a 40× reduction in source iterations. • OpenMOC uses modern software design principles within a C++ and Python framework. • Validation with respect to the C5G7 and LRA benchmarks is presented. - Abstract: The method of characteristics (MOC) is a numerical integration technique for partial differential equations, and has seen widespread use for reactor physics lattice calculations. The exponential growth in computing power has finally brought the possibility for high-fidelity full core MOC calculations within reach. The OpenMOC code is being developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to investigate algorithmic acceleration techniques and parallel algorithms for MOC. OpenMOC is a free, open source code written using modern software languages such as C/C++ and CUDA with an emphasis on extensible design principles for code developers and an easy to use Python interface for code users. The present work describes the OpenMOC code and illustrates its ability to model large problems accurately and efficiently

Development and validation of stability indicating studies of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Development and validation of stability indicating studies of paliperidone ... A simple and sensitive stability indicating HPLC method is developed for the ... The developed method was proved adequate for quantitative determination of ... Browse By Country · List All Titles · Free To Read Titles This Journal is Open Access.

Exploring the Role of Conventionality in Children's Interpretation of Ironic Remarks

Science.gov (United States)

Burnett, Debra L.

2015-01-01

Irony comprehension in seven- and eight-year-old children with typically developing language skills was explored under the framework of the graded salience hypothesis. Target ironic remarks, either conventional or novel/situation-specific, were presented following brief story contexts. Children's responses to comprehension questions were used to…

Remarks of the SFRP working group about ICRP recommendations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schieber, C.; Cordoliani, Y.S.

2005-01-01

Remarks of the SFRP working group about ICRP recommendations. The International Commission on Radiological Protection has proposed last summer on its Web site the draft text of the 2005 ICRP recommendations for consultation. As it was done for the previous drafts, the French Society for Radiation Protection, has sent his comments to the ICRP, through a specific working group. The text sent to the ICRP is presented here to the readers of the SFRP's Journal. (author)

Development and validation of a multi-dimensional measure of intellectual humility.

Science.gov (United States)

Alfano, Mark; Iurino, Kathryn; Stey, Paul; Robinson, Brian; Christen, Markus; Yu, Feng; Lapsley, Daniel

2017-01-01

This paper presents five studies on the development and validation of a scale of intellectual humility. This scale captures cognitive, affective, behavioral, and motivational components of the construct that have been identified by various philosophers in their conceptual analyses of intellectual humility. We find that intellectual humility has four core dimensions: Open-mindedness (versus Arrogance), Intellectual Modesty (versus Vanity), Corrigibility (versus Fragility), and Engagement (versus Boredom). These dimensions display adequate self-informant agreement, and adequate convergent, divergent, and discriminant validity. In particular, Open-mindedness adds predictive power beyond the Big Six for an objective behavioral measure of intellectual humility, and Intellectual Modesty is uniquely related to Narcissism. We find that a similar factor structure emerges in Germanophone participants, giving initial evidence for the model's cross-cultural generalizability.

An open-source toolbox for multiphase flow in porous media

Science.gov (United States)

Horgue, P.; Soulaine, C.; Franc, J.; Guibert, R.; Debenest, G.

2015-02-01

Multiphase flow in porous media provides a wide range of applications: from the environmental understanding (aquifer, site-pollution) to industrial process improvements (oil production, waste management). Modeling of such flows involves specific volume-averaged equations and therefore specific computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools. In this work, we develop a toolbox for modeling multiphase flow in porous media with OpenFOAM®, an open-source platform for CFD. The underlying idea of this approach is to provide an easily adaptable tool that can be used in further studies to test new mathematical models or numerical methods. The package provides the most common effective properties models of the literature (relative permeability, capillary pressure) and specific boundary conditions related to porous media flows. To validate this package, solvers based on the IMplicit Pressure Explicit Saturation (IMPES) method are developed in the toolbox. The numerical validation is performed by comparison with analytical solutions on academic cases. Then, a satisfactory parallel efficiency of the solver is shown on a more complex configuration.

Remarkable convergent evolution in specialized parasitic Thecostraca (Crustacea)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pérez-Losada, Marcos; Høeg, Jens Thorvald; Crandall, Keith A

2009-01-01

the metamorphosis found in the Facetotecta and Rhizocephala suggests a common evolutionary origin, but until now no comprehensive study has looked at the basic evolution of these thecostracan groups. Results To this end, we collected DNA sequences from three nuclear genes [18S rRNA (2,305), 28S rRNA (2...... analyses indicate a convergent evolution of the very similar and highly reduced slug-shaped stages found during metamorphosis of both the Rhizocephala and the Facetotecta. This provides a remarkable case of convergent evolution and implies that the advanced endoparasitic mode of life known from...

OMG: Open Molecule Generator.

Science.gov (United States)

Peironcely, Julio E; Rojas-Chertó, Miguel; Fichera, Davide; Reijmers, Theo; Coulier, Leon; Faulon, Jean-Loup; Hankemeier, Thomas

2012-09-17

Computer Assisted Structure Elucidation has been used for decades to discover the chemical structure of unknown compounds. In this work we introduce the first open source structure generator, Open Molecule Generator (OMG), which for a given elemental composition produces all non-isomorphic chemical structures that match that elemental composition. Furthermore, this structure generator can accept as additional input one or multiple non-overlapping prescribed substructures to drastically reduce the number of possible chemical structures. Being open source allows for customization and future extension of its functionality. OMG relies on a modified version of the Canonical Augmentation Path, which grows intermediate chemical structures by adding bonds and checks that at each step only unique molecules are produced. In order to benchmark the tool, we generated chemical structures for the elemental formulas and substructures of different metabolites and compared the results with a commercially available structure generator. The results obtained, i.e. the number of molecules generated, were identical for elemental compositions having only C, O and H. For elemental compositions containing C, O, H, N, P and S, OMG produces all the chemically valid molecules while the other generator produces more, yet chemically impossible, molecules. The chemical completeness of the OMG results comes at the expense of being slower than the commercial generator. In addition to being open source, OMG clearly showed the added value of constraining the solution space by using multiple prescribed substructures as input. We expect this structure generator to be useful in many fields, but to be especially of great importance for metabolomics, where identifying unknown metabolites is still a major bottleneck.

OMG: Open Molecule Generator

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peironcely Julio E

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Computer Assisted Structure Elucidation has been used for decades to discover the chemical structure of unknown compounds. In this work we introduce the first open source structure generator, Open Molecule Generator (OMG, which for a given elemental composition produces all non-isomorphic chemical structures that match that elemental composition. Furthermore, this structure generator can accept as additional input one or multiple non-overlapping prescribed substructures to drastically reduce the number of possible chemical structures. Being open source allows for customization and future extension of its functionality. OMG relies on a modified version of the Canonical Augmentation Path, which grows intermediate chemical structures by adding bonds and checks that at each step only unique molecules are produced. In order to benchmark the tool, we generated chemical structures for the elemental formulas and substructures of different metabolites and compared the results with a commercially available structure generator. The results obtained, i.e. the number of molecules generated, were identical for elemental compositions having only C, O and H. For elemental compositions containing C, O, H, N, P and S, OMG produces all the chemically valid molecules while the other generator produces more, yet chemically impossible, molecules. The chemical completeness of the OMG results comes at the expense of being slower than the commercial generator. In addition to being open source, OMG clearly showed the added value of constraining the solution space by using multiple prescribed substructures as input. We expect this structure generator to be useful in many fields, but to be especially of great importance for metabolomics, where identifying unknown metabolites is still a major bottleneck.

Development of a single-ring OpenPET prototype

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yoshida, Eiji, E-mail: rush@nirs.go.jp; Tashima, Hideaki; Wakizaka, Hidekatsu; Nishikido, Fumihiko; Hirano, Yoshiyuki; Inadama, Naoko; Murayama, Hideo; Ito, Hiroshi; Yamaya, Taiga

2013-11-21

-slant mode showed no remarkable difference in terms of the sensitivity distribution and spatial resolution performance. Therefore, we concluded that the SROP geometry has a good potential as an open geometry especially suitable for in-beam imaging.

Predicting success of oligomerized pool engineering (OPEN for zinc finger target site sequences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Goodwin Mathew J

2010-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Precise and efficient methods for gene targeting are critical for detailed functional analysis of genomes and regulatory networks and for potentially improving the efficacy and safety of gene therapies. Oligomerized Pool ENgineering (OPEN is a recently developed method for engineering C2H2 zinc finger proteins (ZFPs designed to bind specific DNA sequences with high affinity and specificity in vivo. Because generation of ZFPs using OPEN requires considerable effort, a computational method for identifying the sites in any given gene that are most likely to be successfully targeted by this method is desirable. Results Analysis of the base composition of experimentally validated ZFP target sites identified important constraints on the DNA sequence space that can be effectively targeted using OPEN. Using alternate encodings to represent ZFP target sites, we implemented Naïve Bayes and Support Vector Machine classifiers capable of distinguishing "active" targets, i.e., ZFP binding sites that can be targeted with a high rate of success, from those that are "inactive" or poor targets for ZFPs generated using current OPEN technologies. When evaluated using leave-one-out cross-validation on a dataset of 135 experimentally validated ZFP target sites, the best Naïve Bayes classifier, designated ZiFOpT, achieved overall accuracy of 87% and specificity+ of 90%, with an ROC AUC of 0.89. When challenged with a completely independent test set of 140 newly validated ZFP target sites, ZiFOpT performance was comparable in terms of overall accuracy (88% and specificity+ (92%, but with reduced ROC AUC (0.77. Users can rank potentially active ZFP target sites using a confidence score derived from the posterior probability returned by ZiFOpT. Conclusion ZiFOpT, a machine learning classifier trained to identify DNA sequences amenable for targeting by OPEN-generated zinc finger arrays, can guide users to target sites that are most likely to function

Robustness study of the pseudo open-loop controller for multiconjugate adaptive optics.

Science.gov (United States)

Piatrou, Piotr; Gilles, Luc

2005-02-20

Robustness of the recently proposed "pseudo open-loop control" algorithm against various system errors has been investigated for the representative example of the Gemini-South 8-m telescope multiconjugate adaptive-optics system. The existing model to represent the adaptive-optics system with pseudo open-loop control has been modified to account for misalignments, noise and calibration errors in deformable mirrors, and wave-front sensors. Comparison with the conventional least-squares control model has been done. We show with the aid of both transfer-function pole-placement analysis and Monte Carlo simulations that POLC remains remarkably stable and robust against very large levels of system errors and outperforms in this respect least-squares control. Approximate stability margins as well as performance metrics such as Strehl ratios and rms wave-front residuals averaged over a 1-arc min field of view have been computed for different types and levels of system errors to quantify the expected performance degradation.

Escaping the flybottle: solipsism and method in Wittgenstein's Philosophical Remarks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jônadas Techio

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The paper supports a dialectical interpretation of Wittgenstein's method focusing on the analysis of the conditions of experience presented in his Philosophical Remarks. By means of a close reading of some key passages dealing with solipsism I will try to lay bare their self-subverting character: the fact that they amount to miniature dialectical exercises offering specific directions to pass from particular pieces of disguised nonsense to corresponding pieces of patent nonsense. Yet, in order to follow those directions one needs to allow oneself to become simultaneously tempted by and suspicious of their all-too-evident "metaphysical tone" - a tone which, as we shall see, is particularly manifest in those claims purporting to state what can or cannot be the case, and, still more particularly, those purporting to state what can or cannot be done in language or thought, thus leading to the view that there are some (determinate things which are ineffable or unthinkable. I conclude by suggesting that in writing those remarks Wittgenstein was still moved by an ethical project, which gets conspicuously displayed in these reiterations of his attempts to cure the readers (and himself from some of the temptations expressed by solipsism.

Effects of Inhalation of Lavender Essential Oil on Open-heart Surgery Pain.

Science.gov (United States)

Salamati, Armaiti; Mashouf, Soheyla; Sahbaei, Faezeh; Mojab, Faraz

2014-01-01

This study evaluated the effects of inhalation of lavender essential oil on the pain of open-heart surgery. The main complaint of patients after open-heart surgery is chest pain. Due to the side effects of opioids, it is important to use a non-invasive way to effectively relieve pain including aromatherapy with analgesics. This study was a clinical single-blind trial and was conducted on 40 patients who had open-heart surgery in the cardiac ICU of 2 Hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, 2012. Criteria included: full consciousness, spontaneous breathing ability and not using synthetic opioids within 2 hours before extubation. After extubation, the patients were asked to mark the intensity of their pain using the visual analogue scale. Then, a cotton swab which was impregnated with 2 drops of lavender essential oil 2% was placed in their oxygen mask, and they got breath for 10 minutes. 30 minutes after aromatherapy, they were asked to re-mark their pain intensity. The level of patient's pain before and after aroma therapy were compared. The pain mean level before and after inhaling lavender essential oil was 5.60 (SD = 2.262) and 4.98 (SD = 2.293), respectively (p-value>0.05). Therefore, there is no significant difference and the result of study proves that lavender essential oil inhalation has no effect on reducing the pain of open-heart surgery.

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant design validation: Final report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1986-10-01

This report provides documentation of actual underground conditions encountered as they relate to the design criteria, design bases, and design configurations for the reference design of the underground openings. It includes a selection of the more essential data collected during the design validation effort and an interpretation of these data

Open life science research, open software and the open century

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Youhua Chen

2015-05-01

Full Text Available At the age of knowledge explosion and mass scientific information, I highlighted the importance of conducting open science in life and medical researches through the extensive usage of open software and documents. The proposal of conducting open science is to reduce the limited repeatability of researches in life science. I outlined the essential steps for conducting open life science and the necessary standards for creating, reusing and reproducing open materials. Different Creative Commons licenses were presented and compared of their usage scope and restriction. As a conclusion, I argued that open materials should be widely adopted in doing life and medical researches.

Formation of zeolite-like zinc 1,3,5-benzenetriphosphonate open-frameworks by topotactic pillaring of anionic layers.

Science.gov (United States)

Maeda, Kazuyuki; Takamatsu, Ryohei; Mochizuki, Miki; Kawawa, Kanako; Kondo, Atsushi

2013-08-07

An ab initio powder X-ray crystal structure analysis revealed that layered zinc 1,3,5-benzenetriphosphonates containing interlayer tetramethylammonium (ZBP-TMA) or 4,4'-bipyridinium cations (ZBP-bpy) are transformed to novel isomorphous 3D open-framework compounds ZBP-M (M: K, Rb, and Cs) by treatment in aqueous alkali metal chloride solutions. ZBP-Ms have a pillared layer-type of anionic framework containing 2D zigzag channels connected with cage-like spaces. The potassium atoms in ZBP-K are located near 8MR windows in the 2D zigzag channels, and the potassium cations are successfully exchanged with ammonium cations retaining the open-framework structure. The ammonium form (ZBP-NH4) showed remarkable cation exchange selectivity for Rb(+) and Cs(+) in a mixture of alkali metal cations. It is assumed that zinc ions partially dissolved from the starting layered ZBP precursors are intercalated in ZBP layers to form pillared layered 3D open-frameworks. These results clearly show that topotactic pillared layer approaches are applicable not only to zeolite-related materials but also to novel open-framework metal organophosphonates.

Remark on the gravitational field produced by an infinite straight string

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Francisco, G.; Matsas, G.E.A.

1989-01-01

The results predicted by Newtonian gravity and general relativity are compared regarding the field produced by an infinite gauge string with constant density λ. A simple gedankenexperiment is suggested to stress the remarkable differences between these two theories. The existence of the usual Newtonian limit is discussed in this case

Teachers' Remarks about Their Salaries in 1800 in the Helvetic Republic

Science.gov (United States)

Brühwiler, Ingrid

2015-01-01

For centuries, teachers have complained about their salaries. In the Stapfer inquiry of 1799, some teachers made remarks about financial issues, particularly their low incomes. This inquiry is the main source for the arguments presented here regarding teachers' low salary during this period of the Helvetic Republic. The disparity between the…

Weak openness and almost openness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David A. Rose

1984-01-01

Full Text Available Weak openness and almost openness for arbitrary functions between topological spaces are defined as duals to the weak continuity of Levine and the almost continuity of Husain respectively. Independence of these two openness conditions is noted and comparison is made between these and the almost openness of Singal and Singal. Some results dual to those known for weak continuity and almost continuity are obtained. Nearly almost openness is defined and used to obtain an improved link from weak continuity to almost continuity.

Use of Vitex agnus-castus in migrainous women with premenstrual syndrome: an open-label clinical observation.

Science.gov (United States)

Ambrosini, Anna; Di Lorenzo, Cherubino; Coppola, Gianluca; Pierelli, Francesco

2013-03-01

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) affects most women during their reproductive life. Headache is regarded as a typical symptom of PMS and, close to menses, migrainous women could experience their worst migraine attacks. Vitex agnus-castus (VAC) is a phytopharmaceutical compound, considered worldwide to be a valid tool to treat PMS. Aim of this study is to explore if headache is ameliorate in migrainous women treated with VAC for PMS by an open-label clinical observation. Migrainous women with PMS were enrolled in the study and advised to assume a treatment with VAC (40 mg/day) for PMS for a 3-month period. Effects both on PMS and headache were assessed. Out of 107 women, 100 completed the 3-month treatment for PMS. Out of them, 66 women reported a dramatic reduction of PMS symptoms, 26 a mild reduction, and 8 no effect. Concerning migraine, 42 % of patients experienced a reduction higher than 50 % in frequency of monthly attacks, and 57 % of patients experienced a reduction higher than 50 % in monthly days with headache. No patients reported remarkable side effects. Pending a placebo-controlled trial to confirm our results, we observed that the use of VAC in migrainous women affected by PMS resulted to be safe and well tolerated, and may positively influence the frequency and duration of migraine attacks.

Validation of the theoretical domains framework for use in behaviour change and implementation research

OpenAIRE

Cane, James E.; O'Connor, Denise; Michie, Susan

2012-01-01

Abstract Background An integrative theoretical framework, developed for cross-disciplinary implementation and other behaviour change research, has been applied across a wide range of clinical situations. This study tests the validity of this framework. Methods Validity was investigated by behavioural experts sorting 112 unique theoretical constructs using closed and open sort tasks. The extent of replication was tested by Discriminant Content Validation and Fuzzy Cluster Analysis. Results The...

The BWS Open Business Enterprise System Architecture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristian IONITA

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Business process management systems play a central role in supporting the business operations of medium and large organizations. This paper analyses the properties current business enterprise systems and proposes a new application type called Open Business Enterprise System. A new open system architecture called Business Workflow System is proposed. This architecture combines the instruments for flexible data management, business process management and integration into a flexible system able to manage modern business operations. The architecture was validated by implementing it into the DocuMentor platform used by major companies in Romania and US. These implementations offered the necessary data to create and refine an enterprise integration methodology called DMCPI. The final section of the paper presents the concepts, stages and techniques employed by the methodology.

Open Education and the Open Science Economy

Science.gov (United States)

Peters, Michael A.

2009-01-01

Openness as a complex code word for a variety of digital trends and movements has emerged as an alternative mode of "social production" based on the growing and overlapping complexities of open source, open access, open archiving, open publishing, and open science. This paper argues that the openness movement with its reinforcing structure of…

Unbound color, prefaced by remarks on baryon spectroscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Greenberg, O.W.

Theoretical and experimental issues related to the possibility that color is unbound are surveyed. This implies that quarks, gluons and other particles carrying color can exist as isolated objects. It is surprisingly difficult to distinguish models with unbound color from those in which color is permanently confined. None-the-less, the present situation seems discouraging for unbound color because there is no unambiguous support for it and because the crucial prediction of formation of a colored gluon in e + e - collisions has been ruled out wherever sufficient data exists. The above survey is prefaced by remarks on the symmetric quark model for baryon spectroscopy

Remarks on the 'Grenelle Environnement' portfolio of measures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2009-01-01

The Boston Consulting Group has presented its remarks on the economic impact of the portfolio of measures issued from the 'Grenelle de l'Environnement' workshop that was held in France and involved people with a variety of backgrounds (government representatives, politicians, companies, professional syndicates, NGOs, scientists and university professors, etc.). These measures (covering sectors such as agriculture, biodiversity, wastes, renewable energies, transport, buildings, risk prevention, etc.) are said to potentially generate 450 billions Euros of economic activities and 600,000 jobs during 12 years. Their direct impacts on the environment would be a 14 percent reduction in greenhouse gases between 2010 and 2020. Concerning renewable energies, investment focusing is suggested

Remarkable rates of lightning strike mortality in Malawi.

Science.gov (United States)

Mulder, Monique Borgerhoff; Msalu, Lameck; Caro, Tim; Salerno, Jonathan

2012-01-01

Livingstone's second mission site on the shore of Lake Malawi suffers very high rates of consequential lightning strikes. Comprehensive interviewing of victims and their relatives in seven Traditional Authorities in Nkhata Bay District, Malawi revealed that the annual rate of consequential strikes was 419/million, more than six times higher than that in other developing countries; the rate of deaths from lightning was 84/million/year, 5.4 times greater than the highest ever recorded. These remarkable figures reveal that lightning constitutes a significant stochastic source of mortality with potential life history consequences, but it should not deflect attention away from the more prominent causes of mortality in this rural area.

Remarks on search methods for stable, massive, elementary particles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Perl, Martin L.

2001-01-01

This paper was presented at the 69th birthday celebration of Professor Eugene Commins, honoring his research achievements. These remarks are about the experimental techniques used in the search for new stable, massive particles, particles at least as massive as the electron. A variety of experimental methods such as accelerator experiments, cosmic ray studies, searches for halo particles in the galaxy and searches for exotic particles in bulk matter are described. A summary is presented of the measured limits on the existence of new stable, massive particle

Adiabatic analysis of collisions. III. Remarks on the spin model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fano, U.

1979-01-01

Analysis of a spin-rotation model illustrates how transitions between adiabatic channel states stem from the second, rather than from the first, rate of change of these states, provided that appropriate identification of channels and scaling of the independent variable are used. These remarks, like the earlier development of a post-adiabatic approach, aim at elucidating the surprising success of approximate separation of variables in the treatment of complex mechanical systems

Open source IPSEC software in manned and unmanned space missions

Science.gov (United States)

Edwards, Jacob

Network security is a major topic of research because cyber attackers pose a threat to national security. Securing ground-space communications for NASA missions is important because attackers could endanger mission success and human lives. This thesis describes how an open source IPsec software package was used to create a secure and reliable channel for ground-space communications. A cost efficient, reproducible hardware testbed was also created to simulate ground-space communications. The testbed enables simulation of low-bandwidth and high latency communications links to experiment how the open source IPsec software reacts to these network constraints. Test cases were built that allowed for validation of the testbed and the open source IPsec software. The test cases also simulate using an IPsec connection from mission control ground routers to points of interest in outer space. Tested open source IPsec software did not meet all the requirements. Software changes were suggested to meet requirements.

Summarized presentation of the numerical model used for the pressurizer of a light water nuclear reactor. Description and validation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Siarry, P.

1981-12-01

The pressurizer model is first described together with its coupling to the nuclear unit. The different stages involved in the validation are then presented: validation of overall qualitative behavior; validation of the open loop pressurizer model; validation of the various units for controlling pressures and levels; simulation of two large transients (Bugey plant) [fr

A Survey of Open-Source UAV Flight Controllers and Flight Simulators

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ebeid, Emad Samuel Malki; Skriver, Martin; Terkildsen, Kristian Husum

2018-01-01

, which are all tightly linked to the UAV flight controller hardware and software. The lack of standardization of flight controller architectures and the use of proprietary closed-source flight controllers on many UAV platforms, however, complicates this work: solutions developed for one flight controller...... may be difficult to port to another without substantial extra development and testing. Using open-source flight controllers mitigates some of these challenges and enables other researchers to validate and build upon existing research. This paper presents a survey of the publicly available open...

More than just openness: developing and validating a measure of targeted parent-child communication about alcohol.

Science.gov (United States)

Miller-Day, Michelle; Kam, Jennifer A

2010-06-01

Research addressing parent-child communication on the topic of alcohol use relies heavily on assessing frequency of discussions and general assessments of openness in parent-child communication, ignoring the complexity of this communication phenomenon. This study adds to the literature by articulating a conceptualization and developing a measurement of parent-child communication-targeted parent-child communication about alcohol-and comparing the efficacy of targeted parent-child communication about alcohol in predicting positive expectancies of alcohol use and recent alcohol use. The predictive power of general openness in parent-child communication and frequency of communication about alcohol also were assessed. Students in fifth and sixth grade (N = 1,407) from 29 public schools completed surveys. Targeted parent-child communication about alcohol was negatively associated with both outcomes. Frequency and general openness were only negatively associated with positive expectancies regarding alcohol. Implications of these findings for the etiology and prevention of substance use are discussed.

Validation of a motor activity system by a robotically controlled vehicle and using standard reference compounds.

Science.gov (United States)

Patterson, John P; Markgraf, Carrie G; Cirino, Maria; Bass, Alan S

2005-01-01

A series of experiments were undertaken to evaluate the accuracy, precision, specificity, and sensitivity of an automated, infrared photo beam-based open field motor activity system, the MotorMonitor v. 4.01, Hamilton-Kinder, LLC, for use in a good laboratory practices (GLP) Safety Pharmacology laboratory. This evaluation consisted of two phases: (1) system validation, employing known inputs using the EM-100 Controller Photo Beam Validation System, a robotically controlled vehicle representing a rodent and (2) biologic validation, employing groups of rats treated with the standard pharmacologic agents diazepam or D-amphetamine. The MotorMonitor's parameters that described the open-field activity of a subject were: basic movements, total distance, fine movements, x/y horizontal ambulations, rearing, and total rest time. These measurements were evaluated over a number of zones within each enclosure. System validation with the EM-100 Controller Photo Beam Validation System showed that all the parameters accurately and precisely measured what they were intended to measure, with the exception of fine movements and x/y ambulations. Biologic validation using the central nervous system depressant diazepam at 1, 2, or 5 mg/kg, i.p. produced the expected dose-dependent reduction in rat motor activity. In contrast, the central nervous system stimulant D-amphetamine produced the expected increases in rat motor activity at 0.1 and 1 mg/kg, i.p, demonstrating the specificity and sensitivity of the system. Taken together, these studies of the accuracy, precision, specificity, and sensitivity show the importance of both system and biologic validation in the evaluation of an automated open field motor activity system for use in a GLP compliant laboratory.

Florida creativity index scores, conservatism, and openness in 268 U.S. regions.

Science.gov (United States)

McCann, Stewart J H

2011-02-01

This study assessed whether Florida's Creativity Index (2002) scores for 268 U.S. regions were related to levels of conservatism and openness in the states in which the regions were situated. State conservatism was measured as the percentage voting for Bush in 2000. State openness z scores were taken from a survey of 619,397 residents (Rentfrow, Gosling, & Potter, 2008). Creativity scores correlated negatively with conservatism (r = -.22) and positively with openness (r = .23). Regression showed that the two predictors accounted jointly (7%) and separately for significant variance in the Creativity Index. The findings contribute evidence for the construct validity of Florida's composite Creativity Index and some, albeit moderate to weak, support of the Rentfrow, et al. conclusion that state-aggregated openness reflects the unconventionality, tolerance, and creativity of a state.

Validation of the TEXSAN thermal-hydraulic analysis program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burns, S.P.; Klein, D.E.

1992-01-01

The TEXSAN thermal-hydraulic analysis program has been developed by the University of Texas at Austin (UT) to simulate buoyancy driven fluid flow and heat transfer in spent fuel and high level nuclear waste (HLW) shipping applications. As part of the TEXSAN software quality assurance program, the software has been subjected to a series of test cases intended to validate its capabilities. The validation tests include many physical phenomena which arise in spent fuel and HLW shipping applications. This paper describes some of the principal results of the TEXSAN validation tests and compares them to solutions available in the open literature. The TEXSAN validation effort has shown that the TEXSAN program is stable and consistent under a range of operating conditions and provides accuracy comparable with other heat transfer programs and evaluation techniques. The modeling capabilities and the interactive user interface employed by the TEXSAN program should make it a useful tool in HLW transportation analysis

A cross-validation package driving Netica with python

Science.gov (United States)

Fienen, Michael N.; Plant, Nathaniel G.

2014-01-01

Bayesian networks (BNs) are powerful tools for probabilistically simulating natural systems and emulating process models. Cross validation is a technique to avoid overfitting resulting from overly complex BNs. Overfitting reduces predictive skill. Cross-validation for BNs is known but rarely implemented due partly to a lack of software tools designed to work with available BN packages. CVNetica is open-source, written in Python, and extends the Netica software package to perform cross-validation and read, rebuild, and learn BNs from data. Insights gained from cross-validation and implications on prediction versus description are illustrated with: a data-driven oceanographic application; and a model-emulation application. These examples show that overfitting occurs when BNs become more complex than allowed by supporting data and overfitting incurs computational costs as well as causing a reduction in prediction skill. CVNetica evaluates overfitting using several complexity metrics (we used level of discretization) and its impact on performance metrics (we used skill).

Remarkable Computing - the Challenge of Designing for the Home

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Marianne Graves

2004-01-01

The vision of ubiquitous computing is floating into the domain of the household, despite arguments that lessons from design of workplace artefacts cannot be blindly transferred into the domain of the household. This paper discusses why the ideal of unremarkable or ubiquitous computing is too narrow...... with respect to the household. It points out how understanding technology use, is a matter of looking into the process of use and on how the specific context of the home, in several ways, call for technology to be remarkable rather than unremarkable....

Some remarks about large p/sub perpendicular/ spin effects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Field, R.D.

1977-01-01

A discussion of the ingredients necessary to make predictions concerning single and double spin measurements in large p/sub perpendicular to/ inclusive processes is presented. Remarks are made as to what might be expected and what might be learned from such measurements. Various models for the production of large p/sub perpendicular to/ mesons have quite different spin structure and hence can be expected to give differing predictions. However, it is not possible at this time to make quantitative calculations, and it is possible (not probable) that the interesting spin observables will be negligibly small

The International Intraval project: to study validation of geosphere transport models for performance assessment of nuclear waste disposal. Phase 1, summary report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1993-12-01

Intraval is an international project that addresses the validation of models of transport of radionuclides through groundwater in the geosphere. Such models are used in assessment of the long-term safety of nuclear waste disposal systems. The present report summarises the results for the test cases and presents some additional remarks

Identification and validation of novel small proteins in Pseudomonas putida

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yang, Xiaochen; Ingemann Jensen, Sheila; Wulff, Tune

2016-01-01

Small proteins of fifty amino acids or less have been understudied due to difficulties that impede their annotation and detection. In order to obtain information on small open reading frames (sORFs) in P. putida, bioinformatic and proteomic approaches were used to identify putative small open...... reading frames (sORFs) in the well-characterized strain KT2440. A plasmid-based system was established for sORF validation, enabling expression of C-terminal sequential peptide affinity (SPA) tagged variants and their detection via protein immunoblotting. Out of 22 tested putative sORFs, the expression...... of fourteen sORFs was confirmed, where all except one are novel. All of the validated sORFs except one are located adjacent to annotated genes on the same strand and three are in close proximity to genes with known functions. These include an ABC transporter operon and the two transcriptional regulators Fis...

Temporomandibular disorders – validity of clinical diagnostics compared to magnetic resonance imaging

OpenAIRE

BADEL, TOMISLAV; MAROTTI, MILJENKO; SAVIĆ PAVIČIN, IVANA; DULČIĆ, NIKŠA; ZADRAVEC, DIJANA; KERN, JOSIPA

2011-01-01

Background and Purpose: Orthopedic examination techniques of the musculoskeletal system contribute to the successful diagnostics of temporomandibular disorders (TMD). The purpose of this study is to determine the validity of TMD clinical diagnostics by comparing the findings of manual functional analysis (MFA) and the results of MRI of temporomandibular joint (TMJ). The diagnostic significance of limited mouth opening and pain upon passive mouth opening were taken into consideration. M...

Architecture Design and Experimental Platform Demonstration of Optical Network based on OpenFlow Protocol

Science.gov (United States)

Xing, Fangyuan; Wang, Honghuan; Yin, Hongxi; Li, Ming; Luo, Shenzi; Wu, Chenguang

2016-02-01

With the extensive application of cloud computing and data centres, as well as the constantly emerging services, the big data with the burst characteristic has brought huge challenges to optical networks. Consequently, the software defined optical network (SDON) that combines optical networks with software defined network (SDN), has attracted much attention. In this paper, an OpenFlow-enabled optical node employed in optical cross-connect (OXC) and reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM), is proposed. An open source OpenFlow controller is extended on routing strategies. In addition, the experiment platform based on OpenFlow protocol for software defined optical network, is designed. The feasibility and availability of the OpenFlow-enabled optical nodes and the extended OpenFlow controller are validated by the connectivity test, protection switching and load balancing experiments in this test platform.

Open hardware for open science

CERN Multimedia

CERN Bulletin

2011-01-01

Inspired by the open source software movement, the Open Hardware Repository was created to enable hardware developers to share the results of their R&D activities. The recently published CERN Open Hardware Licence offers the legal framework to support this knowledge and technology exchange.   Two years ago, a group of electronics designers led by Javier Serrano, a CERN engineer, working in experimental physics laboratories created the Open Hardware Repository (OHR). This project was initiated in order to facilitate the exchange of hardware designs across the community in line with the ideals of “open science”. The main objectives include avoiding duplication of effort by sharing results across different teams that might be working on the same need. “For hardware developers, the advantages of open hardware are numerous. For example, it is a great learning tool for technologies some developers would not otherwise master, and it avoids unnecessary work if someone ha...

Open ocean dead zones in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean

Science.gov (United States)

Karstensen, J.; Fiedler, B.; Schütte, F.; Brandt, P.; Körtzinger, A.; Fischer, G.; Zantopp, R.; Hahn, J.; Visbeck, M.; Wallace, D.

2015-04-01

Here we present first observations, from instrumentation installed on moorings and a float, of unexpectedly low (rates for the eddies are found to be 3 to 5 times higher when compared with surrounding waters. Oxygen is lowest in the centre of the eddies, in a depth range where the swirl velocity, defining the transition between eddy and surroundings, has its maximum. It is assumed that the strong velocity at the outer rim of the eddies hampers the transport of properties across the eddies boundary and as such isolates their cores. This is supported by a remarkably stable hydrographic structure of the eddies core over periods of several months. The eddies propagate westward, at about 4 to 5 km day-1, from their generation region off the West African coast into the open ocean. High productivity and accompanying respiration, paired with sluggish exchange across the eddy boundary, create the "dead zone" inside the eddies, so far only reported for coastal areas or lakes. We observe a direct impact of the open ocean dead zones on the marine ecosystem as such that the diurnal vertical migration of zooplankton is suppressed inside the eddies.

Concluding remarks of international symposium on highly excited states in nuclear reactions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bernstein, A. M.; Ikegami, H.; Muraoka, M. [eds.

1980-01-01

This is the concluding remarks in the international symposium on highly excited states in nuclear reactions. The remarks concentrate on the giant quadrupole states. In the framework of the distorted wave Born approximation (DWB), the differential cross section can be deduced. The relevant transition matrix elements are defined, and the quantities which are measured in inelastic hadron (h, h') reactions are shown. These are used to obtain both neutron and proton transition multipole matrix elements. This is equivalent to make the isospin decomposition of the electromagnetic transition matrix elements. The ratios of the transition matrix elements of neutrons and protons of the lowest 2/sup +/ states in even-even single closed shell nuclei are evaluated and compared with experimental results. For each nucleus, the consistency between various measurements is generally good. The effect of the virtual excitation of giant 2/sup +/ states into the ground and first excited states of even-even nuclei is discussed. The accuracy of (h, h') results can be tested.

A remark about the mean curvature

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Weitao.

1992-11-01

In this paper, we give an integral identity about the mean curvature in Sobolev space H 0 1 (Ω) intersection H 2 (Ω). Suppose the mean curvature on Γ=δΩ is positive, we prove some inequalities of the positive mean curvature and propose some open problems. (author). 4 refs

Open access, open education resources and open data in Uganda.

Science.gov (United States)

Salvo, Ivana Di; Mwoka, Meggie; Kwaga, Teddy; Rukundo, Priscilla Aceng; Ernest, Dennis Ssesanga; Osaheni, Louis Aikoriogie; John, Kasibante; Shafik, Kasirye; de Sousa, Agostinho Moreira

2015-01-01

As a follow up to OpenCon 2014, International Federation of Medical Students' Associations (IFMSA) students organized a 3 day workshop Open Access, Open Education Resources and Open Data in Kampala from 15-18 December 2014. One of the aims of the workshop was to engage the Open Access movement in Uganda which encompasses the scientific community, librarians, academia, researchers and students. The IFMSA students held the workshop with the support of: Consortium for Uganda University Libraries (CUUL), The Right to Research Coalition, Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL), Makerere University, International Health Sciences University (IHSU), Pan African Medical Journal (PAMJ) and the Centre for Health Human Rights and Development (CEHURD). All these organizations are based or have offices in Kampala. The event culminated in a meeting with the Science and Technology Committee of Parliament of Uganda in order to receive the support of the Ugandan Members of Parliament and to make a concrete change for Open Access in the country.

Site characterization and validation - Tracer migration experiment in the validation drift, report 2, Part 2: breakthrough curves in the validation drift appendices 5-9

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Birgersson, L.; Widen, H.; Aagren, T.; Neretnieks, I.; Moreno, L.

1992-01-01

Flowrate curves for the 53 sampling areas in the validation drift with measureable flowrates are given. The sampling area 267 is treated as three separate sampling areas; 267:1, 267:2 and 267:3. The total flowrate for these three sampling areas is given in a separate plot. The flowrates are given in ml/h. The time is given in hours since April 27 00:00, 1990. Disturbances in flowrates are observed after 8500 hours due to opening of boreholes C1 and W1. Results from flowrate measurements after 8500 hours are therefore excluded. The tracer breakthrough curves for 38 sampling areas in the validation drift are given as concentration values versus time. The sampling area 267 is treated as three separate sampling areas; 267:1, 267:2 and 267:3. This gives a total of 40 breakthrough curves for each tracer. (au)

A global first integral for certain dynamical systems and related remarks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gonzalez-Gascon, F.

1977-01-01

A global first integral for certain dynamical systems and the related remarks are presented. In particular, it is shown that for these dynamical systems by introducing the (intrinsic) definition of the divergence of a vector field defined on an orientable differentiable manifold, the first integral, i.e. the (intrinsic) divergence of a vector field is now, automatically, a global first integral. (author)

Modeling of low-capillary number segmented flows in microchannels using OpenFOAM

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hoang, D.A.; Van Steijn, V.; Portela, L.M.; Kreutzer, M.T.; Kleijn, C.R.

2012-01-01

Modeling of low-Capillary number segmented flows in microchannels is important for the design of microfluidic devices. We present numerical validations of microfluidic flow simulations using the volume-of-fluid (VOF) method as implemented in OpenFOAM. Two benchmark cases were investigated to ensure

Developing Open-Ended Questions for Surface Area and Volume of Beam

Science.gov (United States)

Kurniawan, Henry; Putri, Ratu Ilma Indra; Hartono, Yusuf

2018-01-01

The purpose of this research was to show open-ended questions about surface area and beam volume which valid and practice, have potential effect. This research is research development which consists of two main phases: preliminary phase (preparation phase and problem design) and formative evaluation phase (evaluation and revision phases). The…

A remark on the energy conditions for Hawking's area theorem

Science.gov (United States)

Lesourd, Martin

2018-06-01

Hawking's area theorem is a fundamental result in black hole theory that is universally associated with the null energy condition. That this condition can be weakened is illustrated by the formulation of a strengthened version of the theorem based on an energy condition that allows for violations of the null energy condition. With the semi-classical context in mind, some brief remarks pertaining to the suitability of the area theorem and its energy condition are made.

Opening remarks for the Fort Valley Centennial Celebration (P-53)

Science.gov (United States)

G. Sam Foster

2008-01-01

The Rocky Mountain Research Station recognizes and values the contributions of our scientists and collaborators for their work over the past century at Fort Valley Experimental Forest. With the help of our partners and collaborators, Rocky Mountain Research Station is working to improve coordination across its research Program Areas and Experimental Forests and Ranges...

Open Content in Open Context

Science.gov (United States)

Kansa, Sarah Whitcher; Kansa, Eric C.

2007-01-01

This article presents the challenges and rewards of sharing research content through a discussion of Open Context, a new open access data publication system for field sciences and museum collections. Open Context is the first data repository of its kind, allowing self-publication of research data, community commentary through tagging, and clear…

Openness, Web 2.0 Technology, and Open Science

Science.gov (United States)

Peters, Michael A.

2010-01-01

Open science is a term that is being used in the literature to designate a form of science based on open source models or that utilizes principles of open access, open archiving and open publishing to promote scientific communication. Open science increasingly also refers to open governance and more democratized engagement and control of science…

Acquiring Data by Mining the Past: Pairing Communities with Environmental Monitoring Methods through Open Online Collaborative Replication

Science.gov (United States)

Lippincott, M.; Lewis, E. S.; Gehrke, G. E.; Wise, A.; Pyle, S.; Sinatra, V.; Bland, G.; Bydlowski, D.; Henry, A.; Gilberts, P. A.

2016-12-01

Community groups are interested in low-cost sensors to monitor their environment. However, many new commercial sensors are unknown devices without peer-reviewed evaluations of data quality or pathways to regulatory acceptance, and the time to achieve these outcomes may be beyond a community's patience and attention. Rather than developing a device from scratch or validating a new commercial product, a workflow is presented whereby existing technologies, especially those that are out of patent, are replicated through open online collaboration between communities affected by environmental pollution, volunteers, academic institutions, and existing open hardware and open source software projects. Technology case studies will be presented, focusing primarily on a passive PM monitor based on the UNC Passive Monitor. Stages of the project will be detailed moving from identifying community needs, reviewing existing technology, partnership development, technology replication, IP review and licensing, data quality assurance (in process), and field evaluation with community partners (in process), with special attention to partnership development and technology review. We have leveraged open hardware and open source software to lower the cost and access barriers of existing technologies for PM10-2.5 and other atmospheric measures that have already been validated through peer review. Existing validation of and regulatory familiarity with a technology enables a rapid pathway towards collecting data, shortening the time it takes for communities to leverage data in environmental management decisions. Online collaboration requires rigorous documentation that aids in spreading research methods and promoting deep engagement by interested community researchers outside academia. At the same time, careful choice of technology and the use of small-scale fabrication through laser cutting, 3D printing, and open, shared repositories of plans and software enables educational engagement that

Open active cloaking and illusion devices for the Laplace equation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ma, Qian; Yang, Fan; Jin, Tian Yu; Mei, Zhong Lei; Cui, Tie Jun

2016-01-01

We propose open active cloaking and illusion devices for the Laplace equation. Compared with the closed configurations of active cloaking and illusion devices, we focus on improving the distribution schemes for the controlled sources, which do not have to surround the protected object strictly. Instead, the controlled sources can be placed in several small discrete clusters, and produce the desired voltages along the controlled boundary, to actively hide or disguise the protected object. Numerical simulations are performed with satisfactory results, which are further validated by experimental measurements. The open cloaking and illusion devices have many advantages over the closed configurations in various potential applications. (paper)

The online social self: an open vocabulary approach to personality.

Science.gov (United States)

Kern, Margaret L; Eichstaedt, Johannes C; Schwartz, H Andrew; Dziurzynski, Lukasz; Ungar, Lyle H; Stillwell, David J; Kosinski, Michal; Ramones, Stephanie M; Seligman, Martin E P

2014-04-01

We present a new open language analysis approach that identifies and visually summarizes the dominant naturally occurring words and phrases that most distinguished each Big Five personality trait. Using millions of posts from 69,792 Facebook users, we examined the correlation of personality traits with online word usage. Our analysis method consists of feature extraction, correlational analysis, and visualization. The distinguishing words and phrases were face valid and provide insight into processes that underlie the Big Five traits. Open-ended data driven exploration of large datasets combined with established psychological theory and measures offers new tools to further understand the human psyche. © The Author(s) 2013.

OpenComet: An automated tool for comet assay image analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Benjamin M. Gyori

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Reactive species such as free radicals are constantly generated in vivo and DNA is the most important target of oxidative stress. Oxidative DNA damage is used as a predictive biomarker to monitor the risk of development of many diseases. The comet assay is widely used for measuring oxidative DNA damage at a single cell level. The analysis of comet assay output images, however, poses considerable challenges. Commercial software is costly and restrictive, while free software generally requires laborious manual tagging of cells. This paper presents OpenComet, an open-source software tool providing automated analysis of comet assay images. It uses a novel and robust method for finding comets based on geometric shape attributes and segmenting the comet heads through image intensity profile analysis. Due to automation, OpenComet is more accurate, less prone to human bias, and faster than manual analysis. A live analysis functionality also allows users to analyze images captured directly from a microscope. We have validated OpenComet on both alkaline and neutral comet assay images as well as sample images from existing software packages. Our results show that OpenComet achieves high accuracy with significantly reduced analysis time.

Citybem: AN Open Source Implementation and Validation of Monthly Heating and Cooling Energy Needs for 3d Buildings in Cities

Science.gov (United States)

Murshed, S. M.; Picard, S.; Koch, A.

2017-10-01

Cities play an important role in reaching local and global targets on energy efficiency and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. In order to determine the potential of energy efficiency in the building sector new planning instruments are required that allow depicting the complete building stock on the one hand and investigate detailed measures on the other hand. To pursue this objective, the ISO 13970:2008 monthly heating and cooling energy model is implemented using an open source based software architecture (CityBEM), in connection with data from 3D city models in the CityGML standard (LOD2). Input parameters such as the building geometry, typology and energy characteristics have been associated with the 3D data. The model has been applied to several urban districts with different numbers of buildings in the city of Karlsruhe. In order to test the accuracy of the implemented model and its robustness, a 3-step validation has been conducted. The comparison of simulation results with results based on a TRNSYS simulation showed acceptable results for the studied application cases. The proposed approach can help urban decision makers to perform a city or district wide analysis of the building energy need which can be further used to prepare future scenarios or renovation plans to support decision making.

General Open Systems Theory and the Substrata-Factor Theory of Reading.

Science.gov (United States)

Kling, Martin

This study was designed to extend the generality of the Substrata-Factor Theory by two methods of investigation: (1) theoretically, to est"blish the validity of the hypothesis that an isomorphic relationship exists between the Substrata-Factor Theory and the General Open Systems Theory, and (2) experimentally, to disc"ver through a…

OpenAPS Data Commons on Open Humans

OpenAIRE

Lewis, Dana M.; Ball, Madeleine

2017-01-01

Poster describing OpenAPS, Open Humans, and joint work creating a data commons for OpenAPS data in the Open Humans platform. Presented at the 2017 Sage Assembly Bionetworks Assembly and recipient of a Young Innovator/Investigator award.

Edaravone protects osteoblastic cells from dexamethasone through inhibiting oxidative stress and mPTP opening.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Wen-xiao; Zheng, Hai-ya; Lan, Jun

2015-11-01

Existing evidences have emphasized an important role of oxidative stress in dexamethasone (Dex)-induced osteoblastic cell damages. Here, we investigated the possible anti-Dex activity of edaravone in osteoblastic cells, and studied the underlying mechanisms. We showed that edaravone dose-dependently attenuated Dex-induced death and apoptosis of established human or murine osteoblastic cells. Further, Dex-mediated damages to primary murine osteoblasts were also alleviated by edaravone. In osteoblastic cells/osteoblasts, Dex induced significant oxidative stresses, tested by increased levels of reactive oxygen species and lipid peroxidation, which were remarkably inhibited by edaravone. Meanwhile, edaravone repressed Dex-induced mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) opening, or mitochondrial membrane potential reduction, in osteoblastic cells/osteoblasts. Significantly, edaravone-induced osteoblast-protective activity against Dex was alleviated with mPTP inhibition through cyclosporin A or cyclophilin-D siRNA. Together, we demonstrate that edaravone protects osteoblasts from Dex-induced damages probably through inhibiting oxidative stresses and following mPTP opening.

The construct of sexual openness for females in steady intimate relationships.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Diana Rausch

Full Text Available The analysis of open-minded attitudes towards sexuality in general requires a construct based on attitudinal dimensions. Although several existing studies involve sexual attitudes, they differ substantially and standardized conceptual work is missing. Thus, the authors introduce the latent variable sexual openness to develop a construct based on self-oriented attitudes towards different sexual topics. Available survey data of female German students in a steady relationship allowed providing a first empirical test for the applicability of this construct. Five subdimensions are acknowledged central for sexual openness: sexual practices, masturbation, bisexuality, permissiveness, and pornography consumption. Confirmatory factor analysis and correlations confirmed the idea of an underlying mechanism with an impact on all five variables. Though further validation of the construct of sexual openness is required, the findings strongly support the notion of an overarching latent attitude variable, which influences the individual relation to everything sexual. The results were compared to other studies and potential approaches for future analyses were proposed.

Experimental and modelling of Arthrospira platensis cultivation in open raceway ponds.

Science.gov (United States)

Ranganathan, Panneerselvam; Amal, J C; Savithri, S; Haridas, Ajith

2017-10-01

In this study, the growth of Arthrospira platensis was studied in an open raceway pond. Furthermore, dynamic model for algae growth and CFD modelling of hydrodynamics in open raceway pond were developed. The dynamic behaviour of the algal system was developed by solving mass balance equations of various components, considering light intensity and gas-liquid mass transfer. A CFD modelling of the hydrodynamics of open raceway pond was developed by solving mass and momentum balance equations of the liquid medium. The prediction of algae concentration from the dynamic model was compared with the experimental data. The hydrodynamic behaviour of the open raceway pond was compared with the literature data for model validation. The model predictions match the experimental findings. Furthermore, the hydrodynamic behaviour and residence time distribution in our small raceway pond were predicted. These models can serve as a tool to assess the pond performance criteria. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The construct of sexual openness for females in steady intimate relationships

Science.gov (United States)

Rausch, Diana; Dekker, Arne; Rettenberger, Martin

2017-01-01

The analysis of open-minded attitudes towards sexuality in general requires a construct based on attitudinal dimensions. Although several existing studies involve sexual attitudes, they differ substantially and standardized conceptual work is missing. Thus, the authors introduce the latent variable sexual openness to develop a construct based on self-oriented attitudes towards different sexual topics. Available survey data of female German students in a steady relationship allowed providing a first empirical test for the applicability of this construct. Five subdimensions are acknowledged central for sexual openness: sexual practices, masturbation, bisexuality, permissiveness, and pornography consumption. Confirmatory factor analysis and correlations confirmed the idea of an underlying mechanism with an impact on all five variables. Though further validation of the construct of sexual openness is required, the findings strongly support the notion of an overarching latent attitude variable, which influences the individual relation to everything sexual. The results were compared to other studies and potential approaches for future analyses were proposed. PMID:28636608

The construct of sexual openness for females in steady intimate relationships.

Science.gov (United States)

Rausch, Diana; Dekker, Arne; Rettenberger, Martin

2017-01-01

The analysis of open-minded attitudes towards sexuality in general requires a construct based on attitudinal dimensions. Although several existing studies involve sexual attitudes, they differ substantially and standardized conceptual work is missing. Thus, the authors introduce the latent variable sexual openness to develop a construct based on self-oriented attitudes towards different sexual topics. Available survey data of female German students in a steady relationship allowed providing a first empirical test for the applicability of this construct. Five subdimensions are acknowledged central for sexual openness: sexual practices, masturbation, bisexuality, permissiveness, and pornography consumption. Confirmatory factor analysis and correlations confirmed the idea of an underlying mechanism with an impact on all five variables. Though further validation of the construct of sexual openness is required, the findings strongly support the notion of an overarching latent attitude variable, which influences the individual relation to everything sexual. The results were compared to other studies and potential approaches for future analyses were proposed.

Some remarks on theological thought of María Zambrano

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juana Sánchez-Gey Venegas

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Maria Zambrano reflects upon some of the problems she has been always interested in: Christianity and Mysticism with especial emphasis on the divine processions, the Incarnation of Christ, the Virgin Mary, the liturgy among other personal experiences. In these letters the pursuit for the Holy Spirit as the foundation of knowledge is remarkably noticeable, so that it could be argued that this experience contributes and gives rise to the rejection both of rationalism and of materialism of the philosophy.

Some Remarks on Stochastic Versions of the Ramsey Growth Model

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Sladký, Karel

2012-01-01

Roč. 19, č. 29 (2012), s. 139-152 ISSN 1212-074X R&D Projects: GA ČR GAP402/10/1610; GA ČR GAP402/10/0956; GA ČR GAP402/11/0150 Institutional support: RVO:67985556 Keywords : Economic dynamics * Ramsey growth model with disturbance * stochastic dynamic programming * multistage stochastic programs Subject RIV: BB - Applied Statistics, Operational Research http://library.utia.cas.cz/separaty/2013/E/sladky-some remarks on stochastic versions of the ramsey growth model.pdf

Presentation of the paper “Open access repositories as channel of publication scientific grey literature”

OpenAIRE

Ferreras Fernández, Tránsito; García-Peñalvo, Francisco José; Merlo Vega, José Antonio

2015-01-01

This is the presentation of the paper entitled “Open access repositories as channel of publication scientific grey literature” in the TEEM 2015 International Conference held in Porto (Portugal) in October 7-9, 2015. In this paper we describe how the open access repositories are valid channels for the publication of scientific grey literature. Technological development facilitates the communication of scientific knowledge, allowing expand distribution channels and significantly reducing tra...

VALIDATION AND THERAPEUTIC USE OF SUCCULENT PLANT PARTS - OPENING OF A NEW HORIZON OF ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shibabrata Pattanayak

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The history of use of plants for medicinal purposes is very old. In the ancient civilizations, the crude plant parts were mostly used in such purposes. In the ongoing research, solvent extracted parts of the plants are validated for their reported efficacy with an intention to identify the active principles for production of those at a large scale to use them commercially as medicines. This contemporary method may be added with validation of reported medicinal plants at their fresh, succulent form with all the available principles within them. The validated medicinal plants may be used in many purposes after performing studies related with toxicity, dose etc. Organic animal farms may be created by using fresh inputs of the added medicinal plant garden, replacing the inorganic medicines. Commercialization of succulent medicinal plant part extracts may be performed by export oriented agro-medicine business with the assistance of different cooling systems.

Simulation of helium release in the Battelle Model Containment facility using OpenFOAM

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wilkening, Heinz; Ammirabile, Luca, E-mail: luca.ammirabile@ec.europa.eu

2013-12-15

Highlights: • The HYJET Jx7 hydrogen release experiment at BMC facility is studied using OpenFOAM. • The SST model and 2nd order numerics for momentum and species concentration are used. • The behaviour is captured well but helium concentration is generally over-predicted. • OpenFOAM needs smaller time steps, higher resolution, more CPU time compared to CFX. • The study shows the potential of open source CFD codes in some nuclear application. - Abstract: The open source CFD code OpenFOAM has been validated against an experiment of jet release phenomena in the Battelle Model Containment facility (BMC), and benchmarked with the Ansys CFX5.7 results. In the selected test, HYJET Jx7, helium was released into the containment at a speed of 42 m/s over a time of 200 s. The SST turbulence model was applied to model helium release and dispersion with both codes. The overall behaviour is captured adequately. However, there are still some noticeable differences between the CFX and OpenFOAM solutions. The study confirms the potential of using open source codes like OpenFOAM in some nuclear applications. Nevertheless further investigations and improvements are needed.

Simulation of helium release in the Battelle Model Containment facility using OpenFOAM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wilkening, Heinz; Ammirabile, Luca

2013-01-01

Highlights: • The HYJET Jx7 hydrogen release experiment at BMC facility is studied using OpenFOAM. • The SST model and 2nd order numerics for momentum and species concentration are used. • The behaviour is captured well but helium concentration is generally over-predicted. • OpenFOAM needs smaller time steps, higher resolution, more CPU time compared to CFX. • The study shows the potential of open source CFD codes in some nuclear application. - Abstract: The open source CFD code OpenFOAM has been validated against an experiment of jet release phenomena in the Battelle Model Containment facility (BMC), and benchmarked with the Ansys CFX5.7 results. In the selected test, HYJET Jx7, helium was released into the containment at a speed of 42 m/s over a time of 200 s. The SST turbulence model was applied to model helium release and dispersion with both codes. The overall behaviour is captured adequately. However, there are still some noticeable differences between the CFX and OpenFOAM solutions. The study confirms the potential of using open source codes like OpenFOAM in some nuclear applications. Nevertheless further investigations and improvements are needed

Pentaho Business Analytics: a Business Intelligence Open Source Alternative

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Diana TÂRNĂVEANU

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Most organizations strive to obtain fast, interactive and insightful analytics in order to fundament the most effective and profitable decisions. They need to incorporate huge amounts of data in order to run analysis based on queries and reports with collaborative capabilities. The large variety of Business Intelligence solutions on the market makes it very difficult for organizations to select one and evaluate the impact of the selected solution to the organization. The need of a strategy to help organization chose the best solution for investment emerges. In the past, Business Intelligence (BI market was dominated by closed source and commercial tools, but in the last years open source solutions developed everywhere. An Open Source Business Intelligence solution can be an option due to time-sensitive, sprawling requirements and tightening budgets. This paper presents a practical solution implemented in a suite of Open Source Business Intelligence products called Pentaho Business Analytics, which provides data integration, OLAP services, reporting, dashboarding, data mining and ETL capabilities. The study conducted in this paper suggests that the open source phenomenon could become a valid alternative to commercial platforms within the BI context.

Academy of Program/Project & Engineering Leadership: Shared Voyage: Learning and Unlearning from Remarkable Projects

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Shared Voyage is about four remarkable projects:the Advanced Composition Explorer (NASA), the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (U.S. Air Force), the Pathfinder...

Open innovation with an effective open innovation team.

OpenAIRE

Vanvoorden, Jonas

2014-01-01

This master's thesis explores how open innovation teams can successfully support open innovation inside of an organisation. Open innovation is a paradigm introduced by Henry Chesbrough (2003) a decade ago. It expands the innovation potential of organisations by opening them up to new ways of working with external partners. To implement open innovation, many companies rely on a small group of managers named open innovation teams. Although open innovation teams can potentially be vital for impl...

From Open Source Software to Open Source Hardware

OpenAIRE

Viseur , Robert

2012-01-01

Part 2: Lightning Talks; International audience; The open source software principles progressively give rise to new initiatives for culture (free culture), data (open data) or hardware (open hardware). The open hardware is experiencing a significant growth but the business models and legal aspects are not well known. This paper is dedicated to the economics of open hardware. We define the open hardware concept and determine intellectual property tools we can apply to open hardware, with a str...

A discussion of the first law of thermodynamics for open systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tolhoek, H.A.; Groot, S.R. de

1952-01-01

In this paper it is discussed to what extent the first law of thermodynamics is a physical law, and to what extent it is a definition, if it is generalized so as to be valid for open systems. The conclusion is reached that it is partly a definition. Different generalizations of the first law, which

Remarks on theoretical hot-atom chemistry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Inokuti, Mitio

1993-01-01

The publication of the 'Handbook of Hot Atom Chemistry', following the earlier volume 'Recent Trend and Application', was a major milestone in physical chemistry. Theoretical treatments of hot atom chemistry must address two classes of problems. The first class concerns the individual collisions of hot atoms with other atoms or molecules. The second class concerns the description of the consequences of the many collisions of hot atoms and their chemical environment. Most of the remarks pertain to the problems of the first class. The central issue is the adiabaticity of nuclear motions versus electronic motions. To be precise, any atomic core motion should be mentioned rather than pure nuclear motion, because tightly bound core electrons are largely irrelevant to the chemistry. When nuclear motions are sufficiently slow, or for other reasons that can be regarded as adiabatic, the collision problem is basically straightforward, therefore, interatomic and intermolecular forces can be assumed, and their consequences for nuclear motions are calculable in principle. In the case of non-adiabaticity being important, much more difficult problems arise, and it is briefly discussed, and the work by Phelps is cited. (K.I.)

Integrating open-source software applications to build molecular dynamics systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Allen, Bruce M; Predecki, Paul K; Kumosa, Maciej

2014-04-05

Three open-source applications, NanoEngineer-1, packmol, and mis2lmp are integrated using an open-source file format to quickly create molecular dynamics (MD) cells for simulation. The three software applications collectively make up the open-source software (OSS) suite known as MD Studio (MDS). The software is validated through software engineering practices and is verified through simulation of the diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-a and isophorone diamine (DGEBA/IPD) system. Multiple simulations are run using the MDS software to create MD cells, and the data generated are used to calculate density, bulk modulus, and glass transition temperature of the DGEBA/IPD system. Simulation results compare well with published experimental and numerical results. The MDS software prototype confirms that OSS applications can be analyzed against real-world research requirements and integrated to create a new capability. Copyright © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Using face validity to recognize empirical community observations.

Science.gov (United States)

Gaber, John; Gaber, Sharon L

2010-05-01

There is a growing interest among international planning scholars to explore community participation in the plan making process from a qualitative research approach. In this paper the research assessment tool "face validity" is discussed as one way to help planners decipher when the community is sharing empirically grounded observations that can advance the applicability of the plan making process. Face validity provides a common sense assessment of research conclusions. It allows the assessor to look at an entire research project and ask: "on the face of things, does this research make sense?" With planners listening to citizen comments with an ear for face validity observations, holds open the opportunity for government to empirically learn from the community to see if they "got it right." And if not, to chart out a course on how they can get it right. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Variations in depth-dose data between open and wedge fields for 4-MV x-rays

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sewchand, W.; Khan, F.M.; Williamson, J.

1978-01-01

Central-axis depth-dose data for 4-MV x rays, including tissue-maximum ratios, were measured for wedge fields. Comparison with corresponding open-field data revealed differences in magnitude which increased with depth, field size, and wedge thickness. However, phantom scatter correction factors for the wedge fields differed less than 1% from corresponding open-field factors. The differences in central-axis percent depth doses between the two types of fields indicate beam hardening by the wedge filter. This study also implies that the derivation of tissue-maximum ratios from central-axis percent depth is as valid for wedge as for open fields

A validation of DRAGON based on lattice experiments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marleau, G.

1996-01-01

Here we address the validation of DRAGON using the Chalk River Laboratory experimental database which has already been used for the validation of other codes. Because of the large variety of information for different fuel and moderator types compiled on this database, the most basic modules of DRAGON are thoroughly tested. The general behaviour observed with DRAGON is very good. Its main weakness is seen in the self-shielding ,calculation where the correction applied to the inner fuel pin seems to be overevaluated with respect to the outer fuel pins. One question which is left open this paper concerns the need for inserting end-regions in the DRAGON cells when the heterogeneous B, leakage model is used. (author)

Cone Beam Computed Tomography Evaluation of the Periapical Status of Nonvital Tooth with Open Apex Obturated with Mineral Trioxide Aggregate: A Case Report

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vijay Shekhar

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Management of a tooth with open apex is a challenge to the dental practitioners. Evaluation of the periapical healing is required in such cases by radiographic techniques. The objective of this paper was to assess the healing of a periapical lesion in a non-vital tooth with open apex treated with mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA obturation using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT. The endodontic treatment of a fractured non-vital discolored maxillary left lateral incisor with an open apex was done with MTA obturation. The clinical and radiographic followup done regularly showed that the tooth was clinically asymptomatic and that the size of the periapical lesion observed by intraoral periapical (IOPA radiographs and CBCT was decreased remarkably after two years. CBCT and IOPA radiographs were found to be useful radiographic tools to assess the healing of a large periapical lesion in a non-vital tooth with open apex managed by MTA obturation.

Numerical predictions of bubbly two-phase flows with OpenFOAM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Michta, E.; Fu, K.; Anglart, H.; Angele, K.

2011-01-01

A new model for simulation of bubbly two-phase flows has been developed and implemented into an open-source Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code OpenFOAM. The model employs the two-fluid framework with closure relationships for the interfacial momentum transfer. The bubble size is calculated based on the solution of the interfacial area concentration equations. The predictions are validated against a wide range of experimental data containing measured void fraction, the phasic velocity and the interfacial area concentration. The new model demonstrates the ability to capture the wall peaking of void fraction for small bubbles. The predicted levels of void fraction and phasic velocities are in good agreement with measured data. (author)

The Green–Kubo formula for heat conduction in open systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kundu, Anupam; Dhar, Abhishek; Narayan, Onuttom

2009-01-01

We obtain an exact Green–Kubo type linear response result for the heat current in an open system. The result is derived for classical Hamiltonian systems coupled to heat baths. Both lattice models and fluid systems are studied and several commonly used implementations of heat baths, stochastic as well as deterministic, are considered. The results are valid in arbitrary dimensions and for any system sizes. Our results are useful for obtaining the linear response transport properties of mesoscopic systems. Also we point out that for systems with anomalous heat transport, as is the case in low-dimensional systems, the use of the standard Green–Kubo formula is problematic and the open system formula should be used. (letter)

The remarkable convergence of skull shape in crocodilians and toothed whales.

Science.gov (United States)

McCurry, Matthew R; Evans, Alistair R; Fitzgerald, Erich M G; Adams, Justin W; Clausen, Philip D; McHenry, Colin R

2017-03-15

The striking resemblance of long-snouted aquatic mammals and reptiles has long been considered an example of morphological convergence, yet the true cause of this similarity remains untested. We addressed this deficit through three-dimensional morphometric analysis of the full diversity of crocodilian and toothed whale (Odontoceti) skull shapes. Our focus on biomechanically important aspects of shape allowed us to overcome difficulties involved in comparing mammals and reptiles, which have fundamental differences in the number and position of skull bones. We examined whether diet, habitat and prey size correlated with skull shape using phylogenetically informed statistical procedures. Crocodilians and toothed whales have a similar range of skull shapes, varying from extremely short and broad to extremely elongate. This spectrum of shapes represented more of the total variation in our dataset than between phylogenetic groups. The most elongate species (river dolphins and gharials) are extremely convergent in skull shape, clustering outside of the range of the other taxa. Our results suggest the remarkable convergence between long-snouted river dolphins and gharials is driven by diet rather than physical factors intrinsic to riverine environments. Despite diverging approximately 288 million years ago, crocodilians and odontocetes have evolved a remarkably similar morphological solution to feeding on similar prey. © 2017 The Author(s).

From Open Source to Open Collaboration

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2015-01-01

Open source is the right to modify, not the right to contribute. Are external contributions absent from your project? Have you ever thought about what is it like to be a new contributor on your project? I challenge you to transform your project from Open Source to an Open Collaboration.

A Two-Temperature Open-Source CFD Model for Hypersonic Reacting Flows, Part Two: Multi-Dimensional Analysis †

OpenAIRE

Vincent Casseau; Daniel E. R. Espinoza; Thomas J. Scanlon; Richard E. Brown

2016-01-01

hy2Foam is a newly-coded open-source two-temperature computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver that has previously been validated for zero-dimensional test cases. It aims at (1) giving open-source access to a state-of-the-art hypersonic CFD solver to students and researchers; and (2) providing a foundation for a future hybrid CFD-DSMC (direct simulation Monte Carlo) code within the OpenFOAM framework. This paper focuses on the multi-dimensional verification of hy2Foam and firstly describes th...

Verification and Validation of Multisegmented Mooring Capabilities in FAST v8

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Morten Thøtt; Wendt, Fabian F.; Robertson, Amy N.

2016-01-01

The quasi-static and dynamic mooring modules of the open-source aero-hydro-servo-elastic wind turbine simulation software, FAST v8, have previously been verified and validated, but only for mooring arrangements consisting of single lines connecting each fairlead and anchor. This paper extends the...

Open Access Target Validation Is a More Efficient Way to Accelerate Drug Discovery

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Wen Hwa

2015-01-01

There is a scarcity of novel treatments to address many unmet medical needs. Industry and academia are finally coming to terms with the fact that the prevalent models and incentives for innovation in early stage drug discovery are failing to promote progress quickly enough. Here we will examine how an open model of precompetitive public–private research partnership is enabling efficient derisking and acceleration in the early stages of drug discovery, whilst also widening the range of communities participating in the process, such as patient and disease foundations. PMID:26042736

Verification and Validation of Multisegmented Mooring Capabilities in FAST v8: Preprint

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Andersen, Morten T.; Wendt, Fabian; Robertson, Amy; Jonkman, Jason; Hall, Matthew

2016-08-01

The quasi-static and dynamic mooring modules of the open-source aero-hydro-servo-elastic wind turbine simulation software, FAST v8, have previously been verified and validated, but only for mooring arrangements consisting of single lines connecting each fairlead and anchor. This paper extends the previous verification and validation efforts to focus on the multisegmented mooring capability of the FAST v8 modules: MAP++, MoorDyn, and the OrcaFlex interface. The OC3-Hywind spar buoy system tested by the DeepCwind consortium at the MARIN ocean basin, which includes a multisegmented bridle layout of the mooring system, was used for the verification and validation activities.

Closing remarks at the symposium in honour of Daniel Bellus. Pharmacenter, University of Basel, February 6, 2009.

Science.gov (United States)

Ganter, Camille

2010-01-01

In the Closing Remarks at the Symposium on 'Frontiers in Bioorganic Chemistry' (Friday, February 6, 2009, Pharmacenter, University of Basel) in honour of Daniel Bellus, his arrival in Zürich in fall 1967 and especially his postdoctoral work at the Laboratorium für Organische Chemie at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zürich throughout the year 1967/68 were mentioned. In his most remarkable paper (published in 1969 in Helv. Chim. Acta), the photochemistry of the alpha,beta-unsaturated cyclohexenones O-acetyl-testosterone and 10-methy-delta1,9-octalon-(2) is described in detail. Change of solvent leads to lowering or increasing of the n,pi*- and (pi,pi*)-triplet energies, resulting in a crossing of the two energy levels. Personal remarks on Daniel Bellus and warmest thanks to him, to Profs. Beat Ernst and Bernd Giese (the organizers of the symposium) and to all the speakers concluded this most special event.

Crack opening displacement of circumferential through-wall cracked cylinders subjected to tension and in-plane bending loads

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoo, Yeon-Sik

2003-01-01

This study is concerned with crack opening displacements (CODs) of cylinders with a circumferential through-crack which is subjected to tension and in-plane bending loads. Most studies about crack opening behavior have performed on membrane and global bending stresses. Moreover, they cannot be valid for large-scale structures. For simplicity on evaluation for structural integrity, crack opening displacement has been often calculated by plate or pipe model considering almost stresses as a membrane component. However, it is important to investigate ones close to real crack opening behaviors under stress states for reliability on evaluation. The results must be directly related to evaluate leakage detection in reactor vessel and the primary piping system of FBR structures. From that purpose, a series of FEM analyses were performed, and hence the characteristics of COD under an in-plane bending stress were compared with those under a membrane stress. In addition, the plate model was indicated to be unreasonable for application on large-scale pipes by comparing the plate model with the pipe model. The results of this study are expected to be valid for leakage evaluation of high temperature structures especially. (author)

Combustion modeling including heat loss using flamelet generated manifolds: a validation study in OpenFOAM

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ottino, G.M.; Fancello, A.; Falcone, M.; Bastiaans, R.J.M.; Goey, de L.P.H.

In numerical combustion applications the Flamelet Generated Manifolds technique (FGM) is being used at an increasingly number of occasions. This technique is an approach to reduce the chemistry efficiently and accurately. In the present work FGM is coupled to an OpenFOAM-based CFD solver. The

Computer code ENDSAM for random sampling and validation of the resonance parameters covariance matrices of some major nuclear data libraries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Plevnik, Lucijan; Žerovnik, Gašper

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Methods for random sampling of correlated parameters. • Link to open-source code for sampling of resonance parameters in ENDF-6 format. • Validation of the code on realistic and artificial data. • Validation of covariances in three major contemporary nuclear data libraries. - Abstract: Methods for random sampling of correlated parameters are presented. The methods are implemented for sampling of resonance parameters in ENDF-6 format and a link to the open-source code ENDSAM is given. The code has been validated on realistic data. Additionally, consistency of covariances of resonance parameters of three major contemporary nuclear data libraries (JEFF-3.2, ENDF/B-VII.1 and JENDL-4.0u2) has been checked.

PEMBELAJARAN KONTEKSTUAL OPEN ENDED PROBLEM SOLVING DENGAN KOMIK MATEMATIKA UNTUK MENINGKATKAN KETERAMPILAN PEMECAHAN MASALAH

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lenny Kurniati

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT The aim of this research to develop a mathematics learning instrument using contextual open ended problem solving with mathematic comic to increase the problem solving skill which valid, practical and effective. The type of research used in this study is development research using modification of Plomp model. Learning instrumen that have been develop are: syllabus, Lesson plan, worksheet, mathematics comic, and problem solving ability test. The results showed: (1 device developed valid; (2 practical learning is characterized by the positive response of students and good teachers ability, (3 Effectiveness characterized by (a problem solving ability score of the experimental class higher than minimum completeness criterion, (b learn interest and problem solving skill, both affected the problem solving ability positively,  (c problem solving ability of the experimental class score is higher than the control class, (d problem solving skill of the experimental class is increasing by 31%, the problem solving ability of the experimental class higher than the control class.. Because of the learning instrument develope are valid, practice and effective, it is shows that the research has ben reach out. Keywords: contextual teaching and learning, open ended problem solving, mathematics comic, problem solving.

Open Source, Openness, and Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Wiley, David

2006-01-01

In this article David Wiley provides an overview of how the general expansion of open source software has affected the world of education in particular. In doing so, Wiley not only addresses the development of open source software applications for teachers and administrators, he also discusses how the fundamental philosophy of the open source…

Open Government and (Linked (Open (Government (Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christian Philipp Geiger

2012-12-01

Full Text Available This article explores the opening and the free usage of stored public sector data, supplied by state. In the age of Open Government and Open Data it’s not enough just to put data online. It should be rather weighed out whether, how and which supplied public sector data can be published. Open Data are defined as stored data which could be made accessible in a public interest without any restrictions for usage and distribution. These Open Data can possibly be statistics, geo data, maps, plans, environmental data and weather data in addition to materials of the parliaments, ministries and authorities. The preparation and the free access to existing data permit varied approaches to the reuse of data, discussed in the article. In addition, impulses can be given for Open Government – the opening of state and administration, to more transparency, participation and collaboration as well as to innovation and business development. The Open Data movement tries to get to the bottom of current publication processes in the public sector which could be formed even more friendly to citizens and enterprises.

An intercomparison of a large ensemble of statistical downscaling methods for Europe: Overall results from the VALUE perfect predictor cross-validation experiment

Science.gov (United States)

Gutiérrez, Jose Manuel; Maraun, Douglas; Widmann, Martin; Huth, Radan; Hertig, Elke; Benestad, Rasmus; Roessler, Ole; Wibig, Joanna; Wilcke, Renate; Kotlarski, Sven

2016-04-01

VALUE is an open European network to validate and compare downscaling methods for climate change research (http://www.value-cost.eu). A key deliverable of VALUE is the development of a systematic validation framework to enable the assessment and comparison of both dynamical and statistical downscaling methods. This framework is based on a user-focused validation tree, guiding the selection of relevant validation indices and performance measures for different aspects of the validation (marginal, temporal, spatial, multi-variable). Moreover, several experiments have been designed to isolate specific points in the downscaling procedure where problems may occur (assessment of intrinsic performance, effect of errors inherited from the global models, effect of non-stationarity, etc.). The list of downscaling experiments includes 1) cross-validation with perfect predictors, 2) GCM predictors -aligned with EURO-CORDEX experiment- and 3) pseudo reality predictors (see Maraun et al. 2015, Earth's Future, 3, doi:10.1002/2014EF000259, for more details). The results of these experiments are gathered, validated and publicly distributed through the VALUE validation portal, allowing for a comprehensive community-open downscaling intercomparison study. In this contribution we describe the overall results from Experiment 1), consisting of a European wide 5-fold cross-validation (with consecutive 6-year periods from 1979 to 2008) using predictors from ERA-Interim to downscale precipitation and temperatures (minimum and maximum) over a set of 86 ECA&D stations representative of the main geographical and climatic regions in Europe. As a result of the open call for contribution to this experiment (closed in Dec. 2015), over 40 methods representative of the main approaches (MOS and Perfect Prognosis, PP) and techniques (linear scaling, quantile mapping, analogs, weather typing, linear and generalized regression, weather generators, etc.) were submitted, including information both data

SU-F-T-667: Development and Validation of Dose Calculation for An Open-Source KV Treatment Planning System for Small Animal Radiotherapy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Prajapati, S [M D Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX (United States); Mo, X; Bednarz, B; Lawless, M; Hammer, C; Jeraj, R; Mackie, T [University of Wisconsin- Madison, Madison, WI (United States); Flynn, R [University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, IA (United States); Westerly, D [University of Colorado Denver, Aurora, CO (United States)

2016-06-15

Purpose: An open-source, convolution/superposition based kV-treatment planning system(TPS) was developed for small animal radiotherapy from previously existed in-house MV-TPS. It is flexible and applicable to both step and shoot and helical tomotherapy treatment delivery. For initial commissioning process, the dose calculation from kV-TPS was compared with measurements and Monte Carlo(MC) simulations. Methods: High resolution, low energy kernels were simulated using EGSnrc user code EDKnrc, which was used as an input in kV-TPS together with MC-simulated x-ray beam spectrum. The Blue Water™ homogeneous phantom (with film inserts) and heterogeneous phantom (with film and TLD inserts) were fabricated. Phantom was placed at 100cm SSD, and was irradiated with 250 kVp beam for 10mins with 1.1cm × 1.1cm open field (at 100cm) created by newly designed binary micro-MLC assembly positioned at 90cm SSD. Gafchromic™ EBT3 film was calibrated in-phantom following AAPM TG-61 guidelines, and were used for measurement at 5 different depths in phantom. Calibrated TLD-100s were obtained from ADCL. EGS and MNCP5 simulation were used to model experimental irradiation set up calculation of dose in phantom. Results: Using the homogeneous phantom, dose difference between film and kV-TPS was calculated: mean(x)=0.9%; maximum difference(MD)=3.1%; standard deviation(σ)=1.1%. Dose difference between MCNP5 and kV-TPS was: x=1.5%; MD=4.6%; σ=1.9%. Dose difference between EGS and kV-TPS was: x=0.8%; MD=1.9%; σ=0.8%. Using the heterogeneous phantom, dose difference between film and kV-TPS was: x=2.6%; MD=3%; σ=1.1%; and dose difference between TLD and kV-TPS was: x=2.9%; MD=6.4%; σ=2.5%. Conclusion: The inhouse, open-source kV-TPS dose calculation system was comparable within 5% of measurements and MC simulations in both homogeneous and heterogeneous phantoms. The dose calculation system of the kV-TPS is validated as a part of initial commissioning process for small animal radiotherapy

CITYBEM: AN OPEN SOURCE IMPLEMENTATION AND VALIDATION OF MONTHLY HEATING AND COOLING ENERGY NEEDS FOR 3D BUILDINGS IN CITIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. M. Murshed

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Cities play an important role in reaching local and global targets on energy efficiency and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. In order to determine the potential of energy efficiency in the building sector new planning instruments are required that allow depicting the complete building stock on the one hand and investigate detailed measures on the other hand. To pursue this objective, the ISO 13970:2008 monthly heating and cooling energy model is implemented using an open source based software architecture (CityBEM, in connection with data from 3D city models in the CityGML standard (LOD2. Input parameters such as the building geometry, typology and energy characteristics have been associated with the 3D data. The model has been applied to several urban districts with different numbers of buildings in the city of Karlsruhe. In order to test the accuracy of the implemented model and its robustness, a 3-step validation has been conducted. The comparison of simulation results with results based on a TRNSYS simulation showed acceptable results for the studied application cases. The proposed approach can help urban decision makers to perform a city or district wide analysis of the building energy need which can be further used to prepare future scenarios or renovation plans to support decision making.

Characterization of remarkable floods in France, a transdisciplinary approach applied on generalized floods of January 1910

Science.gov (United States)

Boudou, Martin; Lang, Michel; Vinet, Freddy; Coeur, Denis

2014-05-01

The 2007 Flood Directive promotes the integration and valorization of historical and significant floods in flood risk management (Flood Directive Text, chapter II, and article 4). Taking into account extreme past floods analysis seems necessary in the mitigation process of vulnerability face to flooding risk. In France, this aspect of the Directive was carried out through the elaboration of Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment (PFRA) and the establishment of a 2000 floods list. From this first list, a sample of 176 floods, considered as remarkable has been selected. These floods were compiled in discussion with local authorities in charge of flood management (Lang et al., 2012) and have to be integrated in priority in local risk management policies. However, a consideration emerges about this classification: how a remarkable flood can be defined? According which criteria can it be considered as remarkable? To answer these questions, a methodology has been established by building an evaluation grid of remarkable floods in France. The primary objective of this grid is to analyze the remarkable flood's characteristics (hydrological and meteorological characteristics, sociological- political and economic impacts), and secondly to propose a classification of significant floods selected in the 2011 PFRA. To elaborate this evaluation grid, several issues had to be taken into account. First, the objective is to allow the comparison of events from various periods. These temporal disparities include the integration of various kinds of data and point out the importance of historical hydrology. It is possible to evaluate accurately the characteristics of recent floods by interpreting quantitative data (for example hydrological records. However, for floods that occurred before the 1960's it is necessary resorting to qualitative information such as written sources is necessary (Coeur, Lang, 2008). In a second part the evaluation grid requires equitable criteria in order not to

SFO-Project: The New Generation of Sharable, Editable and Open-Access CFD Tutorials

Science.gov (United States)

Javaherchi, Teymour; Javaherchi, Ardeshir; Aliseda, Alberto

2016-11-01

One of the most common approaches to develop a Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulation for a new case study of interest is to search for the most similar, previously developed and validated CFD simulation among other works. A simple search would result into a pool of written/visual tutorials. However, users should spend significant amount of time and effort to find the most correct, compatible and valid tutorial in this pool and further modify it toward their simulation of interest. SFO is an open-source project with the core idea of saving the above-mentioned time and effort. This is done via documenting/sharing scientific and methodological approaches to develop CFD simulations for a wide spectrum of fundamental and industrial case studies in three different CFD solvers; STAR-CCM +, FLUENT and Open FOAM (SFO). All of the steps and required files of these tutorials are accessible and editable under the common roof of Github (a web-based Git repository hosting service). In this presentation we will present the current library of 20 + developed CFD tutorials, discuss the idea and benefit of using them, their educational values and explain how the next generation of open-access and live resource of CFD tutorials can be built further hand-in-hand within our community.

Maladaptively high and low openness: the case for experiential permeability.

Science.gov (United States)

Piedmont, Ralph L; Sherman, Martin F; Sherman, Nancy C

2012-12-01

The domain of Openness within the Five-Factor Model (FFM) has received inconsistent support as a source for maladaptive personality functioning, at least when the latter is confined to the disorders of personality included within the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR; APA, ). However, an advantage of the FFM relative to the DSM-IV-TR is that the former was developed to provide a reasonably comprehensive description of general personality structure. Rather than suggest that the FFM is inadequate because the DSM-IV-TR lacks much representation of Openness, it might be just as reasonable to suggest that the DSM-IV-TR is inadequate because it lacks an adequate representation of maladaptive variants of both high and low Openness. This article discusses the development and validation of a measure of these maladaptive variants, the Experiential Permeability Inventory. © 2012 The Authors. Journal of Personality © 2012, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Overview of CSNI separate effects tests validation matrix

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Aksan, N. [Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen (Switzerland); Auria, F.D. [Univ. of Pisa (Italy); Glaeser, H. [Gesellschaft fuer anlagen und Reaktorsicherheit, (GRS), Garching (Germany)] [and others

1995-09-01

An internationally agreed separate effects test (SET) Validation Matrix for thermal-hydraulic system codes has been established by a sub-group of the Task Group on Thermal Hydraulic System Behaviour as requested by the OECD/NEA Committee on Safety of Nuclear Installations (SCNI) Principal Working Group No. 2 on Coolant System Behaviour. The construction of such a Matrix is an attempt to collect together in a systematic way the best sets of openly available test data for code validation, assessment and improvement and also for quantitative code assessment with respect to quantification of uncertainties to the modeling of individual phenomena by the codes. The methodology, that has been developed during the process of establishing CSNI-SET validation matrix, was an important outcome of the work on SET matrix. In addition, all the choices which have been made from the 187 identified facilities covering the 67 phenomena will be investigated together with some discussions on the data base.

Remarks on Prof. Michał Kokowski’s comment about the studies into the life of Prof. Jan Czochralski (in Polish

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paweł E. TOMASZEWSKI

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Remarks on the critical comments regarding the contents of the paper published after the presentation delivered by the biographer of Prof. Jan Czochralski. Unfortunately, Prof. Kokowski used an incorrect historical approach to such a short paper. The remarks are presented in four main points.

Intelligent Testing of Traffic Light Programs: Validation in Smart Mobility Scenarios

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Javier Ferrer

2016-01-01

Full Text Available In smart cities, the use of intelligent automatic techniques to find efficient cycle programs of traffic lights is becoming an innovative front for traffic flow management. However, this automatic programming of traffic lights requires a validation process of the generated solutions, since they can affect the mobility (and security of millions of citizens. In this paper, we propose a validation strategy based on genetic algorithms and feature models for the automatic generation of different traffic scenarios checking the robustness of traffic light cycle programs. We have concentrated on an extensive urban area in the city of Malaga (in Spain, in which we validate a set of candidate cycle programs generated by means of four optimization algorithms: Particle Swarm Optimization for Traffic Lights, Differential Evolution for Traffic Lights, random search, and Sumo Cycle Program Generator. We can test the cycles of traffic lights considering the different states of the city, weather, congestion, driver expertise, vehicle’s features, and so forth, but prioritizing the most relevant scenarios among a large and varied set of them. The improvement achieved in solution quality is remarkable, especially for CO2 emissions, in which we have obtained a reduction of 126.99% compared with the experts’ solutions.

Validating an infrared thermal switch as a novel access technology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Memarian Negar

2010-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Recently, a novel single-switch access technology based on infrared thermography was proposed. The technology exploits the temperature differences between the inside and surrounding areas of the mouth as a switch trigger, thereby allowing voluntary switch activation upon mouth opening. However, for this technology to be clinically viable, it must be validated against a gold standard switch, such as a chin switch, that taps into the same voluntary motion. Methods In this study, we report an experiment designed to gauge the concurrent validity of the infrared thermal switch. Ten able-bodied adults participated in a series of 3 test sessions where they simultaneously used both an infrared thermal and conventional chin switch to perform multiple trials of a number identification task with visual, auditory and audiovisual stimuli. Participants also provided qualitative feedback about switch use. User performance with the two switches was quantified using an efficiency measure based on mutual information. Results User performance (p = 0.16 and response time (p = 0.25 with the infrared thermal switch were comparable to those of the gold standard. Users reported preference for the infrared thermal switch given its non-contact nature and robustness to changes in user posture. Conclusions Thermal infrared access technology appears to be a valid single switch alternative for individuals with disabilities who retain voluntary mouth opening and closing.

Open data and beyond : Exploring existing open data projects to prepare a successful open data strategy; Deelrapport inleiding open data

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Van Loenen, B.

2012-01-01

Netwerkbedrijf Alliander was begin 2011 zich aan het oriënteren naar de mogelijkheid om haar gegevens als open data ter beschikking te stellen aan een ieder. Echter wat open data nu precies is, welke mogelijke knelpunten moeten worden opgelost om open data te implementeren, de impact die open data

The OpenPMU Platform for Open Source Phasor Measurements

OpenAIRE

Laverty, David M.; Best, Robert J.; Brogan, Paul; Al-Khatib, Iyad; Vanfretti, Luigi; Morrow, D John

2013-01-01

OpenPMU is an open platform for the development of phasor measurement unit (PMU) technology. A need has been identified for an open-source alternative to commercial PMU devices tailored to the needs of the university researcher and for enabling the development of new synchrophasor instruments from this foundation. OpenPMU achieves this through open-source hardware design specifications and software source code, allowing duplicates of the OpenPMU to be fabricated under open-source licenses. Th...

Guanidinium: A Route to Enhanced Carrier Lifetime and Open-Circuit Voltage in Hybrid Perovskite Solar Cells.

Science.gov (United States)

De Marco, Nicholas; Zhou, Huanping; Chen, Qi; Sun, Pengyu; Liu, Zonghao; Meng, Lei; Yao, En-Ping; Liu, Yongsheng; Schiffer, Andy; Yang, Yang

2016-02-10

Hybrid perovskites have shown astonishing power conversion efficiencies owed to their remarkable absorber characteristics including long carrier lifetimes, and a relatively substantial defect tolerance for solution-processed polycrystalline films. However, nonradiative charge carrier recombination at grain boundaries limits open circuit voltages and consequent performance improvements of perovskite solar cells. Here we address such recombination pathways and demonstrate a passivation effect through guanidinium-based additives to achieve extraordinarily enhanced carrier lifetimes and higher obtainable open circuit voltages. Time-resolved photoluminescence measurements yield carrier lifetimes in guanidinium-based films an order of magnitude greater than pure-methylammonium counterparts, giving rise to higher device open circuit voltages and power conversion efficiencies exceeding 17%. A reduction in defect activation energy of over 30% calculated via admittance spectroscopy and confocal fluorescence intensity mapping indicates successful passivation of recombination/trap centers at grain boundaries. We speculate that guanidinium ions serve to suppress formation of iodide vacancies and passivate under-coordinated iodine species at grain boundaries and within the bulk through their hydrogen bonding capability. These results present a simple method for suppressing nonradiative carrier loss in hybrid perovskites to further improve performances toward highly efficient solar cells.

Improved Separation of Tone and Broadband Noise Components from Open Rotor Acoustic Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dave Sree

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The term “open rotor” refers to unducted counter-rotating dual rotors or propellers used for propulsion. The noise generated by an open rotor is very complicated and requires special techniques for its analysis. The determination of its tone and broadband components is vital for properly assessing the noise control parameters and also for validating open rotor noise prediction codes. The data analysis technique developed by Sree for processing raw acoustic data of open rotors has been modified to yield much better results of tone and broadband separation particularly for the case when the two rotor speeds are approximately the same. The modified algorithm is found to eliminate most or all of the “spikes” previously observed in the broadband spectra computed from the original algorithm. A full description of the modified algorithm and examples of improved results from its application are presented in this paper.

PENGEMBANGAN BAHAN AJAR MATA KULIAH ALJABAR LINEAR BERBASIS OPEN ENDED

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nurul Farida

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Teaching materials is one important component in learning because teaching materials can be used for independent study. On the other hand, the lack of teaching materials are on open-ended problems leads to an underdevelopment of creativity in learning. With the open-ended problems, students are expected to have more than one solution to solve problems in everyday life, especially in mathematical problem solving. The purpose of this study is to develop teaching materials based on open-ended valildly, practically and effectively in the subject of linear algebra. This research is the development by using Plomp models which consists of three stages: preliminary research, prototyping, and assessment. Data collection technique through observation, questionnaires and tests. The instruments used were observation sheet, questionnaire sheet and a test sheet. Based on result of the research that has been done shows that the teaching materials is based on open-ended in the subject linear algebra that have been developed otherwise valid with a value of 3.43, practice with a value 3,11 or in the percentage reached 77,75%, and effective with value of learning outcomes experiment class (use teaching materials developed higher than control class.

Open Data, Open Source and Open Standards in chemistry: The Blue Obelisk five years on

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-01

Background The Blue Obelisk movement was established in 2005 as a response to the lack of Open Data, Open Standards and Open Source (ODOSOS) in chemistry. It aims to make it easier to carry out chemistry research by promoting interoperability between chemistry software, encouraging cooperation between Open Source developers, and developing community resources and Open Standards. Results This contribution looks back on the work carried out by the Blue Obelisk in the past 5 years and surveys progress and remaining challenges in the areas of Open Data, Open Standards, and Open Source in chemistry. Conclusions We show that the Blue Obelisk has been very successful in bringing together researchers and developers with common interests in ODOSOS, leading to development of many useful resources freely available to the chemistry community. PMID:21999342

The Social Interplay of Disciplinarity and Interdisciplinarity. Some Introductory Remarks

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Reinhold Hedtke

2006-12-01

Full Text Available Social Science Education as a subject field in schools is an intrinsic pluridisciplinary feature, whatever disciplines are included, however it may be organised and wherever it may be institutionalised. Civic education, economic education, social education and historical education each comprise several academic disciplines even if they are thought to be completely independent subjects. From the start on, disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity are on the agenda for any subject related to social science education and are one of its main problems. For these introductory remarks interdisciplinarity can be simply defined as relating two or more academic disciplines or school subjects to each other if this is done in a purposeful, systematic, explicit and reflective way. The overarching goal is to improve education that is to enhance students' understandings of the worlds and their abilities to act within and towards them. A relationship between disciplines or subjects which misses one or more of the four characteristics can be called pluridisciplinary or multidisciplinary (cf. Audigier 2006. In the following I first want to discuss some aspects of disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity at schools and at universities and the weakness of interdisciplinarity. I sketch some social science based ideas on the interrelationship between the subject structure of the academic world and the world of schools (3. and of some tendency to commonalities or even unification of social sciences and related competencies (4.. I conclude with some remarks on different kinds of knowledge (5.. Last but not least, I'll give an overview on the papers in this issue of the Journal of Social Science Education (6..

Resonant state expansion applied to three-dimensional open optical systems

OpenAIRE

Doost, M. B.; Langbein, W.; Muljarov, E. A.

2014-01-01

The resonant-state expansion (RSE), a rigorous perturbative method in electrodynamics, is developed for three-dimensional open optical systems. Results are presented using the analytically solvable homogeneous dielectric sphere as unperturbed system. Since any perturbation which breaks the spherical symmetry mixes transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) modes, the RSE is extended here to include TM modes and a zero-frequency pole of the Green's function. We demonstrate the valid...

Numerical Predictions of Bubbly Two-Phase Flows with OpenFOAM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Edouard Michta

2012-12-01

Full Text Available A new model for simulation of bubbly two-phase flows has been developed and implemented into an open-source Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD code OpenFOAM. The model employs the two-fluid framework with closure relationships for the interfacial momentum transfer. The bubble size is calculated based on the solution of the transport equation of the interfacial area concentration. The predictions are validated against selected data obtained in the DEDALE experiment and containing the measured void fraction, the phasic velocities and the interfacial area concentration. In general, good agreement between calculated and measured data is demonstrated; however, the relative phasic velocity is systematically over-predicted. The levels of void fraction and the observed wall void peaking are well captured in the calculations.

A REMARKABLE CLADONIACEAE FLORA AT SUBANDEAN REGION IN CHÁMEZA (CASANARE, COLOMBIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

LADY JOHANNA HERRERA VARGAS

2014-12-01

Full Text Available A remarkable Cladoniaceae flora was discovered in the subandean region of Chámeza, ( Casanare, Colombia at 1200 meters above sea level. Four species of the genus Cladonia (Cladoniaceae, Lichenized Fungi are new records for Colombia : Cladonia macilentoides, C. scabriuscula, C. sipmanii and C. subdelicatula. This shows the importance of increasing diversity studies at mid elevations where suitable habitats for species of Cladonia occur.

Electroweak interactions at the SSC: introductory remarks multi W and Z production

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gaillard, M.K.

1984-03-01

This report is a partial summary of the work of the electroweak interaction study group at the Workshop on p anti p Options for the Super Collider, University of Chicago, February 13-17, 1984. Included are general remarks concerning the topics studied and a discussion of multi intermediate vector boson production as a probe of the gauge and scalar sectors of the electroweak theory

Some remarks on Cîrtoaje’s conjecture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ladislav Matejíčka

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract In this paper, we give new conditions under which the Cîrtoaje’s conjecture is also valid. We also show that a certain generalization of the Cîrtoaje’s inequality fulfils an interesting property.

Concluding remarks: Faraday Discussion on chemistry in the urban atmosphere.

Science.gov (United States)

Jimenez, Jose L

2016-07-18

This article summarises the Concluding remarks from the Faraday Discussion on Chemistry in the Urban Atmosphere. The following themes are addressed: (a) new results that inform our understanding of the evolving sources and composition of the urban atmosphere ("News"); (b) results that identify gaps in our understanding that necessitate further work ("Gaps"); (c) the emerging instrumentation revolution and some of the challenges that it brings; (d) the structural issues of insufficient support for the analysis of field campaigns; and (e) some important areas that were missing from this Faraday Discussion and that should receive an increasing focus in the future.

Open source deformable image registration system for treatment planning and recurrence CT scans

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zukauskaite, Ruta; Brink, Carsten; Hansen, Christian Rønn

2016-01-01

manually contoured eight anatomical regions-of-interest (ROI) twice on pCT and once on rCT. METHODS: pCT and rCT images were deformably registered using the open source software elastix. Mean surface distance (MSD) and Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) between contours were used for validation of DIR...

Sharing Lessons-Learned on Effective Open Data, Open-Source Practices from OpenAQ, a Global Open Air Quality Community.

Science.gov (United States)

Hasenkopf, C. A.

2017-12-01

Increasingly, open data, open-source projects are unearthing rich datasets and tools, previously impossible for more traditional avenues to generate. These projects are possible, in part, because of the emergence of online collaborative and code-sharing tools, decreasing costs of cloud-based services to fetch, store, and serve data, and increasing interest of individuals to contribute their time and skills to 'open projects.' While such projects have generated palpable enthusiasm from many sectors, many of these projects face uncharted paths for sustainability, visibility, and acceptance. Our project, OpenAQ, is an example of an open-source, open data community that is currently forging its own uncharted path. OpenAQ is an open air quality data platform that aggregates and universally formats government and research-grade air quality data from 50 countries across the world. To date, we make available more than 76 million air quality (PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, O3, CO and black carbon) data points through an open Application Programming Interface (API) and a user-customizable download interface at https://openaq.org. The goal of the platform is to enable an ecosystem of users to advance air pollution efforts from science to policy to the private sector. The platform is also an open-source project (https://github.com/openaq) and has only been made possible through the coding and data contributions of individuals around the world. In our first two years of existence, we have seen requests for data to our API skyrocket to more than 6 million datapoints per month, and use-cases as varied as ingesting data aggregated from our system into real-time models of wildfires to building open-source statistical packages (e.g. ropenaq and py-openaq) on top of the platform to creating public-friendly apps and chatbots. We will share a whirl-wind trip through our evolution and the many lessons learned so far related to platform structure, community engagement, organizational model type

3D Printing of CT Dataset: Validation of an Open Source and Consumer-Available Workflow.

Science.gov (United States)

Bortolotto, Chandra; Eshja, Esmeralda; Peroni, Caterina; Orlandi, Matteo A; Bizzotto, Nicola; Poggi, Paolo

2016-02-01

The broad availability of cheap three-dimensional (3D) printing equipment has raised the need for a thorough analysis on its effects on clinical accuracy. Our aim is to determine whether the accuracy of 3D printing process is affected by the use of a low-budget workflow based on open source software and consumer's commercially available 3D printers. A group of test objects was scanned with a 64-slice computed tomography (CT) in order to build their 3D copies. CT datasets were elaborated using a software chain based on three free and open source software. Objects were printed out with a commercially available 3D printer. Both the 3D copies and the test objects were measured using a digital professional caliper. Overall, the objects' mean absolute difference between test objects and 3D copies is 0.23 mm and the mean relative difference amounts to 0.55 %. Our results demonstrate that the accuracy of 3D printing process remains high despite the use of a low-budget workflow.

In quest of a relativistic constituent quark model - some constructive remarks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hofsaess, T.; Schierholz, G.

1978-01-01

The set-up of a relativistic constituent quark model in four dimensions is one of the outstanding problems in particle physics. For the time being this involves a great deal of model building which, very probably, will not change in the near future. In this paper we shall offer some general remarks which might help putting such models into shape. Most of the earlier attempts are found controversial. In particular, a conventional quark constituent interpretation could not be recovered. (orig.) [de

Vulnerability in Acquisition, Language Impairments in Dutch: Creating a VALID Data Archive

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Klatter, J.; van Hout, R.; van den Heuvel, H.; Fikkert, P.; Baker, A.; de Jong, J.; Wijnen, F.; Sanders, E.; Trilsbeek, P.; Calzolari, N.; Choukri, K.; Declerck, T.; Maegaard, H.B.; Mariani, J.; Moreno, A.; Odijk, J.; Piperidis, S.

2014-01-01

The VALID Data Archive is an open multimedia data archive (under construction) with data from speakers suffering from language impairments. We report on a pilot project in the CLARIN-NL framework in which five data resources were curated. For all data sets concerned, written informed consent from

Beyond Ambiguity: A Practical Framework for Developing and Implementing Open Government Reforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Merlin Chatwin

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The broad idea of ‘Open Government’ is widely accepted as a facilitator for rebuilding trust and validation in governments around the world. The Open Government Partnership is a significant driver of this movement with over 75 member nations, 15 subnational government participants and many others local governments implementing reforms within their national frameworks. The central tenets of transparency, accountability, participation, and collaboration are well understood within scholarly works and practitioner publications. However, open government is yet to be attributed with a universally acknowledged definition. This leads to questions of adaptability and salience of the concept of open government across diverse contexts. This paper addresses these questions by utilizing a human systems framework called the Dialogue Boxes. To develop an understanding of how open government is currently positioned within scholarly works and practitioner publications, an extensive literature search was conducted. The search utilized major search engines, often-cited references, direct journal searches and colleague provided references. Using existing definitions and descriptions, this paper populates the framework with available information and allow for context specific content to be populated by future users. Ultimately, the aim of the paper is to support the development of open government action plans that maximize the direct positive impact on people’s lives.

Anxiolytic effects of lavender oil inhalation on open-field behaviour in rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Shaw, D; Annett, J M; Doherty, B; Leslie, J C

2007-09-01

To establish a valid animal model of the effects of olfactory stimuli on anxiety, a series of experiments was conducted using rats in an open-field test. Throughout, effects of lavender oil were compared with the effects of chlordiazepoxide (CDP), as a reference anxiolytic with well-known effects on open-field behaviour. Rats were exposed to lavender oil (0.1-1.0 ml) for 30 min (Experiment 1) or 1h (Experiment 2) prior to open-field test and in the open field or injected with CDP (10 mg/kg i.p.). CDP had predicted effects on behaviour, and the higher doses of lavender oil had some effects on behaviour similar to those of CDP. In Experiment 3, various combinations of pre-exposure times and amounts of lavender oil were used. With sufficient exposure time and quantity of lavender the same effects were obtained as in Experiment 2. Experiment 4 demonstrated that these behavioural effects of lavender could be obtained following pre-exposure, even if no oil was present in the open-field test. In Experiments 2-4, lavender oil increased immobility. Together, these experiments suggest that lavender oil does have anxiolytic effects in the open field, but that a sedative effect can also occur at the highest doses.

LACO-Wiki: A land cover validation tool and a new, innovative teaching resource for remote sensing and the geosciences

Science.gov (United States)

See, Linda; Perger, Christoph; Dresel, Christopher; Hofer, Martin; Weichselbaum, Juergen; Mondel, Thomas; Steffen, Fritz

2016-04-01

The validation of land cover products is an important step in the workflow of generating a land cover map from remotely-sensed imagery. Many students of remote sensing will be given exercises on classifying a land cover map followed by the validation process. Many algorithms exist for classification, embedded within proprietary image processing software or increasingly as open source tools. However, there is little standardization for land cover validation, nor a set of open tools available for implementing this process. The LACO-Wiki tool was developed as a way of filling this gap, bringing together standardized land cover validation methods and workflows into a single portal. This includes the storage and management of land cover maps and validation data; step-by-step instructions to guide users through the validation process; sound sampling designs; an easy-to-use environment for validation sample interpretation; and the generation of accuracy reports based on the validation process. The tool was developed for a range of users including producers of land cover maps, researchers, teachers and students. The use of such a tool could be embedded within the curriculum of remote sensing courses at a university level but is simple enough for use by students aged 13-18. A beta version of the tool is available for testing at: http://www.laco-wiki.net.

Closed-loop conductance scanning tunneling spectroscopy: demonstrating the equivalence to the open-loop alternative.

Science.gov (United States)

Hellenthal, Chris; Sotthewes, Kai; Siekman, Martin H; Kooij, E Stefan; Zandvliet, Harold J W

2015-01-01

We demonstrate the validity of using closed-loop z(V) conductance scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) measurements for the determination of the effective tunneling barrier by comparing them to more conventional open-loop I(z) measurements. Through the development of a numerical model, the individual contributions to the effective tunneling barrier present in these experiments, such as the work function and the presence of an image charge, are determined quantitatively. This opens up the possibility of determining tunneling barriers of both vacuum and molecular systems in an alternative and more detailed manner.

A Kenyan Cloud School. Massive Open Online & Ongoing Courses for Blended and Lifelong Learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

William Jobe

2013-11-01

Full Text Available This research describes the predicted outcomes of a Kenyan Cloud School (KCS, which is a MOOC that contains all courses taught at the secondary school level in Kenya. This MOOC will consist of online, ongoing subjects in both English and Kiswahili. The KCS subjects offer self-testing and peer assessment to maximize scalability, and digital badges to show progress and completion to recognize and validate non-formal learning. The KCS uses the Moodle LMS with responsive web design to increase ubiquitous access from any device. Access is free and open, and the KCS intends to be a contextualized open educational resource for formal secondary institutions to support blended learning and a free source of non-formal education for lifelong learning. The expected outcomes are that this effort will reduce secondary school dropout rates, improve test scores, become a quality resource for blended learning, as well as validate and recognize lifelong learning in Kenya.

An open source platform for multi-scale spatially distributed simulations of microbial ecosystems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Segre, Daniel [Boston Univ., MA (United States)

2014-08-14

The goal of this project was to develop a tool for facilitating simulation, validation and discovery of multiscale dynamical processes in microbial ecosystems. This led to the development of an open-source software platform for Computation Of Microbial Ecosystems in Time and Space (COMETS). COMETS performs spatially distributed time-dependent flux balance based simulations of microbial metabolism. Our plan involved building the software platform itself, calibrating and testing it through comparison with experimental data, and integrating simulations and experiments to address important open questions on the evolution and dynamics of cross-feeding interactions between microbial species.

A radial distribution function-based open boundary force model for multi-centered molecules

KAUST Repository

Neumann, Philipp

2014-06-01

We derive an expression for radial distribution function (RDF)-based open boundary forcing for molecules with multiple interaction sites. Due to the high-dimensionality of the molecule configuration space and missing rotational invariance, a computationally cheap, 1D approximation of the arising integral expressions as in the single-centered case is not possible anymore. We propose a simple, yet accurate model invoking standard molecule- and site-based RDFs to approximate the respective integral equation. The new open boundary force model is validated for ethane in different scenarios and shows very good agreement with data from periodic simulations. © World Scientific Publishing Company.

Towards OpenVL: Improving Real-Time Performance of Computer Vision Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Changsong; Little, James J.; Fels, Sidney

Meeting constraints for real-time performance is a main issue for computer vision, especially for embedded computer vision systems. This chapter presents our progress on our open vision library (OpenVL), a novel software architecture to address efficiency through facilitating hardware acceleration, reusability, and scalability for computer vision systems. A logical image understanding pipeline is introduced to allow parallel processing. We also discuss progress on our middleware—vision library utility toolkit (VLUT)—that enables applications to operate transparently over a heterogeneous collection of hardware implementations. OpenVL works as a state machine,with an event-driven mechanismto provide users with application-level interaction. Various explicit or implicit synchronization and communication methods are supported among distributed processes in the logical pipelines. The intent of OpenVL is to allow users to quickly and easily recover useful information from multiple scenes, in a cross-platform, cross-language manner across various software environments and hardware platforms. To validate the critical underlying concepts of OpenVL, a human tracking system and a local positioning system are implemented and described. The novel architecture separates the specification of algorithmic details from the underlying implementation, allowing for different components to be implemented on an embedded system without recompiling code.

What Type of Knowledge Provides Valid Housing Standards Addressing Accessibility?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Helle, Tina; Brandt, Åse; Iwarsson, Susanne

evaluations of task-surface heights in elderly people’s homes. Applied Ergonomics, 31, 109-119. Kohlbacher, F. (2006). The use of qualitative content analysis in case study research. Forum: Qualitative social research sozialforschung (FQS), Open Journal Systems, vol 7, No1. Kozey, J.W. & Das, B. (2004...... accessibility aspects such as either reach, seat height or space requirements • Targeted primarily industrial workstation design and only wheelchair/scooter users • Addressed positions (standing/seated) and sex difference with respect to reach • Was generated in lab-like environments, using methods...... of the validity of housing standards. Therefore, it is reasonable to question what type of knowledge that provides the most valid standards addressing accessibility and explore the consequences of using an alternative approach. The idea was thus to examine the validity of a set of housing standards using a so...

Validation of the simpleFoam (RANS solver for the atmospheric boundary layer in complex terrain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peralta C.

2014-01-01

Full Text Available We validate the simpleFoam (RANS solver in OpenFOAM (version 2.1.1 for simulating neutral atmospheric boundary layer flows in complex terrain. Initial and boundary conditions are given using Richards and Hoxey proposal [1]. In order to obtain stable simulation of the ABL, modified wall functions are used to set the near-wall boundary conditions, following Blocken et al remedial measures [2]. A structured grid is generated with the new library terrainBlockMesher [3,4], based on OpenFOAM's blockMesh native mesher. The new tool is capable of adding orographic features and the forest canopy. Additionally, the mesh can be refined in regions with complex orography. We study both the classical benchmark case of Askervein hill [5] and the more recent Bolund island data set [6]. Our purpose is two-folded: to validate the performance of OpenFOAM steady state solvers, and the suitability of the new meshing tool to generate high quality structured meshes, which will be used in the future for performing more computationally intensive LES simulations in complex terrain.

Validity Argument for Assessing L2 Pragmatics in Interaction Using Mixed Methods

Science.gov (United States)

Youn, Soo Jung

2015-01-01

This study investigates the validity of assessing L2 pragmatics in interaction using mixed methods, focusing on the evaluation inference. Open role-plays that are meaningful and relevant to the stakeholders in an English for Academic Purposes context were developed for classroom assessment. For meaningful score interpretations and accurate…

Close connections between open science and open-source software

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

YouHua Chen

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Open science is increasingly gaining attention in recent years. In this mini-review, we briefly discuss and summarize the reasons of introducing open science into academic publications for scientists. We argue that open-source software (like R and Python software can be the universal and important platforms for doing open science because of their appealing features: open source, easy-reading document, commonly used in various scientific disciplines like statistics, chemistry and biology. At last, the challenges and future perspectives of performing open science are discussed.

Global checklist of species of Grania (Clitellata: Enchytraeidae with remarks on their geographic distribution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alessandro Prantoni

2017-12-01

Full Text Available A checklist of all currently accepted species of Grania Southern, 1913 (Annelida, Clitellata, Enchytraeidae is presented. The genus is widespread over the world and comprises 81 species described to date. Remarks on their geographical distribution, habitat, synonymies and museum catalogue numbers are provided.

Validation of MRI to TRUS registration for high-dose-rate prostate brachytherapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Poulin, Eric; Boudam, Karim; Pinter, Csaba; Kadoury, Samuel; Lasso, Andras; Fichtinger, Gabor; Ménard, Cynthia

The objective of this study was to develop and validate an open-source module for MRI to transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) registration to support tumor-targeted prostate brachytherapy. In this study, 15 patients with prostate cancer lesions visible on multiparametric MRI were selected for the validation. T2-weighted images with 1-mm isotropic voxel size and diffusion weighted images were acquired on a 1.5T Siemens imager. Three-dimensional (3D) TRUS images with 0.5-mm slice thickness were acquired. The investigated registration module was incorporated in the open-source 3D Slicer platform, which can compute rigid and deformable transformations. An extension of 3D Slicer, SlicerRT, allows import of and export to DICOM-RT formats. For validation, similarity indices, prostate volumes, and centroid positions were determined in addition to registration errors for common 3D points identified by an experienced radiation oncologist. The average time to compute the registration was 35 ± 3 s. For the rigid and deformable registration, respectively, Dice similarity coefficients were 0.87 ± 0.05 and 0.93 ± 0.01 while the 95% Hausdorff distances were 4.2 ± 1.0 and 2.2 ± 0.3 mm. MRI volumes obtained after the rigid and deformable registration were not statistically different (p > 0.05) from reference TRUS volumes. For the rigid and deformable registration, respectively, 3D distance errors between reference and registered centroid positions were 2.1 ± 1.0 and 0.4 ± 0.1 mm while registration errors between common points were 3.5 ± 3.2 and 2.3 ± 1.1 mm. Deformable registration was found significantly better (p < 0.05) than rigid registration for all parameters. An open-source MRI to TRUS registration platform was validated for integration in the brachytherapy workflow. Copyright © 2017 American Brachytherapy Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Simulation of neutron multiplicity measurements using Geant4. Open source software for nuclear arms control

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kuett, Moritz

2016-07-07

Nuclear arms control, including nuclear safeguards and verification technologies for nuclear disarmament typically use software as part of many different technological applications. This thesis proposes to use three open source criteria for such software, allowing users and developers to have free access to a program, have access to the full source code and be able to publish modifications for the program. This proposition is presented and analyzed in detail, together with the description of the development of ''Open Neutron Multiplicity Simulation'', an open source software tool to simulate neutron multiplicity measurements. The description includes physical background of the method, details of the developed program and a comprehensive set of validation calculations.

Increasing rigor in NMR-based metabolomics through validated and open source tools.

Science.gov (United States)

Eghbalnia, Hamid R; Romero, Pedro R; Westler, William M; Baskaran, Kumaran; Ulrich, Eldon L; Markley, John L

2017-02-01

The metabolome, the collection of small molecules associated with an organism, is a growing subject of inquiry, with the data utilized for data-intensive systems biology, disease diagnostics, biomarker discovery, and the broader characterization of small molecules in mixtures. Owing to their close proximity to the functional endpoints that govern an organism's phenotype, metabolites are highly informative about functional states. The field of metabolomics identifies and quantifies endogenous and exogenous metabolites in biological samples. Information acquired from nuclear magnetic spectroscopy (NMR), mass spectrometry (MS), and the published literature, as processed by statistical approaches, are driving increasingly wider applications of metabolomics. This review focuses on the role of databases and software tools in advancing the rigor, robustness, reproducibility, and validation of metabolomics studies. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Open-Source Automated Mapping Four-Point Probe

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Handy Chandra

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Scientists have begun using self-replicating rapid prototyper (RepRap 3-D printers to manufacture open source digital designs of scientific equipment. This approach is refined here to develop a novel instrument capable of performing automated large-area four-point probe measurements. The designs for conversion of a RepRap 3-D printer to a 2-D open source four-point probe (OS4PP measurement device are detailed for the mechanical and electrical systems. Free and open source software and firmware are developed to operate the tool. The OS4PP was validated against a wide range of discrete resistors and indium tin oxide (ITO samples of different thicknesses both pre- and post-annealing. The OS4PP was then compared to two commercial proprietary systems. Results of resistors from 10 to 1 MΩ show errors of less than 1% for the OS4PP. The 3-D mapping of sheet resistance of ITO samples successfully demonstrated the automated capability to measure non-uniformities in large-area samples. The results indicate that all measured values are within the same order of magnitude when compared to two proprietary measurement systems. In conclusion, the OS4PP system, which costs less than 70% of manual proprietary systems, is comparable electrically while offering automated 100 micron positional accuracy for measuring sheet resistance over larger areas.

Open-Source Automated Mapping Four-Point Probe.

Science.gov (United States)

Chandra, Handy; Allen, Spencer W; Oberloier, Shane W; Bihari, Nupur; Gwamuri, Jephias; Pearce, Joshua M

2017-01-26

Scientists have begun using self-replicating rapid prototyper (RepRap) 3-D printers to manufacture open source digital designs of scientific equipment. This approach is refined here to develop a novel instrument capable of performing automated large-area four-point probe measurements. The designs for conversion of a RepRap 3-D printer to a 2-D open source four-point probe (OS4PP) measurement device are detailed for the mechanical and electrical systems. Free and open source software and firmware are developed to operate the tool. The OS4PP was validated against a wide range of discrete resistors and indium tin oxide (ITO) samples of different thicknesses both pre- and post-annealing. The OS4PP was then compared to two commercial proprietary systems. Results of resistors from 10 to 1 MΩ show errors of less than 1% for the OS4PP. The 3-D mapping of sheet resistance of ITO samples successfully demonstrated the automated capability to measure non-uniformities in large-area samples. The results indicate that all measured values are within the same order of magnitude when compared to two proprietary measurement systems. In conclusion, the OS4PP system, which costs less than 70% of manual proprietary systems, is comparable electrically while offering automated 100 micron positional accuracy for measuring sheet resistance over larger areas.

Multispectral open-air intraoperative fluorescence imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Behrooz, Ali; Waterman, Peter; Vasquez, Kristine O; Meganck, Jeff; Peterson, Jeffrey D; Faqir, Ilias; Kempner, Joshua

2017-08-01

Intraoperative fluorescence imaging informs decisions regarding surgical margins by detecting and localizing signals from fluorescent reporters, labeling targets such as malignant tissues. This guidance reduces the likelihood of undetected malignant tissue remaining after resection, eliminating the need for additional treatment or surgery. The primary challenges in performing open-air intraoperative fluorescence imaging come from the weak intensity of the fluorescence signal in the presence of strong surgical and ambient illumination, and the auto-fluorescence of non-target components, such as tissue, especially in the visible spectral window (400-650 nm). In this work, a multispectral open-air fluorescence imaging system is presented for translational image-guided intraoperative applications, which overcomes these challenges. The system is capable of imaging weak fluorescence signals with nanomolar sensitivity in the presence of surgical illumination. This is done using synchronized fluorescence excitation and image acquisition with real-time background subtraction. Additionally, the system uses a liquid crystal tunable filter for acquisition of multispectral images that are used to spectrally unmix target fluorescence from non-target auto-fluorescence. Results are validated by preclinical studies on murine models and translational canine oncology models.

ORBDA: An openEHR benchmark dataset for performance assessment of electronic health record servers.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Douglas Teodoro

Full Text Available The openEHR specifications are designed to support implementation of flexible and interoperable Electronic Health Record (EHR systems. Despite the increasing number of solutions based on the openEHR specifications, it is difficult to find publicly available healthcare datasets in the openEHR format that can be used to test, compare and validate different data persistence mechanisms for openEHR. To foster research on openEHR servers, we present the openEHR Benchmark Dataset, ORBDA, a very large healthcare benchmark dataset encoded using the openEHR formalism. To construct ORBDA, we extracted and cleaned a de-identified dataset from the Brazilian National Healthcare System (SUS containing hospitalisation and high complexity procedures information and formalised it using a set of openEHR archetypes and templates. Then, we implemented a tool to enrich the raw relational data and convert it into the openEHR model using the openEHR Java reference model library. The ORBDA dataset is available in composition, versioned composition and EHR openEHR representations in XML and JSON formats. In total, the dataset contains more than 150 million composition records. We describe the dataset and provide means to access it. Additionally, we demonstrate the usage of ORBDA for evaluating inserting throughput and query latency performances of some NoSQL database management systems. We believe that ORBDA is a valuable asset for assessing storage models for openEHR-based information systems during the software engineering process. It may also be a suitable component in future standardised benchmarking of available openEHR storage platforms.

ORBDA: An openEHR benchmark dataset for performance assessment of electronic health record servers

Science.gov (United States)

Sundvall, Erik; João Junior, Mario; Ruch, Patrick; Miranda Freire, Sergio

2018-01-01

The openEHR specifications are designed to support implementation of flexible and interoperable Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems. Despite the increasing number of solutions based on the openEHR specifications, it is difficult to find publicly available healthcare datasets in the openEHR format that can be used to test, compare and validate different data persistence mechanisms for openEHR. To foster research on openEHR servers, we present the openEHR Benchmark Dataset, ORBDA, a very large healthcare benchmark dataset encoded using the openEHR formalism. To construct ORBDA, we extracted and cleaned a de-identified dataset from the Brazilian National Healthcare System (SUS) containing hospitalisation and high complexity procedures information and formalised it using a set of openEHR archetypes and templates. Then, we implemented a tool to enrich the raw relational data and convert it into the openEHR model using the openEHR Java reference model library. The ORBDA dataset is available in composition, versioned composition and EHR openEHR representations in XML and JSON formats. In total, the dataset contains more than 150 million composition records. We describe the dataset and provide means to access it. Additionally, we demonstrate the usage of ORBDA for evaluating inserting throughput and query latency performances of some NoSQL database management systems. We believe that ORBDA is a valuable asset for assessing storage models for openEHR-based information systems during the software engineering process. It may also be a suitable component in future standardised benchmarking of available openEHR storage platforms. PMID:29293556

ORBDA: An openEHR benchmark dataset for performance assessment of electronic health record servers.

Science.gov (United States)

Teodoro, Douglas; Sundvall, Erik; João Junior, Mario; Ruch, Patrick; Miranda Freire, Sergio

2018-01-01

The openEHR specifications are designed to support implementation of flexible and interoperable Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems. Despite the increasing number of solutions based on the openEHR specifications, it is difficult to find publicly available healthcare datasets in the openEHR format that can be used to test, compare and validate different data persistence mechanisms for openEHR. To foster research on openEHR servers, we present the openEHR Benchmark Dataset, ORBDA, a very large healthcare benchmark dataset encoded using the openEHR formalism. To construct ORBDA, we extracted and cleaned a de-identified dataset from the Brazilian National Healthcare System (SUS) containing hospitalisation and high complexity procedures information and formalised it using a set of openEHR archetypes and templates. Then, we implemented a tool to enrich the raw relational data and convert it into the openEHR model using the openEHR Java reference model library. The ORBDA dataset is available in composition, versioned composition and EHR openEHR representations in XML and JSON formats. In total, the dataset contains more than 150 million composition records. We describe the dataset and provide means to access it. Additionally, we demonstrate the usage of ORBDA for evaluating inserting throughput and query latency performances of some NoSQL database management systems. We believe that ORBDA is a valuable asset for assessing storage models for openEHR-based information systems during the software engineering process. It may also be a suitable component in future standardised benchmarking of available openEHR storage platforms.

Validity and reliability of three definitions of hip osteoarthritis: cross sectional and longitudinal approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M. Reijman (Max); J.M.W. Hazes (Mieke); H.A.P. Pols (Huib); R.M.D. Bernsen (Roos); B.W. Koes (Bart); S.M. Bierma-Zeinstra (Sita)

2004-01-01

textabstractOBJECTIVES: To compare the reliability and validity in a large open population of three frequently used radiological definitions of hip osteoarthritis (OA): Kellgren and Lawrence grade, minimal joint space (MJS), and Croft grade; and to investigate whether the

Validity and reliability of three definitions of hip osteoarthritis: cross sectional and longitudinal approach

OpenAIRE

Reijman, Max; Hazes, Mieke; Pols, Huib; Bernsen, Roos; Koes, Bart; Bierma-Zeinstra, Sita

2004-01-01

textabstractOBJECTIVES: To compare the reliability and validity in a large open population of three frequently used radiological definitions of hip osteoarthritis (OA): Kellgren and Lawrence grade, minimal joint space (MJS), and Croft grade; and to investigate whether the validity of the three definitions of hip OA is sex dependent. METHODS: SUBJECTS: from the Rotterdam study (aged > or= 55 years, n = 3585) were evaluated. The inter-rater reliability was tested in a random set of 148 x rays. ...

Implementing long-term data preservation and open access in CMS

CERN Document Server

Lassila-Perini, Katri

2013-01-01

Implementation of the CMS policy on long-term data preservation, re-use and open access has started. Current practices in providing data additional to published papers and distributing simplified data-samples for outreach are promoted and consolidated. The first measures have been taken for analysis and data preservation for the internal use of the collaboration and for open access to part of the data. Two complementary approaches are followed. First, a virtual machine environment, which will pack all ingredients needed to compile and run a software release with which the legacy data was reconstructed. Second, a validation framework, maintaining the capability not only to read the old raw data, but also to reprocess them with an updated release or to another format to guarantee long-term reusability of the legacy data.

Implementing the data preservation and open access policy in CMS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lassila-Perini, K; Lampén, T; Luukka, P; Alverson, G; Cabrillo, I; Calderon, A; Marco, J; Colling, D; Huffman, A; Hildreth, M; McCauley, T; Sonnenschein, L

2014-01-01

Implementation of the CMS policy on long-term data preservation, re-use and open access has started. Current practices in providing data additional to published papers and distributing simplified data-samples for outreach are promoted and consolidated. The first measures have been taken for analysis and data preservation for the internal use of the collaboration and for open access to part of the data. Two complementary approaches are followed. First, a virtual machine environment, which will pack all ingredients needed to compile and run a software release with which the legacy data was reconstructed. Second, a validation framework, maintaining the capability not only to read the old raw data, but also to reprocess them with an updated release or to another format to help ensure long-term reusability of the legacy data.

The Open-Multinet Upper Ontology Towards the Semantic-based Management of Federated Infrastructures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexander Willner

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The Internet remains an unfinished work. There are several approaches to enhancing it that have been experimentally validated within federated testbed environments. To best gain scientific knowledge from these studies, reproducibility and automation are needed in all areas of the experiment life cycle. Within the GENI and FIRE context, several architectures and protocols have been developed for this purpose. However, a major open research issue remains, namely the description and discovery of the heterogeneous resources involved. To remedy this, we propose a semantic information model that can be used to allow declarative interoperability, build dependency graphs, validate requests, infer knowledge and conduct complex queries. The requirements for such an information model have been extracted from current international Future Internet research projects and the practicality of the model is being evaluated through initial implementations. The main outcome of this work is the definition of the Open-Multinet Upper Ontology and related sub-ontologies, which can be used to describe and manage federated infrastructures and their resources.

Opening remarks SIVB congress 2001: opportunities and challenges in plant biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Bond, Christopher

2003-01-01

U.S. Senator Christopher Bond joined Dr. Roger Beachy at the podium during the Society for In Vitro Biology's 2001 Congress Plenary Session on Opportunities and Challenges in Plant Biotechnology to Benefit Health and Sustainability, on June 17, 2001, in St. Louis, Missouri. Senator Bond presented an advocate's view regarding the benefits of plant biotechnology development. The strengths of the biotechnology regulatory system were extolled. The opportunities of this new technology to produce more and nutritionally superior food, additional plant-based medicines and vaccines, plant-based renewable sources of energy, and renewable industrial products were outlined. The benefits to the environment by adopting plant biotechnological innovations were discussed. Developing public policy regarding this new technology should be based on facts, science, and reason.

Sharing open hardware through ROP, the robotic open platform

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lunenburg, J.; Soetens, R.P.T.; Schoenmakers, F.; Metsemakers, P.M.G.; van de Molengraft, M.J.G.; Steinbuch, M.; Behnke, S.; Veloso, M.; Visser, A.; Xiong, R.

2014-01-01

The robot open source software community, in particular ROS, drastically boosted robotics research. However, a centralized place to exchange open hardware designs does not exist. Therefore we launched the Robotic Open Platform (ROP). A place to share and discuss open hardware designs. Among others

Sharing open hardware through ROP, the Robotic Open Platform

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lunenburg, J.J.M.; Soetens, R.P.T.; Schoenmakers, Ferry; Metsemakers, P.M.G.; Molengraft, van de M.J.G.; Steinbuch, M.

2013-01-01

The robot open source software community, in particular ROS, drastically boosted robotics research. However, a centralized place to exchange open hardware designs does not exist. Therefore we launched the Robotic Open Platform (ROP). A place to share and discuss open hardware designs. Among others

Closing remarks at 4th NuFact '02 workshop, London, England, 6 July 2002

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sessler, Andrew M.

2003-01-01

A brief survey is given of actual R and D activities around the world. Following that, various conceptual developments significant to factories are reviewed. Then we turn to the costs of a factory. We discuss the present budgetary woes throughout the world and end with some closing remarks

Remarks on the high-energy behavior of string scattering amplitudes in warped spacetimes. II

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Andreev, Oleg

2005-01-01

We study the Regge limit of string amplitudes within the model of Polchinski-Strassler for string scattering in warped spacetimes. We also present some numerical estimations of the Regge slopes and intercepts. It is quite remarkable that the real values of those are inside a range of ours

HTML Validation of Context-Free Languages

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Møller, Anders; Schwarz, Mathias Romme

2011-01-01

We present an algorithm that generalizes HTML validation of individual documents to work on context-free sets of documents. Together with a program analysis that soundly approximates the output of Java Servlets and JSP web applications as context-free languages, we obtain a method for statically...... checking that such web applications never produce invalid HTML at runtime. Experiments with our prototype implementation demonstrate that the approach is useful: On 6 open source web applications consisting of a total of 104 pages, our tool finds 64 errors in less than a second per page, with 0 false...

Concluding remarks. International Conference on Nuclear Physics, Berkeley, California, August 1980

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Feshbach, H.

1980-10-01

Not a conference summary, these concluding remarks consider five major themes that were illuminated during the conference and the problems within them that need to be resolved in the future. The five topics considered and the following: new degrees of freedom (single-particle motion, giant resonances, nuclear molecular resonances, nuclear matter, kaon-produced hypernuclei, implications of the bag model and quantum chromodynamics), new forms of matter, new reaction mechanisms (direct vs compound-nucleus reactions, heavy-ion reactions), new aspects of the weak interactions in nuclei (weak neutral currents, P invariance), and new symmetries. 4 figures

The open for business model of the bithorax complex in Drosophila.

Science.gov (United States)

Maeda, Robert K; Karch, François

2015-09-01

the functioning of the BX-C, in which the "segment-specific functions" appear as segment-specific enhancers regulating, Ubx, abd-A, or Abd-B (Peifer et al. 1987). Key to their model was that the segmental address of these enhancers was not an inherent ability of the enhancers themselves, but was determined by the chromosomal location in which they lay. In their view, the sequential activation of the segment-specific functions resulted from the sequential opening of chromatin domains along the chromosome as one moves from anterior to posterior. This model soon became known of as the open for business model. While the open for business model is quite easy to visualize at a conceptual level, molecular evidence to validate this model has been missing for almost 30 years. The recent publication describing the outstanding, joint effort from the Bender and Kingston laboratories now provides the missing proof to support this model (Bowman et al. 2014). The purpose of this article is to review the open for business model and take the reader through the genetic arguments that led to its elaboration.

Linear Modeling and Regulation Quality Analysis for Hydro-Turbine Governing System with an Open Tailrace Channel

OpenAIRE

Jiandong Yang; Mingjiang Wang; Chao Wang; Wencheng Guo

2015-01-01

On the basis of the state–space method (SSM), a novel linear mathematical model of the unsteady flow for the tailrace system with an open channel is proposed. This novel model is an elastic linearized model of water hammer. The validity of the model has been verified by several examples of numerical simulation, which are based on a finite difference technique. Then, the complete mathematical model for the hydro-turbine governing system of hydropower station with an open tailrace channel, whi...

Open-source, small-animal magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound system.

Science.gov (United States)

Poorman, Megan E; Chaplin, Vandiver L; Wilkens, Ken; Dockery, Mary D; Giorgio, Todd D; Grissom, William A; Caskey, Charles F

2016-01-01

MR-guided focused ultrasound or high-intensity focused ultrasound (MRgFUS/MRgHIFU) is a non-invasive therapeutic modality with many potential applications in areas such as cancer therapy, drug delivery, and blood-brain barrier opening. However, the large financial costs involved in developing preclinical MRgFUS systems represent a barrier to research groups interested in developing new techniques and applications. We aim to mitigate these challenges by detailing a validated, open-source preclinical MRgFUS system capable of delivering thermal and mechanical FUS in a quantifiable and repeatable manner under real-time MRI guidance. A hardware and software package was developed that includes closed-loop feedback controlled thermometry code and CAD drawings for a therapy table designed for a preclinical MRI scanner. For thermal treatments, the modular software uses a proportional integral derivative controller to maintain a precise focal temperature rise in the target given input from MR phase images obtained concurrently. The software computes the required voltage output and transmits it to a FUS transducer that is embedded in the delivery table within the magnet bore. The delivery table holds the FUS transducer, a small animal and its monitoring equipment, and a transmit/receive RF coil. The transducer is coupled to the animal via a water bath and is translatable in two dimensions from outside the magnet. The transducer is driven by a waveform generator and amplifier controlled by real-time software in Matlab. MR acoustic radiation force imaging is also implemented to confirm the position of the focus for mechanical and thermal treatments. The system was validated in tissue-mimicking phantoms and in vivo during murine tumor hyperthermia treatments. Sonications were successfully controlled over a range of temperatures and thermal doses for up to 20 min with minimal temperature overshoot. MR thermometry was validated with an optical temperature probe, and focus

Superradiance, disorder, and the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian in open quantum systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Celardo, G. L.; Biella, A.; Giusteri, G. G.; Mattiotti, F. [Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica and Interdisciplinary Laboratories for Advanced Materials Physics, Università Cattolica, via Musei 41, 25121 Brescia (Italy); Zhang, Y.; Kaplan, L. [Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana 70118 (United States)

2014-10-15

We first briefly review the non-Hermitian effective Hamiltonian approach to open quantum systems and the associated phenomenon of superradiance. We next discuss the superradiance crossover in the presence of disorder and the relationship between superradiance and the localization transition. Finally, we investigate the regime of validity of the energy-independent effective Hamiltonian approximation and show that the results obtained by these methods are applicable to realistic physical systems.

Validity and cost-effectiveness of methods for screening of primary open angle glaucoma

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fröschl, Barbara

2007-02-01

Full Text Available Health political background: About 950,000 people are affected by glaucoma in Germany, about 50% of which are undiagnosed. The German Ophthalmological Society and the German Association of Ophthalmologists recommend a screening for glaucoma according to their guidelines. The Federal Joint Committee disapproved a glaucoma-screening program on expense of the compulsory health insurance in 2004. Scientific background: Primary open angle glaucoma is diagnosed by evaluation of the optic disc, the retinal fibre layer and the visual field. The main examinations are ophthalmoscopy, scanning laser polarimetry, confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy, retinal thickness analysis and optical coherence tomography. Scotomas are diagnosed by perimetry (standard automated perimetry, short wavelength automated perimetry and frequency doubling perimetry. The intraocular pressure is the most important treatable risk factor and is measured by (contact or non-contact tonometry. Research questions: The aim of this HTA-report is to investigate the diagnostic validity and cost effectiveness of diagnostic techniques or combinations of these methods with respect to the use in a screening setting in Germany. Methods: A systematic literature research was performed in 35 international databases and yielded 2602 articles. Overall 57 publications were included for assessment, according to predefined selection criteria. Results: The 55 medical articles deal mainly with frequency doubling perimetry, confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy and scanning laser polarimetry. Few articles cover short wavelength automated perimetry, tonometry and ophalmocopic evaluations by ophthalmologists. The quality of the papers is generally low, as far as the evidence in respect of screening is concerned. No single method exists with both, high sensitivity and high specificity for screening purpose. Data are also not sufficient to recommend combinations of methods. Only two economic models on cost

Building the Open Elements of an Open Data Competition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

d'Aquin, Mathieu; Dietze, Stefan; Drachsler, Hendrik; Guy, Marieke; Herder, Eelco; Parodi, Elisabetta

2014-01-01

The European Union is increasingly committed to pushing forward open approaches as indicated by the G8 Open Data Charter, the Opening Up Education initiative, the launch of the Open Education Europa Portal for OER resources and other similar initiatives. The EU-funded LinkedUp Project (Linking Web

Numerical study on heat transfer characteristics of liquid-fueled molten salt using OpenFOAM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jeong, Yeong Shin; Bang, In Cheol

2017-01-01

To pursue sustainability and safety enhancement of nuclear energy, molten salt reactor is regarded as a promising candidate among various types of gen-IV reactors. Besides, pyroprocessing, which treats molten salt containing fission products, should consider safety related to decay heat from fuel material. For design of molten salt-related nuclear system, it is required to consider both thermal-hydraulic characteristics and neutronic behaviors for demonstration. However, fundamental heat transfer study of molten salt in operation condition is not easy to be experimentally studied due to its large scale, high temperature condition as well as difficulties of treating fuel material. >From that reason, numerical study can have benefit to investigate behaviors of liquid-fueled molten salt in real condition. In this study, open source CFD package OpenFOAM was used to analyze liquid-fueled molten salt loop having internal heat source as a first step of research. Among various molten salts considered as a candidate of liquid fueled molten salt reactors, in this study, FLiBe was chosen as liquid salt. For simulating heat generation from fuel material within fluid flow, volumetric heat source was set for fluid domain and OpenFOAM solver was modified as fvOptions as customized. To investigate thermal-hydraulic behavior of molten salt, CFD model was developed and validated by comparing experimental results in terms of heat transfer and pressure drop. As preliminary stage, 2D cavity simulations were performed to validate the modeling capacity of modified solver of OpenFOAM by comparison with those of ANSYS-CFX. In addition, cases of external heat flux and internal heat source were compared to configure the effect of heat source setting in various operation condition. As a result, modified solver of OpenFOAM considering internal heat source have sufficient modeling capacity to simulate liquid-fueled molten salt systems including heat generation cases. (author)

Helium-air exchange flows through partitioned opening and two-opening

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kang, T. I.

1997-01-01

This paper describes experimental investigations of helium-air exchange flows through partitioned opening and two-opening. Such exchange flows may occur following rupture accident of stand pipe in high temperature engineering test reactor. A test vessel with the two types of small opening on top of test cylinder is used for experiments. An estimation method of mass increment is developed to measure the exchange flow rate. Upward flow of the helium and downward flow of the air in partitioned opening system interact out of entrance and exit of the opening. Therefore, an experiment with two-opening system is made to investigate effect of the fluids interaction of partitioned opening system. As a result of comparison of the exchange flow rates between two types of the opening system, it is demonstrated that the exchange flow rate of the two-opening system is larger than that of the partitioned opening system because of absence of the effect of fluids interaction. (author)

Gallbladder removal - open

Science.gov (United States)

Cholecystectomy - open; Gallbladder - open cholecystectomy; Cholecystitis - open cholecystectomy; Gallstones - open cholecystectomy ... a medical instrument called a laparoscope ( laparoscopic ... Open gallbladder surgery is used when laparoscopic surgery cannot ...

Open stone surgery: a still-in-use approach for complex stone burden.

Science.gov (United States)

Çakici, Özer Ural; Ener, Kemal; Keske, Murat; Altinova, Serkan; Canda, Abdullah Erdem; Aldemir, Mustafa; Ardicoglu, Arslan

2017-06-30

Urinary stone disease is a major urological condition. Endourologic techniques have influenced the clinical approach and outcomes. Open surgery holds a historic importance in the management of most conditions. However, complex kidney stone burden may be amenable to successful results with open stone surgery. In this article, we report our eighteen cases of complex urinary stone disease who underwent open stone removal. A total of 1701 patients have undergone surgical treatment for urinary stone disease in our clinic between July 2012 and July 2016, comprising eighteen patients who underwent open stone surgery. Patients' demographic data, stone analysis results, postoperative clinical data, and stone status were evaluated retrospectively. The choice of surgical approach is mostly dependent on the surgeon's preference. In two patients, open surgery was undertaken because of perioperative complications. We did not observe any Clavien-Dindo grade 4 or 5 complications. Three patients were managed with a course of antibiotics due to postoperative fever. One patient had postoperative pleurisy, one patient had urinoma, and two patients had postoperative ileus. Mean operation time was 84 (57-124) minutes and mean hospitalization time was 5.5 (3-8) days. Stone-free status was achieved in 15 patients (83.3%). Endourologic approaches are the first options for treatment of urinary stone disease. However, open stone surgery holds its indispensable position in complicated cases and in complex stone burden. Open stone surgery is also a valid alternative to endourologic techniques in all situations.

Open meta-search with OpenSearch: a case study

OpenAIRE

O'Riordan, Adrian P.

2007-01-01

The goal of this project was to demonstrate the possibilities of open source search engine and aggregation technology in a Web environment by building a meta-search engine which employs free open search engines and open protocols. In contrast many meta-search engines on the Internet use proprietary search systems. The search engines employed in this case study are all based on the OpenSearch protocol. OpenSearch-compliant systems support XML technologies such as RSS and Atom for aggregation a...

The Influence of the Openness of an E-Learning Situation on Adult Students’ Self-Regulation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Annie Jézégou

2013-07-01

Full Text Available This article presents empirical research conducted with French speaking adults studying for a diploma. Their training took place mainly in e-learning. The goal of this research was to identify and explain the processes of influence existing between two specific dimensions: the degree of openness of the components of the e-learning situation and students’ self-regulated behaviors in the management of these components. This research was based on the socio-cognitive theory of self-regulation (Bandura, 1986; Schunk & Zimmerman, 2007; Zimmerman, 2002 and on a theoretical definition of the notion of “openness” (Jézégou, 2005. It applied the “actantial model” (Greimas, 1966; Hiernaux, 1977 for analyzing data collected while using a specific validated instrument of assessment of openness (Jézégou, 2010a. The main results of this empirical work are the role played by three psychological dimensions in the influence processes identified. More empirical study is required to confirm their validity.

THE PIXHAWK OPEN-SOURCE COMPUTER VISION FRAMEWORK FOR MAVS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. Meier

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV and micro air vehicles (MAV are already intensively used in geodetic applications. State of the art autonomous systems are however geared towards the application area in safe and obstacle-free altitudes greater than 30 meters. Applications at lower altitudes still require a human pilot. A new application field will be the reconstruction of structures and buildings, including the facades and roofs, with semi-autonomous MAVs. Ongoing research in the MAV robotics field is focusing on enabling this system class to operate at lower altitudes in proximity to nearby obstacles and humans. PIXHAWK is an open source and open hardware toolkit for this purpose. The quadrotor design is optimized for onboard computer vision and can connect up to four cameras to its onboard computer. The validity of the system design is shown with a fully autonomous capture flight along a building.

"The Open Library at AU" (Athabasca University): Supporting Open Access and Open Educational Resources

Science.gov (United States)

Elliott, Colin; Fabbro, Elaine

2015-01-01

To address challenges that learners, course creators, librarians and academics involved with OER and MOOCs are facing when looking for scholarly materials, Athabasca University Library has initiated the development of "the Open Library at AU." This open library is a full library website that provides easy access to open and free…

Utilization of open source electronic health record around the world: A systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Aminpour, Farzaneh; Sadoughi, Farahnaz; Ahamdi, Maryam

2014-01-01

Many projects on developing Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems have been carried out in many countries. The current study was conducted to review the published data on the utilization of open source EHR systems in different countries all over the world. Using free text and keyword search techniques, six bibliographic databases were searched for related articles. The identified papers were screened and reviewed during a string of stages for the irrelevancy and validity. The findings showed that open source EHRs have been wildly used by source limited regions in all continents, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and South America. It would create opportunities to improve national healthcare level especially in developing countries with minimal financial resources. Open source technology is a solution to overcome the problems of high-costs and inflexibility associated with the proprietary health information systems.

Utilization of open source electronic health record around the world: A systematic review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Farzaneh Aminpour

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Many projects on developing Electronic Health Record (EHR systems have been carried out in many countries. The current study was conducted to review the published data on the utilization of open source EHR systems in different countries all over the world. Using free text and keyword search techniques, six bibliographic databases were searched for related articles. The identified papers were screened and reviewed during a string of stages for the irrelevancy and validity. The findings showed that open source EHRs have been wildly used by source limited regions in all continents, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and South America. It would create opportunities to improve national healthcare level especially in developing countries with minimal financial resources. Open source technology is a solution to overcome the problems of high-costs and inflexibility associated with the proprietary health information systems.

OpenMx: An Open Source Extended Structural Equation Modeling Framework

Science.gov (United States)

Boker, Steven; Neale, Michael; Maes, Hermine; Wilde, Michael; Spiegel, Michael; Brick, Timothy; Spies, Jeffrey; Estabrook, Ryne; Kenny, Sarah; Bates, Timothy; Mehta, Paras; Fox, John

2011-01-01

OpenMx is free, full-featured, open source, structural equation modeling (SEM) software. OpenMx runs within the "R" statistical programming environment on Windows, Mac OS-X, and Linux computers. The rationale for developing OpenMx is discussed along with the philosophy behind the user interface. The OpenMx data structures are…

Examining the Validity of Self-Reports on Scales Measuring Students' Strategic Processing

Science.gov (United States)

Samuelstuen, Marit S.; Braten, Ivar

2007-01-01

Background: Self-report inventories trying to measure strategic processing at a global level have been much used in both basic and applied research. However, the validity of global strategy scores is open to question because such inventories assess strategy perceptions outside the context of specific task performance. Aims: The primary aim was to…

The Development and Validation of the Comprehensive Intellectual Humility Scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Krumrei-Mancuso, Elizabeth J; Rouse, Steven V

2016-01-01

A series of studies was conducted to create the 22-item Comprehensive Intellectual Humility Scale on the basis of theoretical descriptions of intellectual humility, expert reviews, pilot studies, and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The scale measures 4 distinct but intercorrelated aspects of intellectual humility, including independence of intellect and ego, openness to revising one's viewpoint, respect for others' viewpoints, and lack of intellectual overconfidence. Internal consistency and test-retest analyses provided reliable scale and subscale scores within numerous independent samples. Validation data were obtained from multiple, independent samples, supporting appropriate levels of convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. The analyses suggest that the scale has utility as a self-report measure for future research.

Open Geosciences Knowledge: foster Information Preparedness in a Disaster Resilience Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Rapisardi, Elena; Di Franco, Sabina

2014-05-01

Information in science communication is the ability and the capacity to transfer scientific knowledge to enable the understanding of communication content. Particularly, as stated in many documents and programs (e.g. UNISDR, a clear and correct information on hazards and emergency matters is crucial,either for practitioners or population,to cope with disaster and to allow collaboration to take the best decision. The Open Knowledge is defined as a set of criteria and conditions related to production, use and distribution, that include principles for better access to knowledge. However,knowledge is a pillar to understand the world in itself and to guide human actions and interactions with the environment. A free and open access to knowledge in a wider perspective includes also an ethical topic that is strictly connected to the acting in terms of interactions and responsibilities, in other words with the purpose of knowledge. Focusing on "data" as a technical issue, could displace ethics and responsibility as external issues, enhancing the technical value of data. In this perspective "opening" to an open knowledge perspective could not only solve problems related to the téchne, such as functionalities and efficiency, but it should foster sharing and collaboration expressed through ethics (praxis). The web era frees the information, hence the internet "information deluge" brings to the idea of "encyclopedia" (and of Wikipedia) as a tool to "organize, control and filter" knowledge, to allow communication, knowledge transfer, education, and sense-making. Social media and crowdsourcing have considerable promise for supporting collaborative and innovative ways that reshape the information production and distribution. However, the debate is now facing an important concern related to true/false issues, focusing on validation, and liability. Without any doubt the massive use of Social Media during recent major and minor disasters highlighted a huge need of clear, correct

Time Savings and Surgery Task Load Reduction in Open Intraperitoneal Onlay Mesh Fixation Procedure

Science.gov (United States)

Roy, Sanjoy; Hammond, Jeffrey; Panish, Jessica; Shnoda, Pullen; Savidge, Sandy; Wilson, Mark

2015-01-01

Background. This study assessed the reduction in surgeon stress associated with savings in procedure time for mechanical fixation of an intraperitoneal onlay mesh (IPOM) compared to a traditional suture fixation in open ventral hernia repair. Study Design. Nine general surgeons performed 36 open IPOM fixation procedures in porcine model. Each surgeon conducted two mechanical (using ETHICON SECURESTRAPTM Open) and two suture fixation procedures. Fixation time was measured using a stopwatch, and related surgeon stress was assessed using the validated SURG-TLX questionnaire. T-tests were used to compare between-group differences, and a two-sided 95% confidence interval for the difference in stress levels was established using nonparametric methodology. Results. The mechanical fixation group demonstrated an 89.1% mean reduction in fixation time, as compared to the suture group (p Open demonstrated a significant reduction in fixation time and surgeon stress, which may translate into improved operating efficiency, improved performance, improved surgeon quality of life, and reduced overall costs of the procedure. PMID:26240834

Curious exceptions? : open source software and "open" technology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nuvolari, A.; Rullani, F.; St. Amant, Kirk; Still, Brian

2007-01-01

The aim of thts chapter is to explore the differences and commonalities between open source software and other cases of open technology. The concept of open technology is used here to indicate various models of innovation based on the participation of a wide range of different actors who freely

Development of a web GIS application for emissions inventory spatial allocation based on open source software tools

Science.gov (United States)

Gkatzoflias, Dimitrios; Mellios, Giorgos; Samaras, Zissis

2013-03-01

Combining emission inventory methods and geographic information systems (GIS) remains a key issue for environmental modelling and management purposes. This paper examines the development of a web GIS application as part of an emission inventory system that produces maps and files with spatial allocated emissions in a grid format. The study is not confined in the maps produced but also presents the features and capabilities of a web application that can be used by every user even without any prior knowledge of the GIS field. The development of the application was based on open source software tools such as MapServer for the GIS functions, PostgreSQL and PostGIS for the data management and HTML, PHP and JavaScript as programming languages. In addition, background processes are used in an innovative manner to handle the time consuming and computational costly procedures of the application. Furthermore, a web map service was created to provide maps to other clients such as the Google Maps API v3 that is used as part of the user interface. The output of the application includes maps in vector and raster format, maps with temporal resolution on daily and hourly basis, grid files that can be used by air quality management systems and grid files consistent with the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme Grid. Although the system was developed and validated for the Republic of Cyprus covering a remarkable wide range of pollutant and emissions sources, it can be easily customized for use in other countries or smaller areas, as long as geospatial and activity data are available.

Implementing Open Data: The Open Data Commons Project

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jordan Hatcher

2008-02-01

Full Text Available Free and libre/open source software (F/LOSS movements have spawned similar solutions in many other contexts, each at differing stages of development. As F/LOSS enters the routine and familiarity of middle age, the open content movement--open source for non-software copyright and best embodied by the work of Creative Commons--has just graduated university and is getting a feel for the world. Even younger is the open data movement, whose legal tools have just started to come online.

OpenSHS: Open Smart Home Simulator

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nasser Alshammari

2017-05-01

Full Text Available This paper develops a new hybrid, open-source, cross-platform 3D smart home simulator, OpenSHS, for dataset generation. OpenSHS offers an opportunity for researchers in the field of the Internet of Things (IoT and machine learning to test and evaluate their models. Following a hybrid approach, OpenSHS combines advantages from both interactive and model-based approaches. This approach reduces the time and efforts required to generate simulated smart home datasets. We have designed a replication algorithm for extending and expanding a dataset. A small sample dataset produced, by OpenSHS, can be extended without affecting the logical order of the events. The replication provides a solution for generating large representative smart home datasets. We have built an extensible library of smart devices that facilitates the simulation of current and future smart home environments. Our tool divides the dataset generation process into three distinct phases: first design: the researcher designs the initial virtual environment by building the home, importing smart devices and creating contexts; second, simulation: the participant simulates his/her context-specific events; and third, aggregation: the researcher applies the replication algorithm to generate the final dataset. We conducted a study to assess the ease of use of our tool on the System Usability Scale (SUS.

OpenSHS: Open Smart Home Simulator.

Science.gov (United States)

Alshammari, Nasser; Alshammari, Talal; Sedky, Mohamed; Champion, Justin; Bauer, Carolin

2017-05-02

This paper develops a new hybrid, open-source, cross-platform 3D smart home simulator, OpenSHS, for dataset generation. OpenSHS offers an opportunity for researchers in the field of the Internet of Things (IoT) and machine learning to test and evaluate their models. Following a hybrid approach, OpenSHS combines advantages from both interactive and model-based approaches. This approach reduces the time and efforts required to generate simulated smart home datasets. We have designed a replication algorithm for extending and expanding a dataset. A small sample dataset produced, by OpenSHS, can be extended without affecting the logical order of the events. The replication provides a solution for generating large representative smart home datasets. We have built an extensible library of smart devices that facilitates the simulation of current and future smart home environments. Our tool divides the dataset generation process into three distinct phases: first design: the researcher designs the initial virtual environment by building the home, importing smart devices and creating contexts; second, simulation: the participant simulates his/her context-specific events; and third, aggregation: the researcher applies the replication algorithm to generate the final dataset. We conducted a study to assess the ease of use of our tool on the System Usability Scale (SUS).

Cyclodextrin-Scaffolded Alamethicin with Remarkably Efficient Membrane Permeabilizing Properties and Membrane Current Conductance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hjørringgaard, Claudia Ulrich; Vad, Brian Stougaard; Matchkov, Vladimir

2012-01-01

Bacterial resistance to classical antibiotics is a serious medical problem, which continues to grow. Small antimicrobial peptides represent a potential solution and are increasingly being developed as novel therapeutic agents. Many of these peptides owe their antibacterial activity to the formati......-channel current measurements, the α-helices of the templated multimers were demonstrated to insert into lipid bilayers forming highly efficient and remarkably stable ion-channels...

[Validated Instruments for the Psychological Assessment of Unaccompanied Refugee Minors - a Systematic Review].

Science.gov (United States)

Rassenhofer, Miriam; Fegert, Jörg Michael; Plener, Paul L; Witt, Andreas

2016-01-01

The German care system faces a growing number of unaccompanied refugee minors (URM). URM show high levels of traumatization, a variety of psychological symptoms and lack important resilience factors. Therefore an early and valid psychological assessment is important for intervention and service planning. Yet, no systematic review on validated instruments for the assessment of this group exists. Literature search revealed one study about translators in the assessment of URM and five validated instruments for proxy and self-report. These instruments are available in several languages and showed good psychometric properties. It has to be critically stated that all instruments have been validated by a single work group within a single population. Especially with regards to changing definitions of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder within the new (and upcoming) classification systems ICD-11 and DSM-5, increased awareness for diagnostic procedures is necessary. Additionally, more validated instruments for specific psychological disorders in multiple languages are needed. Under an economic perspective the use of open access questionnaires that are available in different languages seems useful, even if they are not especially validated for URM.

Remarks before the Beijing meeting of the pacific basin conference

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rusche, B.C.

1987-01-01

A substantial amount of new generating capacity must be added in the United States before the turn of the century. Noting that the Light Water Reactor (LWR) has enjoyed a remarkably good safety record, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) is working actively to restore public and investor confidence in nuclear power. DOE is working with U.S. industry to encourage licensing reform, simplification and standardization of large plant designs, and resolution of the waste managment issues. We also are pursuing new, more tolerant, lower cost designs and are prepared to share our technology advances with other nations under mutually acceptable conditions and are determined to be a reliable supplier of equipment and enrichment services. (author)

Some remarks on the design of HIF current multiplication rings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reich, K.H.

1983-12-01

The conceptual design of heavy ion fusion drivers has now reached a state, where the overall approach has become fairly clear. One design features an RF linac plus current and beam multiplication rings. The present remarks concern the assignment of multiturn injection, beam storage and bunching to an optimized number of rings and transport lines, as well as some criteria for their designs. The main parameter constraints are discussed, showing how they can be met, although there is little flexibility at the present stage of understanding and technology. A shortened version of this report is scheduled for presentation at the ''INS International Symposium on Heavy Ion Accelerators and Their Application to Inertial Fusion'' Tokyo, January 23-27 1984. (author)

Opening up Education: The Collective Advancement of Education through Open Technology, Open Content, and Open Knowledge

Science.gov (United States)

Iiyoshi, Toru, Ed.; Kumar, M. S. Vijay, Ed.

2008-01-01

Given the abundance of open education initiatives that aim to make educational assets freely available online, the time seems ripe to explore the potential of open education to transform the economics and ecology of education. Despite the diversity of tools and resources already available--from well-packaged course materials to simple games, for…

A New Way of Measuring Openness: The Open Governance Index

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liz Laffan

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Open source software is now "business as usual" in the mobile industry. While much attention is given to the importance of open source licenses, we argue in this article that the governance model can be as necessary to a project’s success and that projects vary widely in the governance models – whether open or closed – that they employ. Open source governance models describe the control points that are used to influence open source projects with regard to access to the source code, how the source code is developed, how derivatives are created, and the community structure of the project. Governance determines who has control over the project beyond what is deemed legally necessary via the open source licenses for that project. The purpose of our research is to define and measure the governance of open source projects, in other words, the extent to which decision-making in an open source project is "open" or "closed". We analyzed eight open source projects using 13 specific governance criteria across four areas of governance: access, development, derivatives and community. Our findings suggest that the most open platforms will be most successful in the long term, however we acknowledge exceptions to this rule. We also identify best practices that are common across these open source projects with regard to source code access, development of source code, management of derivatives, and community structure. These best practices increase the likelihood of developer use of and involvement in open source projects.

[Validity of the axis "conflicts" of the Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnostics (OPD)].

Science.gov (United States)

Pieh, Christoph; Frisch, Martin; Meyer, Nicole; Loew, Thomas; Lahmann, Claas

2009-01-01

This clinical trial is concerned with controlling the validity of unconscious conflicts within the OPD by verifying the hypotheses by means of psychometric analysis. Unconscious conflicts were determined by use of the OPD as well as by psychometric tests (GT, IIP, RQ-2) for patients in treatment in a psychosomatic hospital; they were divided into an explorative (n=1377) and a confirmative (n=1380) sample. Using the Mann-Whitney U-test, we investigated the connection between the main conflicts according to OPD-1 and the psychometric findings. For seven of most frequently chosen conflict types, a great coherence was found. For the others the results were inconsistent. Concerning the seven most frequently chosen conflict types, the OPD is a valid diagnose tool. As to the other conflicts, this study cannot clear up open questions concerning validity.

Unit testing, model validation, and biological simulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Sarma, Gopal P; Jacobs, Travis W; Watts, Mark D; Ghayoomie, S Vahid; Larson, Stephen D; Gerkin, Richard C

2016-01-01

The growth of the software industry has gone hand in hand with the development of tools and cultural practices for ensuring the reliability of complex pieces of software. These tools and practices are now acknowledged to be essential to the management of modern software. As computational models and methods have become increasingly common in the biological sciences, it is important to examine how these practices can accelerate biological software development and improve research quality. In this article, we give a focused case study of our experience with the practices of unit testing and test-driven development in OpenWorm, an open-science project aimed at modeling Caenorhabditis elegans. We identify and discuss the challenges of incorporating test-driven development into a heterogeneous, data-driven project, as well as the role of model validation tests, a category of tests unique to software which expresses scientific models.

Validity and reliability of portfolio assessment of competency in a baccalaureate dental hygiene program

Science.gov (United States)

Gadbury-Amyot, Cynthia C.

This study examined validity and reliability of portfolio assessment using Messick's (1996, 1995) unified framework of construct validity. Theoretical and empirical evidence was sought for six aspects of construct validity. The sample included twenty student portfolios. Each portfolio were evaluated by seven faculty raters using a primary trait analysis scoring rubric. There was a significant relationship (r = .81--.95; p Dental Hygiene Board Examination (r = .60; p Dental Testing Service examination was both weak and nonsignificant (r = .19; p > .05). An open-ended survey was used to elicit student feedback on portfolio development. A majority of the students (76%) perceived value in the development of programmatic portfolios. In conclusion, the pattern of findings from this study suggest that portfolios can serve as a valid and reliable measure for assessing student competency.

The Effect of Insertion Species on Nanostructured Open Framework Hexacyanoferrate Battery Electrodes

KAUST Repository

Wessells, Colin D.

2012-01-01

Recent battery research has focused on the high power and energy density needed for portable electronics and vehicles, but the requirements for grid-scale energy storage are different, with emphasis on low cost, long cycle life, and safety. Open framework materials with the Prussian Blue crystal structure offer the high power capability, ultra-long cycle life, and scalable, low cost synthesis and operation that are necessary for storage systems to integrate transient energy sources, such as wind and solar, with the electrical grid. We have demonstrated that two open framework materials, copper hexacyanoferrate and nickel hexacyanoferrate, can reversibly intercalate lithium, sodium, potassium, and ammonium ions at high rates. These materials can achieve capacities of up to 60 mAhg. The porous, nanoparticulate morphology of these materials, synthesized by the use of simple and inexpensive methods, results in remarkable rate capabilities: e.g. copper hexacyanoferrate retains 84 of its maximum capacity during potassium cycling at a very high (41.7C) rate, while nickel hexacyanoferrate retains 66 of its maximum capacity while cycling either sodium or potassium at this same rate. These materials show excellent stability during the cycling of sodium and potassium, with minimal capacity loss after 500 cycles. © 2011 The Electrochemical Society.

A Proposed Model for Measuring Performance of the University-Industry Collaboration in Open Innovation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anca Draghici

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The paper aims to present a scientific approach to the creation, testing and validation of a model for performance measurement for university-industry collaboration (UIC. The main idea of the design process is to capitalize on existing success factors, facilitators and opportunities (motivation factors, knowledge transfer channels and identified benefits and to diminish or avoid potential threats and barriers that might interfere with such collaborations. The main purpose of the applied methodology is to identify solutions and measures to overcome the disadvantages, conflicts or risk issues and to facilitate the open innovation of industrial companies and universities. The methodology adopted was differentiated by two perspectives: (1 a business model reflecting the university perspective along with an inventory of key performance indicators (KPIs; (2 a performance measurement model (including performance criteria and indicators and an associated methodology (assimilated to an audit that could help companies increase collaboration with universities in the context of open innovation. In addition, in order to operationalize the proposed model (facilitating practical implementation, an Excel tool has been created to help identifying potential sources of innovation. The main contributions of the research concern the expansion of UICs knowledge to enhance open innovation and to define an effective performance measurement model and instrument (tested and validated by a case study for companies.

Spray Modeling for Outwardly-Opening Hollow-Cone Injector

KAUST Repository

Sim, Jaeheon

2016-04-05

The outwardly-opening piezoelectric injector is gaining popularity as a high efficient spray injector due to its precise control of the spray. However, few modeling studies have been reported on these promising injectors. Furthermore, traditional linear instability sheet atomization (LISA) model was originally developed for pressure swirl hollow-cone injectors with moderate spray angle and toroidal ligament breakups. Therefore, it is not appropriate for the outwardly-opening injectors having wide spray angles and string-like film structures. In this study, a new spray injection modeling was proposed for outwardly-opening hollow-cone injector. The injection velocities are computed from the given mass flow rate and injection pressure instead of ambiguous annular nozzle geometry. The modified Kelvin-Helmholtz and Rayleigh-Taylor (KH-RT) breakup model is used with adjusted initial Sauter mean diameter (SMD) for modeling breakup of string-like structure. Spray injection was modeled using a Lagrangian discrete parcel method within the framework of commercial CFD software CONVERGE, and the new model was implemented through the user-defined functions. A Siemens outwardly-opening hollow-cone spray injector was characterized and validated with existing experimental data at the injection pressure of 100 bar. It was found that the collision modeling becomes important in the current injector because of dense spray near nozzle. The injection distribution model showed insignificant effects on spray due to small initial droplets. It was demonstrated that the new model can predict the liquid penetration length and local SMD with improved accuracy for the injector under study.

Python Open source Waveform ExtractoR (POWER): an open source, Python package to monitor and post-process numerical relativity simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Daniel; Huerta, E. A.; Haas, Roland

2018-01-01

Numerical simulations of Einstein’s field equations provide unique insights into the physics of compact objects moving at relativistic speeds, and which are driven by strong gravitational interactions. Numerical relativity has played a key role to firmly establish gravitational wave astrophysics as a new field of research, and it is now paving the way to establish whether gravitational wave radiation emitted from compact binary mergers is accompanied by electromagnetic and astro-particle counterparts. As numerical relativity continues to blend in with routine gravitational wave data analyses to validate the discovery of gravitational wave events, it is essential to develop open source tools to streamline these studies. Motivated by our own experience as users and developers of the open source, community software, the Einstein Toolkit, we present an open source, Python package that is ideally suited to monitor and post-process the data products of numerical relativity simulations, and compute the gravitational wave strain at future null infinity in high performance environments. We showcase the application of this new package to post-process a large numerical relativity catalog and extract higher-order waveform modes from numerical relativity simulations of eccentric binary black hole mergers and neutron star mergers. This new software fills a critical void in the arsenal of tools provided by the Einstein Toolkit consortium to the numerical relativity community.

Evidence for {open_quotes}magnetic rotation{close_quotes} in nuclei: New results on the M1-bands of {sup 198,199}Pb

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Clark, R.M. [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab., CA (United States)

1996-12-31

Lifetimes of states in four of the M1-bands in {sup 198,199}Pb have been determined through a Doppler Shift Attenuation Method measurement performed using the Gammasphere array. The deduced B(M1) values, which are a sensitive probe of the underlying mechanism for generating these sequences, show remarkable agreement with Tilted Axis Cranking (TAC) calculations. Evidence is also presented for the possible termination of the bands. The results represent clear evidence for a new concept in nuclear excitations: {open_quote}magnetic rotation{close_quote}.

Evidence conflict measure based on OWA operator in open world.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wen Jiang

Full Text Available Dempster-Shafer evidence theory has been extensively used in many information fusion systems since it was proposed by Dempster and extended by Shafer. Many scholars have been conducted on conflict management of Dempster-Shafer evidence theory in past decades. However, how to determine a potent parameter to measure evidence conflict, when the given environment is in an open world, namely the frame of discernment is incomplete, is still an open issue. In this paper, a new method which combines generalized conflict coefficient, generalized evidence distance, and generalized interval correlation coefficient based on ordered weighted averaging (OWA operator, to measure the conflict of evidence is presented. Through ordered weighted average of these three parameters, the combinatorial coefficient can still measure the conflict effectively when one or two parameters are not valid. Several numerical examples demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Validating the Remotely Sensed Geography of Crime: A Review of Emerging Issues

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alice B. Kelly

2014-12-01

Full Text Available This paper explores the existing literature on the active detection of crimes using remote sensing technologies. The paper reviews sixty-one studies that use remote sensing to actively detect crime. Considering the serious consequences of misidentifying crimes or sites of crimes (e.g., opening that place and its residents up to potentially needless intrusion, intimidation, surveillance or violence, the authors were surprised to find a lack of rigorous validation of the remote sensing methods utilized in these studies. In some cases, validation was not mentioned, while in others, validation was severely hampered by security issues, rough terrain and weather conditions. The paper also considers the potential hazards of the use of Google Earth to identify crimes and criminals. The paper concludes by considering alternate, “second order” validation techniques that could add vital context and understanding to remotely sensed images in a law enforcement context. With this discussion, the authors seek to initiate a discussion on other potential “second order” validation techniques, as well as on the exponential growth of surveillance in our everyday lives.

Development and validation of Incontinence - Activity Participation Scale for spinal cord injury.

Science.gov (United States)

Walia, Priya; Kaur, Jaskirat

2017-01-01

We aimed to develop and validate an Incontinence - Activity Participation Scale (I-APS) for measurement of activity limitation and participation restriction due to bladder problems in spinal cord injury (SCI). The process of development was initiated by formation of open-ended questions after thorough review of literature which were then administered to SCI participants, caretakers, and professionals working with SCI. Items were generated based on their responses and initial draft of scale was formulated. This initial draft of the scale containing 77 items was then administered to 56 SCI participants for reduction of items using factor analysis, and a prefinal version of the scale was obtained containing thirty items only. Content validity and face validity was then established. The I-APS is both health professional and self-administered questionnaire including two domains: Activities of daily living and occupation with 16 items having a content validity of 0.84. The overall internal consistency reliability was 0.86. The I-APS is a valid, comprehensive instrument that measures the activity limitation and participation restrictions due to bladder problems in SCI.

Computing OpenSURF on OpenCL and General Purpose GPU

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wanglong Yan

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Speeded-Up Robust Feature (SURF algorithm is widely used for image feature detecting and matching in computer vision area. Open Computing Language (OpenCL is a framework for writing programs that execute across heterogeneous platforms consisting of CPUs, GPUs, and other processors. This paper introduces how to implement an open-sourced SURF program, namely OpenSURF, on general purpose GPU by OpenCL, and discusses the optimizations in terms of the thread architectures and memory models in detail. Our final OpenCL implementation of OpenSURF is on average 37% and 64% faster than the OpenCV SURF v2.4.5 CUDA implementation on NVidia's GTX660 and GTX460SE GPUs, repectively. Our OpenCL program achieved real-time performance (>25 Frames Per Second for almost all the input images with different sizes from 320*240 to 1024*768 on NVidia's GTX660 GPU, NVidia's GTX460SE GPU and AMD's Radeon HD 6850 GPU. Our OpenCL approach on NVidia's GTX660 GPU is more than 22.8 times faster than its original CPU version on Intel's Dual-Core E5400 2.7G on average.

openBEB: open biological experiment browser for correlative measurements.

Science.gov (United States)

Ramakrishnan, Chandrasekhar; Bieri, Andrej; Sauter, Nora; Roizard, Sophie; Ringler, Philippe; Müller, Shirley A; Goldie, Kenneth N; Enimanev, Kaloyan; Stahlberg, Henning; Rinn, Bernd; Braun, Thomas

2014-03-26

New experimental methods must be developed to study interaction networks in systems biology. To reduce biological noise, individual subjects, such as single cells, should be analyzed using high throughput approaches. The measurement of several correlative physical properties would further improve data consistency. Accordingly, a considerable quantity of data must be acquired, correlated, catalogued and stored in a database for subsequent analysis. We have developed openBEB (open Biological Experiment Browser), a software framework for data acquisition, coordination, annotation and synchronization with database solutions such as openBIS. OpenBEB consists of two main parts: A core program and a plug-in manager. Whereas the data-type independent core of openBEB maintains a local container of raw-data and metadata and provides annotation and data management tools, all data-specific tasks are performed by plug-ins. The open architecture of openBEB enables the fast integration of plug-ins, e.g., for data acquisition or visualization. A macro-interpreter allows the automation and coordination of the different modules. An update and deployment mechanism keeps the core program, the plug-ins and the metadata definition files in sync with a central repository. The versatility, the simple deployment and update mechanism, and the scalability in terms of module integration offered by openBEB make this software interesting for a large scientific community. OpenBEB targets three types of researcher, ideally working closely together: (i) Engineers and scientists developing new methods and instruments, e.g., for systems-biology, (ii) scientists performing biological experiments, (iii) theoreticians and mathematicians analyzing data. The design of openBEB enables the rapid development of plug-ins, which will inherently benefit from the "house keeping" abilities of the core program. We report the use of openBEB to combine live cell microscopy, microfluidic control and visual

Open-Source Medical Devices (OSMD) Design of a Small Animal Radiotherapy System

Science.gov (United States)

Prajapati, S.; Mackie, T. R.; Jeraj, R.

2014-03-01

Open-Source Medical Devices (OSMD) was initiated with the goal of facilitating medical research by developing medical technologies including both hardware and software on an open-source platform. Our first project was to develop an integrated imaging and radiotherapy device for small animals that includes computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET) and radiation therapy (RT) modalities for which technical specifications were defined in the first OSMD conference held in Madison, Wisconsin, USA in December 2011. This paper specifically focuses on the development of a small animal RT (micro-RT) system by designing a binary micro multileaf collimator (bmMLC) and a small animal treatment planning system (SATPS) to enable intensity modulated RT (IMRT). Both hardware and software projects are currently under development and their current progresses are described. After the development, both bmMLC and TPS will be validated and commissioned for a micro-RT system. Both hardware design and software development will be open-sourced after completion.

OpenSubspace

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Müller, Emmanuel; Assent, Ira; Günnemann, Stephan

2009-01-01

Subspace clustering and projected clustering are recent research areas for clustering in high dimensional spaces. As the field is rather young, there is a lack of comparative studies on the advantages and disadvantages of the different algorithms. Part of the underlying problem is the lack...... of available open source implementations that could be used by researchers to understand, compare, and extend subspace and projected clustering algorithms. In this paper, we discuss the requirements for open source evaluation software. We propose OpenSubspace, an open source framework that meets...... these requirements. OpenSubspace integrates state-of-the-art performance measures and visualization techniques to foster research in subspace and projected clustering....

Remarks on an equation common to Weyl's gauge field, Yang-Mills field and Toda lattice

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nishioka, M.

1984-01-01

In this letter a remark is presented on an equation of a gauge-invariant Weyl's gauge field and it is shown that the equation is common to Yang's approach to the self-duality condition for SU 2 gauge field and the simplest Toda lattice

Wall correction model for wind tunnels with open test section

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Jens Nørkær; Shen, Wen Zhong; Mikkelsen, Robert Flemming

2006-01-01

In the paper we present a correction model for wall interference on rotors of wind turbines or propellers in wind tunnels. The model, which is based on a one-dimensional momentum approach, is validated against results from CFD computations using a generalized actuator disc principle. In the model...... good agreement with the CFD computations, demonstrating that one-dimensional momentum theory is a reliable way of predicting corrections for wall interference in wind tunnels with closed as well as open cross sections....

Open Babel: An open chemical toolbox

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

O'Boyle Noel M

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background A frequent problem in computational modeling is the interconversion of chemical structures between different formats. While standard interchange formats exist (for example, Chemical Markup Language and de facto standards have arisen (for example, SMILES format, the need to interconvert formats is a continuing problem due to the multitude of different application areas for chemistry data, differences in the data stored by different formats (0D versus 3D, for example, and competition between software along with a lack of vendor-neutral formats. Results We discuss, for the first time, Open Babel, an open-source chemical toolbox that speaks the many languages of chemical data. Open Babel version 2.3 interconverts over 110 formats. The need to represent such a wide variety of chemical and molecular data requires a library that implements a wide range of cheminformatics algorithms, from partial charge assignment and aromaticity detection, to bond order perception and canonicalization. We detail the implementation of Open Babel, describe key advances in the 2.3 release, and outline a variety of uses both in terms of software products and scientific research, including applications far beyond simple format interconversion. Conclusions Open Babel presents a solution to the proliferation of multiple chemical file formats. In addition, it provides a variety of useful utilities from conformer searching and 2D depiction, to filtering, batch conversion, and substructure and similarity searching. For developers, it can be used as a programming library to handle chemical data in areas such as organic chemistry, drug design, materials science, and computational chemistry. It is freely available under an open-source license from http://openbabel.org.

Open Babel: An open chemical toolbox

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-01

Background A frequent problem in computational modeling is the interconversion of chemical structures between different formats. While standard interchange formats exist (for example, Chemical Markup Language) and de facto standards have arisen (for example, SMILES format), the need to interconvert formats is a continuing problem due to the multitude of different application areas for chemistry data, differences in the data stored by different formats (0D versus 3D, for example), and competition between software along with a lack of vendor-neutral formats. Results We discuss, for the first time, Open Babel, an open-source chemical toolbox that speaks the many languages of chemical data. Open Babel version 2.3 interconverts over 110 formats. The need to represent such a wide variety of chemical and molecular data requires a library that implements a wide range of cheminformatics algorithms, from partial charge assignment and aromaticity detection, to bond order perception and canonicalization. We detail the implementation of Open Babel, describe key advances in the 2.3 release, and outline a variety of uses both in terms of software products and scientific research, including applications far beyond simple format interconversion. Conclusions Open Babel presents a solution to the proliferation of multiple chemical file formats. In addition, it provides a variety of useful utilities from conformer searching and 2D depiction, to filtering, batch conversion, and substructure and similarity searching. For developers, it can be used as a programming library to handle chemical data in areas such as organic chemistry, drug design, materials science, and computational chemistry. It is freely available under an open-source license from http://openbabel.org. PMID:21982300

Indication to Open Anatrophic Nephrolithotomy in the Twenty-First Century: A Case Report

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alfredo Maria Bove

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction. Advances in endourology have greatly reduced indications to open surgery in the treatment of staghorn kidney stones. Nevertheless in our experience, open surgery still represents the treatment of choice in rare cases. Case Report. A 71-year-old morbidly obese female patient complaining about occasional left flank pain, and recurrent cystitis for many years, presented bilateral staghorn kidney stones. Comorbidities were obesity (BMI 36.2, hypertension, type II diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmunary disease (COPD hyperlipidemia. Due to these comorbidities, endoscopic and laparoscopic approaches were not indicated. We offered the patient staged open anatrophic nephrolithotomy. Results. Operative time was 180 minutes. Blood loss was 500 cc. requiring one unit of packed red blood cells. Hospital stay was 7 days. The renal function was unaffected based on preoperative and postoperative serum creatinine levels. Stone-free status of the left kidney was confirmed after surgery with CT scan. Conclusions. Open surgery can represent a valid alterative in the treatment of staghorn kidney stones of very selected cases. A discussion of the current indications in the twenty-first century is presented.

Remarks on entanglement entropy in string theory

Science.gov (United States)

Balasubramanian, Vijay; Parrikar, Onkar

2018-03-01

Entanglement entropy for spatial subregions is difficult to define in string theory because of the extended nature of strings. Here we propose a definition for bosonic open strings using the framework of string field theory. The key difference (compared to ordinary quantum field theory) is that the subregion is chosen inside a Cauchy surface in the "space of open string configurations." We first present a simple calculation of this entanglement entropy in free light-cone string field theory, ignoring subtleties related to the factorization of the Hilbert space. We reproduce the answer expected from an effective field theory point of view, namely a sum over the one-loop entanglement entropies corresponding to all the particle-excitations of the string, and further show that the full string theory regulates ultraviolet divergences in the entanglement entropy. We then revisit the question of factorization of the Hilbert space by analyzing the covariant phase-space associated with a subregion in Witten's covariant string field theory. We show that the pure gauge (i.e., BRST exact) modes in the string field become dynamical at the entanglement cut. Thus, a proper definition of the entropy must involve an extended Hilbert space, with new stringy edge modes localized at the entanglement cut.

Open Science and Open Data: Evolving Business Models

OpenAIRE

Melero, Remedios

2013-01-01

The rise of ICT has changed the way scientific inputs and outputs are disseminated and diffused. As a consequence, new business models for open access to Scientific publications and datasets are emerging. This session will explore the new features of the business models for open access and open data as well as the associated benefits and risks.

Using digital badges in South Africa informing the validation of a multi-channel open badge system at a German university

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Niehaus, E

2017-05-01

Full Text Available strategy, remains an area to explore. One of the most crucial points of concern currently with digital badging is how to validate or credit a competence or skillset and what value this validation will carry for the individual. The Mozilla digital badge...

Overview and summary remarks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haynes, R.H.

1990-01-01

The non-scientific community believes that there is such a thing as safety and that this should be an attainable goal in any technology. People are poor intuitive judges of risks. If the first inducer of mutation to be discovered had been mustard gas rather than ionizing radiation, we probably would not be as concerned about radiation. Radiation is a relatively poor mutagen; it is a good recombinogen but poor compared to ultraviolet and may chemicals for the production of point mutagens. The issue of threshold doses has not been resolved; when one allows for the existence of repair, one opens the possibility that repair-proficient cells could have a dose-response curve with a zero slope at very low doses. Another issue concerns mutagen burden, particularly when comparing radiation with chemicals. Exposure to ionizing radiation may be a very minor component of the total mutagen burden to which we are all exposed. There can exist both synergistic and antagonistic interactions among mutagens. We should not forget the role of metabolism in genetic responses. The responses of cells to mutagens of all kinds are much more complex biochemically than one would imagine on the basis of the simple notion of DNA damage and its error-free or error-prone repair. (L.L.)

OpenGL Insights

CERN Document Server

Cozzi, Patrick

2012-01-01

Get Real-World Insight from Experienced Professionals in the OpenGL Community With OpenGL, OpenGL ES, and WebGL, real-time rendering is becoming available everywhere, from AAA games to mobile phones to web pages. Assembling contributions from experienced developers, vendors, researchers, and educators, OpenGL Insights presents real-world techniques for intermediate and advanced OpenGL, OpenGL ES, and WebGL developers. Go Beyond the Basics The book thoroughly covers a range of topics, including OpenGL 4.2 and recent extensions. It explains how to optimize for mobile devices, explores the design

Population Estimation in Singapore Based on Remote Sensing and Open Data

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, H.; Cao, K.; Wang, P.

2017-09-01

Population estimation statistics are widely used in government, commercial and educational sectors for a variety of purposes. With growing emphases on real-time and detailed population information, data users nowadays have switched from traditional census data to more technology-based data source such as LiDAR point cloud and High-Resolution Satellite Imagery. Nevertheless, such data are costly and periodically unavailable. In this paper, the authors use West Coast District, Singapore as a case study to investigate the applicability and effectiveness of using satellite image from Google Earth for extraction of building footprint and population estimation. At the same time, volunteered geographic information (VGI) is also utilized as ancillary data for building footprint extraction. Open data such as Open Street Map OSM could be employed to enhance the extraction process. In view of challenges in building shadow extraction, this paper discusses several methods including buffer, mask and shape index to improve accuracy. It also illustrates population estimation methods based on building height and number of floor estimates. The results show that the accuracy level of housing unit method on population estimation can reach 92.5 %, which is remarkably accurate. This paper thus provides insights into techniques for building extraction and fine-scale population estimation, which will benefit users such as urban planners in terms of policymaking and urban planning of Singapore.

POPULATION ESTIMATION IN SINGAPORE BASED ON REMOTE SENSING AND OPEN DATA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. Guo

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Population estimation statistics are widely used in government, commercial and educational sectors for a variety of purposes. With growing emphases on real-time and detailed population information, data users nowadays have switched from traditional census data to more technology-based data source such as LiDAR point cloud and High-Resolution Satellite Imagery. Nevertheless, such data are costly and periodically unavailable. In this paper, the authors use West Coast District, Singapore as a case study to investigate the applicability and effectiveness of using satellite image from Google Earth for extraction of building footprint and population estimation. At the same time, volunteered geographic information (VGI is also utilized as ancillary data for building footprint extraction. Open data such as Open Street Map（OSM）could be employed to enhance the extraction process. In view of challenges in building shadow extraction, this paper discusses several methods including buffer, mask and shape index to improve accuracy. It also illustrates population estimation methods based on building height and number of floor estimates. The results show that the accuracy level of housing unit method on population estimation can reach 92.5 %, which is remarkably accurate. This paper thus provides insights into techniques for building extraction and fine-scale population estimation, which will benefit users such as urban planners in terms of policymaking and urban planning of Singapore.

Effect of mass housing settlement type on the comfortable open areas in terms of noise.

Science.gov (United States)

Akdağ, Neşe Yüğrük; Gedik, Gülay Zorer; Kiraz, Fatih; Şener, Bekir

2017-09-12

The layout of the structures according to the noise source is an important parameter in terms of the level of noise reaching to both open usage areas and the structure surfaces. In this paper, it is aimed to reveal the effect of mass housing settlement type on the size of suitable open usage areas in terms of noise. Comfortable open usage areas in 25 mass housing alternatives are determined for the case of being affected by three different road noises. The reliability of the simulation results is validated by on-site noise level measurements. As a result, it is seen that better results are obtained in linear, L, C, and U type alternatives than point-type blocks. Especially in alternatives consisting of point-and linear-type blocks, if the noise level is above 75 Leq (dBA), the percentage of comfortable open usage areas is very low. It is determined that the percentage of comfortable open areas increases between 50 and 100% by means of appropriately designed noise barriers.

An open loop equilibrator for continuous monitoring of radon at the groundwater-surface water interface

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kil Yong Lee; Yoon Yeol Yoon; Soo Young Cho; Eunhee Lee; Sang-Ho Moon; Dong-Chan Koh; Kyoochul Ha; Yongcheol Kim; Kyung-Seok Ko

2015-01-01

A continuous monitoring system (CMS) using an open loop equilibrator for assessment of 222 Rn at the groundwater-surface water interface was developed and tested. For the characterization and validation of the system, three air loops (open loop, closed loop, and open bubble loop) were tested in relation to high and precise count rates, rapid response, and equilibration of radon. The water and air stream is fed to the equilibrator by an experimental setup with a commercial submersible water pump and the internal pump with built-in radon-in-air detector. Efficiency calibration of the CMS is done by simultaneous determination of a groundwater sample using liquid scintillation counting, and the RAD7 accessories RAD-H 2 O, BigBottle RAD-H 2 O. The higher count rates are provided by the closed loop. However, the open loop with bubbler (open bubble loop) provides the best precision count rates, rapid response, and equilibration time. The CMS allows radon determination in discrete water samples as well as continuous water streams. (author)

Experimental on-line platform for product conceptual design: OpenDesigNet

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Teresa Magal-Royo

2013-09-01

Full Text Available This paper highlights the need for using specialised on-line collaborative environments by designers and product engineers who increasingly use Web 2.0 technology to search for information. Although there are professional channels and networks, there is no specific platform which helps during a new product’s conceptualisation phase. Open communication must thus be promoted and encouraged amongst design professionals and companies to form working groups thereby allowing them to work collaboratively in the most open and creative phase of product design, i.e. conceptualisation. The OpenDesigNet (ODN experimental platform has been developed so that designers and small- or medium-sized companies (SMC can access on-line collaborative tools to support the creation and promotion of new on-line products and assess their immediate social impact. This article presents some of the results obtained during the validation phase involving a platform satisfaction survey of design engineering students and has led to a first-hand assessment of the new platform’s potential impact on their professional future.

Summary of remarks and recommendations concerning the 2nd draft revision of the IAEA transport regulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

The report contains a summary of all the remarks and recommendations that had been received by the International Atomic Energy Agency from Member States and International Organizations on the second draft revision of the IAEA transport regulations

German translation, cultural adaptation, and validation of the Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ).

Science.gov (United States)

Nolte, Sandra; Osborne, Richard H; Dwinger, Sarah; Elsworth, Gerald R; Conrad, Melanie L; Rose, Matthias; Härter, Martin; Dirmaier, Jörg; Zill, Jördis M

2017-01-01

The Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ), developed in Australia in 2012 using a 'validity-driven' approach, has been rapidly adopted and is being applied in many countries and languages. It is a multidimensional measure comprising nine distinct domains that may be used for surveys, needs assessment, evaluation and outcomes assessment as well as for informing service improvement and the development of interventions. The aim of this paper is to describe the German translation of the HLQ and to present the results of the validation of the culturally adapted version. The HLQ comprises 44 items, which were translated and culturally adapted to the German context. This study uses data collected from a sample of 1,058 persons with chronic conditions. Statistical analyses include descriptive and confirmatory factor analyses. In one-factor congeneric models, all scales demonstrated good fit after few model adjustments. In a single, highly restrictive nine-factor model (no cross-loadings, no correlated errors) replication of the original English-language version was achieved with fit indices and psychometric properties similar to the original HLQ. Reliability for all scales was excellent, with a Cronbach's Alpha of at least 0.77. High to very high correlations between some HLQ factors were observed, suggesting that higher order factors may be present. Our rigorous development and validation protocol, as well as strict adaptation processes, have generated a remarkable reproduction of the HLQ in German. The results of this validation provide evidence that the HLQ is robust and can be recommended for use in German-speaking populations. German Clinical Trial Registration (DRKS): DRKS00000584. Registered 23 March 2011.

OpenTURNS, an open source uncertainty engineering software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Popelin, A.L.; Dufoy, A.

2013-01-01

The needs to assess robust performances for complex systems have lead to the emergence of a new industrial simulation challenge: to take into account uncertainties when dealing with complex numerical simulation frameworks. EDF has taken part in the development of an Open Source software platform dedicated to uncertainty propagation by probabilistic methods, named OpenTURNS for Open source Treatment of Uncertainty, Risk and Statistics. OpenTURNS includes a large variety of qualified algorithms in order to manage uncertainties in industrial studies, from the uncertainty quantification step (with possibilities to model stochastic dependence thanks to the copula theory and stochastic processes), to the uncertainty propagation step (with some innovative simulation algorithms as the ziggurat method for normal variables) and the sensitivity analysis one (with some sensitivity index based on the evaluation of means conditioned to the realization of a particular event). It also enables to build some response surfaces that can include the stochastic modeling (with the chaos polynomial method for example). Generic wrappers to link OpenTURNS to the modeling software are proposed. At last, OpenTURNS is largely documented to provide rules to help use and contribution

AN INVESTIGATION OF CO-INTEGRATION AND CAUSALITY BETWEEN TRADE OPENNESS AND GOVERNMENT SIZE IN TURKEY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ismail Aydogus

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Validity of globalization brings out the question of whether greater openness is a booster reason to have a bigger government. This issue has been started to be discussed in relevant literature since the late 1970s. In this context, the purpose of this study is to examine the linkage between trade openness and the size of the government in Turkey over the period 1974-2011. Using residual based co-integration approach, we fail to find an evidence of a long run relationship. In addition, we do not provide causal support of compensation hypothesis in Turkish economy.

Remarkable identities related to the (quantum) elliptic Calogero-Sutherland model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Langmann, Edwin

2006-01-01

We present remarkable functional identities related to the elliptic Calogero-Sutherland (eCS) system. We derive them from a second quantization of the eCS model within a quantum field theory model of anyons on a circle and at finite temperature. The identities involve two eCS Hamiltonians with arbitrary and, in general, different particle numbers N and M, and a particular function of N+M variables arising as anyon correlation function of N particles and M antiparticles. In addition to identities obtained from anyons with the same statistics parameter λ, we also obtain 'dual' relations involving 'mixed' correlation functions of anyons with two different statistics parameters λ and 1/λ. We also give alternative, elementary proofs of these identities by direct computations

Thermodynamics of Gas Turbine Cycles with Analytic Derivatives in OpenMDAO

Science.gov (United States)

Gray, Justin; Chin, Jeffrey; Hearn, Tristan; Hendricks, Eric; Lavelle, Thomas; Martins, Joaquim R. R. A.

2016-01-01

A new equilibrium thermodynamics analysis tool was built based on the CEA method using the OpenMDAO framework. The new tool provides forward and adjoint analytic derivatives for use with gradient based optimization algorithms. The new tool was validated against the original CEA code to ensure an accurate analysis and the analytic derivatives were validated against finite-difference approximations. Performance comparisons between analytic and finite difference methods showed a significant speed advantage for the analytic methods. To further test the new analysis tool, a sample optimization was performed to find the optimal air-fuel equivalence ratio, , maximizing combustion temperature for a range of different pressures. Collectively, the results demonstrate the viability of the new tool to serve as the thermodynamic backbone for future work on a full propulsion modeling tool.

CERN car sharing scheme now open to everyone

CERN Multimedia

GS Department

2011-01-01

The CERN car sharing service is a self-service scheme providing a pool of 30 CERN cars available for pick-up free of charge from 13 points around the Meyrin and Prévessin sites. From Thursday, 1st December 2011, the service will be open to all members of the CERN personnel and contractors' personnel, in the framework of their professional activities at CERN only. The conditions of use can be consulted at: http://gs-dep.web.cern.ch/en/content/Mobility/Car_sharing To be able to use the service, members of the CERN personnel and contractors' personnel must: have a contractual link to CERN, possess an e-mail address registered in the CERN databases; hold an RFID access card, which can be obtained from the CERN Car Pool on presentation of a valid CERN access card. Car Pool, Building 130-R-012, open Monday-Friday, 8.00 a.m.-12.00 noon/1.00 p.m.-5.00 p.m. https://gs-dep.web.cern.ch/en/content/car-pool GS-IS

Towards natural language question generation for the validation of ontologies and mappings.

Science.gov (United States)

Ben Abacha, Asma; Dos Reis, Julio Cesar; Mrabet, Yassine; Pruski, Cédric; Da Silveira, Marcos

2016-08-08

The increasing number of open-access ontologies and their key role in several applications such as decision-support systems highlight the importance of their validation. Human expertise is crucial for the validation of ontologies from a domain point-of-view. However, the growing number of ontologies and their fast evolution over time make manual validation challenging. We propose a novel semi-automatic approach based on the generation of natural language (NL) questions to support the validation of ontologies and their evolution. The proposed approach includes the automatic generation, factorization and ordering of NL questions from medical ontologies. The final validation and correction is performed by submitting these questions to domain experts and automatically analyzing their feedback. We also propose a second approach for the validation of mappings impacted by ontology changes. The method exploits the context of the changes to propose correction alternatives presented as Multiple Choice Questions. This research provides a question optimization strategy to maximize the validation of ontology entities with a reduced number of questions. We evaluate our approach for the validation of three medical ontologies. We also evaluate the feasibility and efficiency of our mappings validation approach in the context of ontology evolution. These experiments are performed with different versions of SNOMED-CT and ICD9. The obtained experimental results suggest the feasibility and adequacy of our approach to support the validation of interconnected and evolving ontologies. Results also suggest that taking into account RDFS and OWL entailment helps reducing the number of questions and validation time. The application of our approach to validate mapping evolution also shows the difficulty of adapting mapping evolution over time and highlights the importance of semi-automatic validation.

Entropy balance in pure interactions of open quantum systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Urigu, R.

1989-01-01

Processes are considered in which a statistical ensemble w of quantum systems is split into ensembles, or channels (w i ), conditional to the occurrence, with respective probabilities (p i w ), of associated macroscopic effects. These processes are described here by a family of operations T i : w → p i w w iT , which remarkably generalize the usual state reductions of the nondestructive measurements. In a previous work it was proved that the microscopic entropy of the given open system decreases or at most remains constant if all the T i are pure operations, i.e., they transform pure states into pure states; it is proved here that the increase in entropy of the external world, computed as S Tm (w) = - Σ i p i w lg p i w , is sufficient to compensate for such an entropy decrease whenever the T i are all pure operations of the first kind, whereas whenever some T i is pure of the second kind (or nonpure, too), the total entropy, computed as above, may decrease

Dimensions of Openness

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dalsgaard, Christian; Thestrup, Klaus

2015-01-01

The objective of the paper is to present a pedagogical approach to openness. The paper develops a framework for understanding the pedagogical opportunities of openness in education. Based on the pragmatism of John Dewey and sociocultural learning theory, the paper defines openness in education...... as a matter of engaging educational activities in sociocultural practices of a surrounding society. Openness is not only a matter of opening up the existing, but of developing new educational practices that interact with society. The paper outlines three pedagogical dimensions of openness: transparency...... practices. Openness as joint engagement in the world aims at establishing interdependent collaborative relationships between educational institutions and external practices. To achieve these dimensions of openness, educational activities need to change and move beyond the course as the main format...

Development and validation of a local time stepping-based PaSR solver for combustion and radiation modeling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pang, Kar Mun; Ivarsson, Anders; Haider, Sajjad

2013-01-01

In the current work, a local time stepping (LTS) solver for the modeling of combustion, radiative heat transfer and soot formation is developed and validated. This is achieved using an open source computational fluid dynamics code, OpenFOAM. Akin to the solver provided in default assembly i...... library in the edcSimpleFoam solver which was introduced during the 6th OpenFOAM workshop is modified and coupled with the current solver. One of the main amendments made is the integration of soot radiation submodel since this is significant in rich flames where soot particles are formed. The new solver...

OpenOffice y el formato OpenDocument: funciones y compatibilidad

OpenAIRE

Codina, Lluís; Rovira, Cristòfol

2008-01-01

Presentation of the OpenOffice suite and the ODF format. The basic characteristics of OpenOffice and ODF format are presented. The need for the adoption of open-source software and open formats is discussed. Finally, an ODF case study of converting xhtml documents related to an e-learning course is presented.

Open Data Strategies and Experiences to Improve Sharing and Publication of Public Sector Information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura María Gutiérrez Medina

2014-11-01

Full Text Available The Canary Islands receive 10 million tourists every year. Tourism represents a key sector for economic development in the Canaries. This work presents the benefits of open data usages in the tourism sector both in municipalities and in the island government. These public institutions have valuable information that should be shared with other institutions: 600 hotels and apartments, 10,000 bars and restaurants, and more than 15,000 retail businesses. This article describes an open data project to validate and to publish such data across multiple administrations. The main benefits for the public sector are the improvement of the data quality and the interoperability between different administrations.

Allotropes of Phosphorus with Remarkable Stability and Intrinsic Piezoelectricity

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Zhenqing; He, Chaoyu; Ouyang, Tao; Zhang, Chunxiao; Tang, Chao; Römer, Rudolf A.; Zhong, Jianxin

2018-04-01

We construct a class of two-dimensional (2D) phosphorus allotropes by assembling a previously proposed ultrathin metastable phosphorus nanotube into planar structures in different stacking orientations. Based on first-principles methods, the structures, stabilities, and fundamental electronic properties of these allotropes are systematically investigated. Our results show that these 2D van der Waals phosphorene allotropes possess remarkable stabilities due to the strong intertube van der Waals interactions, which cause an energy release of about 30 - 70 meV /atom , depending on their stacking details. Most of them are confirmed to be energetically more favorable than the experimentally viable α -P and β -P . Three of them, showing a relatively higher probability of being synthesized in the future, are further confirmed to be dynamically stable semiconductors with strain-tunable band gaps and intrinsic piezoelectricity, which may have potential applications in nanosized sensors, piezotronics, and energy harvesting in portable electronic nanodevices.

Open access

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Valkenburg, P.M.

2015-01-01

Open access week Van 19 tot en met 25 oktober 2015 vond wereldwijd de Open Access Week plaats. Tijdens deze week werden er over de hele wereld evenementen georganiseerd waar open access een rol speelt. Ook in Nederland zijn er diverse symposia, workshops en debatten georganiseerd zoals het debat in

OpenADR Open Source Toolkit: Developing Open Source Software for the Smart Grid

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McParland, Charles

2011-02-01

Demand response (DR) is becoming an increasingly important part of power grid planning and operation. The advent of the Smart Grid, which mandates its use, further motivates selection and development of suitable software protocols to enable DR functionality. The OpenADR protocol has been developed and is being standardized to serve this goal. We believe that the development of a distributable, open source implementation of OpenADR will benefit this effort and motivate critical evaluation of its capabilities, by the wider community, for providing wide-scale DR services

Remarkable biomimetic chemoselective aerobic oxidation of flavano-ellagitannins found in oak-aged wine.

Science.gov (United States)

Petit, Emilie; Lefeuvre, Dorothée; Jacquet, Rémi; Pouységu, Laurent; Deffieux, Denis; Quideau, Stéphane

2013-10-25

Under the auspices of Bacchus! Acutissimins, natural flavano-ellagitannins, occur in oak-aged wine as a result of a diastereoselective condensation reaction of the flavan-3-ol catechin, a component of grapes, with the C-glucosidic ellagitannin vescalagin, found in oak. The acutissimins are further converted into natural mongolicains and analogues of camelliatannin G in a remarkably chemoselective fashion by simple aerobic oxidation. Copyright © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Open areas and open access

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thorndike, A.M.

1979-01-01

The main objective of the two open areas in the present ISABELLE design has been to provide flexibility with respect to the size and shape of experimental equipment that would eventually be installed there. No permanent building would be installed initially. One possibility would be to enclose each experiment in a temporary structure that would provide weatherproofing and shielding; another possibility would be to erect a permanent building at a later time, when experience has made the needs clearer than they are at present. The secondary objective of the design of open areas has been to keep initial costs as low as practicable. Another objective might be added, however, which we indicate by the term ''open access.'' This note will explore this idea and some design concepts based on it. In the ISABELLE 1977 summer workshop there was considerable discussion of the importance of techniques for inserting large pieces of experimental equipment quickly and removing them with equal ease and speed. Since enclosed halls have certain restrictions in this respect, open areas may be helpful in providing this feature. If the mechanical and electrical aspects could be handled quickly, one might even attempt to reduce the time spent on bureaucratic procedures in order to expedite the introduction of new experiments and new ideas in these areas

Rotational bands in the nuclear sup(168)Er and some remarks on their interpretation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Davidson, W.F.; Dixon, W.R.; Storey, R.S.

1984-01-01

Further analysis of previously published data on sup(168)Er, together with results of new measurements of selected portions of the neutron capture γ-ray spectrum, has resulted in the construction of an improved level spectrum for this nucleus. Altogether 127 excited levels have now been established and grouped into 36 rotational bands. Some remarks on their interpretation are advanced

Validation techniques of agent based modelling for geospatial simulations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Darvishi

2014-10-01

Full Text Available One of the most interesting aspects of modelling and simulation study is to describe the real world phenomena that have specific properties; especially those that are in large scales and have dynamic and complex behaviours. Studying these phenomena in the laboratory is costly and in most cases it is impossible. Therefore, Miniaturization of world phenomena in the framework of a model in order to simulate the real phenomena is a reasonable and scientific approach to understand the world. Agent-based modelling and simulation (ABMS is a new modelling method comprising of multiple interacting agent. They have been used in the different areas; for instance, geographic information system (GIS, biology, economics, social science and computer science. The emergence of ABM toolkits in GIS software libraries (e.g. ESRI’s ArcGIS, OpenMap, GeoTools, etc for geospatial modelling is an indication of the growing interest of users to use of special capabilities of ABMS. Since ABMS is inherently similar to human cognition, therefore it could be built easily and applicable to wide range applications than a traditional simulation. But a key challenge about ABMS is difficulty in their validation and verification. Because of frequent emergence patterns, strong dynamics in the system and the complex nature of ABMS, it is hard to validate and verify ABMS by conventional validation methods. Therefore, attempt to find appropriate validation techniques for ABM seems to be necessary. In this paper, after reviewing on Principles and Concepts of ABM for and its applications, the validation techniques and challenges of ABM validation are discussed.

Validation techniques of agent based modelling for geospatial simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Darvishi, M.; Ahmadi, G.

2014-10-01

One of the most interesting aspects of modelling and simulation study is to describe the real world phenomena that have specific properties; especially those that are in large scales and have dynamic and complex behaviours. Studying these phenomena in the laboratory is costly and in most cases it is impossible. Therefore, Miniaturization of world phenomena in the framework of a model in order to simulate the real phenomena is a reasonable and scientific approach to understand the world. Agent-based modelling and simulation (ABMS) is a new modelling method comprising of multiple interacting agent. They have been used in the different areas; for instance, geographic information system (GIS), biology, economics, social science and computer science. The emergence of ABM toolkits in GIS software libraries (e.g. ESRI's ArcGIS, OpenMap, GeoTools, etc) for geospatial modelling is an indication of the growing interest of users to use of special capabilities of ABMS. Since ABMS is inherently similar to human cognition, therefore it could be built easily and applicable to wide range applications than a traditional simulation. But a key challenge about ABMS is difficulty in their validation and verification. Because of frequent emergence patterns, strong dynamics in the system and the complex nature of ABMS, it is hard to validate and verify ABMS by conventional validation methods. Therefore, attempt to find appropriate validation techniques for ABM seems to be necessary. In this paper, after reviewing on Principles and Concepts of ABM for and its applications, the validation techniques and challenges of ABM validation are discussed.

Open Access @ DTU

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ekstrøm, Jeannette

Open Access is high on the agenda in Denmark and internationally. Denmark has announced a national strategy for Open Access that aims to achieve Open Access to 80% in 2017 and 100% in 2022 to peer review research articles. All public Danish funders as well as H2020 requires that all peer review...... articles that is an outcome of their funding will be Open Access. Uploading your full texts (your final author manuscript after review ) to DTU Orbit is a fundamental part of providing Open Access to your research. We are here to answer all your questions with regards to Open Access and related topics...... such as copyright, DTU Orbit, Open Access journals, APCs, Vouchers etc....

Validity and reliability of the Cohen 10-item Perceived Stress Scale in patients with chronic headache: Persian version.

Science.gov (United States)

Khalili, Robabe; Sirati Nir, Masoud; Ebadi, Abbas; Tavallai, Abbas; Habibi, Mehdi

2017-04-01

The Cohen Perceived Stress Scale is being used widely in various countries. The present study evaluated the validity and reliability of the Cohen 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) in assessing tension headache, migraine, and stress-related diseases in Iran. This study is a methodological and cross-sectional descriptive investigation of 100 patients with chronic headache admitted to the pain clinic of Baqiyatallah Educational and Therapeutic Center. Convenience sampling was used for subject selection. PSS psychometric properties were evaluated in two stages. First, the standard scale was translated. Then, the face validity, content, and construct of the translated version were determined. The average age of participants was 38 years with a standard deviation (SD) of 13.2. As for stress levels, 12% were within the normal range, 36% had an intermediate level, and 52% had a high level of stress. The face validity and scale content were remarkable, and the KMO coefficient was 0.82. Bartlett's test yielded 0.327 which was statistically significant (pstress and chronic headache. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The importance of open data and software: Is energy research lagging behind?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pfenninger, Stefan; DeCarolis, Joseph; Hirth, Lion; Quoilin, Sylvain; Staffell, Iain

2017-01-01

Energy policy often builds on insights gained from quantitative energy models and their underlying data. As climate change mitigation and economic concerns drive a sustained transformation of the energy sector, transparent and well-founded analyses are more important than ever. We assert that models and their associated data must be openly available to facilitate higher quality science, greater productivity through less duplicated effort, and a more effective science-policy boundary. There are also valid reasons why data and code are not open: ethical and security concerns, unwanted exposure, additional workload, and institutional or personal inertia. Overall, energy policy research ostensibly lags behind other fields in promoting more open and reproducible science. We take stock of the status quo and propose actionable steps forward for the energy research community to ensure that it can better engage with decision-makers and continues to deliver robust policy advice in a transparent and reproducible way. - Highlights: • Energy models and data are an important basis for energy policy. • Opening energy models and data benefits actors inside and outside of academia. • Reasons include higher quality science, greater productivity and recognition. • Private barriers must be overcome, but the private and public gains outweigh them. • We provide advice on how and why the community could coordinate a shift to openness.

The Public University in South Africa: Philosophical Remarks on the Notion of "Elitist Knowledge" Production

Science.gov (United States)

Waghid, Yusef

2009-01-01

In my remarks about elitist knowledge production, I firstly try to adjust the perspective from which the university could be analysed; I specifically explore the functions of the university in relation to Habermas's categorisation of knowledge. Secondly, with reference to Derrida's reflections on the university, I reformulate a conception of the…

Comment: Some Remarks on Ethiopia's New Cybercrime Legislation

African Journals Online (AJOL)

If you would like more information about how to print, save, and work with PDFs, Highwire Press provides a helpful Frequently Asked Questions about PDFs. Alternatively, you can download the PDF file directly to your computer, from where it can be opened using a PDF reader. To download the PDF, click the Download link ...

The Earthquake‐Source Inversion Validation (SIV) Project

KAUST Repository

Mai, Paul Martin

2016-04-27

Finite-fault earthquake source inversions infer the (time-dependent) displacement on the rupture surface from geophysical data. The resulting earthquake source models document the complexity of the rupture process. However, multiple source models for the same earthquake, obtained by different research teams, often exhibit remarkable dissimilarities. To address the uncertainties in earthquake-source inversion methods and to understand strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches used, the Source Inversion Validation (SIV) project conducts a set of forward-modeling exercises and inversion benchmarks. In this article, we describe the SIV strategy, the initial benchmarks, and current SIV results. Furthermore, we apply statistical tools for quantitative waveform comparison and for investigating source-model (dis)similarities that enable us to rank the solutions, and to identify particularly promising source inversion approaches. All SIV exercises (with related data and descriptions) and statistical comparison tools are available via an online collaboration platform, and we encourage source modelers to use the SIV benchmarks for developing and testing new methods. We envision that the SIV efforts will lead to new developments for tackling the earthquake-source imaging problem.

The Earthquake‐Source Inversion Validation (SIV) Project

KAUST Repository

Mai, Paul Martin; Schorlemmer, Danijel; Page, Morgan; Ampuero, Jean‐Paul; Asano, Kimiyuki; Causse, Mathieu; Custodio, Susana; Fan, Wenyuan; Festa, Gaetano; Galis, Martin; Gallovic, Frantisek; Imperatori, Walter; Kä ser, Martin; Malytskyy, Dmytro; Okuwaki, Ryo; Pollitz, Fred; Passone, Luca; Razafindrakoto, Hoby; Sekiguchi, Haruko; Song, Seok Goo; Somala, Surendra N.; Thingbaijam, Kiran Kumar; Twardzik, Cedric; van Driel, Martin; Vyas, Jagdish Chandra; Wang, Rongjiang; Yagi, Yuji; Zielke, Olaf

2016-01-01

Finite-fault earthquake source inversions infer the (time-dependent) displacement on the rupture surface from geophysical data. The resulting earthquake source models document the complexity of the rupture process. However, multiple source models for the same earthquake, obtained by different research teams, often exhibit remarkable dissimilarities. To address the uncertainties in earthquake-source inversion methods and to understand strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches used, the Source Inversion Validation (SIV) project conducts a set of forward-modeling exercises and inversion benchmarks. In this article, we describe the SIV strategy, the initial benchmarks, and current SIV results. Furthermore, we apply statistical tools for quantitative waveform comparison and for investigating source-model (dis)similarities that enable us to rank the solutions, and to identify particularly promising source inversion approaches. All SIV exercises (with related data and descriptions) and statistical comparison tools are available via an online collaboration platform, and we encourage source modelers to use the SIV benchmarks for developing and testing new methods. We envision that the SIV efforts will lead to new developments for tackling the earthquake-source imaging problem.

The Earthquake‐Source Inversion Validation (SIV) Project

Science.gov (United States)

Mai, P. Martin; Schorlemmer, Danijel; Page, Morgan T.; Ampuero, Jean-Paul; Asano, Kimiyuki; Causse, Mathieu; Custodio, Susana; Fan, Wenyuan; Festa, Gaetano; Galis, Martin; Gallovic, Frantisek; Imperatori, Walter; Käser, Martin; Malytskyy, Dmytro; Okuwaki, Ryo; Pollitz, Fred; Passone, Luca; Razafindrakoto, Hoby N. T.; Sekiguchi, Haruko; Song, Seok Goo; Somala, Surendra N.; Thingbaijam, Kiran K. S.; Twardzik, Cedric; van Driel, Martin; Vyas, Jagdish C.; Wang, Rongjiang; Yagi, Yuji; Zielke, Olaf

2016-01-01

Finite‐fault earthquake source inversions infer the (time‐dependent) displacement on the rupture surface from geophysical data. The resulting earthquake source models document the complexity of the rupture process. However, multiple source models for the same earthquake, obtained by different research teams, often exhibit remarkable dissimilarities. To address the uncertainties in earthquake‐source inversion methods and to understand strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches used, the Source Inversion Validation (SIV) project conducts a set of forward‐modeling exercises and inversion benchmarks. In this article, we describe the SIV strategy, the initial benchmarks, and current SIV results. Furthermore, we apply statistical tools for quantitative waveform comparison and for investigating source‐model (dis)similarities that enable us to rank the solutions, and to identify particularly promising source inversion approaches. All SIV exercises (with related data and descriptions) and statistical comparison tools are available via an online collaboration platform, and we encourage source modelers to use the SIV benchmarks for developing and testing new methods. We envision that the SIV efforts will lead to new developments for tackling the earthquake‐source imaging problem.

Qualitative Research in Communication. Introductory Remarks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liz Yeomans

2016-02-01

Full Text Available The 20th century’s epistemological turn in social sciences (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994; Punch, 2013 acknowledged the importance of qualitative research methods. The need for this turn was also pointed out by Habermas (1979, who noticed that the way data was collected in social sciences affected the analysis and data interpretation. Research gained a comprehensive character and proposed a phenomenological approach of reality (Guba & Lincoln, 1994; Willig, 2008; Lindlof & Taylor, 2011. Nowadays, we notice a “more confident community of scholars” whose earlier endeavors had “opened up the study of cultures, meanings, symbolic performances, and social practices” (Lindlof & Taylor, 2002, p. xi.

Highly conductive, transparent flexible films based on open rings of multi-walled carbon nanotubes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ko, Wen-Yin; Su, Jun-Wei; Guo, Chian-Hua; Fu, Shu-Juan; Hsu, Chuen-Yuan; Lin, Kuan-Jiuh

2011-01-01

Open rings of multi-walled carbon nanotubes were stacked to form porous networks on a poly(ethylene terephthalate) substrate to form a flexible conducting film (MWCNT-PET) with good electrical conductivity and transparency by a combination of ultrasonic atomization and spin-coating technique. To enhance the electric flexibility, we spin-coated a cast film of poly(vinyl alcohol) onto the MWCNT-PET substrate, which then underwent a thermo-compression process. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy of the cross-sectional morphology illustrates that the film has a robust network with a thickness of ∼ 175 nm, and it remarkably exhibits a sheet resistance of approximately 370 Ω/sq with ∼ 77% transmittance at 550 nm even after 500 bending cycles. This electrical conductivity is much superior to that of other MWCNT-based transparent flexible films.

Glaucoma, Open-Angle

Science.gov (United States)

... Home » Statistics and Data » Glaucoma, Open-angle Listen Glaucoma, Open-angle Open-angle Glaucoma Defined In open-angle glaucoma, the fluid passes ... 2010 2010 U.S. Age-Specific Prevalence Rates for Glaucoma by Age and Race/Ethnicity The prevalence of ...

More than Just Openness: Developing and Validating a Measure of Targeted Parent-Child Communication about Alcohol

OpenAIRE

Miller-Day, Michelle; Kam, Jennifer A.

2010-01-01

Research addressing parent-child communication on the topic of alcohol use relies heavily on assessing frequency of discussions and general assessments of openness in parent-child communication, ignoring the complexity of this communication phenomenon. This study adds to the literature by articulating a conceptualization and developing a measurement of parent-child communication—targeted parent-child communication about alcohol—and comparing the efficacy of targeted parent-child communication...

Rebuilding of Rothe's nozzle measurements with OpenFOAM software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arlemark, Erik; Nedea, Silvia; Markelov, Gennady

2012-01-01

In this paper the dsmcFoam solver is tested and validated for the the three main solver functionalities of 1) free-stream boundary conditions, 2) kinetic intermolecular collision including internal degrees of freedom and 3) gas/surface interactions. The free-stream utility was improved such that a spatially uniform field of particles gets inserted now yielding reliable results for the cells located close to these patches. Implementation of the collision models were validated for two test cases (monatomic gas mixtures and diatomic gas) by observing the equilibration of both the kinetic and internal energies. It was found that the present code had good agreement to the independent codes of HAWK and SMILE as well as to results by G. Bird. The validation of the present codes treatment for the gas/surface interactions was evaluated using the benchmark case of Rothe's nozzle measurements. Results show that the present version of dsmcFoam obtained good agreements for this case compared to the measurements of Rothe for density and temperature. It was also found that the Navier-Stokes solver of OpenFOAM produced reasonable results, even though the local Knudsen number of the flow exceeds the range of applicability for this method, Kn=0.1.

Open-Source Based Testbed for Multioperator 4G/5G Infrastructure Sharing in Virtual Environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ricardo Marco Alaez

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Fourth-Generation (4G mobile networks are based on Long-Term Evolution (LTE technologies and are being deployed worldwide, while research on further evolution towards the Fifth Generation (5G has been recently initiated. 5G will be featured with advanced network infrastructure sharing capabilities among different operators. Therefore, an open-source implementation of 4G/5G networks with this capability is crucial to enable early research in this area. The main contribution of this paper is the design and implementation of such a 4G/5G open-source testbed to investigate multioperator infrastructure sharing capabilities executed in virtual architectures. The proposed design and implementation enable the virtualization and sharing of some of the components of the LTE architecture. A testbed has been implemented and validated with intensive empirical experiments conducted to validate the suitability of virtualizing LTE components in virtual infrastructures (i.e., infrastructures with multitenancy sharing capabilities. The impact of the proposed technologies can lead to significant saving of both capital and operational costs for mobile telecommunication operators.

Heterogeneous compute in computer vision: OpenCL in OpenCV

Science.gov (United States)

Gasparakis, Harris

2014-02-01

We explore the relevance of Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) in Computer Vision, both as a long term vision, and as a near term emerging reality via the recently ratified OpenCL 2.0 Khronos standard. After a brief review of OpenCL 1.2 and 2.0, including HSA features such as Shared Virtual Memory (SVM) and platform atomics, we identify what genres of Computer Vision workloads stand to benefit by leveraging those features, and we suggest a new mental framework that replaces GPU compute with hybrid HSA APU compute. As a case in point, we discuss, in some detail, popular object recognition algorithms (part-based models), emphasizing the interplay and concurrent collaboration between the GPU and CPU. We conclude by describing how OpenCL has been incorporated in OpenCV, a popular open source computer vision library, emphasizing recent work on the Transparent API, to appear in OpenCV 3.0, which unifies the native CPU and OpenCL execution paths under a single API, allowing the same code to execute either on CPU or on a OpenCL enabled device, without even recompiling.

Diesel oil pool fire characteristic under natural ventilation conditions in tunnels with roof openings.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yanfu; Jiang, Juncheng; Zhu, Dezhi

2009-07-15

In order to research the fire characteristic under natural ventilation conditions in tunnels with roof openings, full-scale experiment of tunnel fire is designed and conducted. All the experimental data presented in this paper can be further applied for validation of numerical simulation models and reduced-scale experimental results. The physical model of tunnel with roof openings and the mathematical model of tunnel fire are presented in this paper. The tunnel fire under the same conditions as experiment is simulated using CFD software. From the results, it can be seen that most smoke is discharged directly off the tunnel through roof openings, so roof openings are favorable for exhausting smoke. But along with the decrease of smoke temperatures, some smoke may backflow and mix with the smoke-free layer below, which leads to fall in visibility and is unfavorable for personnel evacuation. So it is necessary to research more efficient ways for improving the smoke removal efficiency, such as early fire detection systems, adequate warning signs and setting tunnel cap.

The Effect of Trade Openness and Income on the Size of a Government

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Taner TURAN

2016-02-01

Full Text Available This paper examines the effect of trade openness and per capita GDP on the size of government for Turkey and South Korea by means of ARDL approach to co-integration. We use different proxies to measure the size of government because not all measures of government size are appropriate to be employed in the estimates. Among the three (four different measures of government size of Korea (Turkey, only one for each country has a co-integrating relationship with openness and per capita GDP. Long run coeffi cients suggest that per capita GDP has a positive and signifi cant effect on the government sizes for Turkey and Korea, implying the validity of the Wagner’s law. However, while openness has a negative effect on government size for Turkey, it has a positive effect for Korea. Our results clearly highlight the importance of choosing an appropriate proxy for government size to reach robust and consistent results.

A Brief History of the Most Remarkable Numbers "e," "i" and "?" in Mathematical Sciences with Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Debnath, Lokenath

2015-01-01

This paper deals with a brief history of the most remarkable Euler numbers "e,"?"i"?and?"?" in mathematical sciences. Included are many properties of the constants "e,"?"i"?and?"?" and their applications in algebra, geometry, physics, chemistry, ecology, business and industry. Special…

2nd International Open and Distance Learning (IODL Symposium

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Reviewed by Murat BARKAN

2006-10-01

Full Text Available This closing remarks prepared and presented by Prof. Dr. Murat BARKAN Anadolu University, Eskisehir, TURKEY DEAR GUESTS, As the 2nd International Open and Distance Learning (IODL Symposium is now drawing to end, I would like to thank you all for your outstanding speeches, distinguished presentations, constructive roundtable and session discussions, and active participation during the last five days. I hope you all share my view that the whole symposium has been a very stimulating and successful experience. Also, on behalf of all the participants, I would like to take this opportunity to thank and congratulate the symposium organization committee for their excellent job in organizing and hosting our 2nd meeting. Throughout the symposium, five workshops, six keynote speeches and 66 papers, which were prepared by more than 150 academicians and practitioners from 23 different countries, reflected remarkable and various views and approaches about open and flexible learning. Besides, all these academic endeavors, 13 educational films were displayed during the symposium. The technology exhibition, hosted by seven companies, was very effective to showcase the current level of the technology and the success of applications of theory into practice. Now I would like to go over what our scholar workshop and keynote presenters shared with us: Prof. Marina McIsaac form Arizona State University dwelled on how to determine research topics worthwhile to be examined and how to choose appropriate research design and methods. She gave us clues on how to get articles published in professional journals. Prof. Colin Latchem from Australia and Prof. Dr. Ali Ekrem Ozkul from Anadolu University pointed to the importance of strategic planning for distance and flexible learning. They highlighted the advantages of strategic planning for policy-makers, planners, managers and staff. Dr. Wolfram Laaser from Fern University of Hagen, presented different multimedia clips and

Attitudes Toward Transgender Men and Women: Development and Validation of a New Measure

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Thomas J Billard

2018-04-01

Full Text Available A series of three studies were conducted to generate, develop, and validate the Attitudes toward Transgender Men and Women (ATTMW scale. In Study 1, 120 American adults responded to an open-ended questionnaire probing various dimensions of their perceptions of transgender individuals and identity. Qualitative thematic analysis generated 200 items based on their responses. In Study 2, 238 American adults completed a questionnaire consisting of the generated items. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA revealed two non-identical 12-item subscales (ATTM and ATTW of the full 24-item scale. In Study 3, 150 undergraduate students completed a survey containing the ATTMW and a number of validity-testing variables. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA verified the single-factor structures of the ATTM and ATTW subscales, and the convergent, discriminant, predictive, and concurrent validities of the ATTMW were also established. Together, our results demonstrate that the ATTMW is a reliable and valid measure of attitudes toward transgender individuals.

Pain-related impairment of daily activities after thoracic surgery: a questionnaire validation.

Science.gov (United States)

Ringsted, Thomas K; Wildgaard, Kim; Kreiner, Svend; Kehlet, Henrik

2013-09-01

Persistent postoperative pain is an acknowledged entity that reduces daily activities. Evaluation of the post-thoracotomy pain syndrome (PTPS) is often measured using traditional pain scales without in-depth questions on pain impairment. Thus, the purpose was to create a procedure-specific questionnaire for assessment of functional impairment due to PTPS. Activities were obtained from the literature supplemented by interviews with patients and surgeons. The questionnaire was validated using the Rasch model in order to describe an underlying pain impairment scale. Four of 17 questions were redundant. The remaining 13 questions from low to intensive activity described functional impairment following persistent pain from thoracotomy and video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS). No evidence for differential item functioning for gender, age or differences between open or VATS, were found. A generalized log-linear Rasch model including local dependence was constructed. Though local dependence influenced reliability, the test-retest reliability estimated under the log-linear Rasch model was high (0.88-0.96). Correlation with items from the Disability of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (quick) questionnaire supported validity (γ = 0.46, P impairment questionnaire measured 2 qualitatively different pain dimensions although highly correlated (γ = 0.76). This study presents method, results and validation of a new unidimensional scale measuring procedure specific functional impairment due to PTPS following open surgery and VATS. Procedure specific tools such as this could provide important outcomes measures for future trials on persistent postsurgical pain states allowing better assessment of interventions (250).

Nurturing reliable and robust open-source scientific software

Science.gov (United States)

Uieda, L.; Wessel, P.

2017-12-01

Scientific results are increasingly the product of software. The reproducibility and validity of published results cannot be ensured without access to the source code of the software used to produce them. Therefore, the code itself is a fundamental part of the methodology and must be published along with the results. With such a reliance on software, it is troubling that most scientists do not receive formal training in software development. Tools such as version control, continuous integration, and automated testing are routinely used in industry to ensure the correctness and robustness of software. However, many scientist do not even know of their existence (although efforts like Software Carpentry are having an impact on this issue; software-carpentry.org). Publishing the source code is only the first step in creating an open-source project. For a project to grow it must provide documentation, participation guidelines, and a welcoming environment for new contributors. Expanding the project community is often more challenging than the technical aspects of software development. Maintainers must invest time to enforce the rules of the project and to onboard new members, which can be difficult to justify in the context of the "publish or perish" mentality. This problem will continue as long as software contributions are not recognized as valid scholarship by hiring and tenure committees. Furthermore, there are still unsolved problems in providing attribution for software contributions. Many journals and metrics of academic productivity do not recognize citations to sources other than traditional publications. Thus, some authors choose to publish an article about the software and use it as a citation marker. One issue with this approach is that updating the reference to include new contributors involves writing and publishing a new article. A better approach would be to cite a permanent archive of individual versions of the source code in services such as Zenodo

Teletandem between French and Brazilian students: Some preliminary remarks

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Liliane SANTOS

2015-12-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACT In its French-Brazilian version, the Teletandem Brazil project enables students from the University of Lille 3 (France and from the State University of São Paulo (Unesp, Brazil, to take part in online exchanges, based on the principles of autonomy and reciprocity. In this work, we will present some preliminary remarks on the construction of cultural identity representations by the students who took part in the project, from 2006 to 2012, the specificity of the exchanges we analyze being that most of the French students involved in them are third generation Portuguese. We will examine the consequences of the introduction of a third culture within exchanges which, linguistically speaking, are bilateral. The French students are often experiencing conflicting feelings toward Brazil and, similarly, the Brazilian students may have conflicting feelings towards Portugal and France. Our preliminary results show that the most successful linguistic exchanges occur when students face their own cultural identity with no feeling of superiority or inferiority.

Remark on state vector construction when flavor mixing exists

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fujii, K.; Shimomura, T.

2006-01-01

In the framework of quantum field theory, we consider the way to construct the one-particle state (with definite 3-momentum) when particle mixing exists, such as in the case of flavor-neutrino mixing. In the preceding report (Prog. Theor. Phys. 112, 901 (2004)), we have examined the structure of expectation values of the flavor neutrino charges (at time t) with respect to a neutrino-source state prepared at time t' (earlier than t). When there is no mixing, each of various contributions to the expectation value is equal, in its dominant part, to the transition probability corresponding to the respective neutrino-production process. On the basis of the assumption that such an equality holds also in the mixing case, we can find an appropriate form of one-flavor-neutrino state with 3-momentum and helicity. Along the same way, we examine the boson case when flavor mixing exists. We give remarks on the relation and difference between the ordinary and the present approaches to flavor oscillation

Spectral-element Seismic Wave Propagation on CUDA/OpenCL Hardware Accelerators

Science.gov (United States)

Peter, D. B.; Videau, B.; Pouget, K.; Komatitsch, D.

2015-12-01

Seismic wave propagation codes are essential tools to investigate a variety of wave phenomena in the Earth. Furthermore, they can now be used for seismic full-waveform inversions in regional- and global-scale adjoint tomography. Although these seismic wave propagation solvers are crucial ingredients to improve the resolution of tomographic images to answer important questions about the nature of Earth's internal processes and subsurface structure, their practical application is often limited due to high computational costs. They thus need high-performance computing (HPC) facilities to improving the current state of knowledge. At present, numerous large HPC systems embed many-core architectures such as graphics processing units (GPUs) to enhance numerical performance. Such hardware accelerators can be programmed using either the CUDA programming environment or the OpenCL language standard. CUDA software development targets NVIDIA graphic cards while OpenCL was adopted by additional hardware accelerators, like e.g. AMD graphic cards, ARM-based processors as well as Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors. For seismic wave propagation simulations using the open-source spectral-element code package SPECFEM3D_GLOBE, we incorporated an automatic source-to-source code generation tool (BOAST) which allows us to use meta-programming of all computational kernels for forward and adjoint runs. Using our BOAST kernels, we generate optimized source code for both CUDA and OpenCL languages within the source code package. Thus, seismic wave simulations are able now to fully utilize CUDA and OpenCL hardware accelerators. We show benchmarks of forward seismic wave propagation simulations using SPECFEM3D_GLOBE on CUDA/OpenCL GPUs, validating results and comparing performances for different simulations and hardware usages.