The strategic control of prospective memory monitoring in response to complex and probabilistic contextual cues.

PubMed

Bugg, Julie M; Ball, B Hunter

2017-07-01

Participants use simple contextual cues to reduce deployment of costly monitoring processes in contexts in which prospective memory (PM) targets are not expected. This study investigated whether this strategic monitoring pattern is observed in response to complex and probabilistic contextual cues. Participants performed a lexical decision task in which words or nonwords were presented in upper or lower locations on screen. The specific condition was informed that PM targets ("tor" syllable) would occur only in words in the upper location, whereas the nonspecific condition was informed that targets could occur in any location or word type. Context was blocked such that word type and location changed every 8 trials. In Experiment 1, the specific condition used the complex contextual cue to reduce monitoring in unexpected contexts relative to the nonspecific condition. This pattern largely was not evidenced when the complex contextual cue was probabilistic (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 confirmed that strategic monitoring is observed for a complex cue that is deterministic, but not one that is probabilistic. Additionally, Experiments 1 and 3 demonstrated a disadvantage associated with strategic monitoring-namely, that the specific condition was less likely to respond to a PM target in an unexpected context. Experiment 3 provided evidence that this disadvantage is attributable to impaired noticing of the target. The novel findings suggest use of a complex contextual cue per se is not a boundary condition for the strategic, context-specific allocation of monitoring processes to support prospective remembering; however, strategic monitoring is constrained by the predictive utility of the complex contextual cue.

Development of the USGS national land-cover database over two decades

USGS Publications Warehouse

Xian, George Z.; Homer, Collin G.; Yang, Limin; Weng, Qihao

2011-01-01

Land-cover composition and change have profound impacts on terrestrial ecosystems. Land-cover and land-use (LCLU) conditions and their changes can affect social and physical environments by altering ecosystem conditions and services. Information about LCLU change is often used to produce landscape-based metrics and evaluate landscape conditions to monitor LCLU status and trends over a specific time interval (Loveland et al. 2002; Coppin et al. 2004; Lunetta et al. 2006). Continuous, accurate, and up-to-date land-cover data are important for natural resource and ecosystem management and are needed to support consistent monitoring of landscape attributes over time. Large-area land-cover information at regional, national, and global scales is critical for monitoring landscape variations over large areas.

Information Extraction and Dependency on Open Government Data (ogd) for Environmental Monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abdulmuttalib, Hussein

2016-06-01

Environmental monitoring practices support decision makers of different government / private institutions, besides environmentalists and planners among others. This support helps them act towards the sustainability of our environment, and also take efficient measures for protecting human beings in general, but it is difficult to explore useful information from 'OGD' and assure its quality for the purpose. On the other hand, Monitoring itself comprises detecting changes as happens, or within the mitigation period range, which means that any source of data, that is to be used for monitoring, should replicate the information related to the period of environmental monitoring, or otherwise it's considered almost useless or history. In this paper the assessment of information extraction and structuring from Open Government Data 'OGD', that can be useful to environmental monitoring is performed, looking into availability, usefulness to environmental monitoring of a certain type, checking its repetition period and dependences. The particular assessment is being performed on a small sample selected from OGD, bearing in mind the type of the environmental change monitored, such as the increase and concentrations of built up areas, and reduction of green areas, or monitoring the change of temperature in a specific area. The World Bank mentioned in its blog that Data is open if it satisfies both conditions of, being technically open, and legally open. The use of Open Data thus, is regulated by published terms of use, or an agreement which implies some conditions without violating the above mentioned two conditions. Within the scope of the paper I wish to share the experience of using some OGD for supporting an environmental monitoring work, that is performed to mitigate the production of carbon dioxide, by regulating energy consumption, and by properly designing the test area's landscapes, thus using Geodesign tactics, meanwhile wish to add to the results achieved by many efforts to make OGD useful In General and specifically for Environmental Monitoring purposes.

Real-Time Remote Monitoring with Data Acquisition System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Faizal Zainal Abidin, Ahmad; Huzaimy Jusoh, Mohammad; James, Elster; Junid, Syed Abdul Mutalib Al; Mohd Yassin, Ahmad Ihsan

2015-11-01

The purpose of this system is to provide monitoring system for an electrical device and enable remote monitoring via web based application. This monitoring system allow the user to monitor the device condition from anywhere as the information will be synchronised to the website. The current and voltage reading of the monitored equipment, ambient temperature and humidity level are monitored and recorded. These parameters will be updated on the web page. All these sensor are connected to the microcontroller and the data will saved in micro secure digital (SD) card and send all the gathered information to a web page using the GPRS service connection synchronously. The collected data will be displayed on the website and the user enable to download the data directly from the website. The system will help user to monitor the devices condition and ambient changes with ease. The system is successfully developed, tested and has been installed at residential area in Taman Cahaya Alam, Section U12, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.

78 FR 73112 - Monitoring System Conditions-Transmission Operations Reliability Standards; Interconnection...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-12-05

..., RM13-14-000 and RM13-15-000] Monitoring System Conditions--Transmission Operations Reliability...) 502-6817, [email protected] . Robert T. Stroh (Legal Information), Office of the General... Reliability Standards ``address the important reliability goal of ensuring that the transmission system is...

SCIENCE BRIEF: CONDITION ASSESSMENT OF COLLECTION SYSTEMS

EPA Science Inventory

To assess the condition of a collection system, data and information are gathered through observation, direct inspection, investigation, and indirect monitoring and reporting. An analysis of the data and information helps determine the structural, operational, and performance sta...

Comparison of multispectral remote-sensing techniques for monitoring subsurface drain conditions. [Imperial Valley, California

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goettelman, R. C.; Grass, L. B.; Millard, J. P.; Nixon, P. R.

1983-01-01

The following multispectral remote-sensing techniques were compared to determine the most suitable method for routinely monitoring agricultural subsurface drain conditions: airborne scanning, covering the visible through thermal-infrared (IR) portions of the spectrum; color-IR photography; and natural-color photography. Color-IR photography was determined to be the best approach, from the standpoint of both cost and information content. Aerial monitoring of drain conditions for early warning of tile malfunction appears practical. With careful selection of season and rain-induced soil-moisture conditions, extensive regional surveys are possible. Certain locations, such as the Imperial Valley, Calif., are precluded from regional monitoring because of year-round crop rotations and soil stratification conditions. Here, farms with similar crops could time local coverage for bare-field and saturated-soil conditions.

An intelligent service matching method for mechanical equipment condition monitoring using the fibre Bragg grating sensor network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Fan; Zhou, Zude; Liu, Quan; Xu, Wenjun

2017-02-01

Due to the advantages of being able to function under harsh environmental conditions and serving as a distributed condition information source in a networked monitoring system, the fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensor network has attracted considerable attention for equipment online condition monitoring. To provide an overall conditional view of the mechanical equipment operation, a networked service-oriented condition monitoring framework based on FBG sensing is proposed, together with an intelligent matching method for supporting monitoring service management. In the novel framework, three classes of progressive service matching approaches, including service-chain knowledge database service matching, multi-objective constrained service matching and workflow-driven human-interactive service matching, are developed and integrated with an enhanced particle swarm optimisation (PSO) algorithm as well as a workflow-driven mechanism. Moreover, the manufacturing domain ontology, FBG sensor network structure and monitoring object are considered to facilitate the automatic matching of condition monitoring services to overcome the limitations of traditional service processing methods. The experimental results demonstrate that FBG monitoring services can be selected intelligently, and the developed condition monitoring system can be re-built rapidly as new equipment joins the framework. The effectiveness of the service matching method is also verified by implementing a prototype system together with its performance analysis.

Life support subsystem monitoring instrumentation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Powell, J. D.; Kostell, G. D.

1974-01-01

The recognition of the need for instrumentation in manned spacecraft life-support subsystems has increased significantly over the past several years. Of the required control and monitoring instrumentation, this paper will focus on the monitoring instrumentation as applied to life-support subsystems. The initial approach used independent sensors, independent sensor signal conditioning circuitry, and independent logic circuitry to provide shutdown protection only. This monitoring system was replaced with a coordinated series of printed circuit cards, each of which contains all the electronics to service one sensor and provide performance trend information, fault detection and isolation information, and shutdown protection. Finally, a review of sensor and instrumentation problems is presented, and the requirement for sensors with built-in signal conditioning and provisions for in situ calibration is discussed.

Wind Turbine Gearbox Oil Filtration and Condition Monitoring

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sheng, Shuangwen

This is an invited presentation for a pre-conference workshop, titled advances and opportunities in lubrication: wind turbine, at the 2015 Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE) Tribology Frontiers Conference held in Denver, CO. It gives a brief overview of wind turbine gearbox oil filtration and condition monitoring by highlighting typical industry practices and challenges. The presentation starts with an introduction by covering recent growth of global wind industry, reliability challenges, benefits of oil filtration and condition monitoring, and financial incentives to conduct wind operation and maintenance research, which includes gearbox oil filtration and condition monitoring work presented herein. Then,more » the presentation moves on to oil filtration by stressing the benefits of filtration, discussing typical main- and offline-loop practices, highlighting important factors considered when specifying a filtration system, and illustrating real-world application challenges through a cold-start example. In the next section on oil condition monitoring, a discussion on oil sample analysis, oil debris monitoring, oil cleanliness measurements and filter analysis is given based on testing results mostly obtained by and at NREL, and by pointing out a few challenges with oil sample analysis. The presentation concludes with a brief touch on future research and development (R and D) opportunities. It is hoping that the information presented can inform the STLE community to start or redirect their R and D work to help the wind industry advance.« less

Informal and formal trail monitoring protocols and baseline conditions: Acadia National Park

USGS Publications Warehouse

Marion, Jeffrey L.; Wimpey, Jeremy F.; Park, L.

2011-01-01

At Acadia National Park, changing visitor use levels and patterns have contributed to an increasing degree of visitor use impacts to natural and cultural resources. To better understand the extent and severity of these resource impacts and identify effective management techniques, the park sponsored this research to develop monitoring protocols, collect baseline data, and identify suggestions for management strategies. Formal and informal trails were surveyed and their resource conditions were assessed and characterized to support park planning and management decision-making.

Evaluating physical habitat condition in the National Lakes Assessment (NLA)

EPA Science Inventory

The NLA and other lake survey and monitoring efforts increasingly rely upon biological assemblage data to define lake condition. Information concerning the multiple dimensions of physical and chemical habitat is necessary to interpret this biological information and meaningfully...

Health Monitoring System for Composite Structures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tang, S. S.; Riccardella, P. C.; Andrews, R. J.; Grady, J. E.; Mucciaradi, A. N.

1996-01-01

An automated system was developed to monitor the health status of composites. It uses the vibration characteristics of composites to identify a component's damage condition. The vibration responses are characterized by a set of signal features defined in the time, frequency and spatial domains. The identification of these changes in the vibration characteristics corresponding to different health conditions was performed using pattern recognition principles. This allows efficient data reduction and interpretation of vast amounts of information. Test components were manufactured from isogrid panels to evaluate performance of the monitoring system. The components were damaged by impact to simulate different health conditions. Free vibration response was induced by a tap test on the test components. The monitoring system was trained using these free vibration responses to identify three different health conditions. They are undamaged vs. damaged, damage location and damage zone size. High reliability in identifying the correct component health condition was achieved by the monitoring system.

Multi-sensor sheets based on large-area electronics for advanced structural health monitoring of civil infrastructure.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-09-01

Structural Health Monitoring has a great potential to provide valuable information about the actual structural : condition and can help optimize the management activities. However, few eective and robust monitoring technology exist which hinders a...

Efforts Toward an Early Warning Crop Monitor for Countries at Risk

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Budde, M. E.; Verdin, J. P.; Barker, B.; Humber, M. L.; Becker-Reshef, I.; Justice, C. O.; Magadzire, T.; Galu, G.; Rodriguez, M.; Jayanthi, H.

2015-12-01

Assessing crop growing conditions is a crucial aspect of monitoring food security in the developing world. One of the core components of the Group on Earth Observations - Global Agricultural Monitoring (GEOGLAM) targets monitoring Countries at Risk (component 3). The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) has a long history of utilizing remote sensing and crop modeling to address food security threats in the form of drought, floods, pest infestation, and climate change in some of the world's most at risk countries. FEWS NET scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center and the University of Maryland Department of Geography have undertaken efforts to address component 3, by promoting the development of a collaborative Early Warning Crop Monitor (EWCM) that would specifically address Countries at Risk. A number of organizations utilize combinations of satellite earth observations, field campaigns, network partner inputs, and crop modeling techniques to monitor crop conditions throughout the world. Agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), and the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) provide agricultural monitoring information and reporting across a broad number of areas at risk and in many cases, organizations routinely report on the same countries. The latter offers an opportunity for collaboration on crop growing conditions among agencies. The reduction of uncertainty and achievement of consensus will help strengthen confidence in decisions to commit resources for mitigation of acute food insecurity and support for resilience and development programs. In addition, the development of a collaborative global EWCM will provide each of the partner agencies with the ability to quickly gather crop condition information for areas where they may not typically work or have access to local networks. Using a framework developed by GEOGLAM for monitoring crop conditions in support of the Agricultural Market Information System, we developed an EWCM system for countries at risk. We present the current status of that implementation and highlight achievements to date along with future plans to support the needs of the global agricultural monitoring community.

The Utility of the Real-Time NASA Land Information System Data for Drought Monitoring Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

White, Kristopher D.; Case, Jonathan L.

2013-01-01

Measurements of soil moisture are a crucial component for the proper monitoring of drought conditions. The large spatial variability of soil moisture complicates the problem. Unfortunately, in situ soil moisture observing networks typically consist of sparse point observations, and conventional numerical model analyses of soil moisture used to diagnose drought are of coarse spatial resolution. Decision support systems such as the U.S. Drought Monitor contain drought impact resolution on sub-county scales, which may not be supported by the existing soil moisture networks or analyses. The NASA Land Information System, which is run with 3 km grid spacing over the eastern United States, has demonstrated utility for monitoring soil moisture. Some of the more useful output fields from the Land Information System are volumetric soil moisture in the 0-10 cm and 40-100 cm layers, column-integrated relative soil moisture, and the real-time green vegetation fraction derived from MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) swath data that are run within the Land Information System in place of the monthly climatological vegetation fraction. While these and other variables have primarily been used in local weather models and other operational forecasting applications at National Weather Service offices, the use of the Land Information System for drought monitoring has demonstrated utility for feedback to the Drought Monitor. Output from the Land Information System is currently being used at NWS Huntsville to assess soil moisture, and to provide input to the Drought Monitor. Since feedback to the Drought Monitor takes place on a weekly basis, weekly difference plots of column-integrated relative soil moisture are being produced by the NASA Short-term Prediction Research and Transition Center and analyzed to facilitate the process. In addition to the Drought Monitor, these data are used to assess drought conditions for monthly feedback to the Alabama Drought Monitoring and Impact Group and the Tennessee Drought Task Force, which are comprised of federal, state, and local agencies and other water resources professionals.

Information support of monitoring of technical condition of buildings in construction risk area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Skachkova, M. E.; Lepihina, O. Y.; Ignatova, V. V.

2018-05-01

The paper presents the results of the research devoted to the development of a model of information support of monitoring buildings technical condition; these buildings are located in the construction risk area. As a result of the visual and instrumental survey, as well as the analysis of existing approaches and techniques, attributive and cartographic databases have been created. These databases allow monitoring defects and damages of buildings located in a 30-meter risk area from the object under construction. The classification of structures and defects of these buildings under survey is presented. The functional capabilities of the developed model and the field of it practical applications are determined.

Assessing COSMO-SkyMed capability for crops identification and monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guarini, R.; Dini, L.

2015-12-01

In the last decade, it has been possible to better understand the impact of agricultural human practices on the global environmental change at different spatial (from local to global) and time (from seasonal to decadal) scales. This has been achieved thanks to: big dataset continuously acquired by Earth Observation (EO) satellites; the improved capabilities of remote sensing techniques in extracting valuable information from the EO datasets; the new EO data policy which allowed unrestricted data usage; the net technologies which allowed to quickly and easily share national, international and market-derived information; an increasingly performing computing technology which allows to massively process large amount of data easier and at decreasing costs. To better understand the environmental impacts of agriculture and to monitor the consequences of human agricultural activities on the biosphere, scientists require to better identify crops and monitor crop conditions over time and space. Traditionally, NDVI time series maps derived from optical sensors have been used to this aim. As well-known this important source of information is conditioned by cloud cover. Unlike passive systems, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) ones are almost insensitive to atmospheric influences; thus, they are especially suitable for crop identification and condition monitoring. Among the other SAR systems currently in orbit, the Italian Space Agency (ASI) COSMO Sky-Med® (CSK®) constellation (X-band, frequency 9.6 GHz, wavelength 3.1 cm), especially for its peculiar high revisit capability (up to four images in 16 days with same acquisition geometry) seems to be particular suitable for providing information in addition and/or in alternative to other optical EO systems. To assess the capability of the CSK® constellation in identifying crops and in monitoring crops condition in 2013 ASI started the "AGRICIDOT" project. Some of the main project achievements will be presented at the congress.

Utilization of wireless structural health monitoring as decision making tools for a condition and reliability-based assessment of railroad bridges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Flanigan, Katherine A.; Johnson, Nephi R.; Hou, Rui; Ettouney, Mohammed; Lynch, Jerome P.

2017-04-01

The ability to quantitatively assess the condition of railroad bridges facilitates objective evaluation of their robustness in the face of hazard events. Of particular importance is the need to assess the condition of railroad bridges in networks that are exposed to multiple hazards. Data collected from structural health monitoring (SHM) can be used to better maintain a structure by prompting preventative (rather than reactive) maintenance strategies and supplying quantitative information to aid in recovery. To that end, a wireless monitoring system is validated and installed on the Harahan Bridge which is a hundred-year-old long-span railroad truss bridge that crosses the Mississippi River near Memphis, TN. This bridge is exposed to multiple hazards including scour, vehicle/barge impact, seismic activity, and aging. The instrumented sensing system targets non-redundant structural components and areas of the truss and floor system that bridge managers are most concerned about based on previous inspections and structural analysis. This paper details the monitoring system and the analytical method for the assessment of bridge condition based on automated data-driven analyses. Two primary objectives of monitoring the system performance are discussed: 1) monitoring fatigue accumulation in critical tensile truss elements; and 2) monitoring the reliability index values associated with sub-system limit states of these members. Moreover, since the reliability index is a scalar indicator of the safety of components, quantifiable condition assessment can be used as an objective metric so that bridge owners can make informed damage mitigation strategies and optimize resource management on single bridge or network levels.

Fiber optic monitoring methods for composite steel-concrete structures based on determination of neutral axis and deformed shape.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-01-01

Structural Health Monitoring has great potential to provide valuable information about the actual structural condition and can help optimize the management activities. However, few effective and robust monitoring methods exist which hinders a nationw...

Advancements in satellite remote sensing for drought monitoring

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Drought monitoring is a key component for effective drought preparedness strategies, providing critical information on current conditions that can be used to trigger mitigation actions to lessen the impact of this natural hazard. However, drought can be both complex and challenging to monitor becau...

Transmission Line Security Monitor

ScienceCinema

None

2017-12-09

The Transmission Line Security Monitor is a multi-sensor monitor that mounts directly on high-voltage transmission lines to detect, characterize and communicate terrorist activity, human tampering and threatening conditions around support towers. For more information about INL's critical infrastructure protection research, visit http://www.facebook.com/idahonationallaboratory.

Fault detection and diagnosis for gas turbines based on a kernelized information entropy model.

PubMed

Wang, Weiying; Xu, Zhiqiang; Tang, Rui; Li, Shuying; Wu, Wei

2014-01-01

Gas turbines are considered as one kind of the most important devices in power engineering and have been widely used in power generation, airplanes, and naval ships and also in oil drilling platforms. However, they are monitored without man on duty in the most cases. It is highly desirable to develop techniques and systems to remotely monitor their conditions and analyze their faults. In this work, we introduce a remote system for online condition monitoring and fault diagnosis of gas turbine on offshore oil well drilling platforms based on a kernelized information entropy model. Shannon information entropy is generalized for measuring the uniformity of exhaust temperatures, which reflect the overall states of the gas paths of gas turbine. In addition, we also extend the entropy to compute the information quantity of features in kernel spaces, which help to select the informative features for a certain recognition task. Finally, we introduce the information entropy based decision tree algorithm to extract rules from fault samples. The experiments on some real-world data show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.

Fault Detection and Diagnosis for Gas Turbines Based on a Kernelized Information Entropy Model

PubMed Central

Wang, Weiying; Xu, Zhiqiang; Tang, Rui; Li, Shuying; Wu, Wei

2014-01-01

Gas turbines are considered as one kind of the most important devices in power engineering and have been widely used in power generation, airplanes, and naval ships and also in oil drilling platforms. However, they are monitored without man on duty in the most cases. It is highly desirable to develop techniques and systems to remotely monitor their conditions and analyze their faults. In this work, we introduce a remote system for online condition monitoring and fault diagnosis of gas turbine on offshore oil well drilling platforms based on a kernelized information entropy model. Shannon information entropy is generalized for measuring the uniformity of exhaust temperatures, which reflect the overall states of the gas paths of gas turbine. In addition, we also extend the entropy to compute the information quantity of features in kernel spaces, which help to select the informative features for a certain recognition task. Finally, we introduce the information entropy based decision tree algorithm to extract rules from fault samples. The experiments on some real-world data show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms. PMID:25258726

Optimization of a Coastal Environmental Monitoring Network Based on the Kriging Method: A Case Study of Quanzhou Bay, China

PubMed Central

Chen, Kai; Ni, Minjie; Wang, Jun; Huang, Dongren; Chen, Huorong; Wang, Xiao; Liu, Mengyang

2016-01-01

Environmental monitoring is fundamental in assessing environmental quality and to fulfill protection and management measures with permit conditions. However, coastal environmental monitoring work faces many problems and challenges, including the fact that monitoring information cannot be linked up with evaluation, monitoring data cannot well reflect the current coastal environmental condition, and monitoring activities are limited by cost constraints. For these reasons, protection and management measures cannot be developed and implemented well by policy makers who intend to solve this issue. In this paper, Quanzhou Bay in southeastern China was selected as a case study; and the Kriging method and a geographic information system were employed to evaluate and optimize the existing monitoring network in a semienclosed bay. This study used coastal environmental monitoring data from 15 sites (including COD, DIN, and PO4-P) to adequately analyze the water quality from 2009 to 2012 by applying the Trophic State Index. The monitoring network in Quanzhou Bay was evaluated and optimized, with the number of sites increased from 15 to 24, and the monitoring precision improved by 32.9%. The results demonstrated that the proposed advanced monitoring network optimization was appropriate for environmental monitoring in Quanzhou Bay. It might provide technical support for coastal management and pollutant reduction in similar areas. PMID:27777951

Optimization of a Coastal Environmental Monitoring Network Based on the Kriging Method: A Case Study of Quanzhou Bay, China.

PubMed

Chen, Kai; Ni, Minjie; Cai, Minggang; Wang, Jun; Huang, Dongren; Chen, Huorong; Wang, Xiao; Liu, Mengyang

2016-01-01

Environmental monitoring is fundamental in assessing environmental quality and to fulfill protection and management measures with permit conditions. However, coastal environmental monitoring work faces many problems and challenges, including the fact that monitoring information cannot be linked up with evaluation, monitoring data cannot well reflect the current coastal environmental condition, and monitoring activities are limited by cost constraints. For these reasons, protection and management measures cannot be developed and implemented well by policy makers who intend to solve this issue. In this paper, Quanzhou Bay in southeastern China was selected as a case study; and the Kriging method and a geographic information system were employed to evaluate and optimize the existing monitoring network in a semienclosed bay. This study used coastal environmental monitoring data from 15 sites (including COD, DIN, and PO 4 -P) to adequately analyze the water quality from 2009 to 2012 by applying the Trophic State Index. The monitoring network in Quanzhou Bay was evaluated and optimized, with the number of sites increased from 15 to 24, and the monitoring precision improved by 32.9%. The results demonstrated that the proposed advanced monitoring network optimization was appropriate for environmental monitoring in Quanzhou Bay. It might provide technical support for coastal management and pollutant reduction in similar areas.

Over-the-horizon, connected home/office (OCHO): situation management of environmental, medical, and security conditions at remote premises via broadband wireless access

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hortos, William S.

2010-04-01

Broadband wireless access standards, together with advances in the development of commercial sensing and actuator devices, enable the feasibility of a consumer service for a multi-sensor system that monitors the conditions within a residence or office: the environment/infrastructure, patient-occupant health, and physical security. The proposed service is a broadband reimplementation and combination of existing services to allow on-demand reports on and management of the conditions by remote subscribers. The flow of on-demand reports to subscribers and to specialists contracted to mitigate out-of-tolerance conditions is the foreground process. Service subscribers for an over-the-horizon connected home/office (OCHO) monitoring system are the occupant of the premises and agencies, contracted by the service provider, to mitigate or resolve any observed out-of-tolerance condition(s) at the premises. Collectively, these parties are the foreground users of the OCHO system; the implemented wireless standards allow the foreground users to be mobile as they request situation reports on demand from the subsystems on remote conditions that comprise OCHO via wireless devices. An OCHO subscriber, i.e., a foreground user, may select the level of detail found in on-demand reports, i.e., the amount of information displayed in the report of monitored conditions at the premises. This is one context of system operations. While foreground reports are sent only periodically to subscribers, the information generated by the monitored conditions at the premises is continuous and is transferred to a background configuration of servers on which databases reside. These databases are each used, generally, in non-real time, for the assessment and management of situations defined by attributes like those being monitored in the foreground by OCHO. This is the second context of system operations. Context awareness and management of conditions at the premises by a second group of analysts and decision makers who extract information from the OCHO data in the databases form the foundation of the situation management problem.

Wireless sensing system for bridge condition assessment and health monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gangone, Michael V.; Whelan, Matthew J.; Janoyan, Kerop D.

2009-03-01

Discussed in this paper is the deployment of a universal and low-cost dense wireless sensor system for structural monitoring, load rating and condition assessment of bridges. The wireless sensor system developed is designed specifically for diagnostic bridge monitoring, providing independent conditioning for both accelerometers and strain transducers in addition to high-rate wireless data transmission. The system was field deployed on a three span simply supported bridge superstructure, where strain and acceleration measurements were obtained simultaneously and in realtime at critical locations under several loading conditions, providing reliable quantitative information as to the actual performance level of the bridge. Monitoring was also conducted as the bridge was subjected to various controlled damage scenarios on the final day of testing. Select cases of detected damage using strain and modal based analysis are presented.

An online condition monitoring system implemented an internet connectivity and FTP for low speed slew bearing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Caesarendra, W.; Kosasih, B.; Tjahjowidodo, T.; Ariyanto, M.; Daryl, LWQ; Pamungkas, D.

2018-04-01

Rapid and reliable information in slew bearing maintenance is not trivial issue. This paper presents the online monitoring system to assist maintenance engineer in order to monitor the bearing condition of low speed slew bearing in sheet metal company. The system is able to pass the vibration information from the place where the bearing and accelerometer sensors are attached to the data center; and from the data center it can be access by opening the online monitoring website from any place and by any person. The online monitoring system is built using some programming languages such as C language, MATLAB, PHP, HTML and CSS. Generally, the flow process is start with the automatic vibration data acquisition; then features are calculated from the acquired vibration data. These features are then sent to the data center; and form the data center, the vibration features can be seen through the online monitoring website. This online monitoring system has been successfully applied in School of Mechanical, Materials and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Wollongong.

Research on snow cover monitoring of Northeast China using Fengyun Geostationary Satellite

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Tong; Gu, Lingjia; Ren, Ruizhi; Zhou, TIngting

2017-09-01

Snow cover information has great significance for monitoring and preventing snowstorms. With the development of satellite technology, geostationary satellites are playing more important roles in snow monitoring. Currently, cloud interference is a serious problem for obtaining accurate snow cover information. Therefore, the cloud pixels located in the MODIS snow products are usually replaced by cloud-free pixels around the day, which ignores snow cover dynamics. FengYun-2(FY-2) is the first generation of geostationary satellite in our country which complements the polar orbit satellite. The snow cover monitoring of Northeast China using FY-2G data in January and February 2016 is introduced in this paper. First of all, geometric and radiometric corrections are carried out for visible and infrared channels. Secondly, snow cover information is extracted according to its characteristics in different channels. Multi-threshold judgment methods for the different land types and similarity separation techniques are combined to discriminate snow and cloud. Furthermore, multi-temporal data is used to eliminate cloud effect. Finally, the experimental results are compared with the MOD10A1 and MYD10A1 (MODIS daily snow cover) product. The MODIS product can provide higher resolution of the snow cover information in cloudless conditions. Multi-temporal FY-2G data can get more accurate snow cover information in cloudy conditions, which is beneficial for monitoring snowstorms and climate changes.

More than just consumers: Integrating local observations into drought monitoring to better support decision making

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferguson, D. B.; Masayesva, A.; Meadow, A. M.; Crimmins, M.

2016-12-01

Drought monitoring and drought planning are complex endeavors. Measures of precipitation or streamflow provide little context for understanding how social and environmental systems impacted by drought are responding. In arid and semi-arid regions of the world, this challenge is particularly acute since social-ecological systems are already well-adapted to dry conditions. Understanding what drought means in these regions is an important first step in developing a decision-relevant monitoring system. Traditional drought indices may be of some use, but local observations may ultimately be more relevant for informing difficult decisions in response to unusually dry conditions. This presentation will focus on insights gained from a collaborative project between the University of Arizona and the Hopi Tribe-a Native American community in the U.S. Southwest-to develop a drought information system that is responsive to local needs. The primary goal of the project was to develop a system that: is based on how drought is experienced by Hopi citizens and resource managers, can incorporate local observations of drought impacts as well as conventional indicators, and brings together local expertise with conventional science-based observations. This kind of drought monitoring system can harnesses as much available information as possible to inform resource managers, political leaders, and citizens about drought conditions, but such a system can also engage these local drought stakeholders in observing, thinking about, and helping guide planning for drought.

A remote condition monitoring system for wind-turbine based DG systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, X.; Wang, G.; Cross, P.; Zhang, X.

2012-05-01

In this paper, a remote condition monitoring system is proposed, which fundamentally consists of real-time monitoring modules on the plant side, a remote support centre and the communications between them. The paper addresses some of the key issues related on the monitoring system, including i) the implementation and configuration of a VPN connection, ii) an effective database system to be able to handle huge amount of monitoring data, and iii) efficient data mining techniques to convert raw data into useful information for plant assessment. The preliminary results have demonstrated that the proposed system is practically feasible and can be deployed to monitor the emerging new energy generation systems.

Ranch business planning and resource monitoring for rangeland sustainability

Treesearch

Kristie A. Maczko; John A. Tanaka; Michael Smith; Cindy Garretson-Weibel; Stanley F. Hamilton; John E. Mitchell; Gene Fults; Charles Stanley; Dick Loper; Larry D. Bryant; J. K. (Rooter) Brite

2012-01-01

Aligning a rancher's business plan goals with the capability of the ranch's rangeland resources improves the viability and sustainability of family ranches. Strategically monitoring the condition of soil, water, vegetation, wildlife, livestock production, and economics helps inform business plan goals. Business planning and resource monitoring help keep...

Retrieval monitoring is influenced by information value: the interplay between importance and confidence on false memory.

PubMed

McDonough, Ian M; Bui, Dung C; Friedman, Michael C; Castel, Alan D

2015-10-01

The perceived value of information can influence one's motivation to successfully remember that information. This study investigated how information value can affect memory search and evaluation processes (i.e., retrieval monitoring). In Experiment 1, participants studied unrelated words associated with low, medium, or high values. Subsequent memory tests required participants to selectively monitor retrieval for different values. False memory effects were smaller when searching memory for high-value than low-value words, suggesting that people more effectively monitored more important information. In Experiment 2, participants studied semantically-related words, and the need for retrieval monitoring was reduced at test by using inclusion instructions (i.e., endorsement of any word related to the studied words) compared with standard instructions. Inclusion instructions led to increases in false recognition for low-value, but not for high-value words, suggesting that under standard-instruction conditions retrieval monitoring was less likely to occur for important information. Experiment 3 showed that words retrieved with lower confidence were associated with more effective retrieval monitoring, suggesting that the quality of the retrieved memory influenced the degree and effectiveness of monitoring processes. Ironically, unless encouraged to do so, people were less likely to carefully monitor important information, even though people want to remember important memories most accurately. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Establishment of monitoring plots and evaluation of trees injured by ozone

Treesearch

Daniel Duriscoe; Kenneth Stolte; John Pronos

1996-01-01

By establishing long–term monitoring plots, it is possible to record environmental and biological conditions of the plot and individual trees, evaluate the condition of crowns of trees in the plot, and determine the extent of ozone injury to western conifers. This chapter recommends various methods for recording data and selecting plots, and provides information for...

Using daily field-scale evapotranspiration (ET) derived with multi-sensor data fusion for monitoring crop condition and yield in central Iowa, United States

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Drought has significant impacts over broad spatial and temporal scales, and information about the timing and extent of such conditions is of critical importance to many end users in the agricultural and water resource management communities. The ability to accurately monitor effects on crops and pr...

Personnel reliability impact on petrochemical facilities monitoring system's failure skipping probability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kostyukov, V. N.; Naumenko, A. P.

2017-08-01

The paper dwells upon urgent issues of evaluating impact of actions conducted by complex technological systems operators on their safe operation considering application of condition monitoring systems for elements and sub-systems of petrochemical production facilities. The main task for the research is to distinguish factors and criteria of monitoring system properties description, which would allow to evaluate impact of errors made by personnel on operation of real-time condition monitoring and diagnostic systems for machinery of petrochemical facilities, and find and objective criteria for monitoring system class, considering a human factor. On the basis of real-time condition monitoring concepts of sudden failure skipping risk, static and dynamic error, monitoring systems, one may solve a task of evaluation of impact that personnel's qualification has on monitoring system operation in terms of error in personnel or operators' actions while receiving information from monitoring systems and operating a technological system. Operator is considered as a part of the technological system. Although, personnel's behavior is usually a combination of the following parameters: input signal - information perceiving, reaction - decision making, response - decision implementing. Based on several researches on behavior of nuclear powers station operators in USA, Italy and other countries, as well as on researches conducted by Russian scientists, required data on operator's reliability were selected for analysis of operator's behavior at technological facilities diagnostics and monitoring systems. The calculations revealed that for the monitoring system selected as an example, the failure skipping risk for the set values of static (less than 0.01) and dynamic (less than 0.001) errors considering all related factors of data on reliability of information perception, decision-making, and reaction fulfilled is 0.037, in case when all the facilities and error probability are under control - not more than 0.027. In case when only pump and compressor units are under control, the failure skipping risk is not more than 0.022, when the probability of error in operator's action is not more than 0.011. The work output shows that on the basis of the researches results an assessment of operators' reliability can be made in terms of almost any kind of production, but considering only technological capabilities, since operators' psychological and general training considerable vary in different production industries. Using latest technologies of engineering psychology and design of data support systems, situation assessment systems, decision-making and responding system, as well as achievement in condition monitoring in various production industries one can evaluate hazardous condition skipping risk probability considering static, dynamic errors and human factor.

System and Method for Monitoring Distributed Asset Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gorinevsky, Dimitry (Inventor)

2015-01-01

A computer-based monitoring system and monitoring method implemented in computer software for detecting, estimating, and reporting the condition states, their changes, and anomalies for many assets. The assets are of same type, are operated over a period of time, and outfitted with data collection systems. The proposed monitoring method accounts for variability of working conditions for each asset by using regression model that characterizes asset performance. The assets are of the same type but not identical. The proposed monitoring method accounts for asset-to-asset variability; it also accounts for drifts and trends in the asset condition and data. The proposed monitoring system can perform distributed processing of massive amounts of historical data without discarding any useful information where moving all the asset data into one central computing system might be infeasible. The overall processing is includes distributed preprocessing data records from each asset to produce compressed data.

HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) literature in Japan: A critical review

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hane, G.J.

1988-02-01

Japanese businessmen in the heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVACandR) industry consider the monitoring of technical and market developments in the United States to be a normal part of their business. In contrast, efforts by US businessmen to monitor Japanese HVAC and R developments are poorly developed. To begin to redress this imbalance, this report establishes the groundwork for a more effective system for use in monitoring Japanese HVAC and R literature. Discussions of a review of the principal HVAC and R publications in Japan and descriptions of the type of information contained in each of those publications aremore » included in this report. Since the Japanese HVAC and R literature is abundant, this report also provides practical suggestions on how a researcher or research manager can limit the monitoring effort to the publications and type of information that would most likely be of greatest value.« less

78 FR 53168 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission to OMB for Reinstatement, Without Change, of...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-08-28

...The NCUA intends to submit the following information collection to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. This information collection relates to NCUA rules and regulations, which require a federal credit union (FCU) to monitor its eligibility to qualify for a higher fidelity coverage deductible and to notify the NCUA if its financial condition changes resulting in the loss of that eligibility for the higher deductible. This information collection notice is published to obtain comments from the public. This requirement enables NCUA to monitor the FCU's financial condition for safety and soundness purposes and helps to assure that FCUs are properly and adequately protected against potential losses due to insider abuse such as fraud and embezzlement.

The effects of divided attention at study and reporting procedure on regulation and monitoring for episodic recall.

PubMed

Sauer, James; Hope, Lorraine

2016-09-01

Eyewitnesses regulate the level of detail (grain size) reported to balance competing demands for informativeness and accuracy. However, research to date has predominantly examined metacognitive monitoring for semantic memory tasks, and used relatively artificial phased reporting procedures. Further, although the established role of confidence in this regulation process may affect the confidence-accuracy relation for volunteered responses in predictable ways, previous investigations of the confidence-accuracy relation for eyewitness recall have largely overlooked the regulation of response granularity. Using a non-phased paradigm, Experiment 1 compared reporting and monitoring following optimal and sub-optimal (divided attention) encoding conditions. Participants showed evidence of sacrificing accuracy for informativeness, even when memory quality was relatively weak. Participants in the divided (cf. full) attention condition showed reduced accuracy for fine- but not coarse-grained responses. However, indices of discrimination and confidence diagnosticity showed no effect of divided attention. Experiment 2 compared the effects of divided attention at encoding on reporting and monitoring using both non-phased and 2-phase procedures. Divided attention effects were consistent with Experiment 1. However, compared to those in the non-phased condition, participants in the 2-phase condition displayed a more conservative control strategy, and confidence ratings were less diagnostic of accuracy. When memory quality was reduced, although attempts to balance informativeness and accuracy increased the chance of fine-grained response errors, confidence provided an index of the likely accuracy of volunteered fine-grained responses for both condition. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Towards a geophysical decision-support system for monitoring and managing unstable slopes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chambers, J. E.; Meldrum, P.; Wilkinson, P. B.; Uhlemann, S.; Swift, R. T.; Inauen, C.; Gunn, D.; Kuras, O.; Whiteley, J.; Kendall, J. M.

2017-12-01

Conventional approaches for condition monitoring, such as walk over surveys, remote sensing or intrusive sampling, are often inadequate for predicting instabilities in natural and engineered slopes. Surface observations cannot detect the subsurface precursors to failure events; instead they can only identify failure once it has begun. On the other hand, intrusive investigations using boreholes only sample a very small volume of ground and hence small scale deterioration process in heterogeneous ground conditions can easily be missed. It is increasingly being recognised that geophysical techniques can complement conventional approaches by providing spatial subsurface information. Here we describe the development and testing of a new geophysical slope monitoring system. It is built around low-cost electrical resistivity tomography instrumentation, combined with integrated geotechnical logging capability, and coupled with data telemetry. An automated data processing and analysis workflow is being developed to streamline information delivery. The development of this approach has provided the basis of a decision-support tool for monitoring and managing unstable slopes. The hardware component of the system has been operational at a number of field sites associated with a range of natural and engineered slopes for up to two years. We report on the monitoring results from these sites, discuss the practicalities of installing and maintaining long-term geophysical monitoring infrastructure, and consider the requirements of a fully automated data processing and analysis workflow. We propose that the result of this development work is a practical decision-support tool that can provide near-real-time information relating to the internal condition of problematic slopes.

Monitoring Engine Vibrations And Spectrum Of Exhaust

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Martinez, Carol L.; Randall, Michael R.; Reinert, John W.

1991-01-01

Real-time computation of intensities of peaks in visible-light emission spectrum of exhaust combined with real-time spectrum analysis of vibrations into developmental monitoring technique providing up-to-the-second information on conditions of critical bearings in engine. Conceived to monitor conditions of bearings in turbopump suppling oxygen to Space Shuttle main engine, based on observations that both vibrations in bearings and intensities of visible light emitted at specific wavelengths by exhaust plume of engine indicate wear and incipient failure of bearings. Applicable to monitoring "health" of other machinery via spectra of vibrations and electromagnetic emissions from exhausts. Concept related to one described in "Monitoring Bearing Vibrations For Signs Of Damage", (MFS-29734).

Has Virginia pine declined? The use of Forest Health Monitoring and other information in the determination

Treesearch

William G. Burkman; William A. Bechtold

2000-01-01

This paper examines the current status of Virginia pine, focusing on Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) results and using Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) information to determine if Virginia pine is showing a decline. An examination of crown condition data from live trees in the FHM program from 1991 through 1997 showed that Virginia pine had significantly...

Has Virginia pine declined? The use of forest health monitoring and other information in the determination

Treesearch

William G. Burkman; William A. Bechtold

2000-01-01

This paper examines the current status of Virginia pine, focusing on Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) results and using Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) information to determine if Virginia pine is showing a decline. An examination of crown condition data from live trees in the FHM program from 1991 through 1997 showed that Virginia pine had significantly poorer crown...

Remote Monitoring of Post-eruption Volcano Environment Based-On Wireless Sensor Network (WSN): The Mount Sinabung Case

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Soeharwinto; Sinulingga, Emerson; Siregar, Baihaqi

2017-01-01

An accurate information can be useful for authorities to make good policies for preventive and mitigation after volcano eruption disaster. Monitoring of environmental parameters of post-eruption volcano provides an important information for authorities. Such monitoring system can be develop using the Wireless Network Sensor technology. Many application has been developed using the Wireless Sensor Network technology, such as floods early warning system, sun radiation mapping, and watershed monitoring. This paper describes the implementation of a remote environment monitoring system of mount Sinabung post-eruption. The system monitor three environmental parameters: soil condition, water quality and air quality (outdoor). Motes equipped with proper sensors, as components of the monitoring system placed in sample locations. The measured value from the sensors periodically sends to data server using 3G/GPRS communication module. The data can be downloaded by the user for further analysis.The measurement and data analysis results generally indicate that the environmental parameters in the range of normal/standard condition. The sample locations are safe for living and suitable for cultivation, but awareness is strictly required due to the uncertainty of Sinabung status.

Systems and methods of monitoring acoustic pressure to detect a flame condition in a gas turbine

DOEpatents

Ziminsky, Willy Steve [Simpsonville, SC; Krull, Anthony Wayne [Anderson, SC; Healy, Timothy Andrew , Yilmaz, Ertan

2011-05-17

A method may detect a flashback condition in a fuel nozzle of a combustor. The method may include obtaining a current acoustic pressure signal from the combustor, analyzing the current acoustic pressure signal to determine current operating frequency information for the combustor, and indicating that the flashback condition exists based at least in part on the current operating frequency information.

U.S National cropland soil moisture monitoring using SMAP

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Crop condition information is critical for public and private sector decision making that concerns agricultural policy, food production, food security, and food commodity prices. Crop conditions change quickly due to various growing condition events, such as temperature extremes, soil moisture defic...

Frontotemporal hypoactivity during a reality monitoring paradigm is associated with delusions in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

PubMed

Thoresen, Christian; Endestad, Tor; Sigvartsen, Niels Petter B; Server, Andres; Bolstad, Ingeborg; Johansson, Mikael; Andreassen, Ole A; Jensen, Jimmy

2014-01-01

Impaired monitoring of internally generated information has been proposed to be one component in the development and maintenance of delusions. The present study investigated the neural correlates underlying the monitoring processes and whether they were associated with delusions. Twenty healthy controls and 19 patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders were administrated a reality monitoring paradigm during functional magnetic resonance imaging. During encoding participants were instructed to associate a statement with either a presented (viewed condition) or an imagined picture (imagined condition). During the monitoring session in the scanner, participants were presented with old and new statements and their task was to identify whether a given statement was associated with the viewed condition, imagined condition, or if it was new. Patients showed significantly reduced accuracy in the imagined condition with performance negatively associated with degree of delusions. This was accompanied with reduced activity in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and left hippocampus in the patient group. The severity of delusions was negatively correlated with the blood-oxygenation-level dependent response in the left hippocampus. The results suggest that weakened monitoring is associated with delusions in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder, and that this may be mediated by a frontotemporal dysfunction.

New Resources for Collecting Psychological Conditions Information

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-12-01

about personnel security investigations, and presents additional recommendations to assist investigators who must collect psychological conditions...After it appears in the Monitor, add the article by the American Psychological Association’s ethics director to the investigator training program. 3...person concept. Available, reliable information about the person, past and present , favorable and unfavorable, should be considered in reaching a

Arctic BioMap: Building Participatory Technologies for Community-Specific Environmental Monitoring and Decision Making in the North

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murray, M. S.; Panikkar, B.; Liang, S.; Kutz, S.

2016-12-01

The Arctic continues to undergo unprecedented and accelerated system-wide environmental change. For people who live in the north this presents challenges to resource management, subsistence, health and well-being, and yet, there is very little community-specific data on wildlife (including wildlife health), local environmental conditions and emerging hazards in Northern Canada. A novel approach that integrates community expertise with developing technologies can simplify data collection and improve understanding of current and future conditions. It can also improve our ability to manage and adapt to the rapidly transforming Arctic. Arctic BioMap is a data platform for real-time monitoring and a geospatial informational database of wildlife and environmental information useful for assessment, research, management, and education. It enables monitoring of wildlife and environmental variables including hazards to inform decision-making at multiples scales. Using participatory technologies Arctic BioMap incorporates indigenous research needs and the ensuing data can be used to inform policy making. Arctic BioMap provides a forum for continuous exchange and communication among community members, scientists, resources managers, and other stakeholders.

A simulation evaluation of the engine monitoring and control system display

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abbott, Terence S.

1990-01-01

The Engine Monitoring and Control System (E-MACS) display is a new concept for an engine instrument display, the purpose of which is to provide an enhanced means for a pilot to control and monitor aircraft engine performance. It provides graphically-presented information about performance capabilities, current performance, and engine component or subsystem operational conditions relative to nominal conditions. The concept was evaluated by sixteen pilot-subjects against a traditional, state-of-the-art electronic engine display format. The results of this evaluation showed a substantial pilot preference for the E-MACS display relative to the traditional display. The results of the failure detection portion of the evaluation showed a 100 percent detection rate for the E-MACS display relative to a 57 percent rate for the traditional display. From these results, it is concluded that by providing this type of information in the cockpit, a reduction in pilot workload and an enhanced ability for detecting degraded or off-nominal conditions is probable, thus leading to an increase in operational safety.

Advanced Monitoring Technology: Opportunities and Challenges - A Path Forward for EPA and States

EPA Science Inventory

Rapid changes in monitoring technology have the potential to dramatically improve environmental protection by providing industry, government, and the public with more complete and real-time information on pollution releases and environmental conditions. With more real-time monito...

Sensor network architecture for monitoring turtles on seashore

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carvajal-Gámez, Blanca E.; Cruz, Victor; Díaz-Casco, Manuel A.; Franco, Andrea; Escobar, Carolina; Colin, Abilene; Carreto-Arellano, Chadwick

2017-04-01

In the last decade, advances in information and communication technologies have made it possible to diversify the use of sensor networks in different areas of knowledge (medicine, education, militia, urbanization, protection of the environment, etc.). At present, this type of tools is used to develop applications that allow the identification and monitoring of endangered animals in their natural habitat; however, there are still limitations because some of the devices used alter the behavior of the animals, as in the case of sea turtles. Research and monitoring of sea turtles is of vital importance in identifying possible threats and ensuring their preservation, the behavior of this species (migration, reproduction, and nesting) is highly related to environmental conditions. Because of this, behavioral changes information of this species can be used to monitor global climatic conditions. This work presents the design, development and implementation of an architecture for the monitoring and identification of the sea turtle using sensor networks. This will allow to obtain information for the different investigations with a greater accuracy than the conventional techniques, through non-invasive means for the species and its habitat. The proposed architecture contemplates the use of new technology devices, selfconfigurable, with low energy consumption, interconnection with various communication protocols and sustainable energy supply (solar, wind, etc.).

Noncontact Monitoring of Respiration by Dynamic Air-Pressure Sensor.

PubMed

Takarada, Tohru; Asada, Tetsunosuke; Sumi, Yoshihisa; Higuchi, Yoshinori

2015-01-01

We have previously reported that a dynamic air-pressure sensor system allows respiratory status to be visually monitored for patients in minimally clothed condition. The dynamic air-pressure sensor measures vital information using changes in air pressure. To utilize this device in the field, we must clarify the influence of clothing conditions on measurement. The present study evaluated use of the dynamic air-pressure sensor system as a respiratory monitor that can reliably detect change in breathing patterns irrespective of clothing. Twelve healthy volunteers reclined on a dental chair positioned horizontally with the sensor pad for measuring air-pressure signals corresponding to respiration placed on the seat back of the dental chair in the central lumbar region. Respiratory measurements were taken under 2 conditions: (a) thinly clothed (subject lying directly on the sensor pad); and (b) thickly clothed (subject lying on the sensor pad covered with a pressure-reducing sheet). Air-pressure signals were recorded and time integration values for air pressure during each expiration were calculated. This information was compared with expiratory tidal volume measured simultaneously by a respirometer connected to the subject via face mask. The dynamic air-pressure sensor was able to receive the signal corresponding to respiration regardless of clothing conditions. A strong correlation was identified between expiratory tidal volume and time integration values for air pressure during each expiration for all subjects under both clothing conditions (0.840-0.988 for the thinly clothed condition and 0.867-0.992 for the thickly clothed condition). These results show that the dynamic air-pressure sensor is useful for monitoring respiratory physiology irrespective of clothing.

Humans as Sensors: Assessing the Information Value of Qualitative Farmer's Crop Condition Surveys for Crop Yield Monitoring and Forecasting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beguería, S.

2017-12-01

While large efforts are devoted to developing crop status monitoring and yield forecasting systems trough the use of Earth observation data (mostly remotely sensed satellite imagery) and observational and modeled weather data, here we focus on the information value of qualitative data on crop status from direct observations made by humans. This kind of data has a high value as it reflects the expert opinion of individuals directly involved in the development of the crop. However, they have issues that prevent their direct use in crop monitoring and yield forecasting systems, such as their non-spatially explicit nature, or most importantly their qualitative nature. Indeed, while the human brain is good at categorizing the status of physical systems in terms of qualitative scales (`very good', `good', `fair', etcetera), it has difficulties in quantifying it in physical units. This has prevented the incorporation of this kind of data into systems that make extensive use of numerical information. Here we show an example of using qualitative crop condition data to estimate yields of the most important crops in the US early in the season. We use USDA weekly crop condition reports, which are based on a sample of thousands of reporters including mostly farmers and people in direct contact with them. These reporters provide subjective evaluations of crop conditions, in a scale including five levels ranging from `very poor' to `excellent'. The USDA report indicates, for each state, the proportion of reporters fort each condition level. We show how is it possible to model the underlying non-observed quantitative variable that reflects the crop status on each state, and how this model is consistent across states and years. Furthermore, we show how this information can be used to monitor the status of the crops and to produce yield forecasts early in the season. Finally, we discuss approaches for blending this information source with other, more classical earth data sources such as remote sensing or weather data, in the context of hierarchical regression models.

Total On-line Access Data System (TOADS): Phase II Final Report for the Period August 2002 - August 2004

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yuracko, K. L.; Parang, M.; Landguth, D. C.

2004-09-13

TOADS (Total On-line Access Data System) is a new generation of real-time monitoring and information management system developed to support unattended environmental monitoring and long-term stewardship of U.S. Department of Energy facilities and sites. TOADS enables project managers, regulators, and stakeholders to view environmental monitoring information in realtime over the Internet. Deployment of TOADS at government facilities and sites will reduce the cost of monitoring while increasing confidence and trust in cleanup and long term stewardship activities. TOADS: Reliably interfaces with and acquires data from a wide variety of external databases, remote systems, and sensors such as contaminant monitors, areamore » monitors, atmospheric condition monitors, visual surveillance systems, intrusion devices, motion detectors, fire/heat detection devices, and gas/vapor detectors; Provides notification and triggers alarms as appropriate; Performs QA/QC on data inputs and logs the status of instruments/devices; Provides a fully functional data management system capable of storing, analyzing, and reporting on data; Provides an easy-to-use Internet-based user interface that provides visualization of the site, data, and events; and Enables the community to monitor local environmental conditions in real time. During this Phase II STTR project, TOADS has been developed and successfully deployed for unattended facility, environmental, and radiological monitoring at a Department of Energy facility.« less

Stennis Space Center's approach to liquid rocket engine health monitoring using exhaust plume diagnostics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gardner, D. G.; Tejwani, G. D.; Bircher, F. E.; Loboda, J. A.; Van Dyke, D. B.; Chenevert, D. J.

1991-01-01

Details are presented of the approach used in a comprehensive program to utilize exhaust plume diagnostics for rocket engine health-and-condition monitoring and assessing SSME component wear and degradation. This approach incorporates both spectral and video monitoring of the exhaust plume. Video monitoring provides qualitative data for certain types of component wear while spectral monitoring allows both quantitative and qualitative information. Consideration is given to spectral identification of SSME materials and baseline plume emissions.

Infrared thermography for condition monitoring - A review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bagavathiappan, S.; Lahiri, B. B.; Saravanan, T.; Philip, John; Jayakumar, T.

2013-09-01

Temperature is one of the most common indicators of the structural health of equipment and components. Faulty machineries, corroded electrical connections, damaged material components, etc., can cause abnormal temperature distribution. By now, infrared thermography (IRT) has become a matured and widely accepted condition monitoring tool where the temperature is measured in real time in a non-contact manner. IRT enables early detection of equipment flaws and faulty industrial processes under operating condition thereby, reducing system down time, catastrophic breakdown and maintenance cost. Last three decades witnessed a steady growth in the use of IRT as a condition monitoring technique in civil structures, electrical installations, machineries and equipment, material deformation under various loading conditions, corrosion damages and welding processes. IRT has also found its application in nuclear, aerospace, food, paper, wood and plastic industries. With the advent of newer generations of infrared camera, IRT is becoming a more accurate, reliable and cost effective technique. This review focuses on the advances of IRT as a non-contact and non-invasive condition monitoring tool for machineries, equipment and processes. Various conditions monitoring applications are discussed in details, along with some basics of IRT, experimental procedures and data analysis techniques. Sufficient background information is also provided for the beginners and non-experts for easy understanding of the subject.

Broadband, red-edge information from satellites improves early stress detection in a New Mexico conifer woodland

Treesearch

Jan U.H. Eitel; Lee A. Vierling; Marcy E. Litvak; Dan S. Long; Urs Schulthess; Alan A. Ager; Dan J. Krofcheck; Leo Stoscheck

2011-01-01

Multiple plant stresses can affect the health, esthetic condition, and timber harvest value of conifer forests. To monitor spatial and temporal dynamic forest stress conditions, timely, accurate, and cost-effective information is needed that could be provided by remote sensing. Recently, satellite imagery has become available via the RapidEye satellite constellation to...

On estimating the accuracy of monitoring methods using Bayesian error propagation technique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zonta, Daniele; Bruschetta, Federico; Cappello, Carlo; Zandonini, R.; Pozzi, Matteo; Wang, Ming; Glisic, B.; Inaudi, D.; Posenato, D.; Zhao, Y.

2014-04-01

This paper illustrates an application of Bayesian logic to monitoring data analysis and structural condition state inference. The case study is a 260 m long cable-stayed bridge spanning the Adige River 10 km north of the town of Trento, Italy. This is a statically indeterminate structure, having a composite steel-concrete deck, supported by 12 stay cables. Structural redundancy, possible relaxation losses and an as-built condition differing from design, suggest that long-term load redistribution between cables can be expected. To monitor load redistribution, the owner decided to install a monitoring system which combines built-on-site elasto-magnetic and fiber-optic sensors. In this note, we discuss a rational way to improve the accuracy of the load estimate from the EM sensors taking advantage of the FOS information. More specifically, we use a multi-sensor Bayesian data fusion approach which combines the information from the two sensing systems with the prior knowledge, including design information and the outcomes of laboratory calibration. Using the data acquired to date, we demonstrate that combining the two measurements allows a more accurate estimate of the cable load, to better than 50 kN.

Research and design of smart grid monitoring control via terminal based on iOS system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fu, Wei; Gong, Li; Chen, Heli; Pan, Guangji

2017-06-01

Aiming at a series of problems existing in current smart grid monitoring Control Terminal, such as high costs, poor portability, simple monitoring system, poor software extensions, low system reliability when transmitting information, single man-machine interface, poor security, etc., smart grid remote monitoring system based on the iOS system has been designed. The system interacts with smart grid server so that it can acquire grid data through WiFi/3G/4G networks, and monitor each grid line running status, as well as power plant equipment operating conditions. When it occurs an exception in the power plant, incident information can be sent to the user iOS terminal equipment timely, which will provide troubleshooting information to help the grid staff to make the right decisions in a timely manner, to avoid further accidents. Field tests have shown the system realizes the integrated grid monitoring functions, low maintenance cost, friendly interface, high security and reliability, and it possesses certain applicable value.

Developing Watershed Level Indicators for Predicting Aquatic Condition in Stream Networks

EPA Science Inventory

Landscape level information is critical for resource managers to monitor, assess and prioritize protection and restoration efforts within individual watersheds. Spatial landscape indicators incorporate information on natural infrastructure (undeveloped and vegetated riparian area...

Roadway weather information system and automatic vehicle location (AVL) coordination.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2011-02-28

Roadway Weather Information System and Automatic Vehicle Location Coordination involves the : development of an Inclement Weather Console that provides a new capability for the state of Oklahoma : to monitor weather-related roadway conditions. The go...

78 FR 43231 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission to OMB for Reinstatement, Without Change, of...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-07-19

...The NCUA intends to submit the following information collection to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13, 44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). This information collection relates to 12 CFR part 713 which requires a federal credit union (FCU) to monitor its eligibility to qualify for a higher fidelity coverage deductible and to notify the NCUA if its financial condition changes resulting in the loss of that eligibility for the higher deductible. This information collection notice is published to obtain comments from the public. This requirement enables NCUA to monitor the FCU's financial condition for safety and soundness purposes and helps to assure that FCUs are properly and adequately protected against potential losses due to insider abuse such as fraud and embezzlement.

Role of the Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit in monitoring communicable diseases of childhood.

PubMed

Williams, K; Elliott, E

1998-12-24

The Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit (APSU) conducts active national surveillance of conditions affecting children, including communicable diseases and their complications. By mailing over 900 clinicians each month the APSU gathers national information, not available from other sources, about the incidence, demographic and clinical features of these conditions. In some conditions APSU data supplements that available from existing schemes. The APSU has monitored 20 conditions to date. Eight of these are communicable diseases or their complications, two have a possible infectious aetiology and one frequently presents with infection. Since its inception in 1993 the return rate of monthly report cards by the mailing list has increased from 88 per cent to 94 per cent. Return rate of questionnaires for the communicable diseases studied ranged from 74 per cent to 100 per cent. Studies have enabled estimation of disease incidence, identification of risk factors and possible preventive strategies and provision of detailed clinical information. Although the APSU cannot serve a public health role by case identification and contact tracing it provides information that contributes to the communicable disease strategy for Australia.

Normal streamflows and water levels continue—Summary of hydrologic conditions in Georgia, 2014

USGS Publications Warehouse

Knaak, Andrew E.; Ankcorn, Paul D.; Peck, Michael F.

2016-03-31

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC) Georgia office, in cooperation with local, State, and other Federal agencies, maintains a long-term hydrologic monitoring network of more than 350 real-time, continuous-record, streamflow-gaging stations (streamgages). The network includes 14 real-time lake-level monitoring stations, 72 real-time surface-water-quality monitors, and several water-quality sampling programs. Additionally, the SAWSC Georgia office operates more than 204 groundwater monitoring wells, 39 of which are real-time. The wide-ranging coverage of streamflow, reservoir, and groundwater monitoring sites allows for a comprehensive view of hydrologic conditions across the State. One of the many benefits this monitoring network provides is a spatially distributed overview of the hydrologic conditions of creeks, rivers, reservoirs, and aquifers in Georgia.Streamflow and groundwater data are verified throughout the year by USGS hydrographers and made available to water-resource managers, recreationists, and Federal, State, and local agencies. Hydrologic conditions are determined by comparing the statistical analyses of data collected during the current water year to historical data. Changing hydrologic conditions underscore the need for accurate, timely data to allow informed decisions about the management and conservation of Georgia’s water resources for agricultural, recreational, ecological, and water-supply needs and in protecting life and property.

Formal and informal trail monitoring protocols and baseline conditions: Great Falls Park and Potomac Gorge. Final research report

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wimpey, Jeremy; Marion, Jeffrey L.

2011-01-01

This report presents the results of research on the conditions of formal and informal (visitorcreated) trails conducted within the Great Falls Park (GFP) portion of George Washington Memorial Parkway (GWMP), Virginia, and the adjacent Maryland portions of the C&O Canal National Historical Park (CHOH). This research was prompted primarily by concerns about the impact of extensive informal trail networks within both parks on native vegetation and rare plant communities, rare flora and fauna, and historic and archaeological resources. Resource conditions on formal park trails were also assessed to provide information supporting the development of park planning and management decision-making.

Improving Multi-Sensor Drought Monitoring, Prediction and Recovery Assessment Using Gravimetry Information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aghakouchak, Amir; Tourian, Mohammad J.

2015-04-01

Development of reliable drought monitoring, prediction and recovery assessment tools are fundamental to water resources management. This presentation focuses on how gravimetry information can improve drought assessment. First, we provide an overview of the Global Integrated Drought Monitoring and Prediction System (GIDMaPS) which offers near real-time drought information using remote sensing observations and model simulations. Then, we present a framework for integration of satellite gravimetry information for improving drought prediction and recovery assessment. The input data include satellite-based and model-based precipitation, soil moisture estimates and equivalent water height. Previous studies show that drought assessment based on one single indicator may not be sufficient. For this reason, GIDMaPS provides drought information based on multiple drought indicators including Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), Standardized Soil Moisture Index (SSI) and the Multivariate Standardized Drought Index (MSDI) which combines SPI and SSI probabilistically. MSDI incorporates the meteorological and agricultural drought conditions and provides composite multi-index drought information for overall characterization of droughts. GIDMaPS includes a seasonal prediction component based on a statistical persistence-based approach. The prediction component of GIDMaPS provides the empirical probability of drought for different severity levels. In this presentation we present a new component in which the drought prediction information based on SPI, SSI and MSDI are conditioned on equivalent water height obtained from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE). Using a Bayesian approach, GRACE information is used to evaluate persistence of drought. Finally, the deficit equivalent water height based on GRACE is used for assessing drought recovery. In this presentation, both monitoring and prediction components of GIDMaPS will be discussed, and the results from 2014 California Drought will be presented. Further Reading: Hao Z., AghaKouchak A., Nakhjiri N., Farahmand A., 2014, Global Integrated Drought Monitoring and Prediction System, Scientific Data, 1:140001, 1-10, doi: 10.1038/sdata.2014.1.

Intelligent Performance Analysis with a Natural Language Interface

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Juuso, Esko K.

2017-09-01

Performance improvement is taken as the primary goal in the asset management. Advanced data analysis is needed to efficiently integrate condition monitoring data into the operation and maintenance. Intelligent stress and condition indices have been developed for control and condition monitoring by combining generalized norms with efficient nonlinear scaling. These nonlinear scaling methodologies can also be used to handle performance measures used for management since management oriented indicators can be presented in the same scale as intelligent condition and stress indices. Performance indicators are responses of the process, machine or system to the stress contributions analyzed from process and condition monitoring data. Scaled values are directly used in intelligent temporal analysis to calculate fluctuations and trends. All these methodologies can be used in prognostics and fatigue prediction. The meanings of the variables are beneficial in extracting expert knowledge and representing information in natural language. The idea of dividing the problems into the variable specific meanings and the directions of interactions provides various improvements for performance monitoring and decision making. The integrated temporal analysis and uncertainty processing facilitates the efficient use of domain expertise. Measurements can be monitored with generalized statistical process control (GSPC) based on the same scaling functions.

River Bank Erosion and the Influence of Environmental Flow Management.

PubMed

Vietz, Geoff J; Lintern, Anna; Webb, J Angus; Straccione, David

2018-03-01

Environmental flows aim to influence river hydrology to provide appropriate physical conditions for ecological functioning within the restrictions of flow regulation. The hydrologic characteristics of flow events, however, may also lead to unintended morphologic effects in rivers, such as increases in riverbank erosion beyond natural rates. This may negatively impact habitat for biota, riparian infrastructure, and land use. Strategic environmental flow delivery linked to monitoring and adaptive management can help mitigate risks. We monitor riverbank condition (erosion and deposition) relative to environmental flows on the Goulburn River, Victoria, Australia. We describe the process of adaptive management aimed at reducing potential impacts of flow management on bank condition. Field measurements (erosion pins) quantify the hydrogeomorphic response of banks to the delivery of planned and natural flow events. Managed flows provide opportunities for monitoring riverbank response to flows, which in turn informs planning. The results demonstrate that environmental flows have little influence on bank erosion and visual perceptions in the absence of monitoring are an unreliable guide. This monitoring project represents a mutually beneficial, science-practice partnership demonstrating that a traditional 'know then do' approach can be foreshortened by close collaboration between researchers and managers. To do so requires transparent, often informal lines of communication. The benefits for researchers-a more strategic and targeted approach to monitoring activities; and benefits for the practitioners-reduced time between actions and understanding response; mean that a learn by doing approach is likely to have better outcomes for researchers, stakeholders, the public, and the environment.

River Bank Erosion and the Influence of Environmental Flow Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vietz, Geoff J.; Lintern, Anna; Webb, J. Angus; Straccione, David

2018-03-01

Environmental flows aim to influence river hydrology to provide appropriate physical conditions for ecological functioning within the restrictions of flow regulation. The hydrologic characteristics of flow events, however, may also lead to unintended morphologic effects in rivers, such as increases in riverbank erosion beyond natural rates. This may negatively impact habitat for biota, riparian infrastructure, and land use. Strategic environmental flow delivery linked to monitoring and adaptive management can help mitigate risks. We monitor riverbank condition (erosion and deposition) relative to environmental flows on the Goulburn River, Victoria, Australia. We describe the process of adaptive management aimed at reducing potential impacts of flow management on bank condition. Field measurements (erosion pins) quantify the hydrogeomorphic response of banks to the delivery of planned and natural flow events. Managed flows provide opportunities for monitoring riverbank response to flows, which in turn informs planning. The results demonstrate that environmental flows have little influence on bank erosion and visual perceptions in the absence of monitoring are an unreliable guide. This monitoring project represents a mutually beneficial, science-practice partnership demonstrating that a traditional `know then do' approach can be foreshortened by close collaboration between researchers and managers. To do so requires transparent, often informal lines of communication. The benefits for researchers-a more strategic and targeted approach to monitoring activities; and benefits for the practitioners-reduced time between actions and understanding response; mean that a learn by doing approach is likely to have better outcomes for researchers, stakeholders, the public, and the environment.

Pervasive sensing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nagel, David J.

2000-11-01

The coordinated exploitation of modern communication, micro- sensor and computer technologies makes it possible to give global reach to our senses. Web-cameras for vision, web- microphones for hearing and web-'noses' for smelling, plus the abilities to sense many factors we cannot ordinarily perceive, are either available or will be soon. Applications include (1) determination of weather and environmental conditions on dense grids or over large areas, (2) monitoring of energy usage in buildings, (3) sensing the condition of hardware in electrical power distribution and information systems, (4) improving process control and other manufacturing, (5) development of intelligent terrestrial, marine, aeronautical and space transportation systems, (6) managing the continuum of routine security monitoring, diverse crises and military actions, and (7) medicine, notably the monitoring of the physiology and living conditions of individuals. Some of the emerging capabilities, such as the ability to measure remotely the conditions inside of people in real time, raise interesting social concerns centered on privacy issues. Methods for sensor data fusion and designs for human-computer interfaces are both crucial for the full realization of the potential of pervasive sensing. Computer-generated virtual reality, augmented with real-time sensor data, should be an effective means for presenting information from distributed sensors.

Automated System Of Monitoring Of The Physical Condition Of The Staff Of The Enterprise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pilipenko, A.

2017-01-01

In the work the author solves an important applied problem of increasing of safety of engineering procedures and production using technologies of monitoring of a condition of employees. The author offers a work algorithm, structural and basic electric schemes of system of collection of data of employee’s condition of the enterprise and some parameters of the surrounding environment. In the article the author offers an approach to increasing of efficiency of acceptance of management decisions at the enterprise at the expense of the prompt analysis of information about employee’s condition and productivity of his work and also about various parameters influencing these factors.

76 FR 54499 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission to OMB for Review; Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-09-01

.... Description: NCUA utilizes the information to monitor financial conditions in corporate credit unions, and to allocate supervision and examination resources. Respondents: Corporate credit unions, or ``banker's banks... collection of information: Title: Corporate Credit Union Monthly Call Report. OMB Number: 3133-0067. Form...

Evaluation of groundwater levels in the South Platte River alluvial aquifer, Colorado, 1953-2012, and design of initial well networks for monitoring groundwater levels

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wellman, Tristan

2015-01-01

A network of candidate monitoring wells was proposed to initiate a regional monitoring program. Consistent monitoring and analysis of groundwater levels will be needed for informed decisions to optimize beneficial use of water and to limit high groundwater levels in susceptible areas. Finalization of the network will require future field reconnaissance to assess local site conditions and discussions with State authorities.

An integrated condition-monitoring method for a milling process using reduced decomposition features

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Jie; Wu, Bo; Wang, Yan; Hu, Youmin

2017-08-01

Complex and non-stationary cutting chatter affects productivity and quality in the milling process. Developing an effective condition-monitoring approach is critical to accurately identify cutting chatter. In this paper, an integrated condition-monitoring method is proposed, where reduced features are used to efficiently recognize and classify machine states in the milling process. In the proposed method, vibration signals are decomposed into multiple modes with variational mode decomposition, and Shannon power spectral entropy is calculated to extract features from the decomposed signals. Principal component analysis is adopted to reduce feature size and computational cost. With the extracted feature information, the probabilistic neural network model is used to recognize and classify the machine states, including stable, transition, and chatter states. Experimental studies are conducted, and results show that the proposed method can effectively detect cutting chatter during different milling operation conditions. This monitoring method is also efficient enough to satisfy fast machine state recognition and classification.

Are we missing the boat? Current uses of long-term biological monitoring data in the evaluation and management of marine protected areas.

PubMed

Addison, P F E; Flander, L B; Cook, C N

2015-02-01

Protected area management agencies are increasingly using management effectiveness evaluation (MEE) to better understand, learn from and improve conservation efforts around the globe. Outcome assessment is the final stage of MEE, where conservation outcomes are measured to determine whether management objectives are being achieved. When quantitative monitoring data are available, best-practice examples of outcome assessments demonstrate that data should be assessed against quantitative condition categories. Such assessments enable more transparent and repeatable integration of monitoring data into MEE, which can promote evidence-based management and improve public accountability and reporting. We interviewed key informants from marine protected area (MPA) management agencies to investigate how scientific data sources, especially long-term biological monitoring data, are currently informing conservation management. Our study revealed that even when long-term monitoring results are available, management agencies are not using them for quantitative condition assessment in MEE. Instead, many agencies conduct qualitative condition assessments, where monitoring results are interpreted using expert judgment only. Whilst we found substantial evidence for the use of long-term monitoring data in the evidence-based management of MPAs, MEE is rarely the sole mechanism that facilitates the knowledge transfer of scientific evidence to management action. This suggests that the first goal of MEE (to enable environmental accountability and reporting) is being achieved, but the second and arguably more important goal of facilitating evidence-based management is not. Given that many MEE approaches are in their infancy, recommendations are made to assist management agencies realize the full potential of long-term quantitative monitoring data for protected area evaluation and evidence-based management. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Regional Cerebral Oximetry During Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation: Useful or Useless?

PubMed

Genbrugge, Cornelia; Dens, Jo; Meex, Ingrid; Boer, Willem; Eertmans, Ward; Sabbe, Marc; Jans, Frank; De Deyne, Cathy

2016-01-01

Approximately 375,000 people annually experience sudden cardiac arrest (CA) in Europe. Most patients who survive the initial hours and days after CA die of postanoxic brain damage. Current monitors, such as electrocardiography and end-tidal capnography, provide only indirect information about the condition of the brain during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). In contrast, cerebral near-infrared spectroscopy provides continuous, noninvasive, real-time information about brain oxygenation without the need for a pulsatile blood flow. It measures transcutaneous cerebral tissue oxygen saturation (rSO2). This information could supplement currently used monitors. Moreover, an evolution in rSO2 monitoring technology has made it easier to assess rSO2 in CA conditions. We give an overview of the literature regarding rSO2 measurements during CPR and the current commercially available devices. We highlight the feasibility of cerebral saturation measurement during CPR, its role as a quality parameter of CPR, predictor of return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and neurologic outcome, and its monitoring function during transport. rSO2 is feasible in the setting of CA and has the potential to measure the quality of CPR, predict ROSC and neurologic outcome, and monitor post-CA patients during transport. The literature shows that rSO2 has the potential to serve multiple roles as a neuromonitoring tool during CPR and also to guide neuroprotective therapeutic strategies. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Application-ready expedited MODIS data for operational land surface monitoring of vegetation condition

USGS Publications Warehouse

Brown, Jesslyn; Howard, Daniel M.; Wylie, Bruce K.; Friesz, Aaron M.; Ji, Lei; Gacke, Carolyn

2015-01-01

Monitoring systems benefit from high temporal frequency image data collected from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) system. Because of near-daily global coverage, MODIS data are beneficial to applications that require timely information about vegetation condition related to drought, flooding, or fire danger. Rapid satellite data streams in operational applications have clear benefits for monitoring vegetation, especially when information can be delivered as fast as changing surface conditions. An “expedited” processing system called “eMODIS” operated by the U.S. Geological Survey provides rapid MODIS surface reflectance data to operational applications in less than 24 h offering tailored, consistently-processed information products that complement standard MODIS products. We assessed eMODIS quality and consistency by comparing to standard MODIS data. Only land data with known high quality were analyzed in a central U.S. study area. When compared to standard MODIS (MOD/MYD09Q1), the eMODIS Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) maintained a strong, significant relationship to standard MODIS NDVI, whether from morning (Terra) or afternoon (Aqua) orbits. The Aqua eMODIS data were more prone to noise than the Terra data, likely due to differences in the internal cloud mask used in MOD/MYD09Q1 or compositing rules. Post-processing temporal smoothing decreased noise in eMODIS data.

Peat conditions mapping using MODIS time series

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Poggio, Laura; Gimona, Alessandro; Bruneau, Patricia; Johnson, Sally; McBride, Andrew; Artz, Rebekka

2016-04-01

Large areas of Scotland are covered in peatlands, providing an important sink of carbon in their near natural state but act as a potential source of gaseous and dissolved carbon emission if not in good conditions. Data on the condition of most peatlands in Scotland are, however, scarce and largely confined to sites under nature protection designations, often biased towards sites in better condition. The best information available at present is derived from labour intensive field-based monitoring of relatively few designated sites (Common Standard Monitoring Dataset). In order to provide a national dataset of peat conditions, the available point information from the CSM data was modelled with morphological features and information derived from MODIS sensor. In particular we used time series of indices describing vegetation greenness (Enhanced Vegetation Index), water availability (Normalised Water Difference index), Land Surface Temperature and vegetation productivity (Gross Primary productivity). A scorpan-kriging approach was used, in particular using Generalised Additive Models for the description of the trend. The model provided the probability of a site to be in favourable conditions and the uncertainty of the predictions was taken into account. The internal validation (leave-one-out) provided a mis-classification error of around 0.25. The derived dataset was then used, among others, in the decision making process for the selection of sites for restoration.

Resilient Monitoring Systems: Architecture, Design, and Application to Boiler/Turbine Plant

DOE PAGES

Garcia, Humberto E.; Lin, Wen-Chiao; Meerkov, Semyon M.; ...

2014-11-01

Resilient monitoring systems, considered in this paper, are sensor networks that degrade gracefully under malicious attacks on their sensors, causing them to project misleading information. The goal of this work is to design, analyze, and evaluate the performance of a resilient monitoring system intended to monitor plant conditions (normal or anomalous). The architecture developed consists of four layers: data quality assessment, process variable assessment, plant condition assessment, and sensor network adaptation. Each of these layers is analyzed by either analytical or numerical tools. The performance of the overall system is evaluated using a simplified boiler/turbine plant. The measure of resiliencymore » is quantified using Kullback-Leibler divergence, and is shown to be sufficiently high in all scenarios considered.« less

Resilient monitoring systems: architecture, design, and application to boiler/turbine plant.

PubMed

Garcia, Humberto E; Lin, Wen-Chiao; Meerkov, Semyon M; Ravichandran, Maruthi T

2014-11-01

Resilient monitoring systems, considered in this paper, are sensor networks that degrade gracefully under malicious attacks on their sensors, causing them to project misleading information. The goal of this paper is to design, analyze, and evaluate the performance of a resilient monitoring system intended to monitor plant conditions (normal or anomalous). The architecture developed consists of four layers: data quality assessment, process variable assessment, plant condition assessment, and sensor network adaptation. Each of these layers is analyzed by either analytical or numerical tools. The performance of the overall system is evaluated using a simplified boiler/turbine plant. The measure of resiliency is quantified based on the Kullback-Leibler divergence and shown to be sufficiently high in all scenarios considered.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ramuhalli, Pradeep; Hirt, Evelyn H.; Dib, Gerges

This project involved the development of enhanced risk monitors (ERMs) for active components in Advanced Reactor (AdvRx) designs by integrating real-time information about equipment condition with risk monitors. Health monitoring techniques in combination with predictive estimates of component failure based on condition and risk monitors can serve to indicate the risk posed by continued operation in the presence of detected degradation. This combination of predictive health monitoring based on equipment condition assessment and risk monitors can also enable optimization of maintenance scheduling with respect to the economics of plant operation. This report summarizes PNNL’s multi-year project on the development andmore » evaluation of an ERM concept for active components while highlighting FY2016 accomplishments. Specifically, this report provides a status summary of the integration and demonstration of the prototypic ERM framework with the plant supervisory control algorithms being developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and describes additional case studies conducted to assess sensitivity of the technology to different quantities. Supporting documentation on the software package to be provided to ONRL is incorporated in this report.« less

Strategic retrieval in a reality monitoring task.

PubMed

Rosburg, Timm; Mecklinger, Axel; Johansson, Mikael

2011-08-01

Strategic recollection refers to control processes that allow the retrieval of information that is relevant for a specific situation. These processes can be studied in memory exclusion tasks, which require the retrieval of particular kinds of episodic information. In the current study, we investigated strategic recollection in reality monitoring by event-related potentials (ERPs). Participants studied object words, followed by a picture of the denoted object (perceive condition) or followed by the instruction to imagine such a picture (imagine condition). At test, subjects had to identify words of one study condition and to reject words of the second study condition together with newly presented items. Data analysis showed that object names were better identified when items of the perceive condition were targeted. In this test condition, a left parietal old/new effect (the ERP correlate of recollection) was observed only in response to targets. In contrast, both targets and nontargets elicited this old/new effect when items of the imagine condition were targeted. The magnitude of the left parietal old/new effect to nontargets in this condition (but no other left parietal old/new effect) correlated positively with the discrimination indices of both test conditions. In addition, ERPs to targets and nontargets differed at right frontal electrode sites at longer latencies (1500-1800 ms), with more positive ERPs for targets. Findings indicate that subjects retrieved nontarget information in the more difficult task condition, while they relied on target information alone in the less difficult task. This kind of strategic retrieval was not mirrored in other old/new effects. The correlation between the left parietal old/new effect for nontargets in the imagined item target condition and the discrimination indices of both conditions may indicate that the ease of nontarget retrieval, rather than the difficulty of target retrieval, increases the likelihood that nontarget information is actually retrieved. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

State-and-transition models for heterogeneous landscapes: A strategy for development and application

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Interpretation of assessment and monitoring data requires information about reference conditions and ecological resilience. Reference conditions used as benchmarks can be specified via potential-based land classifications (e.g., ecological sites) that describe the plant communities potentially obser...

Condition monitoring of distributed systems using two-stage Bayesian inference data fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jaramillo, Víctor H.; Ottewill, James R.; Dudek, Rafał; Lepiarczyk, Dariusz; Pawlik, Paweł

2017-03-01

In industrial practice, condition monitoring is typically applied to critical machinery. A particular piece of machinery may have its own condition monitoring system that allows the health condition of said piece of equipment to be assessed independently of any connected assets. However, industrial machines are typically complex sets of components that continuously interact with one another. In some cases, dynamics resulting from the inception and development of a fault can propagate between individual components. For example, a fault in one component may lead to an increased vibration level in both the faulty component, as well as in connected healthy components. In such cases, a condition monitoring system focusing on a specific element in a connected set of components may either incorrectly indicate a fault, or conversely, a fault might be missed or masked due to the interaction of a piece of equipment with neighboring machines. In such cases, a more holistic condition monitoring approach that can not only account for such interactions, but utilize them to provide a more complete and definitive diagnostic picture of the health of the machinery is highly desirable. In this paper, a Two-Stage Bayesian Inference approach allowing data from separate condition monitoring systems to be combined is presented. Data from distributed condition monitoring systems are combined in two stages, the first data fusion occurring at a local, or component, level, and the second fusion combining data at a global level. Data obtained from an experimental rig consisting of an electric motor, two gearboxes, and a load, operating under a range of different fault conditions is used to illustrate the efficacy of the method at pinpointing the root cause of a problem. The obtained results suggest that the approach is adept at refining the diagnostic information obtained from each of the different machine components monitored, therefore improving the reliability of the health assessment of each individual element, as well as the entire piece of machinery.

ATLAS Eventlndex monitoring system using the Kibana analytics and visualization platform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barberis, D.; Cárdenas Zárate, S. E.; Favareto, A.; Fernandez Casani, A.; Gallas, E. J.; Garcia Montoro, C.; Gonzalez de la Hoz, S.; Hrivnac, J.; Malon, D.; Prokoshin, F.; Salt, J.; Sanchez, J.; Toebbicke, R.; Yuan, R.; ATLAS Collaboration

2016-10-01

The ATLAS EventIndex is a data catalogue system that stores event-related metadata for all (real and simulated) ATLAS events, on all processing stages. As it consists of different components that depend on other applications (such as distributed storage, and different sources of information) we need to monitor the conditions of many heterogeneous subsystems, to make sure everything is working correctly. This paper describes how we gather information about the EventIndex components and related subsystems: the Producer-Consumer architecture for data collection, health parameters from the servers that run EventIndex components, EventIndex web interface status, and the Hadoop infrastructure that stores EventIndex data. This information is collected, processed, and then displayed using CERN service monitoring software based on the Kibana analytic and visualization package, provided by CERN IT Department. EventIndex monitoring is used both by the EventIndex team and ATLAS Distributed Computing shifts crew.

Integrating policy-based management and SLA performance monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Tzong-Jye; Lin, Chin-Yi; Chang, Shu-Hsin; Yen, Meng-Tzu

2001-10-01

Policy-based management system provides the configuration capability for the system administrators to focus on the requirements of customers. The service level agreement performance monitoring mechanism helps system administrators to verify the correctness of policies. However, it is difficult for a device to process the policies directly because the policies are the management concept. This paper proposes a mechanism to decompose a policy into rules that can be efficiently processed by a device. Thus, the device may process the rule and collect the performance statistics information efficiently; and the policy-based management system may collect these performance statistics information and report the service-level agreement performance monitoring information to the system administrator. The proposed policy-based management system achieves both the policy configuration and service-level agreement performance monitoring requirements. A policy consists of a condition part and an action part. The condition part is a Boolean expression of a source host IP group, a destination host IP group, etc. The action part is the parameters of services. We say that an address group is compact if it only consists of a range of IP address that can be denoted by a pair of IP address and corresponding IP mask. If the condition part of a policy only consists of the compact address group, we say that the policy is a rule. Since a device can efficiently process a compact address and a system administrator prefers to define a range of IP address, the policy-based management system has to translate policy into rules and supplements the gaps between policy and rules. The proposed policy-based management system builds the relationships between VPN and policies, policy and rules. Since the system administrator wants to monitor the system performance information of VPNs and policies, the proposed policy-based management system downloads the relationships among VPNs, policies and rules to the SNMP agents. The SNMP agents build the management information base (MIB) of all VPNs, policies and rules according to the relationships obtained from the management server. Thus, the proposed policy-based management system may get all performance monitoring information of VPNs and policies from agents. The proposed policy-based manager achieves two goals: a) provide a management environment for the system administrator to configure their network only considering the policy requirement issues and b) let the device have only to process the packet and then collect the required performance information. These two things make the proposed management system satisfy both the user and device requirements.

Developing a monitoring protocol for visitor-created informal trails in Yosemite National Park, USA.

PubMed

Leung, Yu-Fai; Newburger, Todd; Jones, Marci; Kuhn, Bill; Woiderski, Brittany

2011-01-01

Informal trails created or perpetuated by visitors is a management challenge in many protected natural areas such as Yosemite National Park. This is a significant issue as informal trail networks penetrate and proliferate into protected landscapes and habitats, threatening ecological integrity, aesthetics, and visitor experiences. In order to develop effective strategies for addressing this problem under an adaptive management framework, indicators must be developed and monitoring protocol must be established to gather timely and relevant data about the condition, extent, and distribution of these undesired trail segments. This article illustrates a process of developing and evaluating informal trail indicators for meadows in Yosemite Valley. Indicator measures developed in past research were reviewed to identify their appropriateness for the current application. Information gaps in existing indicator measures were addressed by creating two new indices to quantify the degree of informal trailing based on its land fragmentation effects. The selected indicator measures were applied to monitoring data collected between 2006 and 2008. The selected measures and indices were evaluated for their ability to characterize informal trail impacts at site and landscape scales. Results demonstrate the utility of indicator measures in capturing different characteristics of the informal trail problem, though several metrics are strongly related to each other. The two fragmentation indices were able to depict fragmentation without being too sensitive to changes in one constituent parameter. This study points to the need for a multiparameter approach to informal trail monitoring and integration with other monitoring data. Implications for monitoring programs and research are discussed.

Developing a Monitoring Protocol for Visitor-Created Informal Trails in Yosemite National Park, USA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leung, Yu-Fai; Newburger, Todd; Jones, Marci; Kuhn, Bill; Woiderski, Brittany

2011-01-01

Informal trails created or perpetuated by visitors is a management challenge in many protected natural areas such as Yosemite National Park. This is a significant issue as informal trail networks penetrate and proliferate into protected landscapes and habitats, threatening ecological integrity, aesthetics, and visitor experiences. In order to develop effective strategies for addressing this problem under an adaptive management framework, indicators must be developed and monitoring protocol must be established to gather timely and relevant data about the condition, extent, and distribution of these undesired trail segments. This article illustrates a process of developing and evaluating informal trail indicators for meadows in Yosemite Valley. Indicator measures developed in past research were reviewed to identify their appropriateness for the current application. Information gaps in existing indicator measures were addressed by creating two new indices to quantify the degree of informal trailing based on its land fragmentation effects. The selected indicator measures were applied to monitoring data collected between 2006 and 2008. The selected measures and indices were evaluated for their ability to characterize informal trail impacts at site and landscape scales. Results demonstrate the utility of indicator measures in capturing different characteristics of the informal trail problem, though several metrics are strongly related to each other. The two fragmentation indices were able to depict fragmentation without being too sensitive to changes in one constituent parameter. This study points to the need for a multiparameter approach to informal trail monitoring and integration with other monitoring data. Implications for monitoring programs and research are discussed.

76 FR 22156 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission to OMB for Review; Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-04-20

... Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Public Law... collection of information: Title: Corporate Credit Union Monthly Call Report. OMB Number: 3133-0067. Form.... Description: NCUA utilizes the information to monitor financial conditions in corporate credit unions, and to...

Summary of hydrologic conditions in Kansas, water year 2016

USGS Publications Warehouse

Louen, Justin M.

2017-04-06

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with Federal, State, and local agencies, maintains a long-term network of hydrologic monitoring sites in Kansas. Real-time data are collected at 216 streamgage sites and are verified throughout the year with regular measurements of streamflow made by USGS personnel. Annual assessments of hydrologic conditions are made by comparing statistical analyses of current and historical water year (WY) data for the period of record. A WY is the 12-month period from October 1 through September 30 and is designated by the calendar year in which the period ends. Long-term monitoring of hydrologic conditions in Kansas provides critical information for water-supply management, flood forecasting, reservoir operations, irrigation scheduling, bridge and culvert design, ecological monitoring, and many other uses.

Indicators and protocols for monitoring impacts of formal and informal trails in protected areas

USGS Publications Warehouse

Marion, Jeffrey L.; Leung, Yu-Fai

2011-01-01

Trails are a common recreation infrastructure in protected areas and their conditions affect the quality of natural resources and visitor experiences. Various trail impact indicators and assessment protocols have been developed in support of monitoring programs, which are often used for management decision-making or as part of visitor capacity management frameworks. This paper reviews common indicators and assessment protocols for three types of trails, surfaced formal trails, unsurfaced formal trails, and informal (visitor-created) trails. Monitoring methods and selected data from three U.S. National Park Service units are presented to illustrate some common trail impact indicators and assessment options.

Information system for diagnosis of respiratory system diseases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abramov, G. V.; Korobova, L. A.; Ivashin, A. L.; Matytsina, I. A.

2018-05-01

An information system is for the diagnosis of patients with lung diseases. The main problem solved by this system is the definition of the parameters of cough fragments in the monitoring recordings using a voice recorder. The authors give the recognition criteria of recorded cough moments, audio records analysis. The results of the research are systematized. The cough recognition system can be used by the medical specialists to diagnose the condition of the patients and to monitor the process of their treatment.

High quality data: An evaluation of AIM data quality and data quality procedures

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The goal of every monitoring program is to collect high-quality data which can then be used to provide information to decision makers. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring (AIM) program is one such data set which provides rangeland status, condition, and trend in...

LCMS landscape change monitoring system—results from an information needs assessment

Treesearch

Kevin Megown; Brian Schwind; Don Evans; Mark Finco

2015-01-01

Understanding changes in land use and land cover over space and time provides an important means to evaluate complex interactions between human and biophysical systems, to project future conditions, and to design mitigation and adaptive management strategies. Assessing and monitoring landscape change is evolving into a foundational element of climate change adaptation...

Statewide water-quality network for Massachusetts

USGS Publications Warehouse

Desimone, Leslie A.; Steeves, Peter A.; Zimmerman, Marc James

2001-01-01

A water-quality monitoring program is proposed that would provide data to meet multiple information needs of Massachusetts agencies and other users concerned with the condition of the State's water resources. The program was designed by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Watershed Management, with input from many organizations involved in water-quality monitoring in the State, and focuses on inland surface waters (streams and lakes). The proposed monitoring program consists of several components, or tiers, which are defined in terms of specific monitoring objectives, and is intended to complement the Massachusetts Watershed Initiative (MWI) basin assessments. Several components were developed using the Neponset River Basin in eastern Massachusetts as a pilot area, or otherwise make use of data from and sampling approaches used in that basin as part of a MWI pilot assessment in 1994. To guide development of the monitoring program, reviews were conducted of general principles of network design, including monitoring objectives and approaches, and of ongoing monitoring activities of Massachusetts State agencies.Network tiers described in this report are primarily (1) a statewide, basin-based assessment of existing surface-water-quality conditions, and (2) a fixed-station network for determining contaminant loads carried by major rivers. Other components, including (3) targeted programs for hot-spot monitoring and other objectives, and (4) compliance monitoring, also are discussed. Monitoring programs for the development of Total Maximum Daily Loads for specific water bodies, which would constitute another tier of the network, are being developed separately and are not described in this report. The basin-based assessment of existing conditions is designed to provide information on the status of surface waters with respect to State water-quality standards and designated uses in accordance with the reporting requirements [Section 305(b)] of the Clean Water Act (CWA). Geographic Information System (GIS)-based procedures were developed to inventory streams and lakes in a basin for these purposes. Several monitoring approaches for this tier and their associated resource requirements were investigated. Analysis of the Neponset Basin for this purpose demonstrated that the large number of sites needed in order for all the small streams in a basin to be sampled (about half of stream miles in the basin were headwater or first-order streams) pose substantial resource-based problems for a comprehensive assessment of existing conditions. The many lakes pose similar problems. Thus, a design is presented in which probabilistic monitoring of small streams is combined with deterministic or targeted monitoring of large streams and lakes to meet CWA requirements and to provide data for other information needs of Massachusetts regulatory agencies and MWI teams.The fixed-station network is designed to permit the determination of contaminant loads carried by the State's major rivers to sensitive inland and coastal receiving waters and across State boundaries. Sampling at 19 proposed sites in 17 of the 27 major basins in Massachusetts would provide information on contaminant loads from 67 percent of the total land area of the State; unsampled areas are primarily coastal areas drained by many small streams that would be impossible to sample within realistic resource limitations. Strategies for hot-spot monitoring, a targeted monitoring program focused on identifying contaminant sources, are described with reference to an analysis of the bacteria sampling program of the 1994 Neponset Basin assessment. Finally, major discharge sites permitted under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) were evaluated as a basis for ambient water-quality monitoring. The discharge sites are well distributed geographically among basins, but are primarily on large rivers (two-thirds or more

Network challenges for cyber physical systems with tiny wireless devices: a case study on reliable pipeline condition monitoring.

PubMed

Ali, Salman; Qaisar, Saad Bin; Saeed, Husnain; Khan, Muhammad Farhan; Naeem, Muhammad; Anpalagan, Alagan

2015-03-25

The synergy of computational and physical network components leading to the Internet of Things, Data and Services has been made feasible by the use of Cyber Physical Systems (CPSs). CPS engineering promises to impact system condition monitoring for a diverse range of fields from healthcare, manufacturing, and transportation to aerospace and warfare. CPS for environment monitoring applications completely transforms human-to-human, human-to-machine and machine-to-machine interactions with the use of Internet Cloud. A recent trend is to gain assistance from mergers between virtual networking and physical actuation to reliably perform all conventional and complex sensing and communication tasks. Oil and gas pipeline monitoring provides a novel example of the benefits of CPS, providing a reliable remote monitoring platform to leverage environment, strategic and economic benefits. In this paper, we evaluate the applications and technical requirements for seamlessly integrating CPS with sensor network plane from a reliability perspective and review the strategies for communicating information between remote monitoring sites and the widely deployed sensor nodes. Related challenges and issues in network architecture design and relevant protocols are also provided with classification. This is supported by a case study on implementing reliable monitoring of oil and gas pipeline installations. Network parameters like node-discovery, node-mobility, data security, link connectivity, data aggregation, information knowledge discovery and quality of service provisioning have been reviewed.

Network Challenges for Cyber Physical Systems with Tiny Wireless Devices: A Case Study on Reliable Pipeline Condition Monitoring

PubMed Central

Ali, Salman; Qaisar, Saad Bin; Saeed, Husnain; Farhan Khan, Muhammad; Naeem, Muhammad; Anpalagan, Alagan

2015-01-01

The synergy of computational and physical network components leading to the Internet of Things, Data and Services has been made feasible by the use of Cyber Physical Systems (CPSs). CPS engineering promises to impact system condition monitoring for a diverse range of fields from healthcare, manufacturing, and transportation to aerospace and warfare. CPS for environment monitoring applications completely transforms human-to-human, human-to-machine and machine-to-machine interactions with the use of Internet Cloud. A recent trend is to gain assistance from mergers between virtual networking and physical actuation to reliably perform all conventional and complex sensing and communication tasks. Oil and gas pipeline monitoring provides a novel example of the benefits of CPS, providing a reliable remote monitoring platform to leverage environment, strategic and economic benefits. In this paper, we evaluate the applications and technical requirements for seamlessly integrating CPS with sensor network plane from a reliability perspective and review the strategies for communicating information between remote monitoring sites and the widely deployed sensor nodes. Related challenges and issues in network architecture design and relevant protocols are also provided with classification. This is supported by a case study on implementing reliable monitoring of oil and gas pipeline installations. Network parameters like node-discovery, node-mobility, data security, link connectivity, data aggregation, information knowledge discovery and quality of service provisioning have been reviewed. PMID:25815444

International Global Crop Condition Assessments in the framework of GEOGLAM

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Becker-Reshef, I.; Justice, C. O.; Vermote, E.; Whitcraft, A. K.; Claverie, M.

2013-12-01

The Group on Earth Observations (partnership of governments and international organizations) developed the Global Agricultural Monitoring (GEOGLAM) initiative in response to the growing calls for improved agricultural information. The goal of GEOGLAM is to strengthen the international community's capacity to produce and disseminate relevant, timely and accurate forecasts of agricultural production at national, regional and global scales through the use of Earth observations. This initiative is designed to build on existing agricultural monitoring initiatives at national, regional and global levels and to enhance and strengthen them through international networking, operationally focused research, and data/method sharing. GEOGLAM was adopted by the G20 as part of the action plan on food price volatility and agriculture and is being implemented through building on the extensive GEO Agricultural Community of Practice (CoP) that was initiated in 2007 and includes key national and international agencies, organizations, and universities involved in agricultural monitoring. One of the early GEOGLAM activities is to provide harmonized global crop outlooks that offer timely qualitative consensus information on crop status and prospects. This activity is being developed in response to a request from the G-20 Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) and is implemented within the global monitoring systems component of GEOGLAM. The goal is to develop a transparent, international, multi-source, consensus assessment of crop growing conditions, status, and agro-climatic conditions, likely to impact global production. These assessments are focused on the four primary crop types (corn, wheat, soy and rice) within the main agricultural producing regions of the world. The GEOGLAM approach is to bring together international experts from global, regional and national monitoring systems that can share and discuss information from a variety of independent complementary sources in order to reach a convergence of evidence based assessment. Information types include earth observations (EO) data and products, agro-meteorological data, crop models and field reports. To date, representatives from close to 20 different agencies have participated in these outlook assessments, which are submitted to AMIS on a monthly basis as well as shared with the international community. This talk will discuss the process, operational R&D, and progress towards developing these harmonized global crop assessments.

Recommendations for strengthening the infrared technology component of any condition monitoring program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nicholas, Jack R., Jr.; Young, R. K.

1999-03-01

This presentation provides insights of a long term 'champion' of many condition monitoring technologies and a Level III infra red thermographer. The co-authors present recommendations based on their observations of infra red and other components of predictive, condition monitoring programs in manufacturing, utility and government defense and energy activities. As predictive maintenance service providers, trainers, informal observers and formal auditors of such programs, the co-authors provide a unique perspective that can be useful to practitioners, managers and customers of advanced programs. Each has over 30 years experience in the field of machinery operation, maintenance, and support the origins of which can be traced to and through the demanding requirements of the U.S. Navy nuclear submarine forces. They have over 10 years each of experience with programs in many different countries on 3 continents. Recommendations are provided on the following: (1) Leadership and Management Support (For survival); (2) Life Cycle View (For establishment of a firm and stable foundation for a program); (3) Training and Orientation (For thermographers as well as operators, managers and others); (4) Analyst Flexibility (To innovate, explore and develop their understanding of machinery condition); (5) Reports and Program Justification (For program visibility and continued expansion); (6) Commitment to Continuous Improvement of Capability and Productivity (Through application of updated hardware and software); (7) Mutual Support by Analysts (By those inside and outside of the immediate organization); (8) Use of Multiple Technologies and System Experts to Help Define Problems (Through the use of correlation analysis of data from up to 15 technologies. An example correlation analysis table for AC and DC motors is provided.); (9) Root Cause Analysis (Allows a shift from reactive to proactive stance for a program); (10) Master Equipment Identification and Technology Application (To place the condition monitoring program in perspective); (11) Use of procedures for Predictive, Condition Monitoring and maintenance in general (To get consistent results); (12) Developing a scheme for predictive, condition monitoring personnel qualification and certification (To provide a career path and incentive to advance skill level and value to the company); (13) Analyst Assignment to Technologies and Related Duties (To make intelligent use of the skills of individuals assigned); (14) Condition Monitoring Analyst Selection Criteria (Key attributes for success are mentioned.); (15) Design and Modification to Support Monitoring (For old and new machinery to facilitate data acquisition); (16) Establishment of a Museum of Components and Samples Pulled from Service for Cause (For orientation and awareness training of operators and managers and exchange of information between analysts); (17) Goals (To promote a proactive program approach for machinery condition improvement).

Monitoring osseointegration and developing intelligent systems (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salvino, Liming W.

2017-05-01

Effective monitoring of structural and biological systems is an extremely important research area that enables technology development for future intelligent devices, platforms, and systems. This presentation provides an overview of research efforts funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to establish structural health monitoring (SHM) methodologies in the human domain. Basic science efforts are needed to utilize SHM sensing, data analysis, modeling, and algorithms to obtain the relevant physiological and biological information for human-specific health and performance conditions. This overview of current research efforts is based on the Monitoring Osseointegrated Prosthesis (MOIP) program. MOIP develops implantable and intelligent prosthetics that are directly anchored to the bone of residual limbs. Through real-time monitoring, sensing, and responding to osseointegration of bones and implants as well as interface conditions and environment, our research program aims to obtain individualized actionable information for implant failure identification, load estimation, infection mitigation and treatment, as well as healing assessment. Looking ahead to achieve ultimate goals of SHM, we seek to expand our research areas to cover monitoring human, biological and engineered systems, as well as human-machine interfaces. Examples of such include 1) brainwave monitoring and neurological control, 2) detecting and evaluating brain injuries, 3) monitoring and maximizing human-technological object teaming, and 4) closed-loop setups in which actions can be triggered automatically based on sensors, actuators, and data signatures. Finally, some ongoing and future collaborations across different disciplines for the development of knowledge automation and intelligent systems will be discussed.

Drought monitoring and assessment: Remote sensing and modeling approaches for the Famine Early Warning Systems Network

USGS Publications Warehouse

Senay, Gabriel; Velpuri, Naga Manohar; Bohms, Stefanie; Budde, Michael; Young, Claudia; Rowland, James; Verdin, James

2015-01-01

Drought monitoring is an essential component of drought risk management. It is usually carried out using drought indices/indicators that are continuous functions of rainfall and other hydrometeorological variables. This chapter presents a few examples of how remote sensing and hydrologic modeling techniques are being used to generate a suite of drought monitoring indicators at dekadal (10-day), monthly, seasonal, and annual time scales for several selected regions around the world. Satellite-based rainfall estimates are being used to produce drought indicators such as standardized precipitation index, dryness indicators, and start of season analysis. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index is being used to monitor vegetation condition. Several satellite data products are combined using agrohydrologic models to produce multiple short- and long-term indicators of droughts. All the data sets are being produced and updated in near-real time to provide information about the onset, progression, extent, and intensity of drought conditions. The data and products produced are available for download from the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) data portal at http://earlywarning.usgs.gov. The availability of timely information and products support the decision-making processes in drought-related hazard assessment, monitoring, and management with the FEWS NET. The drought-hazard monitoring approach perfected by the U.S. Geological Survey for FEWS NET through the integration of satellite data and hydrologic modeling can form the basis for similar decision support systems. Such systems can operationally produce reliable and useful regional information that is relevant for local, district-level decision making.

QUALITY ASSURANCE/QUALITY CONTROL OF A PROJECT INVOLVING COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS, INTRA-AGENCY AGREEMENTS, AGENCY STAFF AND CONTRACTS TO CONDUCT RESEARCH: ECOLOGICAL MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT OF THE GREAT RIVERS ECOSYSTEMS IN THE CENTRAL BASIN OF THE UNITED STATES (EMAP-GRE)

EPA Science Inventory

While condition reports are useful to managers, demonstrating how to implement a monitoring and assessment program in the future is also an important project goal. Better monitoring methods will make more information more widely available to better manage the nation's great rive...

Autonomous System for Monitoring the Integrity of Composite Fan Housings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Qing, Xinlin P.; Aquino, Christopher; Kumar, Amrita

2010-01-01

A low-cost and reliable system assesses the integrity of composite fan-containment structures. The system utilizes a network of miniature sensors integrated with the structure to scan the entire structural area for any impact events and resulting structural damage, and to monitor degradation due to usage. This system can be used to monitor all types of composite structures on aircraft and spacecraft, as well as automatically monitor in real time the location and extent of damage in the containment structures. This diagnostic information is passed to prognostic modeling that is being developed to utilize the information and provide input on the residual strength of the structure, and maintain a history of structural degradation during usage. The structural health-monitoring system would consist of three major components: (1) sensors and a sensor network, which is permanently bonded onto the structure being monitored; (2) integrated hardware; and (3) software to monitor in-situ the health condition of in-service structures.

Science advancements key to increasing management value of life stage monitoring networks for endangered Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon in California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Johnson, Rachel C.; Windell, Sean; Brandes, Patricia L.; Conrad, J. Louise; Ferguson, John; Goertler, Pascale A. L.; Harvey, Brett N.; Heublein, Joseph; Isreal, Joshua A.; Kratville, Daniel W.; Kirsch, Joseph E.; Perry, Russell W.; Pisciotto, Joseph; Poytress, William R.; Reece, Kevin; Swart, Brycen G.

2017-01-01

A robust monitoring network that provides quantitative information about the status of imperiled species at key life stages and geographic locations over time is fundamental for sustainable management of fisheries resources. For anadromous species, management actions in one geographic domain can substantially affect abundance of subsequent life stages that span broad geographic regions. Quantitative metrics (e.g., abundance, movement, survival, life history diversity, and condition) at multiple life stages are needed to inform how management actions (e.g., hatcheries, harvest, hydrology, and habitat restoration) influence salmon population dynamics. The existing monitoring network for endangered Sacramento River winterrun Chinook Salmon (SRWRC, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in California’s Central Valley was compared to conceptual models developed for each life stage and geographic region of the life cycle to identify relevant SRWRC metrics. We concluded that the current monitoring network was insufficient to diagnose when (life stage) and where (geographic domain) chronic or episodic reductions in SRWRC cohorts occur, precluding within- and among-year comparisons. The strongest quantitative data exist in the Upper Sacramento River, where abundance estimates are generated for adult spawners and emigrating juveniles. However, once SRWRC leave the upper river, our knowledge of their identity, abundance, and condition diminishes, despite the juvenile monitoring enterprise. We identified six system-wide recommended actions to strengthen the value of data generated from the existing monitoring network to assess resource management actions: (1) incorporate genetic run identification; (2) develop juvenile abundance estimates; (3) collect data for life history diversity metrics at multiple life stages; (4) expand and enhance real-time fish survival and movement monitoring; (5) collect fish condition data; and (6) provide timely public access to monitoring data in open data formats. To illustrate how updated technologies can enhance the existing monitoring to provide quantitative data on SRWRC, we provide examples of how each recommendation can address specific management issues.

What Is a Personal Health Record (PHR)?

MedlinePlus

... and critical step in the evolution of health information management ( HIM ). The book “ The Personal Health Record ” assists ... potential health conditions, treatment options, costs of treatment, management of chronic conditions, healthy lifestyle choices, preventive actions, and monitoring the ... Does a PHR Work? How Does a ...

Estimating Chlorophyll Conditions in Southern New England Coastal Waters from Hyperspectral Aircraft Remote Sensing

EPA Science Inventory

Chlorophyll a (chl a) is commonly measured in water quality monitoring programs for coastal and freshwater systems. The concentration of chl a, when evaluated with other condition indicators such as water clarity and dissolved oxygen concentrations, provides information on the en...

Information Fusion of Conflicting Input Data.

PubMed

Mönks, Uwe; Dörksen, Helene; Lohweg, Volker; Hübner, Michael

2016-10-29

Sensors, and also actuators or external sources such as databases, serve as data sources in order to realise condition monitoring of industrial applications or the acquisition of characteristic parameters like production speed or reject rate. Modern facilities create such a large amount of complex data that a machine operator is unable to comprehend and process the information contained in the data. Thus, information fusion mechanisms gain increasing importance. Besides the management of large amounts of data, further challenges towards the fusion algorithms arise from epistemic uncertainties (incomplete knowledge) in the input signals as well as conflicts between them. These aspects must be considered during information processing to obtain reliable results, which are in accordance with the real world. The analysis of the scientific state of the art shows that current solutions fulfil said requirements at most only partly. This article proposes the multilayered information fusion system MACRO (multilayer attribute-based conflict-reducing observation) employing the μ BalTLCS (fuzzified balanced two-layer conflict solving) fusion algorithm to reduce the impact of conflicts on the fusion result. The performance of the contribution is shown by its evaluation in the scope of a machine condition monitoring application under laboratory conditions. Here, the MACRO system yields the best results compared to state-of-the-art fusion mechanisms. The utilised data is published and freely accessible.

Information Fusion of Conflicting Input Data

PubMed Central

Mönks, Uwe; Dörksen, Helene; Lohweg, Volker; Hübner, Michael

2016-01-01

Sensors, and also actuators or external sources such as databases, serve as data sources in order to realise condition monitoring of industrial applications or the acquisition of characteristic parameters like production speed or reject rate. Modern facilities create such a large amount of complex data that a machine operator is unable to comprehend and process the information contained in the data. Thus, information fusion mechanisms gain increasing importance. Besides the management of large amounts of data, further challenges towards the fusion algorithms arise from epistemic uncertainties (incomplete knowledge) in the input signals as well as conflicts between them. These aspects must be considered during information processing to obtain reliable results, which are in accordance with the real world. The analysis of the scientific state of the art shows that current solutions fulfil said requirements at most only partly. This article proposes the multilayered information fusion system MACRO (multilayer attribute-based conflict-reducing observation) employing the μBalTLCS (fuzzified balanced two-layer conflict solving) fusion algorithm to reduce the impact of conflicts on the fusion result. The performance of the contribution is shown by its evaluation in the scope of a machine condition monitoring application under laboratory conditions. Here, the MACRO system yields the best results compared to state-of-the-art fusion mechanisms. The utilised data is published and freely accessible. PMID:27801874

Iowa Water Center | Iowa Water Center

Science.gov Websites

:42 Advancing the state of water knowledge and management The Iowa Water Center is a part of a 10% of that original resource remains, and little to no information exists on the current status or information to assess the condition of wetlands. Information gathered from monitoring wetlands may help answer

Theft of information in the take-grant protection model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bishop, Matt

1989-01-01

Using the information transfer extensions to the Take-Grant Protection Model, the concept of theft of information is defined and necessary and sufficient conditions for such theft to occur are presented, as well as bounds on the number of actors involved in such theft. Finally, the application of these results to reference monitors are explored.

A technical guide for monitoring wildlife habitat

Treesearch

M.M. Rowland; C.D. Vojta

2013-01-01

Information about status and trend of wildlife habitat is important for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service to accomplish its mission and meet its legal requirements. As the steward of 193 million acres (ac) of Federal land, the Forest Service needs to evaluate the status of wildlife habitat and how it compares with desired conditions. Habitat monitoring...

Condition and trends of ecological and economic systems

Treesearch

Harold Bergman; Sidney Draggan

2006-01-01

This Monitoring Science and Technology Symposium was designed to “put it all together” for the achievement of sustainability-related goals. It brought together senior policy makers, resource managers and scientists from many organizations and a wide range of disciplines to design a roadmap for addressing critical needs for unifying monitoring strategies, information...

Influences of Source-Item Contingency and Schematic Knowledge on Source Monitoring: Tests of the Probability-Matching Account

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bayen, Ute J.; Kuhlmann, Beatrice G.

2011-01-01

The authors investigated conditions under which judgments in source-monitoring tasks are influenced by prior schematic knowledge. According to a probability-matching account of source guessing (Spaniol & Bayen, 2002), when people do not remember the source of information, they match source-guessing probabilities to the perceived contingency…

User friendly IT Services for Monitoring and Prevention during Pregnancy.

PubMed

Crişan-Vida, Mihaela; Serban, Alexandru; Ghihor-Izdrăilă, Ioana; Mirea, Adrian; Stoicu-Tivadar, Lacramioara

2014-01-01

A healthy lifestyle for a mother and monitoring both mother and fetus activities are crucial factors for a normal pregnancy without hazardous conditions. This paper proposes a cloud computing solution and a mobile application which collect data from the sensors to be used in Obstetrics-Gynecology Department. This application monitors the dietary plan of the pregnant and gives her the possibility to socialize and share pregnancy experience with the rest of women from the social network from the hospital. The physicians can access the information's of the patient in real time and they can alert mothers in some situations. Using this cloud computing device, the health condition of the pregnant women may be improved.

Condition Monitoring of Large-Scale Facilities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hall, David L.

1999-01-01

This document provides a summary of the research conducted for the NASA Ames Research Center under grant NAG2-1182 (Condition-Based Monitoring of Large-Scale Facilities). The information includes copies of view graphs presented at NASA Ames in the final Workshop (held during December of 1998), as well as a copy of a technical report provided to the COTR (Dr. Anne Patterson-Hine) subsequent to the workshop. The material describes the experimental design, collection of data, and analysis results associated with monitoring the health of large-scale facilities. In addition to this material, a copy of the Pennsylvania State University Applied Research Laboratory data fusion visual programming tool kit was also provided to NASA Ames researchers.

Airplane takeoff and landing performance monitoring system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Middleton, David B. (Inventor); Srivatsan, Raghavachari (Inventor); Person, Lee H., Jr. (Inventor)

1994-01-01

The invention is a real-time takeoff and landing performance monitoring system for an aircraft which provides a pilot with graphic and metric information to assist in decisions related to achieving rotation speed (VR) within the safe zone of a runway, or stopping the aircraft on the runway after landing or take-off abort. The system processes information in two segments: a pretakeoff segment and a real-time segment. One-time inputs of ambient conditions and airplane configuration information are used in the pretakeoff segment to generate scheduled performance data. The real-time segment uses the scheduled performance data, runway length data and transducer measured parameters to monitor the performance of the airplane throughout the takeoff roll. Airplane acceleration and engine-performance anomalies are detected and annunciated. A novel and important feature of this segment is that it updates the estimated runway rolling friction coefficient. Airplane performance predictions also reflect changes in head wind occurring as the takeoff roll progresses. The system provides a head-down display and a head-up display. The head-up display is projected onto a partially reflective transparent surface through which the pilot views the runway. By comparing the present performance of the airplane with a continually predicted nominal performance based upon given conditions, performance deficiencies are detected by the system and conveyed to pilot in form of both elemental information and integrated information.

Airplane takeoff and landing performance monitoring system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Middleton, David B. (Inventor); Srivatsan, Raghavachari (Inventor); Person, Jr., Lee H. (Inventor)

1996-01-01

The invention is a real-time takeoff and landing performance monitoring system for an aircraft which provides a pilot with graphic and metric information to assist in decisions related to achieving rotation speed (V.sub.R) within the safe zone of a runway, or stopping the aircraft on the runway after landing or take-off abort. The system processes information in two segments: a pretakeoff segment and a real-time segment. One-time inputs of ambient conditions and airplane configuration information are used in the pretakeoff segment to generate scheduled performance data. The real-time segment uses the scheduled performance data, runway length data and transducer measured parameters to monitor the performance of the airplane throughout the takeoff roll. Airplane acceleration and engine-performance anomalies are detected and annunciated. A novel and important feature of this segment is that it updates the estimated runway rolling friction coefficient. Airplane performance predictions also reflect changes in head wind occurring as the takeoff roll progresses. The system provides a head-down display and a head-up display. The head-up display is projected onto a partially reflective transparent surface through which the pilot views the runway. By comparing the present performance of the airplane with a continually predicted nominal performance based upon given conditions, performance deficiencies are detected by the system and conveyed to pilot in form of both elemental information and integrated information.

78 FR 59930 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Announcement of Board Approval Under Delegated...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-09-30

... $50 billion in total assets and nonbank systemically important financial institutions, subject to annual supervisory stress tests and semi- annual company-run stress tests; ``other financial companies... Board informed as to--(i) its financial condition, [and] systems for monitoring and controlling...

Indonesian drought monitoring from space. A report of SAFE activity: Assessment of drought impact on rice production in Indonesia by satellite remote sensing and dissemination with web-GIS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shofiyati, Rizatus; Takeuchi, Wataru; Sofan, Parwati; Darmawan, Soni; Awaluddin; Supriatna, Wahyu

2014-06-01

Long droughts experienced in Indonesia in the past are identified as one of the main factors in the failure of rice production. In this regard, special attention to monitor the condition is encouraged to reduce the damage. Currently, various satellite data and approaches can withdraw valuable information for monitoring and anticipating drought hazards. Two types of drought, Meteorology and Agriculture, have been assessed. During the last 10 years, daily and monthly rainfall data derived from TRMM and GSMaP. MTSAT and AMSR-E data have been analyzed to identify meteorological drought. Agricultural drought has been studied by observing the character of some indices (EVI, VCI, VHI, LST, and NDVI) of sixteen-day and monthly MODIS data at a period of 5 years (2009 - 2013). Network for data transfer has been built between LAPAN (data provider), ICALRD (implementer), IAARD Cloud Computing, and University of Tokyo (technical supporter). A Web-GIS based Drought Monitoring Information System has been developed to disseminate the information to end users. This paper describes the implementation of remote sensing drought monitoring model and development of Web-GIS and satellite based information system.

Design and implementation of a structural health monitoring and alerting system for hospital buildings in the United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ulusoy, Hasan S.; Kalkan, Erol; Fletcher, Jon Peter B.; Friberg, Paul; Leith, W. K.; Banga, Krishna

2012-01-01

This paper describes the current progress in the development of a structural health monitoring and alerting system to meet the needs of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to monitor hospital buildings instrumented in high and very high seismic hazard regions in the U.S. The system, using the measured vibration data, is primarily designed for post-earthquake condition assessment of the buildings. It has two essential components – sensing and analysis. The sensing component includes all necessary firmware and sensors to measure the response of the building; while the analysis component consists of several data processing modules integrated into an open source software package which compresses a large amount of measured data into useful information to assess the building’s condition before and after an event. The information can be used for a rapid building safety assessment, and to support decisions for necessary repairs, replacements, and other maintenance and rehabilitation measures.

Source monitoring in Korsakoff's syndrome: "Did I touch the toothbrush or did I imagine doing so?"

PubMed

El Haj, Mohamad; Nandrino, Jean Louis; Coello, Yann; Miller, Ralph; Antoine, Pascal

2017-06-01

There is a body of research suggesting compromised ability to distinguish between different external sources of information (i.e., external monitoring) in Korsakoff's syndrome. Here we replicate and extend this literature by assessing the ability of patients with Korsakoff's syndrome to distinguish between different external sources of information (i.e., external monitoring), between internal and external sources of information (i.e., reality monitoring), and between different internal sources of information (i.e., internal monitoring). On the external monitoring assessment, patients with Korsakoff's syndrome and controls watched the experimenter place objects (e.g., a toothbrush) in either a black or white box; afterward, they were asked to remember where the objects had been placed. On the reality monitoring assessment, participants had to either place objects or watch the experimenter place objects in a black box; afterward, they were asked to remember whether the objects had been placed in the box by themselves or by the experimenter. On the internal monitoring assessment, participants had to either place objects or imagine themselves placing objects in a black box; afterward, they were asked to remember whether they had previously placed the objects in the box or imagined doing so. Analyses demonstrated lower external and internal monitoring in patients with Korsakoff's syndrome than in controls, but no significant difference was observed between the two populations on the reality monitoring condition. Our data provide preliminary evidence that the ability to recognize oneself as the author of one's own actions may be relatively preserved in Korsakoff's syndrome. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Modernized System for Agricultural Monitoring for Food Security in Tanzania

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dempewolf, J.; Nakalembe, C. L.; Becker-Reshef, I.; Justice, C. J.; Tumbo, S.; Mbilinyi, B.; Maurice, S.; Mtalo, M.

2016-12-01

Accurate and timely information on agriculture, particularly in many countries dominated by complex smallholder, subsistence agricultural systems is often difficult to obtain or not available. This includes up-to-date information during the growing season on crop type, crop area and crop condition such as developmental stage, damage from pests and diseases, drought or flooding. These data are critical for government decision making on production forecasts, planning for commodity market transactions, food aid delivery, responding to disease outbreaks and for implementing agricultural extension and development efforts. In Tanzania we have been working closely with the National Food Security Division (NFSD) at the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (MALF) on designing and implementing an advanced agricultural monitoring system, utilizing satellite remote sensing, smart phone and internet technologies. Together with our local implementing partner, the Sokoine University of Agriculture we trained a large number of agricultural extension agents in different regions of Tanzania to deliver field data in near-realtime. Using our collaborative internet portal (Crop Monitor) the team of analysts compiles pertinent information on current crop and weather conditions from throughout the country in a standardized, consistent manner. Using the portal traditionally collected data are combined with electronically collected field data and MODIS satellite image time series from GLAM East-Africa (Global Agricultural Monitoring System, customized for stakeholders in East Africa). The main outcome of this work has been the compilation of the National Food Security Bulletin for Tanzania with plans for a public release and the intention for it to become the main avenue to dispense current updates and analysis on agriculture in the country. The same information is also a potential contribution to the international Early Warning Crop Monitor, which currently covers Tanzania mainly through assessments provided by international agencies.

PUBLIC HEALTH AND ECOLOGICAL INTERCONNECTIVITY: A CONDITIONAL PROBABILITY APPROACH ASSOCIATING DEGRADATION OF STREAMS AND INFANT MORTALITY

EPA Science Inventory

Effective public health policy should not be based solely on clinical, individualbased

information, but requires a broad characterization of human health conditions

across large geographic areas. For the most part, the necessary monitoring of human

health to ...

Interactive color-graphics interface for energy-monitoring and -control systems. Final report, October 1979-September 1983

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Canfield, K.J.

1984-05-01

An EMCS (Energy Monitoring and Control System) can be described as a system that automatically takes care of routine operation of equipment and provides centralized reporting and override capabilities. Equipment controlled by an EMCS would be heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment, air compressors, and small package boiler units. The EMCS would obtain raw information (data) from sensors associated with the equipment and massage the data into useful information. The information obtained from the sensors plus additional information available to the EMCS would be used to control the equipment. The information would also be available to the operator inmore » the form of reports or in response to operator commands for specific information. EMCS are computerized systems that control and monitor energy consuming and producing equipment at Naval facilities. The larger systems have been installed with color-graphics cathode ray tube operator consoles to provide better information to the personnel operating these systems. This report summarizes the work done on defining an adequate operator console and recommends changes to the existing EMCS Guide Specifications.« less

International Collaboration in Space Weather Situational Awareness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boteler, David; Trichtchenko, Larisa; Danskin, Donald

Space weather is a global phenomena so interntional collaboration is necessary to maintain awareness of potentially dangerous conditions. The Regional Warning Centres (RWCs) of the International Space Environment Service were set up during the International Geophysical Year to alert the scientific community to conditions requiring special measurements. The information sharing continues to this day with URSIGRAM messages exchanged between RWCs to help them produce space weather forecasts. Venturing into space, especially with manned missions, created a need to know about the space environment and particularly radiation dangers to man in space. Responding to this need led to the creation of a network of stations around the world to provide continuous monitoring of solar activity. Solar wind monitoring is now provided by the ACE satellite, operated by one country, but involving international collaborators to bring the information down in real time. Disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field are monitored by many magnetic observatories that are collaborating through INTERMAGNET to provide reliable data. Space weather produces effects on the ionosphere that can interfere with a variety of systems: the International GNSS Service provides information about effects on positioning systems, and the International Space Environment Service is providing information about iono-spheric absorption, particularly for trans-polar airline operations. The increasing availability of internet access, even at remote locations, is making it easier to obtain the raw information. The challenge now is how to integrate that information to provide effective international situational awareness of space weather.

Highly survivable bed pressure mat remote patient monitoring system for mHealth.

PubMed

Joshi, Vilas; Holtzman, Megan; Arcelus, Amaya; Goubran, Rafik; Knoefel, Frank

2012-01-01

The high speed mobile networks like 4G and beyond are making a ubiquitous remote patient monitoring (RPM) system using multiple sensors and wireless sensor networks a realistic possibility. The high speed wireless RPM system will be an integral part of the mobile health (mHealth) paradigm reducing cost and providing better service to the patients. While the high speed wireless RPM system will allow clinicians to monitor various chronic and acute medical conditions, the reliability of such system will depend on the network Quality of Service (QoS). The RPM system needs to be resilient to temporary reduced network QoS. This paper presents a highly survivable bed pressure mat RPM system design using an adaptive information content management methodology for the monitored sensor data. The proposed design improves the resiliency of the RPM system under adverse network conditions like congestion and/or temporary loss of connectivity. It also shows how the proposed RPM system can reduce the information rate and correspondingly reduce the data transfer rate by a factor of 5.5 and 144 to address temporary network congestion. The RPM system data rate reduction results in a lower specificity and sensitivity for the features being monitored but increases the survivability of the system from 1 second to 2.4 minutes making it highly robust.

Final technical report. In-situ FT-IR monitoring of a black liquor recovery boiler

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

James Markham; Joseph Cosgrove; David Marran

1999-05-31

This project developed and tested advanced Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) instruments for process monitoring of black liquor recovery boilers. The state-of-the-art FT-IR instruments successfully operated in the harsh environment of a black liquor recovery boiler and provided a wealth of real-time process information. Concentrations of multiple gas species were simultaneously monitored in-situ across the combustion flow of the boiler and extractively at the stack. Sensitivity to changes of particulate fume and carryover levels in the process flow were also demonstrated. Boiler set-up and operation is a complex balance of conditions that influence the chemical and physical processes in the combustionmore » flow. Operating parameters include black liquor flow rate, liquor temperature, nozzle pressure, primary air, secondary air, tertiary air, boiler excess oxygen and others. The in-process information provided by the FT-IR monitors can be used as a boiler control tool since species indicative of combustion efficiency (carbon monoxide, methane) and pollutant emissions (sulfur dioxide, hydrochloric acid and fume) were monitored in real-time and observed to fluctuate as operating conditions were varied. A high priority need of the U.S. industrial boiler market is improved measurement and control technology. The sensor technology demonstrated in this project is applicable to the need of industry.« less

A Hybrid Generalized Hidden Markov Model-Based Condition Monitoring Approach for Rolling Bearings

PubMed Central

Liu, Jie; Hu, Youmin; Wu, Bo; Wang, Yan; Xie, Fengyun

2017-01-01

The operating condition of rolling bearings affects productivity and quality in the rotating machine process. Developing an effective rolling bearing condition monitoring approach is critical to accurately identify the operating condition. In this paper, a hybrid generalized hidden Markov model-based condition monitoring approach for rolling bearings is proposed, where interval valued features are used to efficiently recognize and classify machine states in the machine process. In the proposed method, vibration signals are decomposed into multiple modes with variational mode decomposition (VMD). Parameters of the VMD, in the form of generalized intervals, provide a concise representation for aleatory and epistemic uncertainty and improve the robustness of identification. The multi-scale permutation entropy method is applied to extract state features from the decomposed signals in different operating conditions. Traditional principal component analysis is adopted to reduce feature size and computational cost. With the extracted features’ information, the generalized hidden Markov model, based on generalized interval probability, is used to recognize and classify the fault types and fault severity levels. Finally, the experiment results show that the proposed method is effective at recognizing and classifying the fault types and fault severity levels of rolling bearings. This monitoring method is also efficient enough to quantify the two uncertainty components. PMID:28524088

Integrated monitoring and information systems for managing aquatic invasive species in a changing climate.

PubMed

Lee, Henry; Reusser, Deborah A; Olden, Julian D; Smith, Scott S; Graham, Jim; Burkett, Virginia; Dukes, Jeffrey S; Piorkowski, Robert J; McPhedran, John

2008-06-01

Changes in temperature, precipitation, and other climatic drivers and sea-level rise will affect populations of existing native and non-native aquatic species and the vulnerability of aquatic environments to new invasions. Monitoring surveys provide the foundation for assessing the combined effects of climate change and invasions by providing baseline biotic and environmental conditions, although the utility of a survey depends on whether the results are quantitative or qualitative, and other design considerations. The results from a variety of monitoring programs in the United States are available in integrated biological information systems, although many include only non-native species, not native species. Besides including natives, we suggest these systems could be improved through the development of standardized methods that capture habitat and physiological requirements and link regional and national biological databases into distributed Web portals that allow drawing information from multiple sources. Combining the outputs from these biological information systems with environmental data would allow the development of ecological-niche models that predict the potential distribution or abundance of native and non-native species on the basis of current environmental conditions. Environmental projections from climate models can be used in these niche models to project changes in species distributions or abundances under altered climatic conditions and to identify potential high-risk invaders. There are, however, a number of challenges, such as uncertainties associated with projections from climate and niche models and difficulty in integrating data with different temporal and spatial granularity. Even with these uncertainties, integration of biological and environmental information systems, niche models, and climate projections would improve management of aquatic ecosystems under the dual threats of biotic invasions and climate change.

Integrated monitoring and information systems for managing aquatic invasive species in a changing climate

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lee, Henry; Reusser, Deborah A.; Olden, Julian D.; Smith, Scott S.; Graham, Jim; Burkett, Virginia; Dukes, Jeffrey S.; Piorkowski, Robert J.; Mcphedran, John

2008-01-01

Changes in temperature, precipitation, and other climatic drivers and sea-level rise will affect populations of existing native and non-native aquatic species and the vulnerability of aquatic environments to new invasions. Monitoring surveys provide the foundation for assessing the combined effects of climate change and invasions by providing baseline biotic and environmental conditions, although the utility of a survey depends on whether the results are quantitative or qualitative, and other design considerations. The results from a variety of monitoring programs in the United States are available in integrated biological information systems, although many include only non-native species, not native species. Besides including natives, we suggest these systems could be improved through the development of standardized methods that capture habitat and physiological requirements and link regional and national biological databases into distributed Web portals that allow drawing information from multiple sources. Combining the outputs from these biological information systems with environmental data would allow the development of ecological-niche models that predict the potential distribution or abundance of native and non-native species on the basis of current environmental conditions. Environmental projections from climate models can be used in these niche models to project changes in species distributions or abundances under altered climatic conditions and to identify potential high-risk invaders. There are, however, a number of challenges, such as uncertainties associated with projections from climate and niche models and difficulty in integrating data with different temporal and spatial granularity. Even with these uncertainties, integration of biological and environmental information systems, niche models, and climate projections would improve management of aquatic ecosystems under the dual threats of biotic invasions and climate change

Real-time Web GIS to monitor marine water quality using wave glider

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maneesa Amiruddin, Siti

2016-06-01

In the past decade, Malaysia has experienced unprecedented economic development and associated socioeconomic changes. As environmentalists anticipate these changes could have negative impacts on the marine and coastal environment, a comprehensive, continuous and long term marine water quality monitoring programme needs to be strengthened to reflect the government's aggressive mind-set of enhancing its authority in protection, preservation, management and enrichment of vast resources of the ocean. Wave Glider, an autonomous, unmanned marine vehicle provides continuous ocean monitoring at all times and is durable in any weather condition. Geographic Information System (GIS) technology is ideally suited as a tool for the presentation of data derived from continuous monitoring of locations, and used to support and deliver information to environmental managers and the public. Combined with GeoEvent Processor, an extension from ArcGIS for Server, it extends the Web GIS capabilities in providing real-time data from the monitoring activities. Therefore, there is a growing need of Web GIS for easy and fast dissemination, sharing, displaying and processing of spatial information which in turn helps in decision making for various natural resources based applications.

Surveillance of industrial processes with correlated parameters

DOEpatents

White, Andrew M.; Gross, Kenny C.; Kubic, William L.; Wigeland, Roald A.

1996-01-01

A system and method for surveillance of an industrial process. The system and method includes a plurality of sensors monitoring industrial process parameters, devices to convert the sensed data to computer compatible information and a computer which executes computer software directed to analyzing the sensor data to discern statistically reliable alarm conditions. The computer software is executed to remove serial correlation information and then calculate Mahalanobis distribution data to carry out a probability ratio test to determine alarm conditions.

Introduction of Drought Monitoring and Forecasting System based on Real-time Water Information Using ICT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Y., II; Kim, H. S.; Chun, G.

2016-12-01

There were severe damages such as restriction on water supply caused by continuous drought from 2014 to 2015 in South Korea. Through this drought event, government of South Korea decided to establish National Drought Information Analysis Center in K-water(Korea Water Resources Corporation) and introduce a national drought monitoring and early warning system to mitigate those damages. Drought index such as SPI(Standard Precipitation Index), PDSI(Palmer Drought Severity Index) and SMI(Soil Moisture Index) etc. have been developed and are widely used to provide drought information in many countries. However, drought indexes are not appropriate for drought monitoring and early warning in civilized countries with high population density such as South Korea because it could not consider complicated water supply network. For the national drought monitoring and forecasting of South Korea, `Drought Information Analysis System' (D.I.A.S) which is based on the real time data(storage, flowrate, waterlevel etc.) was developed. Based on its advanced methodology, `DIAS' is changing the paradigm of drought monitoring and early warning systems. Because `D.I.A.S' contains the information of water supply network from water sources to the people across the nation and provides drought information considering the real-time hydrological conditions of each and every water source. For instance, in case the water level of a specific dam declines to predetermined level of caution, `D.I.A.S' will notify people who uses the dam as a source of residential or industrial water. It is expected to provide credible drought monitoring and forecasting information with a strong relationship between drought information and the feelings of people rely on water users by `D.I.A.S'.

Both differences in encoding processes and monitoring at retrieval reduce false alarms when distinctive information is studied.

PubMed

Hanczakowski, Maciej; Mazzoni, Giuliana

2011-04-01

A reduction in false alarms to critical lures is observed in the DRM paradigm (Roediger & McDermott, 1995) when distinctive information is presented at encoding. Two mechanisms have been proposed to account for this reduction. According to the monitoring theory (e.g., the distinctiveness heuristic), lack of diagnostic recollection serves as a basis for discarding non-presented lures. According to the encoding theory, presenting distinctive information at study leads to impoverished relational processing, which results in a reduction in memorial information elicited by critical lures. In the present study a condition was created in which the use of the distinctiveness heuristic was precluded by associating, within the same study, lures with distinctive information in a context different from the study session. Under that condition reduction in false alarms to distinctive critical lures was still observed. This result supports the predictions of the encoding theory. However, when in the same study the use of the distinctiveness heuristic was not precluded, reductions in false alarms to unrelated lures were also observed when distinctive information was presented at study, indicating that both mechanisms are likely to contribute to the rejection of false memories.

Significance of headwater streams and perennial springs in ecological monitoring in Shenandoah National Park

USGS Publications Warehouse

Snyder, Craig D.; Webb, James R.; Young, John A.; Johnson, Zane B.

2013-01-01

Shenandoah National Park has been monitoring water chemistry and benthic macroinvertebrates in stream ecosystems since 1979. These monitoring efforts were designed to assess the status and trends in stream condition associated with atmospheric deposition (acid rain) and changes in forest health due to gypsy moth infestations. The primary objective of the present research was to determine whether the current long-term macroinvertebrate and water-quality monitoring program in Shenandoah National Park was failing to capture important information on the status and trends in stream condition by not sufficiently representing smaller, headwater streams. The current benthic-macroinvertebrate and water-chemistry sampling designs do not include routine collection of data from streams with contributing watershed areas smaller than 100 hectares, even though these small streams represent the overwhelming proportion of total stream length in the park. In this study, we sampled headwater sites, including headwater stream reaches (contributing watershed area approximately 100 hectares (ha) and perennial springs, in the park for aquatic macroinvertebrates and water chemistry and compared the results with current and historical data collected at long-term ecological monitoring (LTEM) sites on larger streams routinely sampled as part of ongoing monitoring efforts. The larger purpose of the study was to inform ongoing efforts by park managers to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the current aquatic monitoring program in light of other potential stressors (for example, climate change) and limited resources. Our results revealed several important findings that could influence management decisions regarding long-term monitoring of park streams. First, we found that biological indicators of stream condition at headwater sites and perennial springs generally were more indicative of lower habitat quality and were more spatially variable than those observed at sites on routinely monitored larger streams. We hypothesized that poorer stream condition observed in smaller streams was due to stream drying that occurs more frequently in headwater areas. We also found that biological and water-chemistry measures responded differently to landscape drivers. Variation in most biological endpoints was driven primarily by stream size and was only secondarily associated with bedrock geology. In contrast, water chemistry showed essentially the opposite pattern, with underlying geology explaining much of the variation and stream size being of secondary importance. Therefore, expanding the LTEM program to include headwater areas would yield substantially different biological information, whereas broad inferences regarding spatial patterns in water chemistry would probably not change. Although significant differences in community composition were observed among streams of different sizes, no taxa were unique to headwater sites. All taxa collected at the 45 headwater sites also had been collected at one or more LTEM sites during one or more years. This observation indicates that headwater sites in the park may be structured by biotic nestedness; consequently, focusing management efforts on preserving the species pool at the larger LTEM sites would likely result in the protection of most taxa parkwide. Finally, linkages (correlations) between water chemistry and biological measures of stream condition were signficantly stronger when assessed at the LTEM sites than when assessed at the springs or headwater sites, indicating that conditions at downstream sites may be better indicators of water-quality trends.

Integrated natural resource monitoring on Army lands and its application to conservation of neotropical birds

Treesearch

Timothy J. Hayden; David J. Tazik

1993-01-01

The U.S. Army is responsible for managing 5.0 million ha (12.4 million acres) of land on 186 major installations world-wide. The Land Condition Trend Analysis (LCTA) Program is the Army's integrated monitoring and data collection program designed to fulfill the Army's natural resource information and management needs. implementation of this program was...

A prototype for forest health monitoring in Indiana state parks

Treesearch

Rachel Morse; KaDonna Randolph; John W., Jr. Moser

2000-01-01

In 1997, 25 Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) plots were established in two Indiana state parks and a nearby parcel of privately owned land using a new protocol that differs from the systematic grid of the national program. All plots were reassessed in 1998. Data analysis focuses upon establishing baseline conditions for the study sites and providing relevant information...

Adapting forest health assessments to changing perspectives on threats--a case example from Sweden.

PubMed

Wulff, Sören; Lindelöw, Åke; Lundin, Lars; Hansson, Per; Axelsson, Anna-Lena; Barklund, Pia; Wijk, Sture; Ståhl, Göran

2012-04-01

A revised Swedish forest health assessment system is presented. The assessment system is composed of several interacting components which target information needs for strategic and operational decision making and accommodate a continuously expanding knowledge base. The main motivation for separating information for strategic and operational decision making is that major damage outbreaks are often scattered throughout the landscape. Generally, large-scale inventories (such as national forest inventories) cannot provide adequate information for mitigation measures. In addition to broad monitoring programs that provide time-series information on known damaging agents and their effects, there is also a need for local and regional inventories adapted to specific damage events. While information for decision making is the major focus of the health assessment system, the system also contributes to expanding the knowledge base of forest conditions. For example, the integrated monitoring programs provide a better understanding of ecological processes linked to forest health. The new health assessment system should be able to respond to the need for quick and reliable information and thus will be an important part of the future monitoring of Swedish forests.

Home monitoring of patients with Parkinson's disease via wearable technology and a web-based application.

PubMed

Patel, Shyamal; Chen, Bor-Rong; Buckley, Thomas; Rednic, Ramona; McClure, Doug; Tarsy, Daniel; Shih, Ludy; Dy, Jennifer; Welsh, Matt; Bonato, Paolo

2010-01-01

Objective long-term health monitoring can improve the clinical management of several medical conditions ranging from cardiopulmonary diseases to motor disorders. In this paper, we present our work toward the development of a home-monitoring system. The system is currently used to monitor patients with Parkinson's disease who experience severe motor fluctuations. Monitoring is achieved using wireless wearable sensors whose data are relayed to a remote clinical site via a web-based application. The work herein presented shows that wearable sensors combined with a web-based application provide reliable quantitative information that can be used for clinical decision making.

Monitoring grasshopper and locust habitats in Sahelian Africa using GIS and remote sensing technology

USGS Publications Warehouse

Tappan, G. Gray; Moore, Donald G.; Knauseberger, Walter I.

1991-01-01

Development programmes in Sahelian Africa are beginning to use geographic information system (GIS) technology. One of the GIS and remote sensing programmes introduced to the region in the late 1980s was the use of seasonal vegetation maps made from satellite data to support grasshopper and locust control. Following serious outbreaks of these pests in 1987, the programme addressed a critical need, by national and international crop protection organizations, to monitor site-specific dynamic vegetation conditions associated with grasshopper and locust breeding. The primary products used in assessing vegetation conditions were vegetation index (greenness) image maps derived from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite imagery. Vegetation index data were integrated in a GIS with digital cartographic data of individual Sahelian countries. These near-real-time image maps were used regularly in 10 countries for locating potential grasshopper and locust habitats. The programme to monitor vegetation conditions is currently being institutionalized in the Sahel.

Effective Sensor Selection and Data Anomaly Detection for Condition Monitoring of Aircraft Engines

PubMed Central

Liu, Liansheng; Liu, Datong; Zhang, Yujie; Peng, Yu

2016-01-01

In a complex system, condition monitoring (CM) can collect the system working status. The condition is mainly sensed by the pre-deployed sensors in/on the system. Most existing works study how to utilize the condition information to predict the upcoming anomalies, faults, or failures. There is also some research which focuses on the faults or anomalies of the sensing element (i.e., sensor) to enhance the system reliability. However, existing approaches ignore the correlation between sensor selecting strategy and data anomaly detection, which can also improve the system reliability. To address this issue, we study a new scheme which includes sensor selection strategy and data anomaly detection by utilizing information theory and Gaussian Process Regression (GPR). The sensors that are more appropriate for the system CM are first selected. Then, mutual information is utilized to weight the correlation among different sensors. The anomaly detection is carried out by using the correlation of sensor data. The sensor data sets that are utilized to carry out the evaluation are provided by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center and have been used as Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) challenge data in 2008. By comparing the two different sensor selection strategies, the effectiveness of selection method on data anomaly detection is proved. PMID:27136561

Effective Sensor Selection and Data Anomaly Detection for Condition Monitoring of Aircraft Engines.

PubMed

Liu, Liansheng; Liu, Datong; Zhang, Yujie; Peng, Yu

2016-04-29

In a complex system, condition monitoring (CM) can collect the system working status. The condition is mainly sensed by the pre-deployed sensors in/on the system. Most existing works study how to utilize the condition information to predict the upcoming anomalies, faults, or failures. There is also some research which focuses on the faults or anomalies of the sensing element (i.e., sensor) to enhance the system reliability. However, existing approaches ignore the correlation between sensor selecting strategy and data anomaly detection, which can also improve the system reliability. To address this issue, we study a new scheme which includes sensor selection strategy and data anomaly detection by utilizing information theory and Gaussian Process Regression (GPR). The sensors that are more appropriate for the system CM are first selected. Then, mutual information is utilized to weight the correlation among different sensors. The anomaly detection is carried out by using the correlation of sensor data. The sensor data sets that are utilized to carry out the evaluation are provided by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center and have been used as Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) challenge data in 2008. By comparing the two different sensor selection strategies, the effectiveness of selection method on data anomaly detection is proved.

Wheezing and Asthma in Infants

MedlinePlus

... Development Infections Diseases & Conditions Pregnancy & Baby Nutrition & Fitness Emotions & Behavior School & Family Life First Aid & Safety Doctors & ... doctor about any family history of allergies , asthma, eczema , and sinus problems. This information and careful monitoring ...

Surveillance of industrial processes with correlated parameters

DOEpatents

White, A.M.; Gross, K.C.; Kubic, W.L.; Wigeland, R.A.

1996-12-17

A system and method for surveillance of an industrial process are disclosed. The system and method includes a plurality of sensors monitoring industrial process parameters, devices to convert the sensed data to computer compatible information and a computer which executes computer software directed to analyzing the sensor data to discern statistically reliable alarm conditions. The computer software is executed to remove serial correlation information and then calculate Mahalanobis distribution data to carry out a probability ratio test to determine alarm conditions. 10 figs.

Remote personal health monitoring with radio waves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nguyen, Andrew

2008-03-01

We present several techniques utilizing radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology for personal health monitoring. One technique involves using RFID sensors external to the human body, while another technique uses both internal and external RFID sensors. Simultaneous monitoring of many patients in a hospital setting can also be done using networks of RFID sensors. All the monitoring are done wirelessly, either continuously or periodically in any interval, in which the sensors collect information on human parts such as the lungs or heart and transmit this information to a router, PC or PDA device connected to the internet, from which patient's condition can be diagnosed and viewed by authorized medical professionals in remote locations. Instantaneous information allows medical professionals to intervene properly and timely to prevent possible catastrophic effects to patients. The continuously monitored information provides medical professionals more complete and long-term studies of patients. All of these result in not only enhancement of the health treatment quality but also significant reduction of medical expenditure. These techniques demonstrate that health monitoring of patients can be done wirelessly at any time and any place without interfering with the patients' normal activities. Implementing the RFID technology would not only help reduce the enormous and significantly growing medical costs in the U.S.A., but also help improve the health treatment capability as well as enhance the understanding of long-term personal health and illness.

Transforming health care delivery through consumer engagement, health data transparency, and patient-generated health information.

PubMed

Sands, D Z; Wald, J S

2014-08-15

Address current topics in consumer health informatics. Literature review. Current health care delivery systems need to be more effective in the management of chronic conditions as the population turns older and experiences escalating chronic illness that threatens to consume more health care resources than countries can afford. Most health care systems are positioned poorly to accommodate this. Meanwhile, the availability of ever more powerful and cheaper information and communication technology, both for professionals and consumers, has raised the capacity to gather and process information, communicate more effectively, and monitor the quality of care processes. Adapting health care systems to serve current and future needs requires new streams of data to enable better self-management, improve shared decision making, and provide more virtual care. Changes in reimbursement for health care services, increased adoption of relevant technologies, patient engagement, and calls for data transparency raise the importance of patient-generated health information, remote monitoring, non-visit based care, and other innovative care approaches that foster more frequent contact with patients and better management of chronic conditions.

Environmental monitoring and research at the John F. Kennedy Space Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hall, C. R.; Hinkle, C. R.; Knott, W. M.; Summerfield, B. R.

1992-01-01

The Biomedical Operations and Research Office at the NASA John F. Kennedy Space Center has been supporting environmental monitoring and research since the mid-1970s. Program elements include monitoring of baseline conditions to document natural variability in the ecosystem, assessments of operations and construction of new facilities, and ecological research focusing on wildlife habitat associations. Information management is centered around development of a computerized geographic information system that incorporates remote sensing and digital image processing technologies along with traditional relational data base management capabilities. The proactive program is one in which the initiative is to anticipate potential environmental concerns before they occur and, by utilizing in-house expertise, develop impact minimization or mitigation strategies to reduce environmental risk.

Time-critical Database Condition Data Handling in the CMS Experiment During the First Data Taking Period

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cavallari, Francesca; de Gruttola, Michele; Di Guida, Salvatore; Govi, Giacomo; Innocente, Vincenzo; Pfeiffer, Andreas; Pierro, Antonio

2011-12-01

Automatic, synchronous and reliable population of the condition databases is critical for the correct operation of the online selection as well as of the offline reconstruction and analysis of data. In this complex infrastructure, monitoring and fast detection of errors is a very challenging task. In this paper, we describe the CMS experiment system to process and populate the Condition Databases and make condition data promptly available both online for the high-level trigger and offline for reconstruction. The data are automatically collected using centralized jobs or are "dropped" by the users in dedicated services (offline and online drop-box), which synchronize them and take care of writing them into the online database. Then they are automatically streamed to the offline database, and thus are immediately accessible offline worldwide. The condition data are managed by different users using a wide range of applications.In normal operation the database monitor is used to provide simple timing information and the history of all transactions for all database accounts, and in the case of faults it is used to return simple error messages and more complete debugging information.

Integrating land cover modeling and adaptive management to conserve endangered species and reduce catastrophic fire risk

USGS Publications Warehouse

Breininger, David; Duncan, Brean; Eaton, Mitchell J.; Johnson, Fred; Nichols, James

2014-01-01

Land cover modeling is used to inform land management, but most often via a two-step process, where science informs how management alternatives can influence resources, and then, decision makers can use this information to make decisions. A more efficient process is to directly integrate science and decision-making, where science allows us to learn in order to better accomplish management objectives and is developed to address specific decisions. Co-development of management and science is especially productive when decisions are complicated by multiple objectives and impeded by uncertainty. Multiple objectives can be met by the specification of tradeoffs, and relevant uncertainty can be addressed through targeted science (i.e., models and monitoring). We describe how to integrate habitat and fuel monitoring with decision-making focused on the dual objectives of managing for endangered species and minimizing catastrophic fire risk. Under certain conditions, both objectives might be achieved by a similar management policy; other conditions require tradeoffs between objectives. Knowledge about system responses to actions can be informed by developing hypotheses based on ideas about fire behavior and then applying competing management actions to different land units in the same system state. Monitoring and management integration is important to optimize state-specific management decisions and to increase knowledge about system responses. We believe this approach has broad utility and identifies a clear role for land cover modeling programs intended to inform decision-making.

Information access in a dual-task context: testing a model of optimal strategy selection.

PubMed

Wickens, C D; Seidler, K S

1997-09-01

Pilots were required to access information from a hierarchical aviation database by navigating under single-task conditions (Experiment 1) and when this task was time-shared with an altitude-monitoring task of varying bandwidth and priority (Experiment 2). In dual-task conditions, pilots had 2 viewports available, 1 always used for the information task and the other to be allocated to either task. Dual-task strategy, inferred from the decision of which task to allocate to the 2nd viewport, revealed that allocation was generally biased in favor of the monitoring task and was only partly sensitive to the difficulty of the 2 tasks and their relative priorities. Some dominant sources of navigational difficulties failed to adaptively influence selection strategy. The implications of the results are to provide tools for jumping to the top of the database, to provide 2 viewports into the common database, and to provide training as to the optimum viewport management strategy in a multitask environment.

Information access in a dual-task context: testing a model of optimal strategy selection

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wickens, C. D.; Seidler, K. S.

1997-01-01

Pilots were required to access information from a hierarchical aviation database by navigating under single-task conditions (Experiment 1) and when this task was time-shared with an altitude-monitoring task of varying bandwidth and priority (Experiment 2). In dual-task conditions, pilots had 2 viewports available, 1 always used for the information task and the other to be allocated to either task. Dual-task strategy, inferred from the decision of which task to allocate to the 2nd viewport, revealed that allocation was generally biased in favor of the monitoring task and was only partly sensitive to the difficulty of the 2 tasks and their relative priorities. Some dominant sources of navigational difficulties failed to adaptively influence selection strategy. The implications of the results are to provide tools for jumping to the top of the database, to provide 2 viewports into the common database, and to provide training as to the optimum viewport management strategy in a multitask environment.

Influence of encoding focus and stereotypes on source monitoring event-related-potentials.

PubMed

Leynes, P Andrew; Nagovsky, Irina

2016-01-01

Source memory, memory for the origin of a memory, can be influenced by stereotypes and the information of focus during encoding processes. Participants studied words from two different speakers (male or female) using self-focus or other-focus encoding. Source judgments for the speaker׳s voice and Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) were recorded during test. Self-focus encoding increased dependence on stereotype information and the Late Posterior Negativity (LPN). The results link the LPN with an increase in systematic decision processes such as consulting prior knowledge to support an episodic memory judgment. In addition, other-focus encoding increased conditional source judgments and resulted in weaker old/new recognition relative to the self-focus encoding. The putative correlate of recollection (LPC) was absent during this condition and this was taken as evidence that recollection of partial information supported source judgments. Collectively, the results suggest that other-focus encoding changes source monitoring processing by altering the weight of specific memory features. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

42 CFR 482.24 - Condition of participation: Medical record services.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... consultative evaluations of the patient and appropriate findings by clinical and other staff involved in the..., radiology, and laboratory reports, and vital signs and other information necessary to monitor the patient's...

42 CFR 482.24 - Condition of participation: Medical record services.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... consultative evaluations of the patient and appropriate findings by clinical and other staff involved in the..., radiology, and laboratory reports, and vital signs and other information necessary to monitor the patient's...

Dimethyl Disulfide (DMDS) Fumigant Management Plan Template Phase 2

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

These templates provide a framework for developing your FMP, including sections on your supervising pesticide applicator, buffer zones, emergency response plan, handler information, tarp plan, soil conditions, signage, and air monitoring plan.

Health claims data as a strategy and tool in disease management.

PubMed

Solz, H; Gilbert, K

2001-04-01

A comprehensive definition of disease management provides an opportunity to track a population of patients across the entire continuum of a condition, from wellness through disease and disability, so that improvements in health status and quality of life and efficiencies in the application of health care resources can be demonstrated. The need is great for information systems that can computerize clinical encounter, summarize, and apply the information to help identify opportunities for improvement in the performance of quality and cost control, monitor processes of care, and report outcomes that are meaningful to the organization. By tracking health care charges as a proxy for the application of health care resources, health claim data analyses can identify conditions for disease management, facilitate provider buy-in, develop the disease management program, monitor interventions, and report outcomes.

The need for monitoring metabolic status

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vanderveen, John E.

2005-05-01

Modern military operations utilize complex technologies that require high levels of readiness and sustained cognitive and physical performance of combat military combat personnel. These military operations often depend on weapon systems that use advanced computer technology coupled with an array of sensors that provide continuous information on the battlefield environment and on equipment function. However there is a lack of real-time information on status of the personnel who control these systems and who are vital to mission success. Failure of the human element renders the weapon system useless so it is important to know if an individual is physically and cognitively fit to perform his or her task. Based on the premise that status of metabolic processes provide an early indication of a change in an individuals physiological status, monitoring of selective biomarkers of metabolism and organ function can provide insight on the individual"s ability to perform mission tasks. During combat individuals may not be aware that they have reached a compromised physiological condition due to dehydration, physical exertion, stress, fatigue, sleep deprivation, exposure to toxins or other condition that may affect physical and cognitive performance and health. Systems that can provide the individual or his or her commander with information about significant changes in one or more metabolic functions could permit timely intervention to correct the condition. In the event that serious injury has already occurred to an individual, metabolic monitoring can provide valuable intelligence needed for decisions on achieving mission objectives.

Remote sensing of vegetation pattern and condition to monitor changes in Everglades biogeochemistry

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jones, John W.

2011-01-01

Ground-based studies of biogeochemistry and vegetation patterning yield process understanding, but the amount of information gained by ground-based studies can be greatly enhanced by efficient, synoptic, and temporally resolute monitoring afforded by remote sensing. The variety of presently available Everglades vegetation maps reflects both the wide range of application requirements and the need to balance cost and capability. More effort needs to be applied to documenting and understanding vegetation distribution and condition as indicators of biogeochemistry and contamination. Ground-based and remote sensing studies should be modified to maximize their synergy and utility for adaptive management.

The Multiple Species Inventory and Monitoring Protocol: A Population, Community, and Biodiversity Monitoring Solution for National Forest System Lands

Treesearch

P. N. Manley; B. Van Horne

2006-01-01

The U.S. Forest Service manages approximately 76 million ha (191 million acres) of National Forest System (NFS) lands. The National Forest Management Act (1976) recognizes the importance of maintaining species and ecosystem diversity on NFS lands as a critical component of our ecological and cultural heritage. Information on the condition of populations and habitats of...

Effects of Online Note Taking Formats and Self-Monitoring Prompts on Learning from Online Text: Using Technology to Enhance Self-Regulated Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kauffman, Douglas F.; Zhao, Ruomeng; Yang, Ya-Shu

2011-01-01

This study explored conditions under which note taking methods and self-monitoring prompts are most effective for facilitating information collection and achievement in an online learning environment. In experiment 1 30 students collected notes from a website using an online conventional, outline, or matrix note taking tool. In experiment 2 119…

The Multi-Isotope Process (MIP) Monitor Project: FY13 Final Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Meier, David E.; Coble, Jamie B.; Jordan, David V.

The Multi-Isotope Process (MIP) Monitor provides an efficient approach to monitoring the process conditions in reprocessing facilities in support of the goal of “… (minimization of) the risks of nuclear proliferation and terrorism.” The MIP Monitor measures the distribution of the radioactive isotopes in product and waste streams of a nuclear reprocessing facility. These isotopes are monitored online by gamma spectrometry and compared, in near-real-time, to spectral patterns representing “normal” process conditions using multivariate analysis and pattern recognition algorithms. The combination of multivariate analysis and gamma spectroscopy allows us to detect small changes in the gamma spectrum, which may indicatemore » changes in process conditions. By targeting multiple gamma-emitting indicator isotopes, the MIP Monitor approach is compatible with the use of small, portable, relatively high-resolution gamma detectors that may be easily deployed throughout an existing facility. The automated multivariate analysis can provide a level of data obscurity, giving a built-in information barrier to protect sensitive or proprietary operational data. Proof-of-concept simulations and experiments have been performed in previous years to demonstrate the validity of this tool in a laboratory setting for systems representing aqueous reprocessing facilities. However, pyroprocessing is emerging as an alternative to aqueous reprocessing techniques.« less

Design and Evaluation of a Proxy-Based Monitoring System for OpenFlow Networks.

PubMed

Taniguchi, Yoshiaki; Tsutsumi, Hiroaki; Iguchi, Nobukazu; Watanabe, Kenzi

2016-01-01

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) has attracted attention along with the popularization of cloud environment and server virtualization. In SDN, the control plane and the data plane are decoupled so that the logical topology and routing control can be configured dynamically depending on network conditions. To obtain network conditions precisely, a network monitoring mechanism is necessary. In this paper, we focus on OpenFlow which is a core technology to realize SDN. We propose, design, implement, and evaluate a network monitoring system for OpenFlow networks. Our proposed system acts as a proxy between an OpenFlow controller and OpenFlow switches. Through experimental evaluations, we confirm that our proposed system can capture packets and monitor traffic information depending on administrator's configuration. In addition, we show that our proposed system does not influence significant performance degradation to overall network performance.

Design and Evaluation of a Proxy-Based Monitoring System for OpenFlow Networks

PubMed Central

Taniguchi, Yoshiaki; Tsutsumi, Hiroaki; Iguchi, Nobukazu; Watanabe, Kenzi

2016-01-01

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) has attracted attention along with the popularization of cloud environment and server virtualization. In SDN, the control plane and the data plane are decoupled so that the logical topology and routing control can be configured dynamically depending on network conditions. To obtain network conditions precisely, a network monitoring mechanism is necessary. In this paper, we focus on OpenFlow which is a core technology to realize SDN. We propose, design, implement, and evaluate a network monitoring system for OpenFlow networks. Our proposed system acts as a proxy between an OpenFlow controller and OpenFlow switches. Through experimental evaluations, we confirm that our proposed system can capture packets and monitor traffic information depending on administrator's configuration. In addition, we show that our proposed system does not influence significant performance degradation to overall network performance. PMID:27006977

The Node Deployment of Intelligent Sensor Networks Based on the Spatial Difference of Farmland Soil.

PubMed

Liu, Naisen; Cao, Weixing; Zhu, Yan; Zhang, Jingchao; Pang, Fangrong; Ni, Jun

2015-11-11

Considering that agricultural production is characterized by vast areas, scattered fields and long crop growth cycles, intelligent wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are suitable for monitoring crop growth information. Cost and coverage are the most key indexes for WSN applications. The differences in crop conditions are influenced by the spatial distribution of soil nutrients. If the nutrients are distributed evenly, the crop conditions are expected to be approximately uniform with little difference; on the contrary, there will be great differences in crop conditions. In accordance with the differences in the spatial distribution of soil information in farmland, fuzzy c-means clustering was applied to divide the farmland into several areas, where the soil fertility of each area is nearly uniform. Then the crop growth information in the area could be monitored with complete coverage by deploying a sensor node there, which could greatly decrease the deployed sensor nodes. Moreover, in order to accurately judge the optimal cluster number of fuzzy c-means clustering, a discriminant function for Normalized Intra-Cluster Coefficient of Variation (NICCV) was established. The sensitivity analysis indicates that NICCV is insensitive to the fuzzy weighting exponent, but it shows a strong sensitivity to the number of clusters.

Field assessment and enhancement of cognitive performance: development of an ambulatory vigilance monitor.

PubMed

Lieberman, Harris R; Kramer, F Matthew; Montain, Scott J; Niro, Philip

2007-05-01

Limited opportunities to study human cognitive performance in non-laboratory, ambulatory situations exist. However, advances in technology make it possible to extend behavioral assessments to the field. One of the first devices to measure human behavior in the field was the wrist-worn actigraph. This device acquires minute-by-minute information on an individual's physical activity and can distinguish sleep from waking, the most basic aspect of behavior. Our laboratory developed a series of wrist-worn devices, not much larger than a watch, which assess reaction time, vigilance and memory. The devices concurrently assess motor activity with greater temporal resolution than standard actigraphs. They also continuously monitor multiple environmental variables including temperature, humidity, sound, and light. These monitors have been employed during training and simulated military operations to collect behavioral and environmental information that would typically be unavailable under such circumstances. Development of the vigilance monitor, and how each successive version extended capabilities of the device are described. Data from several studies are presented, including studies conducted in harsh field environments during a simulated infantry assault, an officer training course. The monitors simultaneously documented environmental conditions, patterns of sleep and activity and effects of nutritional manipulations on cognitive performance. They provide a new method to relate cognitive performance to real world environmental conditions and assess effects of various interventions on human behavior in the field. They can also monitor cognitive performance in real time, and if it is degraded, attempt to intervene to maintain

Automatic processing of pragmatic information in the human brain: a mismatch negativity study.

PubMed

Zhao, Ming; Liu, Tao; Chen, Feiyan

2018-05-23

Language comprehension involves pragmatic information processing, which allows world knowledge to influence the interpretation of a sentence. This study explored whether pragmatic information can be automatically processed during spoken sentence comprehension. The experiment adopted the mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm to capture the neurophysiological indicators of automatic processing of spoken sentences. Pragmatically incorrect ('Foxes have wings') and correct ('Butterflies have wings') sentences were used as the experimental stimuli. In condition 1, the pragmatically correct sentence was the deviant and the pragmatically incorrect sentence was the standard stimulus, whereas the opposite case was presented in condition 2. The experimental results showed that, compared with the condition that the pragmatically correct sentence is the deviant stimulus, when the condition that the pragmatically incorrect sentence is the deviant stimulus MMN effects were induced within 60-120 and 220-260 ms. The results indicated that the human brain can monitor for incorrect pragmatic information in the inattentive state and can automatically process pragmatic information at the beginning of spoken sentence comprehension.

Task-dependent response conflict monitoring and cognitive control in anterior cingulate and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices.

PubMed

Kim, Chobok; Chung, Chongwook; Kim, Jeounghoon

2013-11-06

Previous experience affects our behavior in terms of adjustments. It has been suggested that the conflict monitor-controller system implemented in the prefrontal cortex plays a critical role in such adjustments. Previous studies suggested that there exists multiple conflict monitor-controller systems associated with the level of information (i.e., stimulus and response levels). In this study, we sought to test whether different types of conflicts occur at the same information processing level (i.e., response level) are independently processed. For this purpose, we designed a task paradigm to measure two different types of response conflicts using color-based and location-based conflict stimuli and measured the conflict adaptation effects associated with the two types of conflicts either independently (i.e., single conflict conditions) or simultaneously (i.e., a double-conflict condition). The behavioral results demonstrated that performance on current incongruent trials was faster only when the preceding trial was the same type of response conflict regardless of whether they included a single- or double-conflict. Imaging data also showed that anterior cingulate and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices operate in a task-specific manner. These findings suggest that there may be multiple monitor-controller loops for color-based and location-based conflicts even at the same response level. Importantly, our results suggest that double-conflict processing is qualitatively different from single-conflict processing although double-conflict shares the same sources of conflict with two single-conflict conditions. © 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V.

High-Performance Scalable Information Service for the ATLAS Experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kolos, S.; Boutsioukis, G.; Hauser, R.

2012-12-01

The ATLAS[1] experiment is operated by a highly distributed computing system which is constantly producing a lot of status information which is used to monitor the experiment operational conditions as well as to assess the quality of the physics data being taken. For example the ATLAS High Level Trigger(HLT) algorithms are executed on the online computing farm consisting from about 1500 nodes. Each HLT algorithm is producing few thousands histograms, which have to be integrated over the whole farm and carefully analyzed in order to properly tune the event rejection. In order to handle such non-physics data the Information Service (IS) facility has been developed in the scope of the ATLAS Trigger and Data Acquisition (TDAQ)[2] project. The IS provides a high-performance scalable solution for information exchange in distributed environment. In the course of an ATLAS data taking session the IS handles about a hundred gigabytes of information which is being constantly updated with the update interval varying from a second to a few tens of seconds. IS provides access to any information item on request as well as distributing notification to all the information subscribers. In the latter case IS subscribers receive information within a few milliseconds after it was updated. IS can handle arbitrary types of information, including histograms produced by the HLT applications, and provides C++, Java and Python API. The Information Service is a unique source of information for the majority of the online monitoring analysis and GUI applications used to control and monitor the ATLAS experiment. Information Service provides streaming functionality allowing efficient replication of all or part of the managed information. This functionality is used to duplicate the subset of the ATLAS monitoring data to the CERN public network with a latency of a few milliseconds, allowing efficient real-time monitoring of the data taking from outside the protected ATLAS network. Each information item in IS has an associated URL which can be used to access that item online via HTTP protocol. This functionality is being used by many online monitoring applications which can run in a WEB browser, providing real-time monitoring information about the ATLAS experiment over the globe. This paper describes the design and implementation of the IS and presents performance results which have been taken in the ATLAS operational environment.

Clinical review: Neuromonitoring - an update

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Critically ill patients are frequently at risk of neurological dysfunction as a result of primary neurological conditions or secondary insults. Determining which aspects of brain function are affected and how best to manage the neurological dysfunction can often be difficult and is complicated by the limited information that can be gained from clinical examination in such patients and the effects of therapies, notably sedation, on neurological function. Methods to measure and monitor brain function have evolved considerably in recent years and now play an important role in the evaluation and management of patients with brain injury. Importantly, no single technique is ideal for all patients and different variables will need to be monitored in different patients; in many patients, a combination of monitoring techniques will be needed. Although clinical studies support the physiologic feasibility and biologic plausibility of management based on information from various monitors, data supporting this concept from randomized trials are still required. PMID:23320763

Ambient intelligence for monitoring and research in clinical neurophysiology and medicine: the MIMERICA* project and prototype.

PubMed

Pignolo, L; Riganello, F; Dolce, G; Sannita, W G

2013-04-01

Ambient Intelligence (AmI) provides extended but unobtrusive sensing and computing devices and ubiquitous networking for human/environment interaction. It is a new paradigm in information technology compliant with the international Integrating Healthcare Enterprise board (IHE) and eHealth HL7 technological standards in the functional integration of biomedical domotics and informatics in hospital and home care. AmI allows real-time automatic recording of biological/medical information and environmental data. It is extensively applicable to patient monitoring, medicine and neuroscience research, which require large biomedical data sets; for example, in the study of spontaneous or condition-dependent variability or chronobiology. In this respect, AML is equivalent to a traditional laboratory for data collection and processing, with minimal dedicated equipment, staff, and costs; it benefits from the integration of artificial intelligence technology with traditional/innovative sensors to monitor clinical or functional parameters. A prototype AmI platform (MIMERICA*) has been implemented and is operated in a semi-intensive unit for the vegetative and minimally conscious states, to investigate the spontaneous or environment-related fluctuations of physiological parameters in these conditions.

Application of Vibration and Oil Analysis for Reliability Information on Helicopter Main Rotor Gearbox

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murrad, Muhamad; Leong, M. Salman

Based on the experiences of the Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF), failure of the main rotor gearbox (MRGB) was one of the major contributing factors to helicopter breakdowns. Even though vibration and oil analysis are the effective techniques for monitoring the health of helicopter components, these two techniques were rarely combined to form an effective assessment tool in MAF. Results of the oil analysis were often used only for oil changing schedule while assessments of MRGB condition were mainly based on overall vibration readings. A study group was formed and given a mandate to improve the maintenance strategy of S61-A4 helicopter fleet in the MAF. The improvement consisted of a structured approach to the reassessment/redefinition suitable maintenance actions that should be taken for the MRGB. Basic and enhanced tools for condition monitoring (CM) are investigated to address the predominant failures of the MRGB. Quantitative accelerated life testing (QALT) was considered in this work with an intent to obtain the required reliability information in a shorter time with tests under normal stress conditions. These tests when performed correctly can provide valuable information about MRGB performance under normal operating conditions which enable maintenance personnel to make decision more quickly, accurately and economically. The time-to-failure and probability of failure information of the MRGB were generated by applying QALT analysis principles. This study is anticipated to make a dramatic change in its approach to CM, bringing significant savings and various benefits to MAF.

A methodology for hard/soft information fusion in the condition monitoring of aircraft

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bernardo, Joseph T.

2013-05-01

Condition-based maintenance (CBM) refers to the philosophy of performing maintenance when the need arises, based upon indicators of deterioration in the condition of the machinery. Traditionally, CBM involves equipping machinery with electronic sensors that continuously monitor components and collect data for analysis. The addition of the multisensory capability of human cognitive functions (i.e., sensemaking, problem detection, planning, adaptation, coordination, naturalistic decision making) to traditional CBM may create a fuller picture of machinery condition. Cognitive systems engineering techniques provide an opportunity to utilize a dynamic resource—people acting as soft sensors. The literature is extensive on techniques to fuse data from electronic sensors, but little work exists on fusing data from humans with that from electronic sensors (i.e., hard/soft fusion). The purpose of my research is to explore, observe, investigate, analyze, and evaluate the fusion of pilot and maintainer knowledge, experiences, and sensory perceptions with digital maintenance resources. Hard/soft information fusion has the potential to increase problem detection capability, improve flight safety, and increase mission readiness. This proposed project consists the creation of a methodology that is based upon the Living Laboratories framework, a research methodology that is built upon cognitive engineering principles1. This study performs a critical assessment of concept, which will support development of activities to demonstrate hard/soft information fusion in operationally relevant scenarios of aircraft maintenance. It consists of fieldwork, knowledge elicitation to inform a simulation and a prototype.

Assessing the remote sensing derived evaporative stress index with ground observations of crop conditions to advance drought early warning

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Drought has significant impacts over broad spatial and temporal scales, and information about the timing and extent of such conditions is of critical importance to many end users in the agricultural and water resource management communities. The ability to accurately monitor effects on crops, and p...

Northwest Forest Plan—the first 20 years (1994–2013): watershed condition status and trends

Treesearch

Stephanie A. Miller; Sean N. Gordon; Peter Eldred; Ronald M. Beloin; Steve Wilcox; Mark Raggon; Heidi Andersen; Ariel. Muldoon

2017-01-01

The Aquatic and Riparian Effectiveness Monitoring Program focuses on assessing the degree to which federal land management under the aquatic conservation strategy (ACS) of the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) has been effective in maintaining and improving watershed conditions. We used stream sampling data and upslope/riparian geographic information system (GIS) and remote...

To the National Map and beyond

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kelmelis, J.

2003-01-01

Scientific understanding, technology, and social, economic, and environmental conditions have driven a rapidly changing demand for geographic information, both digital and analog. For more than a decade, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has been developing innovative partnerships with other government agencies and private industry to produce and distribute geographic information efficiently; increase activities in remote sensing to ensure ongoing monitoring of the land surface; and develop new understanding of the causes and consequences of land surface change. These activities are now contributing to a more robust set of geographic information called The National Map (TNM). The National Map is designed to provide an up-to-date, seamless, horizontally and vertically integrated set of basic digital geographic data, a frequent monitoring of changes on the land surface, and an understanding of the condition of the Earth's surface and many of the processes that shape it. The USGS has reorganized its National Mapping Program into three programs to address the continuum of scientific activities-describing (mapping), monitoring, understanding, modeling, and predicting. The Cooperative Topographic Mapping Program focuses primarily on the mapping and revision aspects of TNM. The National Map also includes results from the Land Remote Sensing and Geographic Analysis and Monitoring Programs that provide continual updates, new insights, and analytical tools. The National Map is valuable as a framework for current research, management, and operational activities. It also provides a critical framework for the development of distributed, spatially enabled decision support systems.

Soil moisture monitoring for crop management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boyd, Dale

2015-07-01

The 'Risk management through soil moisture monitoring' project has demonstrated the capability of current technology to remotely monitor and communicate real time soil moisture data. The project investigated whether capacitance probes would assist making informed pre- and in-crop decisions. Crop potential and cropping inputs are increasingly being subject to greater instability and uncertainty due to seasonal variability. In a targeted survey of those who received regular correspondence from the Department of Primary Industries it was found that i) 50% of the audience found the information generated relevant for them and less than 10% indicted with was not relevant; ii) 85% have improved their knowledge/ability to assess soil moisture compared to prior to the project, with the most used indicator of soil moisture still being rain fall records; and iii) 100% have indicated they will continue to use some form of the technology to monitor soil moisture levels in the future. It is hoped that continued access to this information will assist informed input decisions. This will minimise inputs in low decile years with a low soil moisture base and maximise yield potential in more favourable conditions based on soil moisture and positive seasonal forecasts

Integrated risk and recovery monitoring of ecosystem restorations on contaminated sites

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hooper, Michael J.; Glomb, Stephen J.; Harper, David; Hoelzle, Timothy B.; McIntosh, Lisa M.; Mulligan, David R.

2016-01-01

Ecological restorations of contaminated sites balance the human and ecological risks of residual contamination with the benefits of ecological recovery and the return of lost ecological function and ecosystem services. Risk and recovery are interrelated dynamic conditions, changing as remediation and restoration activities progress through implementation into long-term management and ecosystem maturation. Monitoring restoration progress provides data critical to minimizing residual contaminant risk and uncertainty, while measuring ecological advancement toward recovery goals. Effective monitoring plans are designed concurrently with restoration plan development and implementation and are focused on assessing the effectiveness of activities performed in support of restoration goals for the site. Physical, chemical, and biotic measures characterize progress toward desired structural and functional ecosystem components of the goals. Structural metrics, linked to ecosystem functions and services, inform restoration practitioners of work plan modifications or more substantial adaptive management actions necessary to maintain desired recovery. Monitoring frequency, duration, and scale depend on specific attributes and goals of the restoration project. Often tied to restoration milestones, critical assessment of monitoring metrics ensures attainment of risk minimization and ecosystem recovery. Finally, interpretation and communication of monitoring findings inform and engage regulators, other stakeholders, the scientific community, and the public. Because restoration activities will likely cease before full ecosystem recovery, monitoring endpoints should demonstrate risk reduction and a successional trajectory toward the condition established in the restoration goals. A detailed assessment of the completed project's achievements, as well as unrealized objectives, attained through project monitoring, will determine if contaminant risk has been minimized, if injured resources have recovered, and if ecosystem services have been returned. Such retrospective analysis will allow better planning for future restoration goals and strengthen the evidence base for quantifying injuries and damages at other sites in the future.

Dazomet Fumigant Management Plan Phase 2 Templates

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

These templates provide a framework for reporting application block information, buffer zones, emergency response plan, tarp plan, soil conditions, air monitoring, and more for pesticide products containing the active ingredient dazomet, such as Basamid G.

Landscape scale ecological monitoring as part of an EIA of major construction activities: experience at the Turkish section of the BTC crude oil pipeline project.

PubMed

Sahin, Sükran; Kurum, Ekrem

2009-09-01

Ecological monitoring is a complementary component of the overall environmental management and monitoring program of any Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report. The monitoring method should be developed for each project phase and allow for periodic reporting and assessment of compliance with the environmental conditions and requirements of the EIA. Also, this method should incorporate a variance request program since site-specific conditions can affect construction on a daily basis and require time-critical application of alternative construction scenarios or environmental management methods integrated with alternative mitigation measures. Finally, taking full advantage of the latest information and communication technologies can enhance the quality of, and public involvement in, the environmental management program. In this paper, a landscape-scale ecological monitoring method for major construction projects is described using, as a basis, 20 months of experience on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Crude Oil Pipeline Project, covering Turkish Sections Lot B and Lot C. This analysis presents suggestions for improving ecological monitoring for major construction activities.

Airplane takeoff and landing performance monitoring system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Middleton, David B. (Inventor); Srivatsan, Raghavachari (Inventor); Person, Jr., Lee H. (Inventor)

1991-01-01

The invention is a real-time takeoff and landing performance monitoring system for an aircraft which provides a pilot with graphic and metric information to assist in decisions related to achieving rotation speed (V.sub.R) within the safe zone of a runway, or stopping the aircraft on the runway after landing or take-off abort. The system processes information in two segments: a pretakeoff segment and a real-time segment. One-time inputs of ambient conditions and airplane configuration information are used in the pretakeoff segment to generate scheduled performance data. The real-time segment uses the scheduled performance data, runway length data and transducer measured parameters to monitor the performance of the airplane throughout the takeoff roll. Airplane and engine performance deficiencies are detected and annunciated. A novel and important feature of this segment is that it updates the estimated runway rolling friction coefficient. Airplane performance predictions also reflect changes in head wind occurring as the takeoff roll progresses. The system provides a head-down display and a head-up display. The head-up display is projected onto a partially reflective transparent surface through which the pilot views the runway. By comparing the present performance of the airplane with a predicted nominal performance based upon given conditions, performance deficiencies are detected by the system.

Monitoring the southwestern Wyoming landscape—A foundation for management and science

USGS Publications Warehouse

Manier, Daniel J.; Anderson, Patrick J.; Assal, Timothy J.; Chong, Geneva W.; Melcher, Cynthia P.

2017-08-29

Natural resource monitoring involves repeated collections of resource condition data and analyses to detect possible changes and identify underlying causes of changes. For natural resource agencies, monitoring provides the foundation for management and science. Specifically, analyses of monitoring data allow managers to better understand effects of land-use and other changes on important natural resources and to achieve their conservation and management goals. Examples of natural resources monitored on public lands include wildlife habitats, plant productivity, animal movements and population trends, soil chemistry, and water quality and quantity. Broader definitions of monitoring also recognize the need for scientifically valid data to help support planning efforts and informed decisions, to develop adaptive management strategies, and to provide the means for evaluating management outcomes.

Framework for ecological monitoring on lands of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges and their partners

USGS Publications Warehouse

Woodward, Andrea; Beever, Erik A.

2010-01-01

National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska and throughout the U.S. have begun developing a spatially comprehensive monitoring program to inform management decisions, and to provide data to broader research projects. In an era of unprecedented rates of climate change, monitoring is essential to detecting, understanding, communicating and mitigating climate-change effects on refuge and other resources under the protection of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and requires monitoring results to address spatial scales broader than individual refuges. This document provides guidance for building a monitoring program for refuges in Alaska that meets refuge-specific management needs while also allowing synthesis and summary of ecological conditions at the ecoregional and statewide spatial scales.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Dr. Paul Hintze (left) explains to Center Director Jim Kennedy a project he is working at the KSC Beach Corrosion Test Site. Hitze is doing post-graduate work for the National Research Council. The test facility site was established in the 1960s and has provided more than 30 years of historical information on the long-term performance of many materials in use at KSC and other locations around the world. Located 100 feet from the Atlantic Ocean approximately 1 mile south of the Space Shuttle launch sites, the test facility includes an atmospheric exposure site, a flowing seawater exposure site, and an on-site electrochemistry laboratory and monitoring station. The beach laboratory is used to conduct real-time corrosion experiments and provides for the remote monitoring of surrounding weather conditions. The newly added flowing seawater immersion facility provides for the immersion testing of materials and devices under controlled conditions.

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-08-21

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Dr. Paul Hintze (left) explains to Center Director Jim Kennedy a project he is working at the KSC Beach Corrosion Test Site. Hitze is doing post-graduate work for the National Research Council. The test facility site was established in the 1960s and has provided more than 30 years of historical information on the long-term performance of many materials in use at KSC and other locations around the world. Located 100 feet from the Atlantic Ocean approximately 1 mile south of the Space Shuttle launch sites, the test facility includes an atmospheric exposure site, a flowing seawater exposure site, and an on-site electrochemistry laboratory and monitoring station. The beach laboratory is used to conduct real-time corrosion experiments and provides for the remote monitoring of surrounding weather conditions. The newly added flowing seawater immersion facility provides for the immersion testing of materials and devices under controlled conditions.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Louis MacDowell (right), Testbed manager, explains to Center Director Jim Kennedy the use of astmospheric calibration specimens. Placed at various locations, they can rank the corrosivity of the given environment. The KSC Beach Corrosion Test Site was established in the 1960s and has provided more than 30 years of historical information on the long-term performance of many materials in use at KSC and other locations around the world. Located 100 feet from the Atlantic Ocean approximately 1 mile south of the Space Shuttle launch sites, the test facility includes an atmospheric exposure site, a flowing seawater exposure site, and an on-site electrochemistry laboratory and monitoring station. The beach laboratory is used to conduct real-time corrosion experiments and provides for the remote monitoring of surrounding weather conditions. The newly added flowing seawater immersion facility provides for the immersion testing of materials and devices under controlled conditions.

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-08-21

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Louis MacDowell (right), Testbed manager, explains to Center Director Jim Kennedy the use of astmospheric calibration specimens. Placed at various locations, they can rank the corrosivity of the given environment. The KSC Beach Corrosion Test Site was established in the 1960s and has provided more than 30 years of historical information on the long-term performance of many materials in use at KSC and other locations around the world. Located 100 feet from the Atlantic Ocean approximately 1 mile south of the Space Shuttle launch sites, the test facility includes an atmospheric exposure site, a flowing seawater exposure site, and an on-site electrochemistry laboratory and monitoring station. The beach laboratory is used to conduct real-time corrosion experiments and provides for the remote monitoring of surrounding weather conditions. The newly added flowing seawater immersion facility provides for the immersion testing of materials and devices under controlled conditions.

Development of the remote diagnosis system of the solar radio telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kawashima, Susumu; Shinohara, Noriyuki; Sekiguchi, Hideaki

2005-04-01

"The remote diagnosis system" which we have developed is the one to monitor the operation conditions of two systems of solar radio observation (Nobeyama Radioheliograph and Nobeyama Radio Polarimeters) from the remote place. Under the condition of very limited human power, it is necessary to minimize the load of observers without degrading data quality. Thereupon, we have mulled measures to alleviate the load of observers, and worked out "the remote diagnosis system" which enables us to monitor the operation conditions and detect troubles, if any, in early stages, even if we are away from the observatory building where control system are concentrated. The plan was materialized by adopting an access through the INTERNET to the section where needed information for diagnosis is gathered.

Honey Bee Colonies Remote Monitoring System.

PubMed

Gil-Lebrero, Sergio; Quiles-Latorre, Francisco Javier; Ortiz-López, Manuel; Sánchez-Ruiz, Víctor; Gámiz-López, Victoria; Luna-Rodríguez, Juan Jesús

2016-12-29

Bees are very important for terrestrial ecosystems and, above all, for the subsistence of many crops, due to their ability to pollinate flowers. Currently, the honey bee populations are decreasing due to colony collapse disorder (CCD). The reasons for CCD are not fully known, and as a result, it is essential to obtain all possible information on the environmental conditions surrounding the beehives. On the other hand, it is important to carry out such information gathering as non-intrusively as possible to avoid modifying the bees' work conditions and to obtain more reliable data. We designed a wireless-sensor networks meet these requirements. We designed a remote monitoring system (called WBee) based on a hierarchical three-level model formed by the wireless node, a local data server, and a cloud data server. WBee is a low-cost, fully scalable, easily deployable system with regard to the number and types of sensors and the number of hives and their geographical distribution. WBee saves the data in each of the levels if there are failures in communication. In addition, the nodes include a backup battery, which allows for further data acquisition and storage in the event of a power outage. Unlike other systems that monitor a single point of a hive, the system we present monitors and stores the temperature and relative humidity of the beehive in three different spots. Additionally, the hive is continuously weighed on a weighing scale. Real-time weight measurement is an innovation in wireless beehive-monitoring systems. We designed an adaptation board to facilitate the connection of the sensors to the node. Through the Internet, researchers and beekeepers can access the cloud data server to find out the condition of their hives in real time.

Honey Bee Colonies Remote Monitoring System

PubMed Central

Gil-Lebrero, Sergio; Quiles-Latorre, Francisco Javier; Ortiz-López, Manuel; Sánchez-Ruiz, Víctor; Gámiz-López, Victoria; Luna-Rodríguez, Juan Jesús

2016-01-01

Bees are very important for terrestrial ecosystems and, above all, for the subsistence of many crops, due to their ability to pollinate flowers. Currently, the honey bee populations are decreasing due to colony collapse disorder (CCD). The reasons for CCD are not fully known, and as a result, it is essential to obtain all possible information on the environmental conditions surrounding the beehives. On the other hand, it is important to carry out such information gathering as non-intrusively as possible to avoid modifying the bees’ work conditions and to obtain more reliable data. We designed a wireless-sensor networks meet these requirements. We designed a remote monitoring system (called WBee) based on a hierarchical three-level model formed by the wireless node, a local data server, and a cloud data server. WBee is a low-cost, fully scalable, easily deployable system with regard to the number and types of sensors and the number of hives and their geographical distribution. WBee saves the data in each of the levels if there are failures in communication. In addition, the nodes include a backup battery, which allows for further data acquisition and storage in the event of a power outage. Unlike other systems that monitor a single point of a hive, the system we present monitors and stores the temperature and relative humidity of the beehive in three different spots. Additionally, the hive is continuously weighed on a weighing scale. Real-time weight measurement is an innovation in wireless beehive—monitoring systems. We designed an adaptation board to facilitate the connection of the sensors to the node. Through the Internet, researchers and beekeepers can access the cloud data server to find out the condition of their hives in real time. PMID:28036061

Behavioral response to contamination risk information in a spatially explicit groundwater environment: Experimental evidence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Jingyuan; Michael, Holly A.; Duke, Joshua M.; Messer, Kent D.; Suter, Jordan F.

2014-08-01

This paper assesses the effectiveness of aquifer monitoring information in achieving more sustainable use of a groundwater resource in the absence of management policy. Groundwater user behavior in the face of an irreversible contamination threat is studied by applying methods of experimental economics to scenarios that combine a physics-based, spatially explicit, numerical groundwater model with different representations of information about an aquifer and its risk of contamination. The results suggest that the threat of catastrophic contamination affects pumping decisions: pumping is significantly reduced in experiments where contamination is possible compared to those where pumping cost is the only factor discouraging groundwater use. The level of information about the state of the aquifer also affects extraction behavior. Pumping rates differ when information that synthesizes data on aquifer conditions (a "risk gauge") is provided, despite invariant underlying economic incentives, and this result does not depend on whether the risk information is location-specific or from a whole aquifer perspective. Interestingly, users increase pumping when the risk gauge signals good aquifer status compared to a no-gauge treatment. When the gauge suggests impending contamination, however, pumping declines significantly, resulting in a lower probability of contamination. The study suggests that providing relatively simple aquifer condition guidance derived from monitoring data can lead to more sustainable use of groundwater resources.

Two-parameter monitoring in a lab-on-valve manifold, applied to intracellular H2O2 measurements.

PubMed

Lähdesmäki, Ilkka; Chocholous, Petr; Carroll, Andrea D; Anderson, Judy; Rabinovitch, Peter S; Ruzicka, Jaromir

2009-07-01

This work introduces, for the first time, simultaneous monitoring of fluorescence and absorbance using Bead Injection in a Lab-on-valve format. The aim of the paper is to show that when the target species, cells immobilized on a stationary phase, are exposed to reagents under well-controlled reaction conditions, dual monitoring yields valuable information. The applicability of this technique is demonstrated by the development of a Bead Injection method for automated measurement of cell density and intracellular hydrogen peroxide.

Detecting environmental change: science and society-perspectives on long-term research and monitoring in the 21st century.

PubMed

Parr, T W; Sier, A R J; Battarbee, R W; Mackay, A; Burgess, J

2003-07-01

Widespread concern over the state of the environment and the impacts of anthropogenic activities on ecosystem services and functions has highlighted the need for high-quality, long-term datasets for detecting and understanding environmental change. In July 2001, an international conference reviewed progress in the field of long-term ecosystem research and monitoring (LTERM). Examples are given which demonstrate the need for long-term environmental monitoring and research, for palaeoecological reconstructions of past environments and for applied use of historical records that inform us of past environmental conditions. LTERM approaches are needed to provide measures of baseline conditions and for informing decisions on ecosystem management and environmental policy formulation. They are also valuable in aiding the understanding of the processes of environmental change, including the integrated effects of natural and anthropogenic drivers and pressures, recovery from stress and resilience of species, populations, communities and ecosystems. The authors argue that, in order to realise the full potential of LTERM approaches, progress must be made in four key areas: (i) increase the number, variety and scope of LTERM activities to help define the operational range of ecosystems; (ii) greater integration of research, monitoring, modelling, palaeoecological reconstruction and remote sensing to create a broad-scale early warning system of environmental change; (iii) development of inter-disciplinary approaches which draw upon social and environmental science expertise to understand the factors determining the vulnerability and resilience of the nature-society system to change; and (iv) more and better use of LTERM data and information to inform the public and policymakers and to provide guidance on sustainable development.

Remote sensing: Snow monitoring tool for today and tomorrow

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rango, A.

1977-01-01

Various types of remote sensing are now available or will be in the future for snowpack monitoring. Aircraft reconnaissance is now used in a conventional manner by various water resources agencies to obtain information on snowlines, depth, and melting of the snowpack for forecasting purposes. The use of earth resources satellites for mapping snowcovered area, snowlines, and changes in snowcover during the spring has increased during the last five years. Gamma ray aircraft flights, although confined to an extremely low altitude, provide a means for obtaining valuable information on snow water equivalent. The most recently developed remote sensing technology for snow, namely, microwave monitoring, has provided initial results that may eventually allow us to infer snow water equivalent or depth, snow wetness, and the hydrologic condition of the underlying soil.

Automated ground-water monitoring with Robowell: case studies and potential applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Granato, Gregory E.; Smith, Kirk P.

2002-02-01

Robowell is an automated system and method for monitoring ground-water quality. Robowell meets accepted manual- sampling protocols without high labor and laboratory costs. Robowell periodically monitors and records water-quality properties and constituents in ground water by pumping a well or multilevel sampler until one or more purge criteria have been met. A record of frequent water-quality measurements from a monitoring site can indicate changes in ground-water quality and can provide a context for the interpretation of laboratory data from discrete samples. Robowell also can communicate data and system performance through a remote communication link. Remote access to ground-water data enables the user to monitor conditions and optimize manual sampling efforts. Six Robowell prototypes have successfully monitored ground-water quality during all four seasons of the year under different hydrogeologic conditions, well designs, and geochemical environments. The U.S. Geological Survey is seeking partners for research with robust and economical water-quality monitoring instruments designed to measure contaminants of concern in conjunction with the application and commercialization of the Robowell technology. Project publications and information about technology transfer opportunities are available on the Internet at URL http://ma.water.usgs.gov/automon/

Hybrid monitoring scheme for end-to-end performance enhancement of multicast-based real-time media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, Ju-Won; Kim, JongWon

2004-10-01

As real-time media applications based on IP multicast networks spread widely, end-to-end QoS (quality of service) provisioning for these applications have become very important. To guarantee the end-to-end QoS of multi-party media applications, it is essential to monitor the time-varying status of both network metrics (i.e., delay, jitter and loss) and system metrics (i.e., CPU and memory utilization). In this paper, targeting the multicast-enabled AG (Access Grid) a next-generation group collaboration tool based on multi-party media services, the applicability of hybrid monitoring scheme that combines active and passive monitoring is investigated. The active monitoring measures network-layer metrics (i.e., network condition) with probe packets while the passive monitoring checks both application-layer metrics (i.e., user traffic condition by analyzing RTCP packets) and system metrics. By comparing these hybrid results, we attempt to pinpoint the causes of performance degradation and explore corresponding reactions to improve the end-to-end performance. The experimental results show that the proposed hybrid monitoring can provide useful information to coordinate the performance improvement of multi-party real-time media applications.

Automated ground-water monitoring with robowell-Case studies and potential applications

USGS Publications Warehouse

Granato, G.E.; Smith, K.P.; ,

2001-01-01

Robowell is an automated system and method for monitoring ground-water quality. Robowell meets accepted manual-sampling protocols without high labor and laboratory costs. Robowell periodically monitors and records water-quality properties and constituents in ground water by pumping a well or multilevel sampler until one or more purge criteria have been met. A record of frequent water-quality measurements from a monitoring site can indicate changes in ground-water quality and can provide a context for the interpretation of laboratory data from discrete samples. Robowell also can communicate data and system performance through a remote communication link. Remote access to ground-water data enables the user to monitor conditions and optimize manual sampling efforts. Six Robowell prototypes have successfully monitored ground-water quality during all four seasons of the year under different hydrogeologic conditions, well designs, and geochemical environments. The U.S. Geological Survey is seeking partners for research with robust and economical water-quality monitoring instruments designed to measure contaminants of concern in conjunction with the application and commercialization of the Robowell technology. Project publications and information about technology transfer opportunities are available on the Internet at URL http://ma.water.usgs.gov/automon/.

Development of the ConnDOT horizontal curve classification software.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-06-01

The Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) is a national, highway information system that requires states : to collect and submit data on the extent, condition, performance, use, and operating characteristics of the nation's : highways. HPMS re...

Accounting for false-positive acoustic detections of bats using occupancy models

USGS Publications Warehouse

Clement, Matthew J.; Rodhouse, Thomas J.; Ormsbee, Patricia C.; Szewczak, Joseph M.; Nichols, James D.

2014-01-01

4. Synthesis and applications. Our results suggest that false positives sufficient to affect inferences may be common in acoustic surveys for bats. We demonstrate an approach that can estimate occupancy, regardless of the false-positive rate, when acoustic surveys are paired with capture surveys. Applications of this approach include monitoring the spread of White-Nose Syndrome, estimating the impact of climate change and informing conservation listing decisions. We calculate a site-specific probability of occupancy, conditional on survey results, which could inform local permitting decisions, such as for wind energy projects. More generally, the magnitude of false positives suggests that false-positive occupancy models can improve accuracy in research and monitoring of bats and provide wildlife managers with more reliable information.

Central localization of plasticity involved in appetitive conditioning in Lymnaea

PubMed Central

Straub, Volko A.; Styles, Benjamin J.; Ireland, Julie S.; O'Shea, Michael; Benjamin, Paul R.

2004-01-01

Learning to associate a conditioned (CS) and unconditioned stimulus (US) results in changes in the processing of CS information. Here, we address directly the question whether chemical appetitive conditioning of Lymnaea feeding behavior involves changes in the peripheral and/or central processing of the CS by using extracellular recording techniques to monitor neuronal activity at two stages of the sensory processing pathway. Our data show that appetitive conditioning does not affect significantly the overall CS response of afferent nerves connecting chemosensory structures in the lips and tentacles to the central nervous system (CNS). In contrast, neuronal output from the cerebral ganglia, which represent the first central processing stage for chemosensory information, is enhanced significantly in response to the CS after appetitive conditioning. This demonstrates that chemical appetitive conditioning in Lymnaea affects the central, but not the peripheral processing of chemosensory information. It also identifies the cerebral ganglia of Lymnaea as an important site for neuronal plasticity and forms the basis for detailed cellular studies of neuronal plasticity. PMID:15537733

Willingness of Patients to Use Computers for Health Communication and Monitoring Following Myocardial Infarction.

PubMed

Shaw, Ryan J; Zullig, Leah L; Crowley, Matthew J; Grambow, Steven C; Lindquist, Jennifer H; Shah, Bimal R; Peterson, Eric; Bosworth, Hayden B

2015-09-01

We describe the computer use characteristics of 406 post-myocardial infarction (MI) patients and their willingness to engage online for health communication and monitoring. Most participants were computer users (n = 259; 63.8%) and half (n = 209; 51.5%) read health information online at least monthly. However, most participants did not go online to track health conditions (n = 283; 69.7%), look at medical records (n = 287; 70.7%), or e-mail doctors (n = 351; 86.5%). Most participants would consider using a Web site to e-mail doctors (n = 275; 67.7%), share medical information with doctors (n = 302; 74.4%), send biological data to their doctor (n = 308; 75.9%), look at medical records (n = 321; 79.1%), track health conditions (n = 331; 81.5%), and read about health conditions (n = 332; 81.8%). Sharing health information online with family members (n = 181; 44.6%) or for support groups (n = 223; 54.9%) was not of much interest. Most post-MI participants reported they were interested in communicating with their provider and tracking their health conditions online. Because patients with a history of MI tend to be older and are disproportionately minority, researchers and clinicians must be careful to design interventions that embrace post-MI patients of diverse backgrounds that both improve their access to care and health outcomes.

Wind Turbine Gearbox Condition Monitoring Round Robin Study - Vibration Analysis

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sheng, S.

2012-07-01

The Gearbox Reliability Collaborative (GRC) at the National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) tested two identical gearboxes. One was tested on the NWTCs 2.5 MW dynamometer and the other was field tested in a turbine in a nearby wind plant. In the field, the test gearbox experienced two oil loss events that resulted in damage to its internal bearings and gears. Since the damage was not severe, the test gearbox was removed from the field and retested in the NWTCs dynamometer before it was disassembled. During the dynamometer retest, some vibration data along with testing condition information were collected. These datamore » enabled NREL to launch a Wind Turbine Gearbox Condition Monitoring Round Robin project, as described in this report. The main objective of this project was to evaluate different vibration analysis algorithms used in wind turbine condition monitoring (CM) and find out whether the typical practices are effective. With involvement of both academic researchers and industrial partners, the project sets an example on providing cutting edge research results back to industry.« less

A Five-Year Analysis of MODIS NDVI and NDWI for Rangeland Drought Assessment: Preliminary Results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gu, Y.; Brown, J. F.; Verdin, J. P.; Wardlow, B.

2006-12-01

Drought is one of the most costly natural disasters in the United States. Traditionally, drought monitoring has been based on weather station observations, which lack the continuous spatial coverage needed to adequately characterize and monitor detailed spatial patterns of drought conditions. Satellite remote sensing observations can provide a synoptic view of the land and provide a spatial context for measuring drought. A common satellite-based index, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) has a 30-year history of use for vegetation condition monitoring. NDVI is calculated from the visible red and near infrared channels and measures the changes in chlorophyll absorption and reflection in the spongy mesophyll of the vegetation canopy that are reflected in these respective bands. The normalized difference water index (NDWI) is another index, derived from the near-infrared and short wave infrared channels, and reflects changes in both the water content and spongy mesophyll in the vegetation canopy. As a result, the NDWI is influenced by both desiccation and wilting in the vegetation canopy and may be a more sensitive indicator than the NDVI for large- area drought monitoring. The objective of this study was to process and evaluate a 5-year history of 500-meter NDVI and NDWI data derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument and to investigate methods for measuring and monitoring drought in rangeland over the southern plains of the United States. This initial study included: (1) the development of a climatological database for MODIS NDVI and NDWI, (2) a study of the relationship between the NDVI, NDWI, and drought condition over rangeland, (3) the development of a method to provide threshold NDVI/NDWI values under drought conditions based on the 5-year NDVI/NDWI/drought condition analysis, and (4) the investigation of additional vegetation drought information provided by the NDWI versus the NDVI in a 5-year comparison of the two indices. The MODIS data were obtained from the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive System. Results show strong relationships among NDVI, NDWI, and drought analyzed over grasslands in the Flint Hills region of Kansas and Oklahoma. During the summer months, the average NDVI and NDWI values were consistently lower (NDVI<0.5 and NDWI<0.3) for the tallgrass prairie under drought conditions than under normal climate conditions (NDVI>0.6 and NDWI>0.4). The distinctions between drought conditions and normal climate conditions are based on the historic U.S. Drought Monitor maps and the historic Palmer index data. To take advantage of information contained in both indices, we calculated the difference between NDVI and NDWI (NDVI-NDWI). The difference between NDVI and NDWI slightly increases during the summer drought condition. Based on these analyses, the NDWI appears to be more sensitive than NDVI to drought conditions. The results of statistical analysis of the relationships among these indices will be presented in the poster.

The implementation of medical monitoring programs following potentially hazardous exposures: a medico-legal perspective.

PubMed

Vearrier, David; Greenberg, Michael I

2017-11-01

Clinical toxicologists may be called upon to determine the appropriateness of medical monitoring following documented or purported exposures to toxicants in the occupational, environmental, and medical settings. We searched the MEDLINE database using the Ovid ® search engine for the following terms cross-referenced to the MeSH database: ("occupational exposures" OR "environmental exposures") AND ("physiologic monitoring" OR "population surveillance"). The titles and abstracts of the resulted articles were reviewed for relevance. We expanded our search to include non-peer-reviewed publications and gray literature and resources using the same terms as utilized in the MEDLINE search. There were a total of 48 relevant peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed publications. Publications excluded contained no information relevant to medical monitoring following potentially harmful toxicologic exposures, discussed only worker screening/surveillance and/or population biomonitoring, contained redundant information, or were superseded by more recent information. Approaches to medical monitoring: A consensus exists in the peer-reviewed medical literature, legal literature, and government publications that for medical monitoring to be a beneficial public health activity, careful consideration must be given to potential benefits and harms of the program. Characteristics of the exposure, the adverse human health effect, the screening test, and the natural history of the disease are important in determining whether an exposed population will reap a net benefit or harm from a proposed monitoring program. Broader interpretations of medical monitoring: Some have argued that medical monitoring programs should not be limited to exposure-related outcomes but should duplicate general preventive medicine efforts to improve public health outcomes although an overall reduction of morbidity, mortality and disability by modifying correctable risk factors and disease conditions. This broader approach is inconsistent with the targeted approach advocated by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the United States Preventive Services Task Force and the bulk of the peer-reviewed medical literature. Medical monitoring in legal contexts: Numerous medical monitoring actions have been litigated. Legal rationales for allowing medical monitoring claims often incorporate some of the scientific criteria for the appropriateness of monitoring programs. In the majority of cases in which plaintiffs were awarded medical monitoring relief, plaintiffs were required to demonstrate both that the condition for which medical monitoring was sought could be detected early, and that early detection and treatment will improve morbidity and mortality. However, the treatment of medical monitoring claims varies significantly depending upon jurisdiction. Examples of large-scale, comprehensive medical monitoring programs: Large-scale, comprehensive medical monitoring programs have been implemented, such as the Fernald Medical Monitoring Program and the World Trade Center Health Program, both of which exceeded the scope of medical monitoring typically recommended in the peer-reviewed medical literature and the courts. The Fernald program sought to prevent death and disability due to non-exposure-related conditions in a manner similar to general preventive medicine. The World Trade Center Health Program provides comprehensive medical care for World Trade Center responders and may be viewed as a large-scale, federally--funded research effort, which distinguishes it from medical monitoring in a medico-legal context. Synthesis of public health approaches to medical monitoring: Medical monitoring may be indicated following a hazardous exposure in limited circumstances. General causation for a specific adverse health effect must be either established by scientific consensus through a formal causal analysis using a framework such as the Bradford-Hill criteria. The exposure must be characterized and must be of sufficient severity that the exposed population has a significantly elevated risk of an adverse health effect. Monitoring must result in earlier detection of the condition than would otherwise occur and must confer a benefit in the form of primary, secondary or tertiary prevention. Outcome tables may be of use in describing the potential benefits and harms of a proposed monitoring program. In the context of litigation, plaintiffs may seek medical monitoring programs after documented or putative exposures. The role of the clinical toxicologist, in this setting, is to evaluate the scientific justifications and medical risks and assist the courts in determining whether monitoring would be expected to result in a net public health benefit.

Summary of available state ambient stream-water-quality data, 1990-98, and limitations for national assessment

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pope, Larry M.; Rosner, Stacy M.; Hoffman, Darren C.; Ziegler, Andrew C.

2004-01-01

The investigation described in this report summarized data from State ambient stream-water-quality monitoring sites for 10 water-quality constituents or measurements (suspended solids, fecal coliform bacteria, ammonia as nitrogen, nitrite plus nitrate as nitrogen, total phosphorus, total arsenic, dissolved solids, chloride, sulfate, and pH). These 10 water-quality constituents or measurements commonly are listed nationally as major contributors to degradation of surface water. Water-quality data were limited to that electronically accessible from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Storage and Retrieval System (STORET), the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Information System (NWIS), or individual State databases. Forty-two States had ambient stream-water-quality data electronically accessible for some or all of the constituents or measurements summarized during this investigation. Ambient in this report refers to data collected for the purpose of evaluating stream ecosystems in relation to human health, environmental and ecological conditions, and designated uses. Generally, data were from monitoring sites assessed for State 305(b) reports. Comparisons of monitoring data among States are problematic for several reasons, including differences in the basic spatial design of monitoring networks; water-quality constituents for which samples are analyzed; water-quality criteria to which constituent concentrations are compared; quantity and comprehensiveness of water-quality data; sample collection, processing, and handling; analytical methods; temporal variability in sample collection; and quality-assurance practices. Large differences among the States in number of monitoring sites precluded a general assumption that statewide water-quality conditions were represented by data from these sites. Furthermore, data from individual monitoring sites may not represent water-quality conditions at the sites because sampling conditions and protocols are unknown. Because of these factors, a high level of uncertainty exists in a national assessment of water quality. The purpose of this report is to present a summary of electronically available State ambient stream-water-quality data for 10 selected constituents and measurements from monitoring sites with nine or more analyses for 199098 and to discuss limitations for use of the data for national assessment. These analyses were statistiscally summarized by monitoring site and State, and the results presented in tabular format. Most of the selected constituents or measurements have U.S. Environmental Protection Agency criteria or guidelines for aquatic-life or drinking-water purposes. A significant finding of this investigation is that for a large percentage of monitoring sites in the Nation, there are insufficient data to meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommendations for determining if water-quality conditions are degraded and for making informed decisions regarding total maximum daily loads.

Remote sensing of vegetation pattern and condition to monitor changes in everglades biogeochemistry

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jones, J.W.

2011-01-01

Ground-based studies of biogeochemistry and vegetation patterning yield process understanding, but the amount of information gained by ground-based studies can be greatly enhanced by efficient, synoptic, and temporally resolute monitoring afforded by remote sensing. The variety of presently available Everglades vegetation maps reflects both the wide range of application requirements and the need to balance cost and capability. More effort needs to be applied to documenting and understanding vegetation distribution and condition as indicators of biogeochemistry and contamination. Ground-based and remote sensing studies should be modified to maximize their synergy and utility for adaptive management. Copyright ?? 2011 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Safety monitoring and reactor transient interpreter

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hench, J. E.; Fukushima, T. Y.

1983-12-20

An apparatus which monitors a subset of control panel inputs in a nuclear reactor power plant, the subset being those indicators of plant status which are of a critical nature during an unusual event. A display (10) is provided for displaying primary information (14) as to whether the core is covered and likely to remain covered, including information as to the status of subsystems needed to cool the core and maintain core integrity. Secondary display information (18,20) is provided which can be viewed selectively for more detailed information when an abnormal condition occurs. The primary display information has messages (24)more » for prompting an operator as to which one of a number of pushbuttons (16) to press to bring up the appropriate secondary display (18,20). The apparatus utilizes a thermal-hydraulic analysis to more accurately determine key parameters (such as water level) from other measured parameters, such as power, pressure, and flow rate.« less

Disaster Emergency Rapid Assessment Based on Remote Sensing and Background Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, X.; Wu, J.

2018-04-01

The period from starting to the stable conditions is an important stage of disaster development. In addition to collecting and reporting information on disaster situations, remote sensing images by satellites and drones and monitoring results from disaster-stricken areas should be obtained. Fusion of multi-source background data such as population, geography and topography, and remote sensing monitoring information can be used in geographic information system analysis to quickly and objectively assess the disaster information. According to the characteristics of different hazards, the models and methods driven by the rapid assessment of mission requirements are tested and screened. Based on remote sensing images, the features of exposures quickly determine disaster-affected areas and intensity levels, and extract key disaster information about affected hospitals and schools as well as cultivated land and crops, and make decisions after emergency response with visual assessment results.

Structure and dynamics of an upland old-growth forest at Redwood National Park, California

Treesearch

Phillip J. van Mantgem; John D. Stuart

2012-01-01

Many current redwood forest management targets are based on old-growth conditions, so it is critical that we understand the variability and range of conditions that constitute these forests. Here we present information on the structure and dynamics from six one-hectare forest monitoring plots in an upland old-growth forest at Redwood National Park, California. We...

Physical and chemical changes in whey protein concentrate stored at elevated temperature and humidity

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The chemistry of whey protein concentrate (WPC) under adverse storage conditions was monitored to provide information on shelf life in hot, humid areas. WPC34 (34.9 g protein/100 g) and WPC80 (76.8 g protein/100 g) were stored for up to 18 mo under ambient conditions and at elevated temperature and...

Predictive probability methods for interim monitoring in clinical trials with longitudinal outcomes.

PubMed

Zhou, Ming; Tang, Qi; Lang, Lixin; Xing, Jun; Tatsuoka, Kay

2018-04-17

In clinical research and development, interim monitoring is critical for better decision-making and minimizing the risk of exposing patients to possible ineffective therapies. For interim futility or efficacy monitoring, predictive probability methods are widely adopted in practice. Those methods have been well studied for univariate variables. However, for longitudinal studies, predictive probability methods using univariate information from only completers may not be most efficient, and data from on-going subjects can be utilized to improve efficiency. On the other hand, leveraging information from on-going subjects could allow an interim analysis to be potentially conducted once a sufficient number of subjects reach an earlier time point. For longitudinal outcomes, we derive closed-form formulas for predictive probabilities, including Bayesian predictive probability, predictive power, and conditional power and also give closed-form solutions for predictive probability of success in a future trial and the predictive probability of success of the best dose. When predictive probabilities are used for interim monitoring, we study their distributions and discuss their analytical cutoff values or stopping boundaries that have desired operating characteristics. We show that predictive probabilities utilizing all longitudinal information are more efficient for interim monitoring than that using information from completers only. To illustrate their practical application for longitudinal data, we analyze 2 real data examples from clinical trials. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Dust control products at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, Texas: environmental safety and performance

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kunz, Bethany K.; Little, Edward E.

2015-01-01

Controlling fugitive dust while protecting natural resources is a challenge faced by all managers of unpaved roads. Unfortunately, road managers choosing between dust control products often have little objective environmental information to aid their decisions. To address this information gap, the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service collaborated on a field test of three dust control products with the objectives of (a) evaluating product performance under real-world conditions, (b) verifying the environmental safety of products identified as practically nontoxic in laboratory tests, and (c) testing the feasibility of several environmental monitoring techniques for use in dust control tests. In cooperation with refuge staff and product vendors, three products (one magnesium chloride plus binder, one cellulose, and one synthetic fluid plus binder) were applied in July 2012 to replicated road sections at the Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge in Texas. These sections were monitored periodically for 12 months after application. Product performance was assessed by mobile-mounted particulate-matter meters measuring production of fugitive dust and by observations of road conditions. Environmental safety was evaluated through on-site biological observations and leaching tests with samples of treated aggregate. All products reduced dust and improved surface condition during those 12 months. Planned environmental measurements were not always compatible with day-to-day refuge management actions; this incompatibility highlighted the need for flexible biological monitoring plans. As one of the first field tests of dust suppressants that explicitly incorporated biological endpoints, this effort provides valuable information for improving field tests and for developing laboratory or semifield alternatives.

Airplane takeoff and landing performance monitoring system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Middleton, David B. (Inventor); Srivatsan, Raghavachari (Inventor); Person, Lee H. (Inventor)

1989-01-01

The invention is a real-time takeoff and landing performance monitoring system which provides the pilot with graphic and metric information to assist in decisions related to achieving rotation speed (V sub R) within the safe zone of the runway or stopping the aircraft on the runway after landing or take off abort. The system processes information in two segments: a pretakeoff segment and a real-time segment. One-time inputs of ambient conditions and airplane configuration information are used in the pretakeoff segment to generate scheduled performance data. The real-time segment uses the scheduled performance data, runway length data and transducer measured parameters to monitor the performance of the airplane throughout the takeoff roll. An important feature of this segment is that it updates the estimated runway rolling friction coefficient. Airplane performance predictions also reflect changes in headwind occurring as the takeoff roll progresses. The system displays the position of the airplane on the runway, indicating runway used and runway available, summarizes the critical information into a situation advisory flag, flags engine failures and off-nominal acceleration performance, and indicates where on the runway particular events such as decision speed (V sub 1), rotation speed (V sub R) and expected stop points will occur based on actual or predicted performance. The display also indicates airspeed, wind vector, engine pressure ratios, second segment climb speed, and balanced field length (BFL). The system detects performance deficiencies by comparing the airplane's present performance with a predicted nominal performance based upon the given conditions.

Rotorcraft Diagnostics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Haste, Deepak; Azam, Mohammad; Ghoshal, Sudipto; Monte, James

2012-01-01

Health management (HM) in any engineering systems requires adequate understanding about the system s functioning; a sufficient amount of monitored data; the capability to extract, analyze, and collate information; and the capability to combine understanding and information for HM-related estimation and decision-making. Rotorcraft systems are, in general, highly complex. Obtaining adequate understanding about functioning of such systems is quite difficult, because of the proprietary (restricted access) nature of their designs and dynamic models. Development of an EIM (exact inverse map) solution for rotorcraft requires a process that can overcome the abovementioned difficulties and maximally utilize monitored information for HM facilitation via employing advanced analytic techniques. The goal was to develop a versatile HM solution for rotorcraft for facilitation of the Condition Based Maintenance Plus (CBM+) capabilities. The effort was geared towards developing analytic and reasoning techniques, and proving the ability to embed the required capabilities on a rotorcraft platform, paving the way for implementing the solution on an aircraft-level system for consolidation and reporting. The solution for rotorcraft can he used offboard or embedded directly onto a rotorcraft system. The envisioned solution utilizes available monitored and archived data for real-time fault detection and identification, failure precursor identification, and offline fault detection and diagnostics, health condition forecasting, optimal guided troubleshooting, and maintenance decision support. A variant of the onboard version is a self-contained hardware and software (HW+SW) package that can be embedded on rotorcraft systems. The HM solution comprises components that gather/ingest data and information, perform information/feature extraction, analyze information in conjunction with the dependency/diagnostic model of the target system, facilitate optimal guided troubleshooting, and offer decision support for optimal maintenance.

An energy-efficient communication method based on the relationships between biological signals for ubiquitous health monitoring.

PubMed

Kwon, Hyok Chon; Na, Doosu; Ko, Byung Geun; Lee, Songjun

2008-01-01

Wireless sensor networks have been studied in the area of intelligent transportation systems, disaster perception, environment monitoring, ubiquitous healthcare, home network, and so on. For the ubiquitous healthcare, the previous systems collect the sensed health related data at portable devices without regard to correlations of various biological signals to determine the health conditions. It is not the energy-efficient method to gather a lot of information into a specific node to decide the health condition. Since the biological signals are related with each other to estimate certain body condition, it is necessary to be collected selectively by their relationship for energy efficiency of the networked nodes. One of researches about low power consumption is the reduction of the amount of packet transmission. In this paper, a health monitoring system, which allows the transmission of the reduced number of packets by means of setting the routing path considered the relations of biological signals, is proposed.

Wireless acceleration sensor of moving elements for condition monitoring of mechanisms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sinitsin, Vladimir V.; Shestakov, Aleksandr L.

2017-09-01

Comprehensive analysis of the angular and linear accelerations of moving elements (shafts, gears) allows an increase in the quality of the condition monitoring of mechanisms. However, existing tools and methods measure either linear or angular acceleration with postprocessing. This paper suggests a new construction design of an angular acceleration sensor for moving elements. The sensor is mounted on a moving element and, among other things, the data transfer and electric power supply are carried out wirelessly. In addition, the authors introduce a method for processing the received information which makes it possible to divide the measured acceleration into the angular and linear components. The design has been validated by the results of laboratory tests of an experimental model of the sensor. The study has shown that this method provides a definite separation of the measured acceleration into linear and angular components, even in noise. This research contributes an advance in the range of methods and tools for condition monitoring of mechanisms.

Adaptive noise cancelling and time-frequency techniques for rail surface defect detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liang, B.; Iwnicki, S.; Ball, A.; Young, A. E.

2015-03-01

Adaptive noise cancelling (ANC) is a technique which is very effective to remove additive noises from the contaminated signals. It has been widely used in the fields of telecommunication, radar and sonar signal processing. However it was seldom used for the surveillance and diagnosis of mechanical systems before late of 1990s. As a promising technique it has gradually been exploited for the purpose of condition monitoring and fault diagnosis. Time-frequency analysis is another useful tool for condition monitoring and fault diagnosis purpose as time-frequency analysis can keep both time and frequency information simultaneously. This paper presents an ANC and time-frequency application for railway wheel flat and rail surface defect detection. The experimental results from a scaled roller test rig show that this approach can significantly reduce unwanted interferences and extract the weak signals from strong background noises. The combination of ANC and time-frequency analysis may provide us one of useful tools for condition monitoring and fault diagnosis of railway vehicles.

Design of Cycle 3 of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program, 2013-23: Part 2: Science plan for improved water-quality information and management

USGS Publications Warehouse

Rowe, Gary L.; Belitz, Kenneth; Demas, Charlie R.; Essaid, Hedeff I.; Gilliom, Robert J.; Hamilton, Pixie A.; Hoos, Anne B.; Lee, Casey J.; Munn, Mark D.; Wolock, David W.

2013-01-01

This report presents a science strategy for the third decade of the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program, which since 1991, has been responsible for providing nationally consistent information on the quality of the Nation's streams and groundwater; how water quality is changing over time; and the major natural and human factors that affect current water quality conditions and trends. The strategy is based on an extensive evaluation of the accomplishments of NAWQA over its first two decades, the current status of water-quality monitoring activities by USGS and its partners, and an updated analysis of stakeholder priorities. The plan is designed to address priority issues and national needs identified by NAWQA stakeholders and the National Research Council (2012) irrespective of budget constraints. This plan describes four major goals for the third decade (Cycle 3), the approaches for monitoring, modeling, and scientific studies, key partnerships required to achieve these goals, and products and outcomes that will result from planned assessment activities. The science plan for 2013–2023 is a comprehensive approach to meet stakeholder priorities for: (1) rebuilding NAWQA monitoring networks for streams, rivers, and groundwater, and (2) upgrading models used to extrapolate and forecast changes in water-quality and stream ecosystem condition in response to changing climate and land use. The Cycle 3 plan continues approaches that have been central to the Program’s long-term success, but adjusts monitoring intensities and study designs to address critical information needs and identified data gaps. Restoration of diminished monitoring networks and new directions in modeling and interpretative studies address growing and evolving public and stakeholder needs for water-quality information and improved management, particularly in the face of increasing challenges related to population growth, increasing demands for water, and changing land use and climate. However, a combination of funding growth and extensive collaboration with other USGS programs and other Federal, State, and local agencies, public interest groups, professional and trade associations, academia, and private industry will be needed to fully realize the monitoring and modeling goals laid out in this plan (USGS Fact Sheet 2013-3008).

Micro and Macroscale Drivers of Nutrient Concentrations in Urban Streams in South, Central and North America.

PubMed

Loiselle, Steven A; Gasparini Fernandes Cunha, Davi; Shupe, Scott; Valiente, Elsa; Rocha, Luciana; Heasley, Eleanore; Belmont, Patricia Pérez; Baruch, Avinoam

Global metrics of land cover and land use provide a fundamental basis to examine the spatial variability of human-induced impacts on freshwater ecosystems. However, microscale processes and site specific conditions related to bank vegetation, pollution sources, adjacent land use and water uses can have important influences on ecosystem conditions, in particular in smaller tributary rivers. Compared to larger order rivers, these low-order streams and rivers are more numerous, yet often under-monitored. The present study explored the relationship of nutrient concentrations in 150 streams in 57 hydrological basins in South, Central and North America (Buenos Aires, Curitiba, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City and Vancouver) with macroscale information available from global datasets and microscale data acquired by trained citizen scientists. Average sub-basin phosphate (P-PO4) concentrations were found to be well correlated with sub-basin attributes on both macro and microscales, while the relationships between sub-basin attributes and nitrate (N-NO3) concentrations were limited. A phosphate threshold for eutrophic conditions (>0.1 mg L-1 P-PO4) was exceeded in basins where microscale point source discharge points (eg. residential, industrial, urban/road) were identified in more than 86% of stream reaches monitored by citizen scientists. The presence of bankside vegetation covaried (rho = -0.53) with lower phosphate concentrations in the ecosystems studied. Macroscale information on nutrient loading allowed for a strong separation between basins with and without eutrophic conditions. Most importantly, the combination of macroscale and microscale information acquired increased our ability to explain sub-basin variability of P-PO4 concentrations. The identification of microscale point sources and bank vegetation conditions by citizen scientists provided important information that local authorities could use to improve their management of lower order river ecosystems.

Micro and Macroscale Drivers of Nutrient Concentrations in Urban Streams in South, Central and North America

PubMed Central

Loiselle, Steven A.; Gasparini Fernandes Cunha, Davi; Shupe, Scott; Valiente, Elsa; Rocha, Luciana; Heasley, Eleanore; Belmont, Patricia Pérez; Baruch, Avinoam

2016-01-01

Global metrics of land cover and land use provide a fundamental basis to examine the spatial variability of human-induced impacts on freshwater ecosystems. However, microscale processes and site specific conditions related to bank vegetation, pollution sources, adjacent land use and water uses can have important influences on ecosystem conditions, in particular in smaller tributary rivers. Compared to larger order rivers, these low-order streams and rivers are more numerous, yet often under-monitored. The present study explored the relationship of nutrient concentrations in 150 streams in 57 hydrological basins in South, Central and North America (Buenos Aires, Curitiba, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City and Vancouver) with macroscale information available from global datasets and microscale data acquired by trained citizen scientists. Average sub-basin phosphate (P-PO4) concentrations were found to be well correlated with sub-basin attributes on both macro and microscales, while the relationships between sub-basin attributes and nitrate (N-NO3) concentrations were limited. A phosphate threshold for eutrophic conditions (>0.1 mg L-1 P-PO4) was exceeded in basins where microscale point source discharge points (eg. residential, industrial, urban/road) were identified in more than 86% of stream reaches monitored by citizen scientists. The presence of bankside vegetation covaried (rho = –0.53) with lower phosphate concentrations in the ecosystems studied. Macroscale information on nutrient loading allowed for a strong separation between basins with and without eutrophic conditions. Most importantly, the combination of macroscale and microscale information acquired increased our ability to explain sub-basin variability of P-PO4 concentrations. The identification of microscale point sources and bank vegetation conditions by citizen scientists provided important information that local authorities could use to improve their management of lower order river ecosystems. PMID:27662192

Collaboration Between Government and Commercial Space Weather Information Providers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Intriligator, Devrie

2007-10-01

Many systems and situations require up-to-date space weather information. These include navigation systems in cars, boats, and commercial freight; the specific location information needed for construction and oil drilling; communications; airline navigation; avionic systems; and passengers and personnel on polar airline flights. Thus, as the world's industries become increasingly more reliant on satellite data and more vulnerable to space weather conditions, new collaborations will have to be formed between commercial providers of space weather information and the government scientists who monitor space weather.

78 FR 61379 - Proposed Information Collection; Incidental Take of Marine Mammals During Specified Oil and Gas...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-10-03

... of polar bears and Pacific walruses in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. The Marine Mammal Protection... conditions should be in the LOA. In addition, we analyze the information to determine impacts to polar bears... Observation Reports......... 300 1.5 450 Final Monitoring Report 30 10 300 Polar Bear Den Report 4 40 160...

30 CFR 250.270 - What decisions will MMS make on the DPP or DOCD and within what timeframe?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

..., DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS AND SULPHUR OPERATIONS IN THE OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF Plans and Information Review and Decision Process for the Dpp Or Docd § 250.270 What decisions will MMS make... decision and may require you to meet certain conditions, including those to provide monitoring information...

On predicting monitoring system effectiveness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cappello, Carlo; Sigurdardottir, Dorotea; Glisic, Branko; Zonta, Daniele; Pozzi, Matteo

2015-03-01

While the objective of structural design is to achieve stability with an appropriate level of reliability, the design of systems for structural health monitoring is performed to identify a configuration that enables acquisition of data with an appropriate level of accuracy in order to understand the performance of a structure or its condition state. However, a rational standardized approach for monitoring system design is not fully available. Hence, when engineers design a monitoring system, their approach is often heuristic with performance evaluation based on experience, rather than on quantitative analysis. In this contribution, we propose a probabilistic model for the estimation of monitoring system effectiveness based on information available in prior condition, i.e. before acquiring empirical data. The presented model is developed considering the analogy between structural design and monitoring system design. We assume that the effectiveness can be evaluated based on the prediction of the posterior variance or covariance matrix of the state parameters, which we assume to be defined in a continuous space. Since the empirical measurements are not available in prior condition, the estimation of the posterior variance or covariance matrix is performed considering the measurements as a stochastic variable. Moreover, the model takes into account the effects of nuisance parameters, which are stochastic parameters that affect the observations but cannot be estimated using monitoring data. Finally, we present an application of the proposed model to a real structure. The results show how the model enables engineers to predict whether a sensor configuration satisfies the required performance.

Monitoring Cetaceans in the North Pacific: Analysis of Retrospective SOSUS Data and Acoustic Detection on the Northern Edge Range

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-12-01

suggestions for reducing this burden to Department of Defense, Washington Headquarters Services , Directorate for Information Operations and Reports...NEAR THE NORTHERN EDGE RANGE. Recovery LONG-TERM MONITORING OF BLUE AND FIN WHALE ACOUSTIC SIGNALS FROM THE NORTH PACIFIC 1994-2009: COMPARISON OF...to poor weather conditions that precluded deployments near the shelf break. 4 Recovery All three moorings were safely recovered on

ASSESSMENT OF DYNAMIC PRA TECHNIQUES WITH INDUSTRY AVERAGE COMPONENT PERFORMANCE DATA

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yadav, Vaibhav; Agarwal, Vivek; Gribok, Andrei V.

In the nuclear industry, risk monitors are intended to provide a point-in-time estimate of the system risk given the current plant configuration. Current risk monitors are limited in that they do not properly take into account the deteriorating states of plant equipment, which are unit-specific. Current approaches to computing risk monitors use probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) techniques, but the assessment is typically a snapshot in time. Living PRA models attempt to address limitations of traditional PRA models in a limited sense by including temporary changes in plant and system configurations. However, information on plant component health are not considered. Thismore » often leaves risk monitors using living PRA models incapable of conducting evaluations with dynamic degradation scenarios evolving over time. There is a need to develop enabling approaches to solidify risk monitors to provide time and condition-dependent risk by integrating traditional PRA models with condition monitoring and prognostic techniques. This paper presents estimation of system risk evolution over time by integrating plant risk monitoring data with dynamic PRA methods incorporating aging and degradation. Several online, non-destructive approaches have been developed for diagnosing plant component conditions in nuclear industry, i.e., condition indication index, using vibration analysis, current signatures, and operational history [1]. In this work the component performance measures at U.S. commercial nuclear power plants (NPP) [2] are incorporated within the various dynamic PRA methodologies [3] to provide better estimates of probability of failures. Aging and degradation is modeled within the Level-1 PRA framework and is applied to several failure modes of pumps and can be extended to a range of components, viz. valves, generators, batteries, and pipes.« less

Operation Reliability Assessment for Cutting Tools by Applying a Proportional Covariate Model to Condition Monitoring Information

PubMed Central

Cai, Gaigai; Chen, Xuefeng; Li, Bing; Chen, Baojia; He, Zhengjia

2012-01-01

The reliability of cutting tools is critical to machining precision and production efficiency. The conventional statistic-based reliability assessment method aims at providing a general and overall estimation of reliability for a large population of identical units under given and fixed conditions. However, it has limited effectiveness in depicting the operational characteristics of a cutting tool. To overcome this limitation, this paper proposes an approach to assess the operation reliability of cutting tools. A proportional covariate model is introduced to construct the relationship between operation reliability and condition monitoring information. The wavelet packet transform and an improved distance evaluation technique are used to extract sensitive features from vibration signals, and a covariate function is constructed based on the proportional covariate model. Ultimately, the failure rate function of the cutting tool being assessed is calculated using the baseline covariate function obtained from a small sample of historical data. Experimental results and a comparative study show that the proposed method is effective for assessing the operation reliability of cutting tools. PMID:23201980

Differential thermal voltammetry for tracking of degradation in lithium-ion batteries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Billy; Yufit, Vladimir; Merla, Yu; Martinez-Botas, Ricardo F.; Brandon, Nigel P.; Offer, Gregory J.

2015-01-01

Monitoring of lithium-ion batteries is of critical importance in electric vehicle applications in order to manage the operational condition of the cells. Measurements on a vehicle often involve current, voltage and temperature which enable in-situ diagnostic techniques. This paper presents a novel diagnostic technique, termed differential thermal voltammetry, which is capable of monitoring the state of the battery using voltage and temperature measurements in galvanostatic operating modes. This tracks battery degradation through phase transitions, and the resulting entropic heat, occurring in the electrodes. Experiments to monitor battery degradation using the new technique are compared with a pseudo-2D cell model. Results show that the differential thermal voltammetry technique provides information comparable to that of slow rate cyclic voltammetry at shorter timescale and with load conditions easier to replicate in a vehicle.

Conflict and metacognitive control: the mismatch-monitoring hypothesis of how others' knowledge states affect recall.

PubMed

Fraundorf, Scott H; Benjamin, Aaron S

2016-09-01

Information about others' success in remembering is frequently available. For example, students taking an exam may assess its difficulty by monitoring when others turn in their exams. In two experiments, we investigated how rememberers use this information to guide recall. Participants studied paired associates, some semantically related (and thus easier to retrieve) and some unrelated (and thus harder). During a subsequent cued recall test, participants viewed fictive information about an opponent's accuracy on each item. In Experiment 1, participants responded to each cue once before seeing the opponent's performance and once afterwards. Participants reconsidered their responses least often when the opponent's accuracy matched the item difficulty (easy items the opponent recalled, hard items the opponent forgot) and most often when the opponent's accuracy and the item difficulty mismatched. When participants responded only after seeing the opponent's performance (Experiment 2), the same mismatch conditions that led to reconsideration even produced superior recall. These results suggest that rememberers monitor whether others' knowledge states accord or conflict with their own experience, and that this information shifts how they interrogate their memory and what they recall.

Bridge condition assessment based on long-term strain monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, LiMin; Sun, Shouwang

2011-04-01

In consideration of the important role that bridges play as transportation infrastructures, their safety, durability and serviceability have always been deeply concerned. Structural Health Monitoring Systems (SHMS) have been installed to many long-span bridges to provide bridge engineers with the information needed in making rational decisions for maintenance. However, SHMS also confronted bridge engineers with the challenge of efficient use of monitoring data. Thus, methodologies which are robust to random disturbance and sensitive to damage become a subject on which many researches in structural condition assessment concentrate. In this study, an innovative probabilistic approach for condition assessment of bridge structures was proposed on the basis of long-term strain monitoring on steel girder of a cable-stayed bridge. First, the methodology of damage detection in the vicinity of monitoring point using strain-based indices was investigated. Then, the composition of strain response of bridge under operational loads was analyzed. Thirdly, the influence of temperature and wind on strains was eliminated and thus strain fluctuation under vehicle loads is obtained. Finally, damage evolution assessment was carried out based on the statistical characteristics of rain-flow cycles derived from the strain fluctuation under vehicle loads. The research conducted indicates that the methodology proposed is qualified for structural condition assessment so far as the following respects are concerned: (a) capability of revealing structural deterioration; (b) immunity to the influence of environmental variation; (c) adaptability to the random characteristic exhibited by long-term monitoring data. Further examination of the applicability of the proposed methodology in aging bridge may provide a more convincing validation.

Adult Age Differences in Production and Monitoring in Dual-List Free Recall

PubMed Central

Wahlheim, Christopher N.; Ball, B. Hunter; Richmond, Lauren L.

2017-01-01

The present experiment examined adult age differences in the production and monitoring of responses in dual-list free recall. Younger and older adults studied two lists of unrelated words and were instructed to recall from List 1, List 2, or List 1 and List 2. An externalized free recall (EFR) procedure required participants to: 1) report all responses that came to mind while recalling from specific lists, 2) classify responses as correct or incorrect, and 3) provide confidence judgments for their accuracy classifications. Relative to younger adults, older adults showed a monitoring deficit by misclassifying proportionally more responses and discriminating more poorly between correct and incorrect responses in their confidence judgments. This deficit was especially pronounced under conditions of retroactive interference that occurred when participants recalled from List 1 only. A comparison of retrieval dynamics for all responses produced and for those that participants were reasonably confident were correct provided information about age differences in preretrieval context reinstatement and postretrieval monitoring of retrieved context. One noteworthy finding was that total production when recalling from List 1 showed that List 2 responses remained more accessible across the first several retrieval attempts for older than younger adults, which indicated a substantial age difference in the ability to reinstate List 1 context. Overall, the present findings provide a nuanced characterization of age differences in the operation of production and monitoring mechanisms under conditions of proactive and retroactive interference that can inform models of free recall. PMID:28206784

Adult age differences in production and monitoring in dual-list free recall.

PubMed

Wahlheim, Christopher N; Ball, B Hunter; Richmond, Lauren L

2017-06-01

The present experiment examined adult age differences in the production and monitoring of responses in dual-list free recall. Younger and older adults studied 2 lists of unrelated words and were instructed to recall from List 1, List 2, or List 1 and List 2. An externalized free recall procedure required participants to: (a) report all responses that came to mind while recalling from specific lists, (b) classify responses as correct or incorrect, and (c) provide confidence judgments for their accuracy classifications. Relative to younger adults, older adults showed a monitoring deficit by misclassifying proportionally more responses and discriminating more poorly between correct and incorrect responses in their confidence judgments. This deficit was especially pronounced under conditions of retroactive interference that occurred when participants recalled from List 1 only. A comparison of retrieval dynamics for all responses produced and for those that participants were reasonably confident were correct provided information about age differences in preretrieval context reinstatement and postretrieval monitoring of retrieved context. One noteworthy finding was that total production when recalling from List 1 showed that List 2 responses remained more accessible across the first several retrieval attempts for older than younger adults, which indicated a substantial age difference in the ability to reinstate List 1 context. Overall, the present findings provide a nuanced characterization of age differences in the operation of production and monitoring mechanisms under conditions of proactive and retroactive interference that can inform models of free recall. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Near Real-time Operational Use of eMODIS Expedited NDVI for Monitoring Applications and Famine Early Warning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rowland, J.; Budde, M. E.

2010-12-01

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) has requirements for near real-time monitoring of vegetation conditions for food security applications. Accurate and timely assessments of crop conditions are an important element of food security decision making. FEWS NET scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center are utilizing a new Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) dataset for operational monitoring of crop and pasture conditions in parts of the world where food availability is highly dependent on subsistence agriculture and animal husbandry. The expedited MODIS, or eMODIS, production system processes NDVI data using MODIS surface reflectance provided by the Land Atmosphere Near-real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE). Benefits of this production system include customized compositing schedules, near real-time data availability, and minimized re-sampling. FEWS NET has implemented a 10-day compositing scheme every five days to accommodate the need for timely information on vegetation conditions. The data are currently being processed at 250-meter spatial resolution for Central America, Hispaniola, and Africa. Data are further enhanced by the application of a temporal smoothing filter which helps remove contamination due to clouds and other atmospheric effects. The results of this near real-time monitoring capability have been the timely provision of NDVI and NDVI anomaly maps for each of the FEWS NET monitoring regions and the availability of a consistently processed dataset to aid crop assessment missions and to facilitate customized analyses of crop production, drought, and agro-pastoral conditions.

The Node Deployment of Intelligent Sensor Networks Based on the Spatial Difference of Farmland Soil

PubMed Central

Liu, Naisen; Cao, Weixing; Zhu, Yan; Zhang, Jingchao; Pang, Fangrong; Ni, Jun

2015-01-01

Considering that agricultural production is characterized by vast areas, scattered fields and long crop growth cycles, intelligent wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are suitable for monitoring crop growth information. Cost and coverage are the most key indexes for WSN applications. The differences in crop conditions are influenced by the spatial distribution of soil nutrients. If the nutrients are distributed evenly, the crop conditions are expected to be approximately uniform with little difference; on the contrary, there will be great differences in crop conditions. In accordance with the differences in the spatial distribution of soil information in farmland, fuzzy c-means clustering was applied to divide the farmland into several areas, where the soil fertility of each area is nearly uniform. Then the crop growth information in the area could be monitored with complete coverage by deploying a sensor node there, which could greatly decrease the deployed sensor nodes. Moreover, in order to accurately judge the optimal cluster number of fuzzy c-means clustering, a discriminant function for Normalized Intra-Cluster Coefficient of Variation (NICCV) was established. The sensitivity analysis indicates that NICCV is insensitive to the fuzzy weighting exponent, but it shows a strong sensitivity to the number of clusters. PMID:26569243

An Interoperable, Agricultural Information System Based on Satellite Remote Sensing Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Teng, William; Chiu, Long; Doraiswamy, Paul; Kempler, Steven; Liu, Zhong; Pham, Long; Rui, Hualan

2005-01-01

Monitoring global agricultural crop conditions during the growing season and estimating potential seasonal production are critically important for market development of US. agricultural products and for global food security. The Goddard Space Flight Center Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center Distributed Active Archive Center (GES DISC DAAC) is developing an Agricultural Information System (AIS), evolved from an existing TRMM Online Visualization and Analysis System (TOVAS), which will operationally provide satellite remote sensing data products (e.g., rainfall) and services. The data products will include crop condition and yield prediction maps, generated from a crop growth model with satellite data inputs, in collaboration with the USDA Agricultural Research Service. The AIS will enable the remote, interoperable access to distributed data, by using the GrADS-DODS Server (GDS) and by being compliant with Open GIS Consortium standards. Users will be able to download individual files, perform interactive online analysis, as well as receive operational data flows. AIS outputs will be integrated into existing operational decision support systems for global crop monitoring, such as those of the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service and the U.N. World Food Program.

The Use of a Geographic Information System and Remote Sensing Technology for Monitoring Land Use and Soil Carbon Change in the Subtropical Dry Forest Life Zone of Puerto Rico

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Velez-Rodriguez, Linda L. (Principal Investigator)

1996-01-01

Aerial photography, one of the first form of remote sensing technology, has long been an invaluable means to monitor activities and conditions at the Earth's surface. Geographic Information Systems or GIS is the use of computers in showing and manipulating spatial data. This report will present the use of geographic information systems and remote sensing technology for monitoring land use and soil carbon change in the subtropical dry forest life zone of Puerto Rico. This research included the south of Puerto Rico that belongs to the subtropical dry forest life zone. The Guanica Commonwealth Forest Biosphere Reserve and the Jobos Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve are studied in detail, because of their location in the subtropical dry forest life zone. Aerial photography, digital multispectral imagery, soil samples, soil survey maps, field inspections, and differential global positioning system (DGPS) observations were used.

[Using modern information technology in the practice of the sanitary-epidemiological surveiliance during the XXII Olympic Winter Games and XI Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi].

PubMed

Popova, A Yu; Kuzkin, B P; Demina, Yu V; Dubyansky, V M; Kulichenko, A N; Maletskaya, O V; Shayakhmetov, O Kh; Semenko, O V; Nazarenko, Yu V; Agapitov, D S; Mezentsev, V M; Kharchenko, T V; Efremenko, D V; Oroby, V G; Klindukhov, V P; Grechanaya, T V; Nikolaevich, P N; Tesheva, S Ch; Rafeenko, G K

2015-01-01

To improve the sanitary and epidemiological surveillance at the Olympic Games has developed a system of GIS for monitoring objects and situations in the region of Sochi. The system is based on software package ArcGIS, version 10.2 server, with Web-java.lang. Object, Web-server Apach, and software developed in language java. During th execution of the tasks are solved: the stratification of the region of the Olympic Games for the private and aggregate epidemiological risk OCI various eti- ologies, ranking epidemiologically important facilities for the sanitary and hygienic conditions, monitoring of infectious diseases (in real time according to the preliminary diagnosis). GIS monitoring has shown its effectiveness: Information received from various sources, but focused on one portal. Information was available in real time all the specialists involved in ensuring epidemiological well-being and use at work during the Olympic Games in Sochi.

Monitoring protocols: Options, approaches, implementation, benefits

USGS Publications Warehouse

Karl, Jason W.; Herrick, Jeffrey E.; Pyke, David A.

2017-01-01

Monitoring and adaptive management are fundamental concepts to rangeland management across land management agencies and embodied as best management practices for private landowners. Historically, rangeland monitoring was limited to determining impacts or maximizing the potential of specific land uses—typically grazing. Over the past several decades, though, the uses of and disturbances to rangelands have increased dramatically against a backdrop of global climate change that adds uncertainty to predictions of future rangeland conditions. Thus, today’s monitoring needs are more complex (or multidimensional) and yet still must be reconciled with the realities of costs to collect requisite data. However, conceptual advances in rangeland ecology and management and changes in natural resource policies and societal values over the past 25 years have facilitated new approaches to monitoring that can support rangeland management’s diverse information needs. Additionally, advances in sensor technologies and remote-sensing techniques have broadened the suite of rangeland attributes that can be monitored and the temporal and spatial scales at which they can be monitored. We review some of the conceptual and technological advancements and provide examples of how they have influenced rangeland monitoring. We then discuss implications of these developments for rangeland management and highlight what we see as challenges and opportunities for implementing effective rangeland monitoring. We conclude with a vision for how monitoring can contribute to rangeland information needs in the future.

Designing hydrologic monitoring networks to maximize predictability of hydrologic conditions in a data assimilation system: a case study from South Florida, U.S.A

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Flores, A. N.; Pathak, C. S.; Senarath, S. U.; Bras, R. L.

2009-12-01

Robust hydrologic monitoring networks represent a critical element of decision support systems for effective water resource planning and management. Moreover, process representation within hydrologic simulation models is steadily improving, while at the same time computational costs are decreasing due to, for instance, readily available high performance computing resources. The ability to leverage these increasingly complex models together with the data from these monitoring networks to provide accurate and timely estimates of relevant hydrologic variables within a multiple-use, managed water resources system would substantially enhance the information available to resource decision makers. Numerical data assimilation techniques provide mathematical frameworks through which uncertain model predictions can be constrained to observational data to compensate for uncertainties in the model forcings and parameters. In ensemble-based data assimilation techniques such as the ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF), information in observed variables such as canal, marsh and groundwater stages are propagated back to the model states in a manner related to: (1) the degree of certainty in the model state estimates and observations, and (2) the cross-correlation between the model states and the observable outputs of the model. However, the ultimate degree to which hydrologic conditions can be accurately predicted in an area of interest is controlled, in part, by the configuration of the monitoring network itself. In this proof-of-concept study we developed an approach by which the design of an existing hydrologic monitoring network is adapted to iteratively improve the predictions of hydrologic conditions within an area of the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD). The objective of the network design is to minimize prediction errors of key hydrologic states and fluxes produced by the spatially distributed Regional Simulation Model (RSM), developed specifically to simulate the hydrologic conditions in several intensively managed and hydrologically complex watersheds within the SFWMD system. In a series of synthetic experiments RSM is used to generate the notionally true hydrologic state and the relevant observational data. The EnKF is then used as the mechanism to fuse RSM hydrologic estimates with data from the candidate network. The performance of the candidate network is measured by the prediction errors of the EnKF estimates of hydrologic states, relative to the notionally true scenario. The candidate network is then adapted by relocating existing observational sites to unobserved areas where predictions of local hydrologic conditions are most uncertain and the EnKF procedure repeated. Iteration of the monitoring network continues until further improvements in EnKF-based predictions of hydrologic conditions are negligible.

Disregarding familiarity during recollection attempts: content-specific recapitulation as a retrieval orientation strategy.

PubMed

Gray, Stephen J; Gallo, David A

2015-01-01

People can use a content-specific recapitulation strategy to trigger memories (i.e., mentally reinstating encoding conditions), but how people deploy this strategy is unclear. Is recapitulation naturally used to guide all recollection attempts, or is it only used selectively, after retrieving incomplete information that requires additional monitoring? According to a retrieval orientation model, people use recapitulation whenever they search memory for specific information, regardless of what information might come to mind. In contrast, according to a postretrieval monitoring model, people selectively engage recapitulation only after retrieving ambiguous information in order to evaluate this information and guide additional retrieval attempts. We tested between these models using a criterial recollection task, and by manipulating the strength of ambiguous information associated with to-be-rejected foils (i.e., familiarity or noncriterial information). Replicating prior work, foil rejections were greater when people attempted to recollect targets studied at a semantic level (deep test) compared to an orthographic level (shallow test), implicating more accurate retrieval monitoring. To investigate the role of a recapitulation strategy in this monitoring process, a final test assessed memory for the foils that were earlier processed on these recollection tests. Performance on this foil recognition test suggested that people had engaged in more elaborative content-specific recapitulation when initially tested for deep compared to shallow recollections, and critically, this elaboration effect did not interact with the experimental manipulation of foil strength. These results support the retrieval orientation model, whereby a recapitulation strategy was used to orient retrieval toward specific information during every recollection attempt. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

Ground Control Point - Wireless System Network for UAV-based environmental monitoring applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mejia-Aguilar, Abraham

2016-04-01

In recent years, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) have seen widespread civil applications including usage for survey and monitoring services in areas such as agriculture, construction and civil engineering, private surveillance and reconnaissance services and cultural heritage management. Most aerial monitoring services require the integration of information acquired during the flight (such as imagery) with ground-based information (such as GPS information or others) for improved ground truth validation. For example, to obtain an accurate 3D and Digital Elevation Model based on aerial imagery, it is necessary to include ground-based information of coordinate points, which are normally acquired with surveying methods based on Global Position Systems (GPS). However, GPS surveys are very time consuming and especially for longer time series of monitoring data repeated GPS surveys are necessary. In order to improve speed of data collection and integration, this work presents an autonomous system based on Waspmote technologies build on single nodes interlinked in a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) star-topology for ground based information collection and later integration with surveying data obtained by UAV. Nodes are designed to be visible from the air, to resist extreme weather conditions with low-power consumption. Besides, nodes are equipped with GPS as well as Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), accelerometer, temperature and soil moisture sensors and thus provide significant advantages in a broad range of applications for environmental monitoring. For our purpose, the WSN transmits the environmental data with 3G/GPRS to a database on a regular time basis. This project provides a detailed case study and implementation of a Ground Control Point System Network for UAV-based vegetation monitoring of dry mountain grassland in the Matsch valley, Italy.

Sound at the zoo: Using animal monitoring, sound measurement, and noise reduction in zoo animal management.

PubMed

Orban, David A; Soltis, Joseph; Perkins, Lori; Mellen, Jill D

2017-05-01

A clear need for evidence-based animal management in zoos and aquariums has been expressed by industry leaders. Here, we show how individual animal welfare monitoring can be combined with measurement of environmental conditions to inform science-based animal management decisions. Over the last several years, Disney's Animal Kingdom® has been undergoing significant construction and exhibit renovation, warranting institution-wide animal welfare monitoring. Animal care and science staff developed a model that tracked animal keepers' daily assessments of an animal's physical health, behavior, and responses to husbandry activity; these data were matched to different external stimuli and environmental conditions, including sound levels. A case study of a female giant anteater and her environment is presented to illustrate how this process worked. Associated with this case, several sound-reducing barriers were tested for efficacy in mitigating sound. Integrating daily animal welfare assessment with environmental monitoring can lead to a better understanding of animals and their sensory environment and positively impact animal welfare. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Identification of Critical Operation Conditions of Industrial Gearboxes by 24/7 Monitoring of Oil Quality, Oil Aging, and Additive Consumption

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mauntz, M.; Peuser, J.

2017-05-01

The demand for wind energy grows at exponential rates. At the same time improving reliability, reduced operation and maintenance costs are the key priorities in wind tur-bine maintenance strategies [1]. This paper provides information about a novel online oil condition monitoring system to give a solution to the mentioned priorities. The presented sensor system enables damage prevention of the wind turbine gear-box by an advanced warning time of critical operation conditions and an enhanced oil exchange interval realized by a precise measurement of the electrical conductivity, the relative permittivity and the oil temperature. A new parameter, the WearSens® Index (WSi) is introduced. The mathematical model of the WSi combines all measured values and its gradients in one single parameter for a comprehensive monitoring to prevent wind turbines from damage. Furthermore, the WSi enables a long-term prognosis on the next oil change by 24/7 server data logging. Corrective procedures and/or maintenance can be carried out before actual damage occurs. First WSi results of an onshore wind turbine installation compared to traditional vibration monitoring are shown.

New York City Metropolitan Area Retail Motor Gasoline Supply Report

EIA Publications

2012-01-01

Final report of the Energy Information Administration's (EIA) emergency survey, which was started on Friday, November 2, 2012, to monitor the vehicle fuel supply conditions in the New York City metropolitan area on a temporary basis after Hurricane Sandy.

Vibro-acoustic condition monitoring of Internal Combustion Engines: A critical review of existing techniques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Delvecchio, S.; Bonfiglio, P.; Pompoli, F.

2018-01-01

This paper deals with the state-of-the-art strategies and techniques based on vibro-acoustic signals that can monitor and diagnose malfunctions in Internal Combustion Engines (ICEs) under both test bench and vehicle operating conditions. Over recent years, several authors have summarized what is known in critical reviews mainly focused on reciprocating machines in general or on specific signal processing techniques: no attempts to deal with IC engine condition monitoring have been made. This paper first gives a brief summary of the generation of sound and vibration in ICEs in order to place further discussion on fault vibro-acoustic diagnosis in context. An overview of the monitoring and diagnostic techniques described in literature using both vibration and acoustic signals is also provided. Different faulty conditions are described which affect combustion, mechanics and the aerodynamics of ICEs. The importance of measuring acoustic signals, as opposed to vibration signals, is due since the former seem to be more suitable for implementation on on-board monitoring systems in view of their non-intrusive behaviour, capability in simultaneously capturing signatures from several mechanical components and because of the possibility of detecting faults affecting airborne transmission paths. In view of the recent needs of the industry to (-) optimize component structural durability adopting long-life cycles, (-) verify the engine final status at the end of the assembly line and (-) reduce the maintenance costs monitoring the ICE life during vehicle operations, monitoring and diagnosing system requests are continuously growing up. The present review can be considered a useful guideline for test engineers in understanding which types of fault can be diagnosed by using vibro-acoustic signals in sufficient time in both test bench and operating conditions and which transducer and signal processing technique (of which the essential background theory is here reported) could be considered the most reliable and informative to be implemented for the fault in question.

Under which conditions, additional monitoring data are worth gathering for improving decision making? Application of the VOI theory in the Bayesian Event Tree eruption forecasting framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loschetter, Annick; Rohmer, Jérémy

2016-04-01

Standard and new generation of monitoring observations provide in almost real-time important information about the evolution of the volcanic system. These observations are used to update the model and contribute to a better hazard assessment and to support decision making concerning potential evacuation. The framework BET_EF (based on Bayesian Event Tree) developed by INGV enables dealing with the integration of information from monitoring with the prospect of decision making. Using this framework, the objectives of the present work are i. to propose a method to assess the added value of information (within the Value Of Information (VOI) theory) from monitoring; ii. to perform sensitivity analysis on the different parameters that influence the VOI from monitoring. VOI consists in assessing the possible increase in expected value provided by gathering information, for instance through monitoring. Basically, the VOI is the difference between the value with information and the value without additional information in a Cost-Benefit approach. This theory is well suited to deal with situations that can be represented in the form of a decision tree such as the BET_EF tool. Reference values and ranges of variation (for sensitivity analysis) were defined for input parameters, based on data from the MESIMEX exercise (performed at Vesuvio volcano in 2006). Complementary methods for sensitivity analyses were implemented: local, global using Sobol' indices and regional using Contribution to Sample Mean and Variance plots. The results (specific to the case considered) obtained with the different techniques are in good agreement and enable answering the following questions: i. Which characteristics of monitoring are important for early warning (reliability)? ii. How do experts' opinions influence the hazard assessment and thus the decision? Concerning the characteristics of monitoring, the more influent parameters are the means rather than the variances for the case considered. For the parameters that concern expert setting, the weight attributed to monitoring measurement ω, the mean of thresholds, the economic context and the setting of the decision threshold are very influential. The interest of applying the VOI theory (more precisely the value of imperfect information) in the BET framework was demonstrated as support for helping experts in the setting of the monitoring system or for helping managers to decide the installation of additional monitoring systems. Acknowledgments: This work was carried out in the framework of the project MEDSUV. This project is funded under the call FP7 ENV.2012.6.4-2: Long-term monitoring experiment in geologically active regions of Europe prone to natural hazards: the Supersite concept. Grant agreement n°308665.

Assessment of fire effects based on Forest Inventory and Analysis data and a long-term fire mapping data set

Treesearch

John D. Shaw; Sara A. Goeking; James Menlove; Charles E. Werstak

2017-01-01

Integration of Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plot data with Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) data can provide new information about fire effects on forests. This integration allowed broad-scale assessment of the cover types burned in large fires, the relationship between prefire stand conditions and fire severity, and postfire stand conditions. Of the 42...

Is the Forest Healthy? (Mid-Atlantic, North Central, New England, and New York Regions)

Treesearch

Jennifer Stoyenoff; John Witter; Bruce Leutscher

1997-01-01

No single measurement can summarize forest health. Instead, we need to look at a wide set of indicators which together serve as a reflection of existing conditions. Repeated monitoring of the forest over time allows us to identify trends in forest conditions and evaluate the effectiveness of our actions. Information about forest health is obtained in a variety of ways...

Engine monitoring display study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hornsby, Mary E.

1992-01-01

The current study is part of a larger NASA effort to develop displays for an engine-monitoring system to enable the crew to monitor engine parameter trends more effectively. The objective was to evaluate the operational utility of adding three types of information to the basic Boeing Engine Indicating and Crew Alerting System (EICAS) display formats: alphanumeric alerting messages for engine parameters whose values exceed caution or warning limits; alphanumeric messages to monitor engine parameters that deviate from expected values; and a graphic depiction of the range of expected values for current conditions. Ten training and line pilots each flew 15 simulated flight scenarios with five variants of the basic EICAS format; these variants included different combinations of the added information. The pilots detected engine problems more quickly when engine alerting messages were included in the display; adding a graphic depiction of the range of expected values did not affect detection speed. The pilots rated both types of alphanumeric messages (alert and monitor parameter) as more useful and easier to interpret than the graphic depiction. Integrating engine parameter messages into the EICAS alerting system appears to be both useful and preferred.

The internal model: A study of the relative contribution of proprioception and visual information to failure detection in dynamic systems. [sensitivity of operators versus monitors to failures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kessel, C.; Wickens, C. D.

1978-01-01

The development of the internal model as it pertains to the detection of step changes in the order of control dynamics is investigated for two modes of participation: whether the subjects are actively controlling those dynamics or are monitoring an autopilot controlling them. A transfer of training design was used to evaluate the relative contribution of proprioception and visual information to the overall accuracy of the internal model. Sixteen subjects either tracked or monitored the system dynamics as a 2-dimensional pursuit display under single task conditions and concurrently with a sub-critical tracking task at two difficulty levels. Detection performance was faster and more accurate in the manual as opposed to the autopilot mode. The concurrent tracking task produced a decrement in detection performance for all conditions though this was more marked for the manual mode. The development of an internal model in the manual mode transferred positively to the automatic mode producing enhanced detection performance. There was no transfer from the internal model developed in the automatic mode to the manual mode.

[Microinjection Monitoring System Design Applied to MRI Scanning].

PubMed

Xu, Yongfeng

2017-09-30

A microinjection monitoring system applied to the MRI scanning was introduced. The micro camera probe was used to stretch into the main magnet for real-time video injection monitoring of injection tube terminal. The programming based on LabVIEW was created to analysis and process the real-time video information. The feedback signal was used for intelligent controlling of the modified injection pump. The real-time monitoring system can make the best use of injection under the condition that the injection device was away from the sample which inside the magnetic room and unvisible. 9.4 T MRI scanning experiment showed that the system in ultra-high field can work stability and doesn't affect the MRI scans.

Predicting Near-Term Water Quality from Satellite Observations of Watershed Conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weiss, W. J.; Wang, L.; Hoffman, K.; West, D.; Mehta, A. V.; Lee, C.

2017-12-01

Despite the strong influence of watershed conditions on source water quality, most water utilities and water resource agencies do not currently have the capability to monitor watershed sources of contamination with great temporal or spatial detail. Typically, knowledge of source water quality is limited to periodic grab sampling; automated monitoring of a limited number of parameters at a few select locations; and/or monitoring relevant constituents at a treatment plant intake. While important, such observations are not sufficient to inform proactive watershed or source water management at a monthly or seasonal scale. Satellite remote sensing data on the other hand can provide a snapshot of an entire watershed at regular, sub-monthly intervals, helping analysts characterize watershed conditions and identify trends that could signal changes in source water quality. Accordingly, the authors are investigating correlations between satellite remote sensing observations of watersheds and source water quality, at a variety of spatial and temporal scales and lags. While correlations between remote sensing observations and direct in situ measurements of water quality have been well described in the literature, there are few studies that link remote sensing observations across a watershed with near-term predictions of water quality. In this presentation, the authors will describe results of statistical analyses and discuss how these results are being used to inform development of a desktop decision support tool to support predictive application of remote sensing data. Predictor variables under evaluation include parameters that describe vegetative conditions; parameters that describe climate/weather conditions; and non-remote sensing, in situ measurements. Water quality parameters under investigation include nitrogen, phosphorus, organic carbon, chlorophyll-a, and turbidity.

USGS Western Coastal and Marine Geology Team

USGS Publications Warehouse

Johnson, Sam; Gibbons, Helen

2007-01-01

The Western Coastal and Marine Geology Team of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) studies the coasts of the western United States, including Alaska and Hawai‘i. Team scientists conduct research, monitor processes, and develop information about coastal and marine geologic hazards, environmental conditions, habitats, and energy and mineral resources. This information helps managers at all levels of government and in the private sector make informed decisions about the use and protection of national coastal and marine resources.

A participatory model for improving occupational health and safety: improving informal sector working conditions in Thailand.

PubMed

Manothum, Aniruth; Rukijkanpanich, Jittra; Thawesaengskulthai, Damrong; Thampitakkul, Boonwa; Chaikittiporn, Chalermchai; Arphorn, Sara

2009-01-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the implementation of an Occupational Health and Safety Management Model for informal sector workers in Thailand. The studied model was characterized by participatory approaches to preliminary assessment, observation of informal business practices, group discussion and participation, and the use of environmental measurements and samples. This model consisted of four processes: capacity building, risk analysis, problem solving, and monitoring and control. The participants consisted of four local labor groups from different regions, including wood carving, hand-weaving, artificial flower making, and batik processing workers. The results demonstrated that, as a result of applying the model, the working conditions of the informal sector workers had improved to meet necessary standards. This model encouraged the use of local networks, which led to cooperation within the groups to create appropriate technologies to solve their problems. The authors suggest that this model could effectively be applied elsewhere to improve informal sector working conditions on a broader scale.

Optical NIR monitoring of skeletal muscle contraction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lago, Paolo; Gelmetti, Andrea; Pavesi, Roberta; Zambarbieri, Daniela

1996-12-01

NIR spectroscopy allows monitoring of muscle oxygenation and perfusion during contraction. The knowledge of modifications of blood characteristics in body tissues has relevant clinical interest. A compact and reliable device, which makes use of two laser diodes at 750 and 810 nm coupled with the skin surface through optical fibers, was tested. NIR and surface EMG signals during isometric contractions both in normal and ischaemic conditions were analyzed. A set of parameters from the 750/810 spectroscopic curve was analyzed. Two different categories depending on the recovery rate from maximal voluntary contraction to basal oxygenation conditions were found. This behavior can give information about metabolic modifications during muscle fatigue. Interesting results in testing isokinetic rehabilitation training were also obtained.

An Updated Decision Support Interface: A Tool for Remote Monitoring of Crop Growing Conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Husak, G. J.; Budde, M. E.; Rowland, J.; Verdin, J. P.; Funk, C. C.; Landsfeld, M. F.

2014-12-01

Remote sensing of agroclimatological variables to monitor food production conditions is a critical component of the Famine Early Warning Systems Network portfolio of tools for assessing food security in the developing world. The Decision Support Interface (DSI) seeks to integrate a number of remotely sensed and modeled variables to create a single, simplified portal for analysis of crop growing conditions. The DSI has been reformulated to incorporate more variables and give the user more freedom in exploring the available data. This refinement seeks to transition the DSI from a "first glance" agroclimatic indicator to one better suited for the differentiation of drought events. The DSI performs analysis of variables over primary agricultural zones at the first sub-national administrative level. It uses the spatially averaged rainfall, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), water requirement satisfaction index (WRSI), and actual evapotranspiration (ETa) to identify potential hazards to food security. Presenting this information in a web-based client gives food security analysts and decision makers a lightweight portal for information on crop growing conditions in the region. The crop zones used for the aggregation contain timing information which is critical to the DSI presentation. Rainfall and ETa are accumulated from different points in the crop phenology to identify season-long deficits in rainfall or transpiration that adversely affect the crop-growing conditions. Furthermore, the NDVI and WRSI serve as their own seasonal accumulated measures of growing conditions by capturing vegetation vigor or actual evapotranspiration deficits. The DSI is currently active for major growing regions of sub-Saharan Africa, with intention of expanding to other areas over the coming years.

System-state and operating condition sensitive control method and apparatus for electric power delivery systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burns, III, William Wesley (Inventor); Wilson, Thomas George (Inventor)

1978-01-01

This invention provides a method and apparatus for determining a precise switching sequence for the power switching elements of electric power delivery systems of the on-off switching type and which enables extremely fast transient response, precise regulation and highly stable operation. The control utilizes the values of the power delivery system power handling network components, a desired output characteristic, a system timing parameter, and the externally imposed operating conditions to determine where steady state operations should be in order to yield desired output characteristics for the given system specifications. The actual state of the power delivery system is continuously monitored and compared to a state-space boundary which is derived from the desired equilibrium condition, and from the information obtained from this comparison, the system is moved to the desired equilibrium condition in one cycle of switching control. Since the controller continuously monitors the power delivery system's externally imposed operating conditions, a change in the conditions is immediately sensed and a new equilibrium condition is determined and achieved, again in a single cycle of switching control.

Study on Classification Accuracy Inspection of Land Cover Data Aided by Automatic Image Change Detection Technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xie, W.-J.; Zhang, L.; Chen, H.-P.; Zhou, J.; Mao, W.-J.

2018-04-01

The purpose of carrying out national geographic conditions monitoring is to obtain information of surface changes caused by human social and economic activities, so that the geographic information can be used to offer better services for the government, enterprise and public. Land cover data contains detailed geographic conditions information, thus has been listed as one of the important achievements in the national geographic conditions monitoring project. At present, the main issue of the production of the land cover data is about how to improve the classification accuracy. For the land cover data quality inspection and acceptance, classification accuracy is also an important check point. So far, the classification accuracy inspection is mainly based on human-computer interaction or manual inspection in the project, which are time consuming and laborious. By harnessing the automatic high-resolution remote sensing image change detection technology based on the ERDAS IMAGINE platform, this paper carried out the classification accuracy inspection test of land cover data in the project, and presented a corresponding technical route, which includes data pre-processing, change detection, result output and information extraction. The result of the quality inspection test shows the effectiveness of the technical route, which can meet the inspection needs for the two typical errors, that is, missing and incorrect update error, and effectively reduces the work intensity of human-computer interaction inspection for quality inspectors, and also provides a technical reference for the data production and quality control of the land cover data.

The Web Based Monitoring Project at the CMS Experiment

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lopez-Perez, Juan Antonio; Badgett, William; Behrens, Ulf

The Compact Muon Solenoid is a large a complex general purpose experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), built and maintained by many collaborators from around the world. Efficient operation of the detector requires widespread and timely access to a broad range of monitoring and status information. To the end the Web Based Monitoring (WBM) system was developed to present data to users located anywhere from many underlying heterogeneous sources, from real time messaging systems to relational databases. This system provides the power to combine and correlate data in both graphical and tabular formats of interest to the experimenters,more » including data such as beam conditions, luminosity, trigger rates, detector conditions, and many others, allowing for flexibility on the user’s side. This paper describes the WBM system architecture and describes how the system has been used from the beginning of data taking until now (Run1 and Run 2).« less

The web based monitoring project at the CMS experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lopez-Perez, Juan Antonio; Badgett, William; Behrens, Ulf; Chakaberia, Irakli; Jo, Youngkwon; Maeshima, Kaori; Maruyama, Sho; Patrick, James; Rapsevicius, Valdas; Soha, Aron; Stankevicius, Mantas; Sulmanas, Balys; Toda, Sachiko; Wan, Zongru

2017-10-01

The Compact Muon Solenoid is a large a complex general purpose experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), built and maintained by many collaborators from around the world. Efficient operation of the detector requires widespread and timely access to a broad range of monitoring and status information. To that end the Web Based Monitoring (WBM) system was developed to present data to users located anywhere from many underlying heterogeneous sources, from real time messaging systems to relational databases. This system provides the power to combine and correlate data in both graphical and tabular formats of interest to the experimenters, including data such as beam conditions, luminosity, trigger rates, detector conditions, and many others, allowing for flexibility on the user’s side. This paper describes the WBM system architecture and describes how the system has been used from the beginning of data taking until now (Run1 and Run 2).

Influence of atmospheric properties on detection of wood-warbler nocturnal flight calls

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Horton, Kyle G.; Stepanian, Phillip M.; Wainwright, Charlotte E.; Tegeler, Amy K.

2015-10-01

Avian migration monitoring can take on many forms; however, monitoring active nocturnal migration of land birds is limited to a few techniques. Avian nocturnal flight calls are currently the only method for describing migrant composition at the species level. However, as this method develops, more information is needed to understand the sources of variation in call detection. Additionally, few studies examine how detection probabilities differ under varying atmospheric conditions. We use nocturnal flight call recordings from captive individuals to explore the dependence of flight call detection on atmospheric temperature and humidity. Height or distance from origin had the largest influence on call detection, while temperature and humidity also influenced detectability at higher altitudes. Because flight call detection varies with both atmospheric conditions and flight height, improved monitoring across time and space will require correction for these factors to generate standardized metrics of songbird migration.

Capacitive Sensing for Non-Invasive Breathing and Heart Monitoring in Non-Restrained, Non-Sedated Laboratory Mice.

PubMed

González-Sánchez, Carlos; Fraile, Juan-Carlos; Pérez-Turiel, Javier; Damm, Ellen; Schneider, Jochen G; Zimmermann, Heiko; Schmitt, Daniel; Ihmig, Frank R

2016-07-07

Animal testing plays a vital role in biomedical research. Stress reduction is important for improving research results and increasing the welfare and the quality of life of laboratory animals. To estimate stress we believe it is of great importance to develop non-invasive techniques for monitoring physiological signals during the transport of laboratory animals, thereby allowing the gathering of information on the transport conditions, and, eventually, the improvement of these conditions. Here, we study the suitability of commercially available electric potential integrated circuit (EPIC) sensors, using both contact and contactless techniques, for monitoring the heart rate and breathing rate of non-restrained, non-sedated laboratory mice. The design has been tested under different scenarios with the aim of checking the plausibility of performing contactless capture of mouse heart activity (ideally with an electrocardiogram). First experimental results are shown.

Web Based Monitoring in the CMS Experiment at CERN

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Badgett, William; Borrello, Laura; Chakaberia, Irakli

2014-09-03

The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) is a large and complex general purpose experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), built and maintained by many collaborators from around the world. Efficient operation of the detector requires widespread and timely access to a broad range of monitoring and status information. To this end the Web Based Monitoring (WBM) system was developed to present data to users located anywhere from many underlying heterogeneous sources, from real time messaging systems to relational databases. This system provides the power to combine and correlate data in both graphical and tabular formats of interest to themore » experimenters, including data such as beam conditions, luminosity, trigger rates, detector conditions, and many others, allowing for flexibility on the user side. This paper describes the WBM system architecture and describes how the system was used during the first major data taking run of the LHC.« less

Monitoring the condition of natural resources in US national parks.

PubMed

Fancy, S G; Gross, J E; Carter, S L

2009-04-01

The National Park Service has developed a long-term ecological monitoring program for 32 ecoregional networks containing more than 270 parks with significant natural resources. The monitoring program assists park managers in developing a broad-based understanding of the status and trends of park resources as a basis for making decisions and working with other agencies and the public for the long-term protection of park ecosystems. We found that the basic steps involved in planning and designing a long-term ecological monitoring program were the same for a range of ecological systems including coral reefs, deserts, arctic tundra, prairie grasslands, caves, and tropical rainforests. These steps involve (1) clearly defining goals and objectives, (2) compiling and summarizing existing information, (3) developing conceptual models, (4) prioritizing and selecting indicators, (5) developing an overall sampling design, (6) developing monitoring protocols, and (7) establishing data management, analysis, and reporting procedures. The broad-based, scientifically sound information obtained through this systems-based monitoring program will have multiple applications for management decision-making, research, education, and promoting public understanding of park resources. When combined with an effective education program, monitoring results can contribute not only to park issues, but also to larger quality-of-life issues that affect surrounding communities and can contribute significantly to the environmental health of the nation.

Condition monitoring of turning process using infrared thermography technique - An experimental approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prasad, Balla Srinivasa; Prabha, K. Aruna; Kumar, P. V. S. Ganesh

2017-03-01

In metal cutting machining, major factors that affect the cutting tool life are machine tool vibrations, tool tip/chip temperature and surface roughness along with machining parameters like cutting speed, feed rate, depth of cut, tool geometry, etc., so it becomes important for the manufacturing industry to find the suitable levels of process parameters for obtaining maintaining tool life. Heat generation in cutting was always a main topic to be studied in machining. Recent advancement in signal processing and information technology has resulted in the use of multiple sensors for development of the effective monitoring of tool condition monitoring systems with improved accuracy. From a process improvement point of view, it is definitely more advantageous to proactively monitor quality directly in the process instead of the product, so that the consequences of a defective part can be minimized or even eliminated. In the present work, a real time process monitoring method is explored using multiple sensors. It focuses on the development of a test bed for monitoring the tool condition in turning of AISI 316L steel by using both coated and uncoated carbide inserts. Proposed tool condition monitoring (TCM) is evaluated in the high speed turning using multiple sensors such as Laser Doppler vibrometer and infrared thermography technique. The results indicate the feasibility of using the dominant frequency of the vibration signals for the monitoring of high speed turning operations along with temperatures gradient. A possible correlation is identified in both regular and irregular cutting tool wear. While cutting speed and feed rate proved to be influential parameter on the depicted temperatures and depth of cut to be less influential. Generally, it is observed that lower heat and temperatures are generated when coated inserts are employed. It is found that cutting temperatures are gradually increased as edge wear and deformation developed.

AgriSense-STARS: Advancing Methods of Agricultural Monitoring for Food Security in Smallholder Regions - the Case for Tanzania

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dempewolf, J.; Becker-Reshef, I.; Nakalembe, C. L.; Tumbo, S.; Maurice, S.; Mbilinyi, B.; Ntikha, O.; Hansen, M.; Justice, C. J.; Adusei, B.; Kongo, V.

2015-12-01

In-season monitoring of crop conditions provides critical information for agricultural policy and decision making and most importantly for food security planning and management. Nationwide agricultural monitoring in countries dominated by smallholder farming systems, generally relies on extensive networks of field data collectors. In Tanzania, extension agents make up this network and report on conditions across the country, approaching a "near-census". Data is collected on paper which is resource and time intensive, as well as prone to errors. Data quality is ambiguous and there is a general lack of clear and functional feedback loops between farmers, extension agents, analysts and decision makers. Moreover, the data are not spatially explicit, limiting the usefulness for analysis and quality of policy outcomes. Despite significant advances in remote sensing and information communication technologies (ICT) for monitoring agriculture, the full potential of these new tools is yet to be realized in Tanzania. Their use is constrained by the lack of resources, skills and infrastructure to access and process these data. The use of ICT technologies for data collection, processing and analysis is equally limited. The AgriSense-STARS project is developing and testing a system for national-scale in-season monitoring of smallholder agriculture using a combination of three main tools, 1) GLAM-East Africa, an automated MODIS satellite image processing system, 2) field data collection using GeoODK and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and 3) the Tanzania Crop Monitor, a collaborative online portal for data management and reporting. These tools are developed and applied in Tanzania through the National Food Security Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives (MAFC) within a statistically representative sampling framework (area frame) that ensures data quality, representability and resource efficiency.

Comparison of different incubation conditions for microbiological environmental monitoring.

PubMed

Gordon, Oliver; Berchtold, Manfred; Staerk, Alexandra; Roesti, David

2014-01-01

Environmental monitoring represents an integral part of the microbiological quality control system of a pharmaceutical manufacturing operation. However, guidance documents differ regarding recommendation of a procedure, particularly regarding incubation time, incubation temperature, or nutrient media. Because of these discrepancies, many manufacturers decide for a particular environmental monitoring sample incubation strategy and support this decision with validation data. Such validations are typically laboratory-based in vitro studies, meaning that these are based on comparing incubation conditions and nutrient media through use of cultured microorganisms. An informal survey of the results of these in vitro studies performed at Novartis or European manufacturing sites of different pharmaceutical companies highlighted that no consensus regarding the optimal incubation conditions for microbial recovery existed. To address this question differently, we collected a significant amount of samples directly from air, inanimate surfaces, and personnel in pharmaceutical production and packaging rooms during manufacturing operation (in situ study). Samples were incubated under different conditions suggested in regulatory guidelines, and recovery of total aerobic microorganisms as well as moulds was assessed. We found the highest recovery of total aerobic count from areas with personnel flow using a general microbiological growth medium incubated at 30-35 °C. The highest recovery of moulds was obtained with mycological medium incubated at 20-25 °C. Single-plate strategies (two-temperature incubation or an intermediate incubation temperature of 25-30 °C) also yielded reasonable recovery of total aerobic count and moulds. However, recovery of moulds was found to be highly inefficient at 30-35 °C compared to lower incubation temperatures. This deficiency could not be rectified by subsequent incubation at 20-25 °C. A laboratory-based in vitro study performed in parallel was inconclusive. We consider our results potentially conferrable to other pharmaceutical manufacturing sites in moderate climate zones and believe that these should represent a valuable reference for definition of the incubation strategy of microbiological environmental monitoring samples. Microbiological environmental monitoring confirms that pharmaceutical cleanrooms are in an appropriate hygienic condition for manufacturing of drug products. Guidance documents from different health authorities or expert groups differ regarding recommendation of the applied incubation time, incubation temperature, or nutrient media. Therefore, many pharmaceutical manufacturers perform studies that aim to identify the optimal incubation setup for environmental monitoring samples. An informal survey of the results of such studies, which had been performed at Novartis or European manufacturing sites of different pharmaceutical companies, highlighted no consensus regarding the optimal incubation conditions for microbial recovery. All these studies had been conducted in the laboratory using selections of cultured microbial strains. We tried to solve this disagreement by collecting a significant amount of real environmental monitoring samples directly from the environment in pharmaceutical production and packaging rooms during manufacturing operation. These samples were then incubated under different conditions suggested in the regulatory guidelines. We believe that the results of our study are more meaningful than laboratory-based experiments because we used environmental samples with microorganisms directly isolated from the manufacturing area. Therefore, we believe that our results should represent a valuable reference for definition of the incubation strategy of microbiological environmental monitoring samples. © PDA, Inc. 2014.

Mapping real-time air pollution health risk for environmental management: Combining mobile and stationary air pollution monitoring with neural network models.

PubMed

Adams, Matthew D; Kanaroglou, Pavlos S

2016-03-01

Air pollution poses health concerns at the global scale. The challenge of managing air pollution is significant because of the many air pollutants, insufficient funds for monitoring and abatement programs, and political and social challenges in defining policy to limit emissions. Some governments provide citizens with air pollution health risk information to allow them to limit their exposure. However, many regions still have insufficient air pollution monitoring networks to provide real-time mapping. Where available, these risk mapping systems either provide absolute concentration data or the concentrations are used to derive an Air Quality Index, which provides the air pollution risk for a mix of air pollutants with a single value. When risk information is presented as a single value for an entire region it does not inform on the spatial variation within the region. Without an understanding of the local variation residents can only make a partially informed decision when choosing daily activities. The single value is typically provided because of a limited number of active monitoring units in the area. In our work, we overcome this issue by leveraging mobile air pollution monitoring techniques, meteorological information and land use information to map real-time air pollution health risks. We propose an approach that can provide improved health risk information to the public by applying neural network models within a framework that is inspired by land use regression. Mobile air pollution monitoring campaigns were conducted across Hamilton from 2005 to 2013. These mobile air pollution data were modelled with a number of predictor variables that included information on the surrounding land use characteristics, the meteorological conditions, air pollution concentrations from fixed location monitors, and traffic information during the time of collection. Fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide were both modelled. During the model fitting process we reserved twenty percent of the data to validate the predictions. The models' performances were measured with a coefficient of determination at 0.78 and 0.34 for PM2.5 and NO2, respectively. We apply a relative importance measure to identify the importance of each variable in the neural network to partially overcome the black box issues of neural network models. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Operationally Monitoring Sea Ice at the Canadian Ice Service

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Abreu, R.; Flett, D.; Carrieres, T.; Falkingham, J.

2004-05-01

The Canadian Ice Service (CIS) of the Meteorological Service of Canada promotes safe and efficient maritime operations and protects Canada's environment by providing reliable and timely information about ice and iceberg conditions in Canadian waters. Daily and seasonal charts describing the extent, type and concentration of sea ice and icebergs are provided to support navigation and other activities (e.g. oil and gas) in coastal waters. The CIS relies on a suite of spaceborne visible, infrared and microwave sensors to operationally monitor ice conditions in Canadian coastal and inland waterways. These efforts are complemented by operational sea ice models that are customized and run at the CIS. The archive of these data represent a 35 year archive of ice conditions and have proven to be a valuable dataset for historical sea ice analysis. This presentation will describe the daily integration of remote sensing observations and modelled ice conditions used to produce ice and iceberg products. A review of the decadal evolution of this process will be presented, as well as a glimpse into the future of ice and iceberg monitoring. Examples of the utility of the CIS digital sea ice archive for climate studies will also be presented.

[The social portrait of substitute families and modes of development of medical pedagogical monitoring].

PubMed

Aver'ianova, N I; Khanova, N A

2014-01-01

The study demonstrated that in Russia the major cause of orphanage is a social life-style of biological parents of orphan children. The substitute families are more often large with number of children from 3 to 8 and quarter of them are incomplete. The mean age of substitute parent consists 47.8 ± 1.4 years. The leading motivation to take orphan child/or education in family is the availability of kindred relationship regarding child or "deserted nest syndrome". At the initial phase of establishing of substitute family the most of substitute parents/tutors face with problems of health status and behavioral deviations of foster children. The substitute parents are unsatisfied with quality of medical monitoring of foster children. They also suffer fromdeficiency of information concerning characteristics of development, health conditions and modes of rehabilitation of children. In the judgment of substitute parents/tutors placing child into family conditions effects positively on one's development and health, behavior and emotional background. In substitute families, conditions organized for children can be named as approximated to conditions of residing in biological (home) families. The system of medical psychological and pedagogical monitoring of children of this category is needed in further development.

Remote Health Monitoring for Older Adults and Those with Heart Failure: Adherence and System Usability.

PubMed

Evans, Jarrett; Papadopoulos, Amy; Silvers, Christine Tsien; Charness, Neil; Boot, Walter R; Schlachta-Fairchild, Loretta; Crump, Cindy; Martinez, Michele; Ent, Carrie Beth

2016-06-01

Remote health monitoring technology has been suggested as part of an early intervention and prevention care model. Older adults with a chronic health condition have been shown to benefit from remote monitoring but often have challenges with complex technology. The current study reports on the usability of and adherence with an integrated, real-time monitoring system over an extended period of time by older adults with and without a chronic health condition. Older adults 55 years of age and over with and without heart failure participated in a study in which a telehealth system was used for 6 months each. The system consisted of a wireless wristwatch-based monitoring device that continuously collected temperature and motion data. Other health information was collected daily using a weight scale, blood pressure cuff, and tablet that participants used for health surveys. Data were automatically analyzed and summarized by the system and presented to study nurses. Forty-one older adults participated. Seventy-one percent of surveys, 75% of blood pressure readings, and 81% of daily weight measurements were taken. Participants wore the watch monitor 77% of the overall 24/7 time requested. The weight scale had the highest usability rating in both groups. The groups did not otherwise differ on device usage. The findings indicate that a health monitoring system designed for older adults can and will be used for an extended period of time and may help older adults with chronic conditions reside longer in their own homes in partnership with the healthcare system.

Informing the Design of "Lifestyle Monitoring" Technology for the Detection of Health Deterioration in Long-Term Conditions: A Qualitative Study of People Living With Heart Failure.

PubMed

Hargreaves, Sarah; Hawley, Mark S; Haywood, Annette; Enderby, Pamela M

2017-06-28

Health technologies are being developed to help people living at home manage long-term conditions. One such technology is "lifestyle monitoring" (LM), a telecare technology based on the idea that home activities may be monitored unobtrusively via sensors to give an indication of changes in health-state. However, questions remain about LM technology: how home activities change when participants experience differing health-states; and how sensors might capture clinically important changes to inform timely interventions. The objective of this paper was to report the findings of a study aimed at identifying changes in activity indicative of important changes in health in people with long-term conditions, particularly changes indicative of exacerbation, by exploring the relationship between home activities and health among people with heart failure (HF). We aimed to add to the knowledge base informing the development of home monitoring technologies designed to detect health deterioration in order to facilitate early intervention and avoid hospital admissions. This qualitative study utilized semistructured interviews to explore everyday activities undertaken during the three health-states of HF: normal days, bad days, and exacerbations. Potential recruits were identified by specialist nurses and attendees at an HF support group. The sample was purposively selected to include a range of experience of living with HF. The sample comprised a total of 20 people with HF aged 50 years and above, and 11 spouses or partners of the individuals with HF. All resided in Northern England. Participant accounts revealed that home activities are in part shaped by the degree of intrusion from HF symptoms. During an exacerbation, participants undertook activities specifically to ease symptoms, and detailed activity changes were identified. Everyday activity was also influenced by a range of factors other than health. The study highlights the importance of careful development of LM technology to identify changes in activities that occur during clinically important changes in health. These detailed activity changes need to be considered by developers of LM sensors, platforms, and algorithms intended to detect early signs of deterioration. Results suggest that for LM to move forward, sensor set-up should be personalized to individual circumstances and targeted at individual health conditions. LM needs to take account of the uncertainties that arise from placing technology within the home, in order to inform sensor set-up and data interpretation. This targeted approach is likely to yield more clinically meaningful data and address some of the ethical issues of remote monitoring. ©Sarah Hargreaves, Mark S Hawley, Annette Haywood, Pamela M Enderby. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 28.06.2017.

Weather Information System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1995-01-01

WxLink is an aviation weather system based on advanced airborne sensors, precise positioning available from the satellite-based Global Positioning System, cockpit graphics and a low-cost datalink. It is a two-way system that uplinks weather information to the aircraft and downlinks automatic pilot reports of weather conditions aloft. Manufactured by ARNAV Systems, Inc., the original technology came from Langley Research Center's cockpit weather information system, CWIN (Cockpit Weather INformation). The system creates radar maps of storms, lightning and reports of surface observations, offering improved safety, better weather monitoring and substantial fuel savings.

Integrating NASA Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) Data Into Global Agricultural Decision Support Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Teng, W.; Kempler, S.; Chiu, L.; Doraiswamy, P.; Liu, Z.; Milich, L.; Tetrault, R.

2003-12-01

Monitoring global agricultural crop conditions during the growing season and estimating potential seasonal production are critically important for market development of U.S. agricultural products and for global food security. Two major operational users of satellite remote sensing for global crop monitoring are the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) and the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP). The primary goal of FAS is to improve foreign market access for U.S. agricultural products. The WFP uses food to meet emergency needs and to support economic and social development. Both use global agricultural decision support systems that can integrate and synthesize a variety of data sources to provide accurate and timely information on global crop conditions. The Goddard Space Flight Center Earth Sciences Distributed Active Archive Center (GES DAAC) has begun a project to provide operational solutions to FAS and WFP, by fully leveraging results from previous work, as well as from existing capabilities of the users. The GES DAAC has effectively used its recently developed prototype TRMM Online Visualization and Analysis System (TOVAS) to provide ESE data and information to the WFP for its agricultural drought monitoring efforts. This prototype system will be evolved into an Agricultural Information System (AIS), which will operationally provide ESE and other data products (e.g., rainfall, land productivity) and services, to be integrated into and thus enhance the existing GIS-based, decision support systems of FAS and WFP. Agriculture-oriented, ESE data products (e.g., MODIS-based, crop condition assessment product; TRMM derived, drought index product) will be input to a crop growth model in collaboration with the USDA Agricultural Research Service, to generate crop condition and yield prediction maps. The AIS will have the capability for remotely accessing distributed data, by being compliant with community-based interoperability standards, enabling easy access to agriculture-related products from other data producers. The AIS? system approach will provide a generic mechanism for easily incorporating new products and making them accessible to users.

Remote sensing-based Information for crop monitoring: contribution of SAR and Moderate resolution optical data on Asian rice production

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boschetti, Mirco; Holectz, Francesco; Manfron, Giacinto; Collivignarelli, Francesco; Nelson, Andrew

2013-04-01

Updated information on crop typology and status are strongly required to support suitable action to better manage agriculture production and reduce food insecurity. In this field, remote sensing has been demonstrated to be a suitable tool to monitor crop condition however rarely the tested system became really operative. The ones today available, such as the European Commission MARS, are mainly based on the analysis of NDVI time series and required ancillary external information like crop mask to interpret the seasonal signal. This condition is not always guarantied worldwide reducing the potentiality of the remote sensing monitoring. Moreover in tropical countries cloud contamination strongly reduce the possibility of using optical remote sensing data for crop monitoring. In this framework we focused our analysis on the rice production monitoring in Asian tropical area. Rice is in fact the staple food for half of the world population (FAO 2004), in Asia almost 90% of the world's rice is produced and consumed and Rice and poverty often coincide. In this contest the production of reliable rice production information is of extreme interest. We tried to address two important issue in terms of required geospatial information for crop monitoring: rice crop detection (rice map) and seasonal dynamics analysis (phenology). We use both SAR and Optical data in order to exploit the potential complementarity of this system. Multi-temporal ASAR Wide Swath data are in fact the best option to deal with cloud contamination. SAR can easily penetrate the clouds providing information on the surface target. Temporal analysis of archive ASAR data allowed to derived accurate map, at 100m spatial resolution, of permanent rice cultivated areas. On the other and high frequency revisiting optical data, in this case MODIS, have been used to extract seasonal information for the year under analysis. MOD09A1 Surface Reflectance 8-Day L3 Global 500m have been exploited to derive time series of Vegetation Index. A temporal smoothing procedure based on Savitzky-Golay polynomial filter function was applied to the original 8-day composite VI data (EVI and NDVI) in order to eliminate spurious data which affect the time series and to produce an interpolated VI temporal profile. Finally within the area previously identify as rice by SAR analysis phenological estimation have been conducted. Crop growth minima and maxima, respectively indicator of rice transplanting and heading, have been identify from the derivative analysis time series. This procedure was tested in Bangladesh for the year 2011. Results showed that the combined use of both data typology represents the more suitable multisource framework to provide reliable information on rice crop growth. Preliminary maps analysis reveals how SAR rice detection was in agreement with local information and phenology extracted by MODIS data provided spatially distributed data comparable with local knowledge of crop calendar.

Monitoring pH and electric conductivity in an EBPR sequencing batch reactor.

PubMed

Serralta, J; Borrás, L; Blanco, C; Barat, R; Seco, A

2004-01-01

This paper presents laboratory-scale experimentation carried out to study enhanced biological phosphorus removal. Two anaerobic aerobic (A/O) sequencing batch reactors (SBR) have been operated during more than one year to investigate the information provided by monitoring pH and electric conductivity under stationary and transient conditions. Continuous measurements of these parameters allow detecting the end of anaerobic phosphorus release, of aerobic phosphorus uptake and of initial denitrification, as well as incomplete acetic acid uptake. These results suggest the possibility of using pH and electric conductivity as control parameters to determine the length of both anaerobic and aerobic phases in an A/O SBR. More valuable information provided by monitoring pH and electric conductivity is the relation between the amount of phosphorus released and the conductivity increase observed during the anaerobic stages and which group of bacteria (heterotrophic or polyphosphate accumulating) is carrying out the denitrification process.

[Technological advances and hospital-at-home care].

PubMed

Tibaldi, Vittoria; Aimonino Ricauda, Nicoletta; Rocco, Maurizio; Bertone, Paola; Fanton, Giordano; Isaia, Giancarlo

2013-05-01

Advances in the miniaturization and portability of diagnostic technologies, information technologies, remote monitoring, and long-distance care have increased the viability of home-based care, even for patients with serious conditions. Telemedicine and teleradiology projects are active at the Hospital at Home Service of Torino.

A microseismic workflow for managing induced seismicity risk as CO 2 storage projects

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Matzel, E.; Morency, C.; Pyle, M.

2015-10-27

It is well established that fluid injection has the potential to induce earthquakes—from microseismicity to large, damaging events—by altering state-of-stress conditions in the subsurface. While induced seismicity has not been a major operational issue for carbon storage projects to date, a seismicity hazard exists and must be carefully addressed. Two essential components of effective seismic risk management are (1) sensitive microseismic monitoring and (2) robust data interpretation tools. This report describes a novel workflow, based on advanced processing algorithms applied to microseismic data, to help improve management of seismic risk. This workflow has three main goals: (1) to improve themore » resolution and reliability of passive seismic monitoring, (2) to extract additional, valuable information from continuous waveform data that is often ignored in standard processing, and (3) to minimize the turn-around time between data collection, interpretation, and decision-making. These three objectives can allow for a better-informed and rapid response to changing subsurface conditions.« less

System for the diagnosis and monitoring of coronary artery disease, acute coronary syndromes, cardiomyopathy and other cardiac conditions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schlegel, Todd T. (Inventor); Arenare, Brian (Inventor)

2008-01-01

Cardiac electrical data are received from a patient, manipulated to determine various useful aspects of the ECG signal, and displayed and stored in a useful form using a computer. The computer monitor displays various useful information, and in particular graphically displays various permutations of reduced amplitude zones and kurtosis that increase the rapidity and accuracy of cardiac diagnoses. New criteria for reduced amplitude zones are defined that enhance the sensitivity and specificity for detecting cardiac abnormalities.

Smart maintenance of riverbanks using a standard data layer and Augmented Reality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pierdicca, Roberto; Frontoni, Emanuele; Zingaretti, Primo; Mancini, Adriano; Malinverni, Eva Savina; Tassetti, Anna Nora; Marcheggiani, Ernesto; Galli, Andrea

2016-10-01

Linear buffer strips (BS) along watercourses are commonly adopted to reduce run-off, accumulation of bank-top sediments and the leaking of pesticides into fresh-waters, which strongly increase water pollution. However, the monitoring of their conditions is a difficult task because they are scattered over wide rural areas. This work demonstrates the benefits of using a standard data layer and Augmented Reality (AR) in watershed control and outlines the guideline of a novel approach for the health-check of linear BS. We designed a mobile environmental monitoring system for smart maintenance of riverbanks by embedding the AR technology within a Geographical Information System (GIS). From the technological point of view, the system's architecture consists of a cloud-based service for data sharing, using a standard data layer, and of a mobile device provided with a GPS based AR engine for augmented data visualization. The proposed solution aims to ease the overall inspection process by reducing the time required to run a survey. Indeed, ordinary operational survey conditions are usually performed basing the fieldwork on just classical digitized maps. Our application proposes to enrich inspections by superimposing information on the device screen with the same point of view of the camera, providing an intuitive visualization of buffer strip location. This way, the inspection officer can quickly and dynamically access relevant information overlaying geographic features, comments and other contents in real time. The solution has been tested in fieldwork to prove at what extent this cutting-edge technology contributes to an effective monitoring over large territorial settings. The aim is to encourage officers, land managers and practitioners toward more effective monitoring and management practices.

Automated ambulatory assessment of cognitive performance, environmental conditions, and motor activity during military operations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lieberman, Harris R.; Kramer, F. Matthew; Montain, Scott J.; Niro, Philip; Young, Andrew J.

2005-05-01

Until recently scientists had limited opportunities to study human cognitive performance in non-laboratory, fully ambulatory situations. Recently, advances in technology have made it possible to extend behavioral assessment to the field environment. One of the first devices to measure human behavior in the field was the wrist-worn actigraph. This device, now widely employed, can acquire minute-by-minute information on an individual"s level of motor activity. Actigraphs can, with reasonable accuracy, distinguish sleep from waking, the most critical and basic aspect of human behavior. However, rapid technologic advances have provided the opportunity to collect much more information from fully ambulatory humans. Our laboratory has developed a series of wrist-worn devices, which are not much larger then a watch, which can assess simple and choice reaction time, vigilance and memory. In addition, the devices can concurrently assess motor activity with much greater temporal resolution then the standard actigraph. Furthermore, they continuously monitor multiple environmental variables including temperature, humidity, sound and light. We have employed these monitors during training and simulated military operations to collect information that would typically be unavailable under such circumstances. In this paper we will describe various versions of the vigilance monitor and how each successive version extended the capabilities of the device. Samples of data from several studies are presented, included studies conducted in harsh field environments during simulated infantry assaults, a Marine Corps Officer training course and mechanized infantry (Stryker) operations. The monitors have been useful for documenting environmental conditions experienced by wearers, studying patterns of sleep and activity and examining the effects of nutritional manipulations on warfighter performance.

Development of a Land Use Mapping and Monitoring Protocol for the High Plains Region: A Multitemporal Remote Sensing Application

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Price, Kevin P.; Nellis, M. Duane

1996-01-01

The purpose of this project was to develop a practical protocol that employs multitemporal remotely sensed imagery, integrated with environmental parameters to model and monitor agricultural and natural resources in the High Plains Region of the United States. The value of this project would be extended throughout the region via workshops targeted at carefully selected audiences and designed to transfer remote sensing technology and the methods and applications developed. Implementation of such a protocol using remotely sensed satellite imagery is critical for addressing many issues of regional importance, including: (1) Prediction of rural land use/land cover (LULC) categories within a region; (2) Use of rural LULC maps for successive years to monitor change; (3) Crop types derived from LULC maps as important inputs to water consumption models; (4) Early prediction of crop yields; (5) Multi-date maps of crop types to monitor patterns related to crop change; (6) Knowledge of crop types to monitor condition and improve prediction of crop yield; (7) More precise models of crop types and conditions to improve agricultural economic forecasts; (8;) Prediction of biomass for estimating vegetation production, soil protection from erosion forces, nonpoint source pollution, wildlife habitat quality and other related factors; (9) Crop type and condition information to more accurately predict production of biogeochemicals such as CO2, CH4, and other greenhouse gases that are inputs to global climate models; (10) Provide information regarding limiting factors (i.e., economic constraints of pumping, fertilizing, etc.) used in conjunction with other factors, such as changes in climate for predicting changes in rural LULC; (11) Accurate prediction of rural LULC used to assess the effectiveness of government programs such as the U.S. Soil Conservation Service (SCS) Conservation Reserve Program; and (12) Prediction of water demand based on rural LULC that can be related to rates of draw-down of underground water supplies.

Testing ZigBee Motes for Monitoring Refrigerated Vegetable Transportation under Real Conditions

PubMed Central

Ruiz-Garcia, Luis; Barreiro, Pilar; Robla, Jose Ignacio; Lunadei, Loredana

2010-01-01

Quality control and monitoring of perishable goods during transportation and delivery services is an increasing concern for producers, suppliers, transport decision makers and consumers. The major challenge is to ensure a continuous ‘cold chain’ from producer to consumer in order to guaranty prime condition of goods. In this framework, the suitability of ZigBee protocol for monitoring refrigerated transportation has been proposed by several authors. However, up to date there was not any experimental work performed under real conditions. Thus, the main objective of our experiment was to test wireless sensor motes based in the ZigBee/IEEE 802.15.4 protocol during a real shipment. The experiment was conducted in a refrigerated truck traveling through two countries (Spain and France) which means a journey of 1,051 kilometers. The paper illustrates the great potential of this type of motes, providing information about several parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, door openings and truck stops. Psychrometric charts have also been developed for improving the knowledge about water loss and condensation on the product during shipments. PMID:22399917

Testing ZigBee motes for monitoring refrigerated vegetable transportation under real conditions.

PubMed

Ruiz-Garcia, Luis; Barreiro, Pilar; Robla, Jose Ignacio; Lunadei, Loredana

2010-01-01

Quality control and monitoring of perishable goods during transportation and delivery services is an increasing concern for producers, suppliers, transport decision makers and consumers. The major challenge is to ensure a continuous 'cold chain' from producer to consumer in order to guaranty prime condition of goods. In this framework, the suitability of ZigBee protocol for monitoring refrigerated transportation has been proposed by several authors. However, up to date there was not any experimental work performed under real conditions. Thus, the main objective of our experiment was to test wireless sensor motes based in the ZigBee/IEEE 802.15.4 protocol during a real shipment. The experiment was conducted in a refrigerated truck traveling through two countries (Spain and France) which means a journey of 1,051 kilometers. The paper illustrates the great potential of this type of motes, providing information about several parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, door openings and truck stops. Psychrometric charts have also been developed for improving the knowledge about water loss and condensation on the product during shipments.

Real-time GMAW quality classification using an artificial neural network with airborne acoustic signals as inputs

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Matteson, A.; Morris, R.; Tate, R.

1993-12-31

The acoustic signal produced by the gas metal arc welding (GMAW) arc contains information about the behavior of the arc column, the molten pool and droplet transfer. It is possible to detect some defect producing conditions from the acoustic signal from the GMAW arc. An intelligent sensor, called the Weld Acoustic Monitor (WAM) has been developed to take advantage of this acoustic information in order to provide real-time quality assessment information for process control. The WAM makes use of an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to classify the characteristic arc acoustic signals of acceptable and unacceptable welds. The ANN used inmore » the Weld Acoustic Monitor developed its own set of rules for this classification problem by learning a data base of known GMAW acoustic signals.« less

Environmental, political, and economic determinants of water quality monitoring in Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beck, Lucas; Bernauer, Thomas; Kalbhenn, Anna

2010-11-01

Effective monitoring is essential for effective pollution control in national and international water systems. To what extent are countries' monitoring choices driven by environmental criteria, as they should be? And to what extent are they also influenced by other factors, such as political and economic conditions? To address these questions, we describe and explain the evolution of one of the most important international environmental monitoring networks in Europe, the one for water quality, in the time period 1965-2004. We develop a geographic information system that contains information on the location of several thousand active monitoring stations in Europe. Using multivariate statistics, we then examine whether and to what extent the spatial and temporal clustering of monitoring intensity is driven by environmental, political, and economic factors. The results show that monitoring intensity is higher in river basins exposed to greater environmental pressure. However, political and economic factors also play a strong role in monitoring decisions: democracy, income, and peer pressure are conducive to monitoring intensity, and monitoring intensity generally increases over time. Moreover, even though monitoring is more intense in international upstream-downstream settings, we observe only a weak bias toward more monitoring downstream of international borders. In contrast, negative effects of European Union (EU) membership and runup to the EU's Water Framework Directive are potential reasons for concern. Our results strongly suggest that international coordination and standardization of water quality monitoring should be intensified. It will be interesting to apply our analytical approach also to other national and international monitoring networks, for instance, the U.S. National Water-Quality Assessment Program or the European Monitoring and Evaluation Program for air pollution.

Conflict and metacognitive control: The mismatch-monitoring hypothesis of how others’ knowledge states affect recall

PubMed Central

Fraundorf, Scott H.; Benjamin, Aaron S.

2015-01-01

Information about others’ success in remembering is frequently available. For example, students taking an exam may assess its difficulty by monitoring when others turn in their exams. In two experiments, we investigated how rememberers use this information to guide recall. Participants studied paired associates, some semantically related (and thus easier to retrieve) and some unrelated (and thus harder). During a subsequent cued recall test, participants viewed fictive information about an opponent’s accuracy on each item. In Experiment 1, participants responded to each cue once before seeing the opponent’s performance and once afterwards. Participants reconsidered their responses least often when the opponent’s accuracy matched the item difficulty (easy items the opponent recalled, hard items the opponent forgot) and most often when the opponent’s accuracy and the item difficulty mismatched. When participants responded only after seeing the opponent’s performance (Experiment 2), the same mismatch conditions that led to reconsideration even produced superior recall. These results suggest that rememberers monitor whether others’ knowledge states accord or conflict with their own experience, and that this information shifts how they interrogate their memory and what they recall. PMID:26247369

Snow cover monitoring model and change over both time and space in pastoral area of northern China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cui, Yan; Li, Suju; Wang, Ping; Zhang, Wei; Nie, Juan; Wen, Qi

2014-11-01

Snow disaster is a natural phenomenon owning to widespread snowfall for a long time and usually affect people's life, property and economic. During the whole disaster management circle, snow disaster in pastoral area of northern china which including Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Tibet has been paid more attention. Thus do a good job in snow cover monitoring then found snow disaster in time can help the people in disaster area to take effective rescue measures, which always been the central and local government great important work. Remote sensing has been used widely in snow cover monitoring for its wide range, high efficiency, less conditions, more methods and large information. NOAA/AVHRR data has been used for wide range, plenty bands information and timely acquired and act as an import data of Snow Cover Monitoring Model (SCMM). SCMM including functions list below: First after NOAA/AVHRR data has been acquired, geometric calibration, radiometric calibration and other pre-processing work has been operated. Second after band operation, four threshold conditions are used to extract snow spectrum information among water, cloud and other features in NOAA/AVHRR image. Third snow cover information has been analyzed one by one and the maximum snow cover from about twenty images in a week has been selected. Then selected image has been mosaic which covered the pastoral area of China. At last both time and space analysis has been carried out through this operational model ,such as analysis on the difference between this week and the same period of last year , this week and last week in three level regional. SCMM have been run successfully for three years, and the results have been take into account as one of the three factors which led to risk warning of snow disaster and analysis results from it always play an important role in disaster reduction and relief.

The outlook of innovative optical-electronic technologies implementation in transportation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shilina, Elena V.; Ryabichenko, Roman B.

2005-06-01

Information and telecommunication technologies (ITT) are already tool economic development of society and their role will grow. The first task is providing of information security of ITT that is necessary for it distribution in "information" society. The state policy of the leading world countries (USA, France, Japan, Great Britain and China) is focused on investment huge funds in innovative technologies development. Within the next 4-6 years the main fiber-optic transfer lines will have data transfer speed 40 Gbit/s, number of packed channels 60-200 that will provide effective data transfer speed 2,4-8 Tbit/s. Photonic-crystalline fibers will be promising base of new generation fiber-optic transfer lines. The market of information imaging devices and digital photo cameras will be grown in 3-5 times. Powerful lasers based on CO2 and Nd:YAG will be actively used in transport machinery construction when producing aluminum constructions of light rolling-stock. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) will be base for energy saving and safety light sources used for vehicles and indoor lighting. For example, in the USA cost reducing for lighting will be 200 billion dollars. Implementation analysis of optic electronic photonic technologies (OPT) in ground and aerospace systems shows that they provide significant increasing of traffic safety, crew and passengers comfort with help of smart vehicles construction and non-contact dynamic monitoring both transport facilities (for example, wheel flanges) and condition of rail track (road surface), equipping vehicles with night vision equipment. Scientific-technical programs of JSC "RZD" propose application of OPT in new generation systems: axle-box units for coaches and freight cars monitoring when they are moved, track condition analysis, mechanical stress and permanent way irregularity detection, monitoring geometric parameters of aerial contact wire, car truck, rail and wheel pair roll surface, light signals automatic detection from locomotive, video monitoring, gyroscopes based on fiber optic.

Hybrid System for Ex Vivo Hemorheological and Hemodynamic Analysis: A Feasibility Study

PubMed Central

Yeom, Eunseop; Jun Kang, Yang; Joon Lee, Sang

2015-01-01

Precise measurement of biophysical properties is important to understand the relation between these properties and the outbreak of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). However, a systematic measurement for these biophysical parameters under in vivo conditions is nearly impossible because of complex vessel shape and limited practicality. In vitro measurements can provide more biophysical information, but in vitro exposure changes hemorheological properties. In this study, a hybrid system composed of an ultrasound system and microfluidic device is proposed for monitoring hemorheological and hemodynamic properties under more reasonable experimental conditions. Biophysical properties including RBC aggregation, viscosity, velocity, and pressure of blood flows are simultaneously measured under various conditions to demonstrate the feasibility and performance of this measurement system. The proposed technique is applied to a rat extracorporeal loop which connects the aorta and jugular vein directly. As a result, the proposed system is found to measure biophysical parameters reasonably without blood collection from the rat and provided more detailed information. This hybrid system, combining ultrasound imaging and microfluidic techniques to ex vivo animal models, would be useful for monitoring the variations of biophysical properties induced by chemical agents. It can be used to understand the relation between biophysical parameters and CVDs. PMID:26090816

Geospace monitoring for space weather research and operation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nagatsuma, Tsutomu

2017-10-01

Geospace, a space surrounding the Earth, is one of the key area for space weather. Because geospace environment dynamically varies depending on the solar wind conditions. Many kinds of space assets are operating in geospace for practical purposes. Anomalies of space assets are sometimes happened because of space weather disturbances in geospace. Therefore, monitoring and forecasting of geospace environment is very important tasks for NICT's space weather research and development. To monitor and to improve forecasting model, fluxgate magnetometers and HF radars are operated by our laboratory, and its data are used for our research work, too. We also operate real-time data acquisition system for satellite data, such as DSCOVR, STEREO, and routinely received high energy particle data from Himawari-8. Based on these data, we are monitoring current condition of geomagnetic disturbances, and that of radiation belt. Using these data, we have developed empirical models for relativistic electron flux at GEO and inner magnetosphere. To provide userfriendly information , we are trying to develop individual spacecraft anomaly risk estimation tool based on combining models of space weather and those of spacecraft charging, Current status of geospace monitoring, forecasting, and research activities are introduced.

Monitoring Agents for Assisting NASA Engineers with Shuttle Ground Processing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Semmel, Glenn S.; Davis, Steven R.; Leucht, Kurt W.; Rowe, Danil A.; Smith, Kevin E.; Boeloeni, Ladislau

2005-01-01

The Spaceport Processing Systems Branch at NASA Kennedy Space Center has designed, developed, and deployed a rule-based agent to monitor the Space Shuttle's ground processing telemetry stream. The NASA Engineering Shuttle Telemetry Agent increases situational awareness for system and hardware engineers during ground processing of the Shuttle's subsystems. The agent provides autonomous monitoring of the telemetry stream and automatically alerts system engineers when user defined conditions are satisfied. Efficiency and safety are improved through increased automation. Sandia National Labs' Java Expert System Shell is employed as the agent's rule engine. The shell's predicate logic lends itself well to capturing the heuristics and specifying the engineering rules within this domain. The declarative paradigm of the rule-based agent yields a highly modular and scalable design spanning multiple subsystems of the Shuttle. Several hundred monitoring rules have been written thus far with corresponding notifications sent to Shuttle engineers. This chapter discusses the rule-based telemetry agent used for Space Shuttle ground processing. We present the problem domain along with design and development considerations such as information modeling, knowledge capture, and the deployment of the product. We also present ongoing work with other condition monitoring agents.

Nationally consistent and easily-implemented approach to evaluate littoral-riparian habitat quality in lakes and reservoirs

EPA Science Inventory

The National Lakes Assessment (NLA) and other lake survey and monitoring efforts increasingly rely upon biological assemblage data to define lake condition. Information concerning the multiple dimensions of physical and chemical habitat is necessary to interpret this biological ...

Effective implementation of ground penetrating radar (GPR) for condition assessment & monitoring of critical infrastructure components of bridges and highways.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2015-01-01

Recently Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) started to explore use of Ground Penetrating Radar : (GPR) technology to provide quantitative information for improved decision making and reduced operating : costs. To take full advantage of the G...

Chesapeake Bay recovery and factors affecting trends: Long-termmonitoring, indicators, and insights

USGS Publications Warehouse

Tango, Peter J.; Batiuk, Richard A.

2016-01-01

Monitoring the outcome of restoration efforts is the only way to identify the status of a recovery and the most effective management strategies. In this paper, we discuss Chesapeake Bay and watershed recovery and factors influencing water quality trends. For over 30 years, the Chesapeake Bay Program Partnership’s long-term tidal and watershed water quality monitoring networks have measured physical, chemical and biological parameters throughout the bay and its surrounding watershed underpinning an adaptive management process to drive ecosystem recovery. There are many natural and anthropogenic factors operating and interacting to affect the watershed and bay water quality recovery responses to management actions. Across habitats and indicators, the bay and its watershed continue to express a diverse spatial and temporal fabric of multiscale conditions, stressors and trends that show a range of health conditions and impairments, as well as evidence of progress and degradation. Recurrent independent reviews of the monitoring program have driven a culture of continued adaptation of the monitoring networks to reflect ever evolving management information needs. The adherence to bay and watershed-wide consistent monitoring protocols provides monitoring data supporting analyses and development of scientific syntheses that underpin indicator and model development, regulatory assessments, targeting of management actions, evaluation of management effectiveness, and directing of priorities and policies.

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

PubMed

Lagosky, Stephanie; Bartlett, Doreen; Shaw, Lynn

2016-01-01

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

Breath acetone to monitor life style interventions in field conditions: an exploratory study.

PubMed

Samudrala, Devasena; Lammers, Gerwen; Mandon, Julien; Blanchet, Lionel; Schreuder, Tim H A; Hopman, Maria T; Harren, Frans J M; Tappy, Luc; Cristescu, Simona M

2014-04-01

To assess whether breath acetone concentration can be used to monitor the effects of a prolonged physical activity on whole body lipolysis and hepatic ketogenesis in field conditions. Twenty-three non-diabetic, 11 type 1 diabetic, and 17 type 2 diabetic subjects provided breath and blood samples for this study. Samples were collected during the International Four Days Marches, in the Netherlands. For each participant, breath acetone concentration was measured using proton transfer reaction ion trap mass spectrometry, before and after a 30-50 km walk on four consecutive days. Blood non-esterified free fatty acid (NEFA), beta-hydroxybutyrate (BOHB), and glucose concentrations were measured after walking. Breath acetone concentration was significantly higher after than before walking, and was positively correlated with blood NEFA and BOHB concentrations. The effect of walking on breath acetone concentration was repeatedly observed on all four consecutive days. Breath acetone concentrations were higher in type 1 diabetic subjects and lower in type 2 diabetic subjects than in control subjects. Breath acetone can be used to monitor hepatic ketogenesis during walking under field conditions. It may, therefore, provide real-time information on fat burning, which may be of use for monitoring the lifestyle interventions. Copyright © 2014 The Obesity Society.

Submerged Medium Voltage Cable Systems at Nuclear Power Plants. A Review of Research Efforts Relevant to Aging Mechanisms and Condition Monitoring

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Brown, Jason; Bernstein, Robert; White, II, Gregory Von

In a submerged environment, power cables may experience accelerated insulation degradation due to water - related aging mechanisms . Direct contact with water or moisture intrusion in the cable insulation s ystem has been identified in the literature as a significant aging stressor that can affect performance and lifetime of electric cables . Progressive reduction of the dielectric strength is commonly a result of water treeing which involves the development of permanent hydrophilic structures in the insulation coinciding with the absorption of water into the cable . Water treeing is a phenomenon in which dendritic microvoids are formed in electricmore » cable insulation due to electrochemic al reactions , electromechanical forces , and diffusion of contaminants over time . These reactions are caused by the combined effect s of water presence and high electrical stress es in the material . Water tree growth follow s a tree - like branching pattern , i ncreasing in volume and length over time . Although these cables can be "dried out," water tree degradation , specifically the growth of hydrophilic regions, is believed to be permanent and typically worsens over time. Based on established research , water treeing or water induced damage can occur in a variety of electric cables including XLPE, TR - XLPE and other insulating materials, such as EPR and butyl rubber . Once water trees or water induced damage form, the dielectric strength of an insulation materia l will decrease gradually with time as the water trees grow in length, which could eventually result in failure of the insulating material . Under wet conditions or i n submerged environments , several environmental and operational parameters can influence w ater tree initiation and affect water tree growth . These parameters include voltage cycling, field frequency, temperature, ion concentration and chemistry, type of insula tion material , and the characteristics of its defects. In this effort, a review of academic and industrial literature was performed to identify : 1) findings regarding the degradation mechanisms of submerged cabling and 2) condition monitoring methods that may prove useful in predict ing the remaining lifetime of submerged medium voltage p ower cables . The re search was conducted by a multi - disciplinary team , and s ources includ ed official NRC reports, n ational l aboratory reports , IEEE standards, conference and journal proceedings , magazine articles , PhD dissertations , and discussions with experts . The purpose of this work was to establish the current state - of - the - art in material degradation modeling and cable condition monitoring techniques and to identify research gaps . Subsequently, future areas of focus are recommended to address these research gaps and thus strengthen the efficacy of the NRC's developing cable condition monitoring program . Results of this literature review and details of the test ing recommendations are presented in this report . FOREWORD To ensure the safe, re liable, and cost - effective long - term operation of nuclear power plants, many systems, structures, and components must be continuously evaluated. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has identified that cables in submerged environments are of concern, particularly as plants are seeking license renewal. To date, there is a lack of consensus on aging and degradation mechanisms even though the area of submerged cables has been extensively studied. Consequently, the ability to make lifetime predictions for submerged cable does not yet exist. The NRC has engaged Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) to lead a coordinated effort to help elucidate the aging and degradation of cables in submerged environments by collaborating with cable manufacturers, utilities, universities, and other government agencies. A team of SNL experts was assembled from the laboratories including electrical condition monitoring, mat erial science, polymer degradation, plasma physics, nuclear systems, and statistics. An objective of this research program is to perform a l iterature r eview to gather a body of knowledge on prior research projects, technical papers, and literature related to cable degradation in a submerged environment. In addition, the information gathered from the literature review will be employed to gain insights for developing an aging coefficient, and to determine which condition monitoring techniques are capable of tracking cable degradation in a submerged environment. Moreover, the information gathered from the l iterature r eview will also be used to determine which approach or approaches are best suited to develop test methods for accelerated aging and condition m onitoring of medium voltage cables. In summary of this initial effort, s ignificant work has been performed on submerged cable insulation degradation; however, there is a lack of uniform theories and acceptance of chemical and physical pathways. This lack of fundamental understanding is coupled with the inability to make predictive statements about material performance in wet or submerged environments. S elect condition monitoring methods known to the industry are discussed in this report and a dditional co ndition monitoring methods were added in this effort based on recommendations from the Nuclear Energy Standards Coordinating Collaborative and available literature. This NUREG review provides additional clarity on the use of condition monitoring methods t o detect water - related damage to medium voltage cable and new methods and approaches proposed in academia and industry. In order t o ensure continued improvement in the efficacy of a cable condition monitoring program, continued research and development (R&D) efforts are necessary. R&D efforts should complement operations, iteratively improving condition monitoring policies, procedures and outcomes. Ideally, field and laboratory data enable improved understanding of material science which in turn inform s the development of new or improved condition monitoring methods and lifetime models. Finally, these improved methods and models aid in the refinement of condition monitoring policies and procedures.« less

Comparing Manned Aerial Surveys to Unmanned Aerial Surveys for Cetacean Monitoring in the Arctic: Field Report

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-01-01

environmental conditions, particularly potential for icing conditions, which might impact the flight. The information from the sensor was viewed on...future Arctic projects should be as flexible as possible. Pay attention specifically to weather and altitude limitations and the impact they will have...these issues did not significantly impact ability to fly, they could impact future projects. Use of a shore-based location for the primary

Wireless AE Event and Environmental Monitoring for Wind Turbine Blades at Low Sampling Rates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bouzid, Omar M.; Tian, Gui Y.; Cumanan, K.; Neasham, J.

Integration of acoustic wireless technology in structural health monitoring (SHM) applications introduces new challenges due to requirements of high sampling rates, additional communication bandwidth, memory space, and power resources. In order to circumvent these challenges, this chapter proposes a novel solution through building a wireless SHM technique in conjunction with acoustic emission (AE) with field deployment on the structure of a wind turbine. This solution requires a low sampling rate which is lower than the Nyquist rate. In addition, features extracted from aliased AE signals instead of reconstructing the original signals on-board the wireless nodes are exploited to monitor AE events, such as wind, rain, strong hail, and bird strike in different environmental conditions in conjunction with artificial AE sources. Time feature extraction algorithm, in addition to the principal component analysis (PCA) method, is used to extract and classify the relevant information, which in turn is used to classify or recognise a testing condition that is represented by the response signals. This proposed novel technique yields a significant data reduction during the monitoring process of wind turbine blades.

Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit : progress report.

PubMed

Morris, A; Ridley, G F; Elliott, E J

2002-02-01

The Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit (APSU), through active surveillance, collects information on the epidemiology of rare or uncommon childhood conditions. This research resource allows paediatricians to collaborate at State, national and international levels. The APSU sends a monthly report card to all (currently 971) paediatricians in Australia, who in turn indicate whether or not they have seen a patient in the last month with any of the conditions listed (98% response rate in 1999). Study investigators, notified by the APSU of positive case reports, obtain demographic and clinical data on the patient from the reporting doctor by postal questionnaire (90% response rate in 1999). Since 1993, the APSU has monitored 27 conditions, including conditions that are vaccine-preventable, otherwise infectious, genetic, congenital and non-communicable. Information collected is disseminated to paediatricians and other health professionals via an annual report, newsletters and publications and is made available to the International Network of Paediatric Surveillance Units. Information provided by the APSU has raised awareness among paediatricians of rare and uncommon childhood conditions, and has been used by health authorities for planning of prevention and intervention strategies and allocation of health resources.

Development of an intelligent hydroinformatic system for real-time monitoring and assessment of civil infrastructure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cahill, Paul; Michalis, Panagiotis; Solman, Hrvoje; Kerin, Igor; Bekic, Damir; Pakrashi, Vikram; McKeogh, Eamon

2017-04-01

With the effects of climate change becoming more apparent, extreme weather events are now occurring with greater frequency throughout the world. Such extreme events have resulted in increased high intensity flood events which are having devastating consequences on hydro-structures, especially on bridge infrastructure. The remote and often inaccessible nature of such bridges makes inspections problematic, a major concern if safety assessments are required during and after extreme flood events. A solution to this is the introduction of smart, low cost sensing solutions at locations susceptible to hydro-hazards. Such solutions can provide real-time information on the health of the bridge and its environments, with such information aiding in the mitigation of the risks associated with extreme weather events. This study presents the development of an intelligent system for remote, real-time monitoring of hydro-hazards to bridge infrastructure. The solution consists of two types of remote monitoring stations which have the capacity to monitor environmental conditions and provide real-time information to a centralized, big data database solution, from which an intelligent decision support system will accommodate the results to control and manage bridge, river and catchment assets. The first device developed as part of the system is the Weather Information Logging Device (WILD), which monitors rainfall, temperature and air and soil moisture content. The ability of the WILD to monitor rainfall in real time enables flood early warning alerts and predictive river flow conditions, thereby enabling decision makers the ability to make timely and effective decisions about critical infrastructures in advance of extreme flood events. The WILD is complemented by a second monitoring device, the Bridge Information Recording Device (BIRD), which monitors water levels at a given location in real-time. The monitoring of water levels of a river allows for, among other applications, hydraulic modelling to assess the likely impact that severe flood events will have on a bridges foundation, particularly due to scour. The process of reading and validating data from the WILD and BIRD buffer servers is outlined, as is the transmission protocol used for the sending of recorded data to a centralized repository for further use and analysis. Finally, the development of a centralized repository for the collection of data from the WILD and BIRD devices is presented. Eventually the big data solution would be used to receive, store and send the monitored data to the hydrological models, whether existing or developed, and the results would be transmitted to the intelligent decision support system based on a web-based platform, for managing, planning and executing data, processes and procedures for bridge assets. The development of intelligent hydroinformatic system is an important tool for the protection of key infrastructure assets from the increasingly common effects of climate change. Acknowledgement The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support of the European Commission, through the Marie Curie Industry-Academia Partnership and Pathways Network BRIDGE SMS (Intelligent Bridge Assessment Maintenance and Management System) - FP7-People-2013-IAPP- 612517.

Developing RCM Strategy for Hydrogen Fuel Cells Utilizing On Line E-Condition Monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baglee, D.; Knowles, M. J.

2012-05-01

Fuel cell vehicles are considered to be a viable solution to problems such as carbon emissions and fuel shortages for road transport. Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) Fuel Cells are mainly used in this purpose because they can run at low temperatures and have a simple structure. Yet high maintenance costs and the inherent dangers of maintaining equipment using hydrogen are two main issues which need to be addressed. The development of appropriate and efficient strategies is currently lacking with regard to fuel cell maintenance. A Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) approach offers considerable benefit to the management of fuel cell maintenance since it includes an identification and consideration of the impact of critical components. Technological developments in e-maintenance systems, radio-frequency identification (RFID) and personal digital assistants (PDAs) have proven to satisfy the increasing demand for improved reliability, efficiency and safety. RFID technology is used to store and remotely retrieve electronic maintenance data in order to provide instant access to up-to-date, accurate and detailed information. The aim is to support fuel cell maintenance decisions by developing and applying a blend of leading-edge communications and sensor technology including RFID. The purpose of this paper is to review and present the state of the art in fuel cell condition monitoring and maintenance utilizing RCM and RFID technologies. Using an RCM analysis critical components and fault modes are identified. RFID tags are used to store the critical information, possible faults and their cause and effect. The relationship between causes, faults, symptoms and long term implications of fault conditions are summarized. Finally conclusions are drawn regarding suggested maintenance strategies and the optimal structure for an integrated, cost effective condition monitoring and maintenance management system.

A National Crop Progress Monitoring System Based on NASA Earth Science Results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Di, L.; Yu, G.; Zhang, B.; Deng, M.; Yang, Z.

2011-12-01

Crop progress is an important piece of information for food security and agricultural commodities. Timely monitoring and reporting are mandated for the operation of agricultural statistical agencies. Traditionally, the weekly reporting issued by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is based on reports from the knowledgeable state and county agricultural officials and farmers. The results are spatially coarse and subjective. In this project, a remote-sensing-supported crop progress monitoring system is being developed intensively using the data and derived products from NASA Earth Observing satellites. Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Level 3 product - MOD09 (Surface Reflectance) is used for deriving daily normalized vegetation index (NDVI), vegetation condition index (VCI), and mean vegetation condition index (MVCI). Ratio change to previous year and multiple year mean can be also produced on demand. The time-series vegetation condition indices are further combined with the NASS' remote-sensing-derived Cropland Data Layer (CDL) to estimate crop condition and progress crop by crop. To facilitate the operational requirement and increase the accessibility of data and products by different users, each component of the system has being developed and implemented following open specifications under the Web Service reference model of Open Geospatial Consortium Inc. Sensor observations and data are accessed through Web Coverage Service (WCS), Web Feature Service (WFS), or Sensor Observation Service (SOS) if available. Products are also served through such open-specification-compliant services. For rendering and presentation, Web Map Service (WMS) is used. A Web-service based system is set up and deployed at dss.csiss.gmu.edu/NDVIDownload. Further development will adopt crop growth models, feed the models with remotely sensed precipitation and soil moisture information, and incorporate the model results with vegetation-index time series for crop progress stage estimation.

Salmon and steelhead in the White Salmon River after the removal of Condit Dam–Planning efforts and recolonization results

USGS Publications Warehouse

Allen, Brady; Engle, Rod O; Zendt, Joseph S; Shrier, Frank C; Wilson, Jeremy T; Connolly, Patrick J.

2016-01-01

Condit Dam, at river kilometer 5.3 on the White Salmon River, Washington, was breached in 2011 and completely removed in 2012. This action opened habitat to migratory fish for the first time in 100 years. The White Salmon Working Group was formed to create plans for fish salvage in preparation for fish recolonization and to prescribe the actions necessary to restore anadromous salmonid populations in the White Salmon River after Condit Dam removal. Studies conducted by work group members and others served to inform management decisions. Management options for individual species were considered, including natural recolonization, introduction of a neighboring stock, hatchery supplementation, and monitoring natural recolonization for some time period to assess the need for hatchery supplementation. Monitoring to date indicates that multiple species and stocks of anadromous salmonids are finding and spawning in the now accessible and recovering habitat.

Augmented Reality as a Countermeasure for Sleep Deprivation.

PubMed

Baumeister, James; Dorrlan, Jillian; Banks, Siobhan; Chatburn, Alex; Smith, Ross T; Carskadon, Mary A; Lushington, Kurt; Thomas, Bruce H

2016-04-01

Sleep deprivation is known to have serious deleterious effects on executive functioning and job performance. Augmented reality has an ability to place pertinent information at the fore, guiding visual focus and reducing instructional complexity. This paper presents a study to explore how spatial augmented reality instructions impact procedural task performance on sleep deprived users. The user study was conducted to examine performance on a procedural task at six time points over the course of a night of total sleep deprivation. Tasks were provided either by spatial augmented reality-based projections or on an adjacent monitor. The results indicate that participant errors significantly increased with the monitor condition when sleep deprived. The augmented reality condition exhibited a positive influence with participant errors and completion time having no significant increase when sleep deprived. The results of our study show that spatial augmented reality is an effective sleep deprivation countermeasure under laboratory conditions.

Space Weather Research in Armenia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chilingarian, A. A.

DVIN for ASEC (Data Visualization interactive Network for Aragats Space Environmental Center) is product for accessing and analysis the on-line data from Solar Monitors located at high altitude research station on Mt. Aragats in Armenia. Data from ASEC monitors is used worldwide for scientific purposes and for monitoring of severe solar storms in progress. Alert service, based on the automatic analysis of variations of the different species of cosmic ray particles is available for subscribers. DVIN advantages: DVIN is strategically important as a scientific application to help develop space science and to foster global collaboration in forecasting potential hazards of solar storms. It precisely fits with the goals of the new evolving information society to provide long-term monitoring and collection of high quality scientific data, and enables adequate dialogue between scientists, decision makers, and civil society. The system is highly interactive and exceptional information is easily accessible online. Data can be monitored and analyzed for desired time spans in a fast and reliable manner. The ASEC activity is an example of a balance between the scientific independence of fundamental research and the needs of civil society. DVIN is also an example of how scientific institutions can apply the newest powerful methods of information technologies, such as multivariate data analysis, to their data and also how information technologies can provide convenient and reliable access to this data and to new knowledge for the world-wide scientific community. DVIN provides very wide possibilities for sharing data and sending warnings and alerts to scientists and other entities world-wide, which have fundamental and practical interest in knowing the space weather conditions.

Monitoring cover crops using radar remote sensing in southern Ontario, Canada

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shang, J.; Huang, X.; Liu, J.; Wang, J.

2016-12-01

Information on agricultural land surface conditions is important for developing best land management practices to maintain the overall health of the fields. The climate condition supports one harvest per year for the majority of the field crops in Canada, with a relative short growing season between May and September. During the non-growing-season months (October to the following April), many fields are traditionally left bare. In more recent year, there has been an increased interest in planting cover crops. Benefits of cover crops include boosting soil organic matters, preventing soil from erosion, retaining soil moisture, and reducing surface runoff hence protecting water quality. Optical remote sensing technology has been exploited for monitoring cover crops. However limitations inherent to optical sensors such as cloud interference and signal saturation (when leaf area index is above 2.5) impeded its operational application. Radar remote sensing on the other hand is not hindered by unfavorable weather conditions, and the signal continues to be sensitive to crop growth beyond the saturation point of optical sensors. It offers a viable means for capturing timely information on field surface conditions (with or without crop cover) or crop development status. This research investigated the potential of using multi-temporal RADARSAT-2 C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data collected in 2015 over multiple fields of winter wheat, corn and soybean crops in southern Ontario, Canada, to retrieve information on the presence of cover crops and their growth status. Encouraging results have been obtained. This presentation will report the methodology developed and the results obtained.

Applying the dual-isotope conceptual model to interpret physiological trends under uncontrolled conditions

EPA Science Inventory

The inter-relationships among δ13C and δ18O in tree ring cellulose and ring width have the potential to illuminate long-term physiological and environmental information in forest stands that have not been monitored. We examine how within-stand competition and environmental gradie...

Trophic Status, Ecological Condition and Cyanobacteria Risk of New England Lakes and Ponds Based on Aircraft Remote Sensing.

EPA Science Inventory

Aircraft remote sensing of freshwater ecosystems offers federal and state monitoring agencies an ability to meet their assessment requirements by rapidly acquiring information on ecosystem responses to environmental change for water bodies that are below the resolution of space...

Observations from Space in a Global Ecology Programme

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kondratyev, Kirill Ya

1974-01-01

In order to resolve problems arising from the possibility of ecological crisis, we need more and better information about our environment. The condition of nature on a planetary scale can be monitored efficiently only with the aid of satellites, human observers in earth orbit, and computer analysis of data. (Author/GS)

Monitoring algal blooms in drinking water reservoirs using the Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager

EPA Science Inventory

In this study, we demonstrated that the Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) sensor is a powerful tool that can provide periodic and system-wide information on the condition of drinking water reservoirs. The OLI is a multispectral radiometer (30 m spatial resolution) that allo...

Relationships Among Watershed Condition, Nutrients, and Algae in New England Streams Affected by Urbanization

EPA Science Inventory

We examined algal metrics as indicators of altered watershed land cover and nutrients to inform their potential use in monitoring programs. Multiple regression models, in which impervious cover explained the most variation, indicated concentrations <0.202 mg/l NO3 and <0.015 mg/l...

7 CFR 718.103 - Prevented planted and failed acreage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... prevented-planted acreage was affected by drought, unless: (1) On the final planting date for non-irrigated.... Drought Monitor; and (3) Verifiable information is collected from sources whose business or purpose it is... a lack of water resulting from drought conditions or contamination by saltwater intrusion of an...

7 CFR 718.103 - Prevented planted and failed acreage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... prevented-planted acreage was affected by drought, unless: (1) On the final planting date for non-irrigated.... Drought Monitor; and (3) Verifiable information is collected from sources whose business or purpose it is... a lack of water resulting from drought conditions or contamination by saltwater intrusion of an...

7 CFR 718.103 - Prevented planted and failed acreage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... prevented-planted acreage was affected by drought, unless: (1) On the final planting date for non-irrigated.... Drought Monitor; and (3) Verifiable information is collected from sources whose business or purpose it is... a lack of water resulting from drought conditions or contamination by saltwater intrusion of an...

7 CFR 718.103 - Prevented planted and failed acreage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... prevented-planted acreage was affected by drought, unless: (1) On the final planting date for non-irrigated.... Drought Monitor; and (3) Verifiable information is collected from sources whose business or purpose it is... a lack of water resulting from drought conditions or contamination by saltwater intrusion of an...

7 CFR 718.103 - Prevented planted and failed acreage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... prevented-planted acreage was affected by drought, unless: (1) On the final planting date for non-irrigated.... Drought Monitor; and (3) Verifiable information is collected from sources whose business or purpose it is... a lack of water resulting from drought conditions or contamination by saltwater intrusion of an...

Effective implementation of ground penetrating radar (GPR) for condition assessment & monitoring of critical infrastructure components of bridges and highways : [research summary].

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2015-01-01

Recently Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) started to explore use of Ground : Penetrating Radar (GPR) technology to provide quantitative information for improved : decision making and reduced operating costs. To take full advantage of the G...

MULTI-SCALED VULNERABILITY ANALYSES: IMPROVING DECISION-MAKING AT REGIONAL TO LOCAL LEVELS THROUGH PARTNERSHIP

EPA Science Inventory

Decision-makers at all scales are faced with setting priorities for both use of limited resources and for risk management. While there are all kinds of monitoring data and models to project conditions at different spatial and temporal scales, synthesized information to establish ...

Photometric Monitoring of Triton at Sommers-Bausch Observatory in 2000

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Young, L. A.; Bullock, M. A.; Colwell, W. B.; Durda, D. D.; Gleason, K.; Parker, J. W.; Stern, S. A.; Terrell, D.; Young, E. F.

2001-01-01

We undertook pilot program to develop an observing and analysis strategy that can be used to measure Triton's B and V albedos with 0.05 magnitude accuracy at moderate-to-small telescopes, under moderate-to-poor seeing conditions. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)

Science.gov Websites

Tropical Marine Fire Weather Forecast Maps Unified Surface Analysis Climate Climate Prediction Climate forecasts of hazardous flight conditions at all levels within domestic and international air space. Climate Prediction Center monitors and forecasts short-term climate fluctuations and provides information on the

Landsat-derived cropland mask for Tanzania using 2010-2013 time series and decision tree classifier methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Justice, C. J.

2015-12-01

80% of Tanzania's population is involved in the agriculture sector. Despite this national dependence, agricultural reporting is minimal and monitoring efforts are in their infancy. The cropland mask developed through this study provides the framework for agricultural monitoring through informing analysis of crop conditions, dispersion, and intensity at a national scale. Tanzania is dominated by smallholder agricultural systems with an average field size of less than one hectare (Sarris et al, 2006). At this field scale, previous classifications of agricultural land in Tanzania using MODIS course resolution data are insufficient to inform a working monitoring system. The nation-wide cropland mask in this study was developed using composited Landsat tiles from a 2010-2013 time series. Decision tree classifiers methods were used in the study with representative training areas collected for agriculture and no agriculture using appropriate indices to separate these classes (Hansen et al, 2013). Validation was done using random sample and high resolution satellite images to compare Agriculture and No agriculture samples from the study area. The techniques used in this study were successful and have the potential to be adapted for other countries, allowing targeted monitoring efforts to improve food security, market price, and inform agricultural policy.

A Review of Passive RFID Tag Antenna-Based Sensors and Systems for Structural Health Monitoring Applications.

PubMed

Zhang, Jun; Tian, Gui Yun; Marindra, Adi M J; Sunny, Ali Imam; Zhao, Ao Bo

2017-01-29

In recent few years, the antenna and sensor communities have witnessed a considerable integration of radio frequency identification (RFID) tag antennas and sensors because of the impetus provided by internet of things (IoT) and cyber-physical systems (CPS). Such types of sensor can find potential applications in structural health monitoring (SHM) because of their passive, wireless, simple, compact size, and multimodal nature, particular in large scale infrastructures during their lifecycle. The big data from these ubiquitous sensors are expected to generate a big impact for intelligent monitoring. A remarkable number of scientific papers demonstrate the possibility that objects can be remotely tracked and intelligently monitored for their physical/chemical/mechanical properties and environment conditions. Most of the work focuses on antenna design, and significant information has been generated to demonstrate feasibilities. Further information is needed to gain deep understanding of the passive RFID antenna sensor systems in order to make them reliable and practical. Nevertheless, this information is scattered over much literature. This paper is to comprehensively summarize and clearly highlight the challenges and state-of-the-art methods of passive RFID antenna sensors and systems in terms of sensing and communication from system point of view. Future trends are also discussed. The future research and development in UK are suggested as well.

Preliminary Development of Real Time Usage-Phase Monitoring System for CNC Machine Tools with a Case Study on CNC Machine VMC 250

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Budi Harja, Herman; Prakosa, Tri; Raharno, Sri; Yuwana Martawirya, Yatna; Nurhadi, Indra; Setyo Nogroho, Alamsyah

2018-03-01

The production characteristic of job-shop industry at which products have wide variety but small amounts causes every machine tool will be shared to conduct production process with dynamic load. Its dynamic condition operation directly affects machine tools component reliability. Hence, determination of maintenance schedule for every component should be calculated based on actual usage of machine tools component. This paper describes study on development of monitoring system to obtaining information about each CNC machine tool component usage in real time approached by component grouping based on its operation phase. A special device has been developed for monitoring machine tool component usage by utilizing usage phase activity data taken from certain electronics components within CNC machine. The components are adaptor, servo driver and spindle driver, as well as some additional components such as microcontroller and relays. The obtained data are utilized for detecting machine utilization phases such as power on state, machine ready state or spindle running state. Experimental result have shown that the developed CNC machine tool monitoring system is capable of obtaining phase information of machine tool usage as well as its duration and displays the information at the user interface application.

Short-wavelength light beam in situ monitoring growth of InGaN/GaN green LEDs by MOCVD

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

In this paper, five-period InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well green light-emitting diodes (LEDs) were grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition with 405-nm light beam in situ monitoring system. Based on the signal of 405-nm in situ monitoring system, the related information of growth rate, indium composition and interfacial quality of each InGaN/GaN QW were obtained, and thus, the growth conditions and structural parameters were optimized to grow high-quality InGaN/GaN green LED structure. Finally, a green LED with a wavelength of 509 nm was fabricated under the optimal parameters, which was also proved by ex situ characterization such as high-resolution X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence, and electroluminescence. The results demonstrated that short-wavelength in situ monitoring system was a quick and non-destroyed tool to provide the growth information on InGaN/GaN, which would accelerate the research and development of GaN-based green LEDs. PMID:22650991

Development and evaluation of an ambulatory stress monitor based on wearable sensors.

PubMed

Choi, Jongyoon; Ahmed, Beena; Gutierrez-Osuna, Ricardo

2012-03-01

Chronic stress is endemic to modern society. However, as it is unfeasible for physicians to continuously monitor stress levels, its diagnosis is nontrivial. Wireless body sensor networks offer opportunities to ubiquitously detect and monitor mental stress levels, enabling improved diagnosis, and early treatment. This article describes the development of a wearable sensor platform to monitor a number of physiological correlates of mental stress. We discuss tradeoffs in both system design and sensor selection to balance information content and wearability. Using experimental signals collected from the wearable sensor, we describe a selected number of physiological features that show good correlation with mental stress. In particular, we propose a new spectral feature that estimates the balance of the autonomic nervous system by combining information from the power spectral density of respiration and heart rate variability. We validate the effectiveness of our approach on a binary discrimination problem when subjects are placed under two psychophysiological conditions: mental stress and relaxation. When used in a logistic regression model, our feature set is able to discriminate between these two mental states with a success rate of 81% across subjects. © 2012 IEEE

Application of smart optical fiber sensors for structural load monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davies, Heddwyn; Everall, Lorna A.; Gallon, Andrew M.

2001-06-01

This paper describes a smart monitoring system, incorporating optical fiber sensing techniques, capable of providing important structural information to designers and users alike. This technology has wide industrial and commercial application in areas including aerospace, civil, maritime and automotive engineering. In order to demonstrate the capability of the sensing system it has been installed in a 35m free-standing carbon fiber yacht mast, where a complete optical network of strain and temperature sensors were embedded into a composite mast and boom during lay-up. The system was able to monitor the behavior of the composite rig through a range of handling conditions. The resulting strain information can be used by engineers to improve the structural design process. Embedded fiber optic sensors have wide ranging application for structural load monitoring. Due to their small size, optical fiber sensors can be readily embedded into composite materials. Other advantages include their immediate multiplexing capability and immunity to electro-magnetic interference. The capability of this system has been demonstrated within the maritime and industrial environment, but can be adapted for any application.

Bed occupancy monitoring: data processing and clinician user interface design.

PubMed

Pouliot, Melanie; Joshi, Vilas; Goubran, Rafik; Knoefel, Frank

2012-01-01

Unobtrusive and continuous monitoring of patients, especially at their place of residence, is becoming a significant part of the healthcare model. A variety of sensors are being used to monitor different patient conditions. Bed occupancy monitoring provides clinicians a quantitative measure of bed entry/exit patterns and may provide information relating to sleep quality. This paper presents a bed occupancy monitoring system using a bed pressure mat sensor. A clinical trial was performed involving 8 patients to collect bed occupancy data. The trial period for each patient ranged from 5-10 weeks. This data was analyzed using a participatory design methodology incorporating clinician feedback to obtain bed occupancy parameters. The parameters extracted include the number of bed exits per night, the bed exit weekly average (including minimum and maximum), the time of day of a particular exit, and the amount of uninterrupted bed occupancy per night. The design of a clinical user interface plays a significant role in the acceptance of such patient monitoring systems by clinicians. The clinician user interface proposed in this paper was designed to be intuitive, easy to navigate and not cause information overload. An iterative design methodology was used for the interface design. The interface design is extendible to incorporate data from multiple sensors. This allows the interface to be part of a comprehensive remote patient monitoring system.

Continuous monitoring of water flow and solute transport using vadose zone monitoring technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dahan, O.

2009-04-01

Groundwater contamination is usually attributed to pollution events that initiate on land surface. These may be related to various sources such as industrial, urban or agricultural, and may appear as point or non point sources, through a single accidental event or a continuous pollution process. In all cases, groundwater pollution is a consequence of pollutant transport processes that take place in the vadose zone above the water table. Attempts to control pollution events and prevent groundwater contamination usually involve groundwater monitoring programs. This, however, can not provide any protection against contamination since pollution identification in groundwater is clear evidence that the groundwater is already polluted and contaminants have already traversed the entire vadose zone. Accordingly, an efficient monitoring program that aims at providing information that may prevent groundwater pollution has to include vadose-zone monitoring systems. Such system should provide real-time information on the hydrological and chemical properties of the percolating water and serve as an early warning system capable of detecting pollution events in their early stages before arrival of contaminants to groundwater. Recently, a vadose-zone monitoring system (VMS) was developed to allow continuous monitoring of the hydrological and chemical properties of percolating water in the deep vadose zone. The VMS includes flexible time-domain reflectometry (FTDR) probes for continuous tracking of water content profiles, and vadose-zone sampling ports (VSPs) for frequent sampling of the deep vadose pore water at multiple depths. The monitoring probes and sampling ports are installed through uncased slanted boreholes using a flexible sleeve that allows attachment of the monitoring devices to the borehole walls while achieving good contact between the sensors and the undisturbed sediment column. The system has been successfully implemented in several studies on water flow and contaminant transport in various hydrological and geological setups. These include floodwater infiltration in arid environments, land use impact on groundwater quality, and control of remediation process in a contaminated vadose zone. The data which is collected by the VMS allows direct measurements of flow velocities and fluxes in the vadose zone while continuously monitoring the chemical evolution of the percolating water. While real time information on the hydrological and chemical properties of the percolating water in the vadose is essential to prevent groundwater contamination it is also vital for any remediation actions. Remediation of polluted soils and aquifers essentially involves manipulation of surface and subsurface hydrological, physical and biochemical conditions to improve pollutant attenuation. Controlling the biochemical conditions to enhance biodegradation often includes introducing degrading microorganisms, applying electron donors or acceptors, or adding nutrients that can promote growth of the desired degrading organisms. Accordingly real time data on the hydrological and chemical properties of the vadose zone may be used to select remediation strategies and determine its efficiency on the basis of real time information.

Force Sensor Based Tool Condition Monitoring Using a Heterogeneous Ensemble Learning Model

PubMed Central

Wang, Guofeng; Yang, Yinwei; Li, Zhimeng

2014-01-01

Tool condition monitoring (TCM) plays an important role in improving machining efficiency and guaranteeing workpiece quality. In order to realize reliable recognition of the tool condition, a robust classifier needs to be constructed to depict the relationship between tool wear states and sensory information. However, because of the complexity of the machining process and the uncertainty of the tool wear evolution, it is hard for a single classifier to fit all the collected samples without sacrificing generalization ability. In this paper, heterogeneous ensemble learning is proposed to realize tool condition monitoring in which the support vector machine (SVM), hidden Markov model (HMM) and radius basis function (RBF) are selected as base classifiers and a stacking ensemble strategy is further used to reflect the relationship between the outputs of these base classifiers and tool wear states. Based on the heterogeneous ensemble learning classifier, an online monitoring system is constructed in which the harmonic features are extracted from force signals and a minimal redundancy and maximal relevance (mRMR) algorithm is utilized to select the most prominent features. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, a titanium alloy milling experiment was carried out and samples with different tool wear states were collected to build the proposed heterogeneous ensemble learning classifier. Moreover, the homogeneous ensemble learning model and majority voting strategy are also adopted to make a comparison. The analysis and comparison results show that the proposed heterogeneous ensemble learning classifier performs better in both classification accuracy and stability. PMID:25405514

Force sensor based tool condition monitoring using a heterogeneous ensemble learning model.

PubMed

Wang, Guofeng; Yang, Yinwei; Li, Zhimeng

2014-11-14

Tool condition monitoring (TCM) plays an important role in improving machining efficiency and guaranteeing workpiece quality. In order to realize reliable recognition of the tool condition, a robust classifier needs to be constructed to depict the relationship between tool wear states and sensory information. However, because of the complexity of the machining process and the uncertainty of the tool wear evolution, it is hard for a single classifier to fit all the collected samples without sacrificing generalization ability. In this paper, heterogeneous ensemble learning is proposed to realize tool condition monitoring in which the support vector machine (SVM), hidden Markov model (HMM) and radius basis function (RBF) are selected as base classifiers and a stacking ensemble strategy is further used to reflect the relationship between the outputs of these base classifiers and tool wear states. Based on the heterogeneous ensemble learning classifier, an online monitoring system is constructed in which the harmonic features are extracted from force signals and a minimal redundancy and maximal relevance (mRMR) algorithm is utilized to select the most prominent features. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, a titanium alloy milling experiment was carried out and samples with different tool wear states were collected to build the proposed heterogeneous ensemble learning classifier. Moreover, the homogeneous ensemble learning model and majority voting strategy are also adopted to make a comparison. The analysis and comparison results show that the proposed heterogeneous ensemble learning classifier performs better in both classification accuracy and stability.

An Information Theoretic Framework and Self-organizing Agent- based Sensor Network Architecture for Power Plant Condition Monitoring

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Loparo, Kenneth; Kolacinski, Richard; Threeanaew, Wanchat

A central goal of the work was to enable both the extraction of all relevant information from sensor data, and the application of information gained from appropriate processing and fusion at the system level to operational control and decision-making at various levels of the control hierarchy through: 1. Exploiting the deep connection between information theory and the thermodynamic formalism, 2. Deployment using distributed intelligent agents with testing and validation in a hardware-in-the loop simulation environment. Enterprise architectures are the organizing logic for key business processes and IT infrastructure and, while the generality of current definitions provides sufficient flexibility, the currentmore » architecture frameworks do not inherently provide the appropriate structure. Of particular concern is that existing architecture frameworks often do not make a distinction between ``data'' and ``information.'' This work defines an enterprise architecture for health and condition monitoring of power plant equipment and further provides the appropriate foundation for addressing shortcomings in current architecture definition frameworks through the discovery of the information connectivity between the elements of a power generation plant. That is, to identify the correlative structure between available observations streams using informational measures. The principle focus here is on the implementation and testing of an emergent, agent-based, algorithm based on the foraging behavior of ants for eliciting this structure and on measures for characterizing differences between communication topologies. The elicitation algorithms are applied to data streams produced by a detailed numerical simulation of Alstom’s 1000 MW ultra-super-critical boiler and steam plant. The elicitation algorithm and topology characterization can be based on different informational metrics for detecting connectivity, e.g. mutual information and linear correlation.« less

Natural resource inventory and monitoring for Ulaan Taiga Specially Protected Areas—An assessment of needs and opportunities in northern Mongolia

USGS Publications Warehouse

Moore, Peggy E.; Meyer, Joseph B.; Chow, Leslie S.

2017-03-10

Between 1997 and 2011, Mongolia established three specially protected areas in the north-central part of the country to protect various high-value resources. These areas are jointly referred to as the Ulaan Taiga Specially Protected Areas. In accordance with the goals of the draft general management plan, this report identifies options for initiating an inventory and monitoring program for the three protected areas. Together, the three areas comprise over 1.5 million hectares of mountainous terrain west of Lake Hovsgol and bordering the Darkhad Valley. The area supports numerous rare ungulates, endangered fish, and over 40 species of threatened plants. Illegal mining, illegal logging, and poaching pose the most immediate threats to resources. As a first step, a review of published literature would inform natural resource management at the Ulaan Taiga Specially Protected Areas because it would inform other inventories.Vegetation classification and mapping also would inform other inventory efforts because the process incorporates geographic analysis to identify environmental gradients, fine-scale sampling that captures species composition and structure, and landscape-scale results that represent the variety and extent of habitats for various organisms. Mapping using satellite imagery reduces the cost per hectare.Following a determination of existing knowledge, field surveys of vertebrates and vascular plants would serve to build species lists and fill in gaps in existing knowledge. For abiotic resources, a focus on monitoring air quality, evaluating and monitoring water quality, and assembling and storing weather data would provide information for correlating resource response status with changing environmental conditions.Finally, we identify datasets that, if incorporated into a geographic information system, would inform resource management. They include political boundaries, infrastructure, topography, surficial geology, hydrology, fire history, and soils.In terms of tracking high-value resources, vegetation monitoring at the plot scale would provide a basis for detecting change in such characteristics as plant species composition, vegetation structure, and productivity that are associated with landscape-scale factors such as climate change or biotic interactions. Continued population monitoring of rare ungulates, particularly argali or wild sheep (Ovis ammon), would provide information on how populations are responding to natural and anthropogenic stressors. Siberian taimen (Hucho taimen) also is an important monitoring target given ongoing threats of poaching and climate change.

Toward Conceptual Clarity in a Critical Parenting Construct: Parental Monitoring in Youth with Chronic Illness

PubMed Central

Templin, Thomas N.; Naar-King, Sylvie; Frey, Maureen A.

2008-01-01

Parental monitoring has been defined as “a set of correlated parenting behaviors involving attention to and tracking of the child's whereabouts, activities, and adaptations.” This construct is of significant interest due to its relatedness to a broad range of youth risk behaviors, including risky sexual behavior, substance abuse, and poor adherence. However, to date, measures of parental monitoring are largely absent from the chronic illness literature. The present article focuses upon two key problems in the operationalization of the monitoring construct to date: (a) poor conceptual specificity in parenting constructs such as monitoring, overprotection, and over-involvement when used to date among youth with chronic conditions and (b) the confounding of existing measures of parental monitoring with items evaluating parental knowledge of youth activities, which has resulted in a lack of data regarding the mechanisms by which parents obtain their information. Recommendations for the future development of monitoring measures are discussed. PMID:18467352

The Joint Experiment for Crop Assessment and Monitoring (JECAM) Initiative: Developing methods and best practices for global agricultural monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Champagne, C.; Jarvis, I.; Defourny, P.; Davidson, A.

2014-12-01

Agricultural systems differ significantly throughout the world, making a 'one size fits all' approach to remote sensing and monitoring of agricultural landscapes problematic. The Joint Experiment for Crop Assessment and Monitoring (JECAM) was established in 2009 to bring together the global scientific community to work towards a set of best practices and recommendations for using earth observation data to map, monitor and report on agricultural productivity globally across an array of diverse agricultural systems. These methods form the research and development component of the Group on Earth Observation Global Agricultural Monitoring (GEOGLAM) initiative to harmonize global monitoring efforts and increase market transparency. The JECAM initiative brings together researchers from a large number of globally distributed, well monitored agricultural test sites that cover a range of crop types, cropping systems and climate regimes. Each test site works independently as well as together across multiple sites to test methods, sensors and field data collection techniques to derive key agricultural parameters, including crop type, crop condition, crop yield and soil moisture. The outcome of this project will be a set of best practices that cover the range of remote sensing monitoring and reporting needs, including satellite data acquisition, pre-processing techniques, information retrieval and ground data validation. These outcomes provide the research and development foundation for GEOGLAM and will help to inform the development of the GEOGLAM "system of systems" for global agricultural monitoring. The outcomes of the 2014 JECAM science meeting will be discussed as well as examples of methods being developed by JECAM scientists.

A multivariate approach for a comparison of big data matrices. Case study: thermo-hygrometric monitoring inside the Carcer Tullianum (Rome) in the absence and in the presence of visitors.

PubMed

Visco, Giovanni; Plattner, Susanne H; Fortini, Patrizia; Sammartino, Mariapia

2017-06-01

In the last decades, the very fast improvement of the analytical instrumentation has led to the possibility of quickly and easily getting a lot of data; in turn, the need of advanced statistical methods suitable to extract the full information furnished by instruments has increased. Such kind of data treatments is particularly important in any case of continuous monitoring of one or more parameters, so the microclimate monitoring is a typical example for this application. Microclimate control is essential in the conservation of Cultural Heritage (CH), but decisions on optimal conservation parameters cannot base only on existing norms that do not take into account the environment's history. Often CH has survived for many centuries in conditions that must be considered risky but also a stable state (equilibrium) resulting from a long adaptation process during which a more or less heavy damage occurred to the materials. Any successive change of microclimate parameters has interrupted this equilibrium conditions and has induced further damage to material until a new equilibrium is reached; dimension and frequency of changes are proportional to the expected damage. This thermodynamic consideration provides the background for a CH conservation project based on microclimate control and highlights the importance of environmental monitoring for the identification of equilibrium parameters to be maintained. In 2010, we monitored the microclimate of an important historical building in Rome, the Mamertino Carcer, before its opening to visitors. One year later, we repeated the monitoring in the presence of visitors, and here, we present a careful choice of multivariate data treatments adopted for an enough, simple and immediate evaluation of the microclimatic changes; this allows an easier understanding also for persons with not too deep scientific background, such as Superintendents and, in turn, really useful information to provide suggestions for a conservation project. Results evidenced the expected loss of isolation of the site that occurred by opening to visitors; this led to wider excursions of both temperature and relative humidity and, in turn, to a worsening of the conservative conditions. Surely, a monitoring of particulate matter, correlated to air fluxes and, in turn, to microclimate, is of fundamental importance for the conservation of frescoes and will be object of one of our future diagnostic interventions in the site.

Context-Aware Fusion of RGB and Thermal Imagery for Traffic Monitoring

PubMed Central

Alldieck, Thiemo; Bahnsen, Chris H.; Moeslund, Thomas B.

2016-01-01

In order to enable a robust 24-h monitoring of traffic under changing environmental conditions, it is beneficial to observe the traffic scene using several sensors, preferably from different modalities. To fully benefit from multi-modal sensor output, however, one must fuse the data. This paper introduces a new approach for fusing color RGB and thermal video streams by using not only the information from the videos themselves, but also the available contextual information of a scene. The contextual information is used to judge the quality of a particular modality and guides the fusion of two parallel segmentation pipelines of the RGB and thermal video streams. The potential of the proposed context-aware fusion is demonstrated by extensive tests of quantitative and qualitative characteristics on existing and novel video datasets and benchmarked against competing approaches to multi-modal fusion. PMID:27869730

UV hazard on Italian Apennines under different shading and ground cover conditions during peak tourist seasons of the year.

PubMed

Grifoni, Daniele; Carreras, Giulia; Sabatini, Francesco; Zipoli, Gaetano

2006-12-01

In solar UV irradiance monitoring and forecasting services UV information is generally expressed in terms of its effect on erythema and referred to horizontal surface. In this work we define the UV radiative regime, in terms of biologically effective UV irradiance (UVBE) for skin and eye, under full sun and shaded conditions, over a mountainous tourist area of central Italy by means of two all-day measurements (summer and early spring) with different ground albedo (grass and snow cover respectively). UV irradiance was monitored on tilted surfaces (the most frequent for people standing and walking). Results show the significant contribution of ground albedo and sun position in determining the incident UVBE irradiance. On early spring days the UVBE irradiance measured on horizontal surface was much lower than on tilted ones; the opposite condition was observed in summer. The highest UVBE irradiance values, in particular conditions of sun elevation and ground cover, were reached in periods different from the summer both in full sun and shaded condition.

Monitoring and Assessment of Military Installation Land Condition under Training Disturbance Using Remote Sensing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rijal, Santosh

Various military training activities are conducted in more than 11.3 million hectares of land (> 5,500 training sites) in the United States (U.S.). These training activities directly and indirectly degrade the land. Land degradation can impede continuous military training. In order to sustain long term training missions and Army combat readiness, the environmental conditions of the military installations need to be carefully monitored and assessed. Furthermore, the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) and the U.S. Army Regulation 200-2 require the DoD to minimize the environmental impacts of training and document the environmental consequences of their actions. To achieve these objectives, the Department of Army initiated an Integrated Training Area Management (ITAM) program to manage training lands through assessing their environmental requirements and establishing policies and procedures to achieve optimum, sustainable use of training lands. One of the programs under ITAM, Range and Training Land Assessment (RTLA) was established to collect field-based data for monitoring installation's environmental condition. Due to high cost and inefficiencies involved in the collection of field data, the RTLA program was stopped in several military installations. Therefore, there has been a strong need to develop an efficient and low cost remote sensing based methodology for assessing and monitoring land conditions of military installations. It is also important to make a long-term assessment of installation land condition for understanding cumulative impacts of continuous military training activities. Additionally, it is unclear that compared to non-military land condition, to what extent military training activities have led to the degradation of land condition for military installations. The first paper of this dissertation developed a soil erosion relevant and image derived cover factor (ICF) based on linear spectral mixture (LSM) analysis to assess and monitor the land condition of military land and compare it with non-military land. The results from this study can provide FR land managers with the information of the spatial variation and temporal trend of land condition in FR. Fort Riley land managers can also use this method for monitoring their land condition at a very low cost. This method can thus be applied to other military installations as well as non-military lands. Furthermore, one of the most significant environmental problems in military installations of the U.S. is the formation of gullies due to the intensive use of military vehicle. However, to our knowledge, no remote sensing based method has been developed and used to assess the detection of gullies in military installations. In the second paper of this dissertation, light detection and ranging (LiDAR) derived digital elevation model (DEM) of 2010 and WorldView-2 images of 2010 were used to quantify the gullies in FR. This method can be easily applied to assess gullies in non-military installations. On the other hand, modeling the land condition of military installation is critical to understand the spatial and temporal pattern of military training induced disturbance and land recovery. In the third paper, it was assumed that the military training induced disturbance was spatially auto-correlated and thus four regression models including i) linear stepwise regression (LSR) ii) logistic regression (LR), iii) geographically weighted linear regression (GWR), and iv) geographically weighted logistic regression (GWLR) were developed and compared using remote sensing image derived spectral variables for years 1990, 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2001. It was found that the spatial distribution of the military training disturbance was well demonstrated by all the regression models with higher intensities of military training disturbance in the northwest and central west parts of the installation. Compared to other regression models, GWR accurately estimated the land condition of FR. This result provided the applicability of using local variability based regression model to accurately predict land condition. Different plant communities of military installations respond differently to military training induced disturbance. The information of the spatial distribution of plant species in military installations is important to gain insight of the resilient capacity of the land following disturbances. For the purpose, in the fourth paper, hyperspectral in-situ data were collected from FR and KPBS in the summer of 2015 using a hyperspectral instrument. Principal component analysis (PCA) and band relative importance (BRI) were used to identify relative importance of each of the spectral bands. The results from this study provided useful information about the optimal wavelengths that help distinguish different plant species of FR and can be easily used with high resolution hyperspectral images for mapping the spatial distribution of the plant species. This information will be helpful for the sustainable management of the tallgrass prairie ecosystem. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.).

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

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

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

2013-05-01

Groundwater contaminated with nitrate poses a serious health risk to infants when this contaminated water is used for culinary purposes. To avoid this health risk, people need to know whether their culinary water is contaminated or not. Therefore, there is a need to design an effective groundwater monitoring network, acquire information on groundwater conditions, and use acquired information to inform management options. These actions require time, money, and effort. This paper presents a method to estimate the value of information (VOI) provided by a groundwater quality monitoring network located in an aquifer whose water poses a spatially heterogeneous and uncertain health risk. A decision tree model describes the structure of the decision alternatives facing the decision-maker and the expected outcomes from these alternatives. The alternatives include (i) ignore the health risk of nitrate-contaminated water, (ii) switch to alternative water sources such as bottled water, or (iii) implement a previously designed groundwater quality monitoring network that takes into account uncertainties in aquifer properties, contaminant transport processes, and climate (Khader, 2012). The VOI is estimated as the difference between the expected costs of implementing the monitoring network and the lowest-cost uninformed alternative. We illustrate the method for the Eocene Aquifer, West Bank, Palestine, where methemoglobinemia (blue baby syndrome) is the main health problem associated with the principal contaminant nitrate. The expected cost of each alternative is estimated as the weighted sum of the costs and probabilities (likelihoods) associated with the uncertain outcomes resulting from the alternative. Uncertain outcomes include actual nitrate concentrations in the aquifer, concentrations reported by the monitoring system, whether people abide by manager recommendations to use/not use aquifer water, and whether people get sick from drinking contaminated water. Outcome costs include healthcare for methemoglobinemia, purchase of bottled water, and installation and maintenance of the groundwater monitoring system. At current methemoglobinemia and bottled water costs of 150/person and 0.6/baby/day, the decision tree results show that the expected cost of establishing the proposed groundwater quality monitoring network exceeds the expected costs of the uninformed alternatives and there is no value to the information the monitoring system provides. However, the monitoring system will be preferred to ignoring the health risk or using alternative sources if the methemoglobinemia cost rises to 300/person or the bottled water cost increases to 2.3/baby/day. Similarly, the monitoring system has value if the system can more accurately report actual aquifer concentrations and the public more fully abides by manager recommendations to use/not use the aquifer. The system also has value if it will serve a larger population or if its installation costs can be reduced, for example using a smaller number of monitoring wells. The VOI analysis shows how monitoring system design, accuracy, installation and operating costs, public awareness of health risks, costs of alternatives, and demographics together affect the value of implementing a system to monitor groundwater quality.

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

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

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

2012-12-01

Nitrate pollution poses a health risk for infants whose freshwater drinking source is groundwater. This risk creates a need to design an effective groundwater monitoring network, acquire information on groundwater conditions, and use acquired information to inform management. These actions require time, money, and effort. This paper presents a method to estimate the value of information (VOI) provided by a groundwater quality monitoring network located in an aquifer whose water poses a spatially heterogeneous and uncertain health risk. A decision tree model describes the structure of the decision alternatives facing the decision maker and the expected outcomes from these alternatives. The alternatives include: (i) ignore the health risk of nitrate contaminated water, (ii) switch to alternative water sources such as bottled water, or (iii) implement a previously designed groundwater quality monitoring network that takes into account uncertainties in aquifer properties, pollution transport processes, and climate (Khader and McKee, 2012). The VOI is estimated as the difference between the expected costs of implementing the monitoring network and the lowest-cost uninformed alternative. We illustrate the method for the Eocene Aquifer, West Bank, Palestine where methemoglobinemia is the main health problem associated with the principal pollutant nitrate. The expected cost of each alternative is estimated as the weighted sum of the costs and probabilities (likelihoods) associated with the uncertain outcomes resulting from the alternative. Uncertain outcomes include actual nitrate concentrations in the aquifer, concentrations reported by the monitoring system, whether people abide by manager recommendations to use/not-use aquifer water, and whether people get sick from drinking contaminated water. Outcome costs include healthcare for methemoglobinemia, purchase of bottled water, and installation and maintenance of the groundwater monitoring system. At current methemoglobinemia and bottled water costs of 150 $/person and 0.6 $/baby/day, the decision tree results show that the expected cost of establishing the proposed groundwater quality monitoring network exceeds the expected costs of the uninformed alternatives and there is not value to the information the monitoring system provides. However, the monitoring system will be preferred to ignoring the health risk or using alternative sources if the methemoglobinemia cost rises to 300 $/person or the bottled water cost increases to 2.3 $/baby/day. Similarly, the monitoring system has value if the system can more accurately report actual aquifer concentrations and the public more fully abides by managers' recommendations to use/not use the aquifer. The system also has value if it will serve a larger population or if its installation costs can be reduced, for example using a smaller number of monitoring wells. The VOI analysis shows how monitoring system design, accuracy, installation and operating costs, public awareness of health risks, costs of alternatives, and demographics together affect the value of implementing a system to monitor groundwater quality.

Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site Ecological Monitoring Program 1995 annual report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

NONE

1995-05-31

The Ecological Monitoring Program (ECMP) was established at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (Site) in September 1992. At that time, EcMP staff developed a Program Plan that was peer-reviewed by scientists from western universities before submittal to DOE RFFO in January 1993. The intent of the program is to measure several quantitative variables at different ecological scales in order to characterize the Rocky Flats ecosystem. This information is necessary to document ecological conditions at the Site in impacted and nonimpacted areas to determine if Site practices have had ecological impacts, either positive or negative. This information can be usedmore » by managers interested in future use scenarios and CERCLA activities. Others interested in impact analysis may also find the information useful. In addition, these measurements are entered into a database which will serve as a long-term information repository that will document long-term trends and potential future changes to the Site, both natural and anthropogenic.« less

Stimulus onset predictability modulates proactive action control in a Go/No-go task

PubMed Central

Berchicci, Marika; Lucci, Giuliana; Spinelli, Donatella; Di Russo, Francesco

2015-01-01

The aim of the study was to evaluate whether the presence/absence of visual cues specifying the onset of an upcoming, action-related stimulus modulates pre-stimulus brain activity, associated with the proactive control of goal-directed actions. To this aim we asked 12 subjects to perform an equal probability Go/No-go task with four stimulus configurations in two conditions: (1) uncued, i.e., without any external information about the timing of stimulus onset; and (2) cued, i.e., with external visual cues providing precise information about the timing of stimulus onset. During task both behavioral performance and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Behavioral results showed faster response times in the cued than uncued condition, confirming existing literature. ERPs showed novel results in the proactive control stage, that started about 1 s before the motor response. We observed a slow rising prefrontal positive activity, more pronounced in the cued than the uncued condition. Further, also pre-stimulus activity of premotor areas was larger in cued than uncued condition. In the post-stimulus period, the P3 amplitude was enhanced when the time of stimulus onset was externally driven, confirming that external cueing enhances processing of stimulus evaluation and response monitoring. Our results suggest that different pre-stimulus processing come into play in the two conditions. We hypothesize that the large prefrontal and premotor activities recorded with external visual cues index the monitoring of the external stimuli in order to finely regulate the action. PMID:25964751

Oceanic Whitecaps and Associated, Bubble-Mediated, Air-Sea Exchange Processes

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-10-01

experiments performed in laboratory conditions using Air-Sea Exchange Monitoring System (A-SEMS). EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP In a first look, the Air-Sea Exchange...Model 225, equipped with a Model 519 plug-in module. Other complementary information on A-SEMS along with results from first tests and calibration...between 9.50C and 22.40C within the first 24 hours after transferring the water sample into laboratory conditions. The results show an enhancement of

In the loop: Practices of self-monitoring from accounts by trial participants

PubMed Central

Lynch, Rebecca; Cohn, Simon

2015-01-01

Self-monitoring, by which individuals record and appraise ongoing information about the status of their body in order to improve their health, has been a key element in the personal management of conditions such as diabetes, but it is now also increasingly used in relation to health-associated behaviours. The introduction of self-monitoring as an intervention to change behaviour is intended to provide feedback that can be used by individuals to both assess their status and provide ongoing support towards a goal that may be formally set or remains implicit. However, little attention has been paid to how individuals actually engage in the process or act upon the information they receive. This article addresses this by exploring how participants in a particular trial (‘Get Moving’) experienced the process and nature of feedback. Although the trial aimed to compare the potential efficacy of three different monitoring activities designed to encourage greater physical activity, participants did not present distinctly different accounts of each intervention and the specifics of the feedback provided. Instead, their accounts took the form of much more extended and personal narratives that included other people and features of the environment. We draw on these broader descriptions to problematise the notion of self-monitoring and conclude that self-monitoring is neither solely about ‘self’ nor is it exclusively about ‘monitoring’. We suggest that a more expansive social and material understanding of feedback can give insight into the ways information is made active and meaningful for individuals in their everyday contexts. PMID:26466601

Attention to Physical Activity-Equivalent Calorie Information on Nutrition Facts Labels: An Eye-Tracking Investigation.

PubMed

Wolfson, Julia A; Graham, Dan J; Bleich, Sara N

2017-01-01

Investigate attention to Nutrition Facts Labels (NFLs) with numeric only vs both numeric and activity-equivalent calorie information, and attitudes toward activity-equivalent calories. An eye-tracking camera monitored participants' viewing of NFLs for 64 packaged foods with either standard NFLs or modified NFLs. Participants self-reported demographic information and diet-related attitudes and behaviors. Participants came to the Behavioral Medicine Lab at Colorado State University in spring, 2015. The researchers randomized 234 participants to view NFLs with numeric calorie information only (n = 108) or numeric and activity-equivalent calorie information (n = 126). Attention to and attitudes about activity-equivalent calorie information. Differences by experimental condition and weight loss intention (overall and within experimental condition) were assessed using t tests and Pearson's chi-square tests of independence. Overall, participants viewed numeric calorie information on 20% of NFLs for 249 ms. Participants in the modified NFL condition viewed activity-equivalent information on 17% of NFLs for 231 ms. Most participants indicated that activity-equivalent calorie information would help them decide whether to eat a food (69%) and that they preferred both numeric and activity-equivalent calorie information on NFLs (70%). Participants used activity-equivalent calorie information on NFLs and found this information helpful for making food decisions. Copyright © 2016 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Theft of information in the take-grant protection model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bishop, Matt

1989-01-01

Questions of information flow are in many ways more important than questions of access control, because the goal of many security policies is to thwart the unauthorized release of information, not merely the illicit obtaining of access rights to that information. The Take-Grant Protection Model is a theoretical tool for examining such issues because conditions necessary and sufficient for information to flow between two objects, and for rights to objects to be obtained or stolen, are known. These results are extended by examining the question of information flow from an object the owner of which is unwilling to release that information. Necessary and sufficient conditions for such theft of information to occur are derived, and bounds on the number of subjects that must take action for the theft to occur are presented. To emphasize the usefulness of these results, the security policies of complete isolation, transfer of rights with the cooperation of an owner, and transfer of information (but not rights) with the cooperation of the owner are presented; the last is used to model a simple reference monitor guarding a resource.

2011 Annual Industrial Wastewater Reuse Report for the Idaho National Laboratory Site's Materials and Fuels Complex Industrial Waste Ditch and Industrial Waste Pond

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

David Frederick

2012-02-01

This report describes conditions, as required by the state of Idaho Industrial Wastewater Reuse Permit (LA-000160-01), for the wastewater reuse site at the Idaho National Laboratory Site's Materials and Fuels Complex Industrial Waste Ditch and Industrial Waste Pond from November 1, 2010 through October 31, 2011. The report contains the following information: (1) Facility and system description; (2) Permit required effluent monitoring data and loading rates; (3) Groundwater monitoring data; (4) Status of special compliance conditions; and (5) Discussion of the facility's environmental impacts. During the 2011 reporting year, an estimated 6.99 million gallons of wastewater were discharged to themore » Industrial Waste Ditch and Pond which is well below the permit limit of 13 million gallons per year. Using the dissolved iron data, the concentrations of all permit-required analytes in the samples from the down gradient monitoring wells were below the Ground Water Quality Rule Primary and Secondary Constituent Standards.« less

2010 Annual Industrial Wastewater Reuse Report for the Idaho National Laboratory Site's Materials and Fuels Complex Industrial Waste Ditch and Industrial Waste Pond

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

David B. Frederick

2011-02-01

This report describes conditions, as required by the state of Idaho Industrial Wastewater Reuse Permit (#LA 000160 01), for the wastewater reuse site at the Idaho National Laboratory Site’s Materials and Fuels Complex Industrial Waste Ditch and Industrial Waste Pond from May 1, 2010 through October 31, 2010. The report contains the following information: • Facility and system description • Permit required effluent monitoring data and loading rates • Groundwater monitoring data • Status of special compliance conditions • Discussion of the facility’s environmental impacts During the 2010 partial reporting year, an estimated 3.646 million gallons of wastewater were dischargedmore » to the Industrial Waste Ditch and Pond which is well below the permit limit of 13 million gallons per year. The concentrations of all permit-required analytes in the samples from the down gradient monitoring wells were below the Ground Water Quality Rule Primary and Secondary Constituent Standards.« less

Physical integrity: the missing link in biological monitoring and TMDLs.

PubMed

Asmus, Brenda; Magner, Joseph A; Vondracek, Bruce; Perry, Jim

2009-12-01

The Clean Water Act mandates that the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of our nation's waters be maintained and restored. Physical integrity has often been defined as physical habitat integrity, and as such, data collected during biological monitoring programs focus primarily on habitat quality. However, we argue that channel stability is a more appropriate measure of physical integrity and that channel stability is a foundational element of physical habitat integrity in low-gradient alluvial streams. We highlight assessment tools that could supplement stream assessments and the Total Maximum Daily Load stressor identification process: field surveys of bankfull cross-sections; longitudinal thalweg profiles; particle size distribution; and regionally calibrated, visual, stream stability assessments. Benefits of measuring channel stability include a more informed selection of reference or best attainable stream condition for an Index of Biotic Integrity, establishment of a baseline for monitoring changes in present and future condition, and indication of channel stability for investigations of chemical and biological impairments associated with sediment discontinuity and loss of habitat quality.

Continuous whole-system monitoring toward rapid understanding of production HPC applications and systems

DOE PAGES

Agelastos, Anthony; Allan, Benjamin; Brandt, Jim; ...

2016-05-18

A detailed understanding of HPC applications’ resource needs and their complex interactions with each other and HPC platform resources are critical to achieving scalability and performance. Such understanding has been difficult to achieve because typical application profiling tools do not capture the behaviors of codes under the potentially wide spectrum of actual production conditions and because typical monitoring tools do not capture system resource usage information with high enough fidelity to gain sufficient insight into application performance and demands. In this paper we present both system and application profiling results based on data obtained through synchronized system wide monitoring onmore » a production HPC cluster at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). We demonstrate analytic and visualization techniques that we are using to characterize application and system resource usage under production conditions for better understanding of application resource needs. Furthermore, our goals are to improve application performance (through understanding application-to-resource mapping and system throughput) and to ensure that future system capabilities match their intended workloads.« less

Linking physical monitoring to coho and Chinook salmon populations in the Redwood Creek Watershed, California—Summary of May 3–4, 2012 Workshop

USGS Publications Warehouse

Madej, Mary Ann; Torregrosa, Alicia; Woodward, Andrea

2012-01-01

On Thursday, May 3, 2012, a science workshop was held at the Redwood National and State Parks (RNSP) office in Arcata, California, with researchers and resource managers working in RNSP to share data and expert opinions concerning salmon populations and habitat in the Redwood Creek watershed. The focus of the workshop was to discuss how best to synthesize physical and biological data related to the freshwater and estuarine phases of salmon life cycles in order to increase the understanding of constraints on salmon populations. The workshop was hosted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Status and Trends (S&T) Program National Park Monitoring Project (http://www.fort.usgs.gov/brdscience/ParkMonitoring.htm), which supports USGS research on priority topics (themes) identified by the National Park Service (NPS) Inventory and Monitoring Program (I&M) and S&T. The NPS has organized more than 270 parks with significant natural resources into 32 Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) Networks (http://science.nature.nps.gov/im/networks.cfm) that share funding and core professional staff to monitor the status and long-term trends of selected natural resources (http://science.nature.nps.gov/im/monitor). All 32 networks have completed vital signs monitoring plans (available at http://science.nature.nps.gov/im/monitor/MonitoringPlans.cfm), containing background information on the important resources of each park, conceptual models behind the selection of vital signs for monitoring the condition of natural resources, and the selection of high priority vital signs for monitoring. Vital signs are particular physical, chemical, and biological elements and processes of park ecosystems that represent the overall health or condition of the park, known or hypothesized effects of stressors, or elements that have important human values (Fancy and others, 2009). Beginning in 2009, the I&M program funded projects to analyze and synthesize the biotic and abiotic data generated by vital signs monitoring and previous in-park natural resource monitoring and inventories to provide useful information, models, and tools to park managers for addressing resource management issues. The workshop described in this report is an element of the project funded by USGS NPS-I&M program to conduct a synthesis of salmon-related datasets in the Klamath (KLMN) and San Francisco Bay Area (SFAN) networks of national parks. The synthesis focused on four park units: Redwood National Park (KLMN), Point Reyes National Seashore, Muir Woods National Monument, and Golden Gate National Recreation Area (SFAN).

Hierarchical Satellite-based Approach to Global Monitoring of Crop Condition and Food Production

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheng, Y.; Wu, B.; Gommes, R.; Zhang, M.; Zhang, N.; Zeng, H.; Zou, W.; Yan, N.

2014-12-01

The assessment of global food security goes beyond the mere estimate of crop production: It needs to take into account the spatial and temporal patterns of food availability, as well as physical and economic access. Accurate and timely information is essential to both food producers and consumers. Taking advantage of multiple new remote sensing data sources, especially from Chinese satellites, such as FY-2/3A, HJ-1 CCD, CropWatch has expanded the scope of its international analyses through the development of new indicators and an upgraded operational methodology. The new monitoring approach adopts a hierarchical system covering four spatial levels of detail: global (sixty-five Monitoring and Reporting Units, MRU), seven major production zones (MPZ), thirty-one key countries (including China) and "sub- countries." The thirty-one countries encompass more that 80% of both global exports and production of four major crops (maize, rice, soybean and wheat). The methodology resorts to climatic and remote sensing indicators at different scales, using the integrated information to assess global, regional, and national (as well as sub-national) crop environmental condition, crop condition, drought, production, and agricultural trends. The climatic indicators for rainfall, temperature, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) as well as potential biomass are first analysed at global scale to describe overall crop growing conditions. At MPZ scale, the key indicators pay more attention to crops and include Vegetation health index (VHI), Vegetation condition index (VCI), Cropped arable land fraction (CALF) as well as Cropping intensity (CI). Together, they characterise agricultural patterns, farming intensity and stress. CropWatch carries out detailed crop condition analyses for thirty one individual countries at the national scale with a comprehensive array of variables and indicators. The Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), cropped areas and crop condition are associated to derive food production estimates. Based on trends analysis, CropWatch also issues crop production supply outlooks, covering both long-term variations and short-term dynamic changes in key food exporters and importers. CropWatch bulletin can be downloaded from the CropWatch website at http://www.cropwatch.com.cn.

Prototype of a wearable system for remote fetal monitoring during pregnancy.

PubMed

Fanelli, Andrea; Ferrario, Manuela; Piccini, Luca; Andreoni, Giuseppe; Matrone, Giulia; Magenes, Giovanni; Signorini, Maria G

2010-01-01

Fetal Heart Rate (FHR) monitoring gives important information about the fetus health state during pregnancy. This paper presents a new prototype for remote fetal monitoring. The device will allow to monitor FHR in a domiciliary context and to send fetal ECG traces to a hospital facility, where clinicians can interpret them. In this way the mother could receive prompt feedback about fetal wellbeing. The system is characterized by two units: (i) a wearable unit endowed with textile electrodes for abdominal ECG recordings and with a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) board for fetal heart rate (FHR) extraction; (ii) a dock station for the transmission of the data through the telephone line. The system will allow to reduce costs in fetal monitoring, improving the assessment of fetal conditions. The device is actually in development state. In this paper, the most crucial aspects behind its fulfillment are discussed.

Methylxanthine Drug Monitoring with Wearable Sweat Sensors.

PubMed

Tai, Li-Chia; Gao, Wei; Chao, Minghan; Bariya, Mallika; Ngo, Quynh P; Shahpar, Ziba; Nyein, Hnin Y Y; Park, Hyejin; Sun, Junfeng; Jung, Younsu; Wu, Eric; Fahad, Hossain M; Lien, Der-Hsien; Ota, Hiroki; Cho, Gyoujin; Javey, Ali

2018-06-01

Drug monitoring plays crucial roles in doping control and precision medicine. It helps physicians tailor drug dosage for optimal benefits, track patients' compliance to prescriptions, and understand the complex pharmacokinetics of drugs. Conventional drug tests rely on invasive blood draws. While urine and sweat are attractive alternative biofluids, the state-of-the-art methods require separate sample collection and processing steps and fail to provide real-time information. Here, a wearable platform equipped with an electrochemical differential pulse voltammetry sensing module for drug monitoring is presented. A methylxanthine drug, caffeine, is selected to demonstrate the platform's functionalities. Sweat caffeine levels are monitored under various conditions, such as drug doses and measurement time after drug intake. Elevated sweat caffeine levels upon increasing dosage and confirmable caffeine physiological trends are observed. This work leverages a wearable sweat sensing platform toward noninvasive and continuous point-of-care drug monitoring and management. © 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

QRAC-the-Code: a comprehension monitoring strategy for middle school social studies textbooks.

PubMed

Berkeley, Sheri; Riccomini, Paul J

2013-01-01

Requirements for reading and ascertaining information from text increase as students advance through the educational system, especially in content-rich classes; hence, monitoring comprehension is especially important. However, this is a particularly challenging skill for many students who struggle with reading comprehension, including students with learning disabilities. A randomized pre-post experimental design was employed to investigate the effectiveness of a comprehension monitoring strategy (QRAC-the-Code) for improving the reading comprehension of 323 students in grades 6 and 7 in inclusive social studies classes. Findings indicated that both general education students and students with learning disabilities who were taught a simple comprehension monitoring strategy improved their comprehension of textbook content compared to students who read independently and noted important points. In addition, students in the comprehension monitoring condition reported using more reading strategies after the intervention. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Site Location Details, Air Pollution Monitoring Equipment Used, Aircraft Flight Path Information, and Deployment Configuration for the DISCOVER-AQ (Deriving Information on Surface Conditions from COlumn and VERtically Resolved Observations Relevant to Air Quality) Field Campaign in Colorado: Summer 2014

EPA Science Inventory

For EPA, this Summer 2014, Denver CO, DISCOVER-AQ field research activity focused on assessing Federal Reference Methods (FRMs) and Federal Equivalent Methods (FEMs) for ozone (O3) and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), while comparing their operational performance to each other and to smal...

Integration and Assessment of Component Health Prognostics in Supervisory Control Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ramuhalli, Pradeep; Bonebrake, Christopher A.; Dib, Gerges

Enhanced risk monitors (ERMs) for active components in advanced reactor concepts use predictive estimates of component failure to update, in real time, predictive safety and economic risk metrics. These metrics have been shown to be capable of use in optimizing maintenance scheduling and managing plant maintenance costs. Integrating this information with plant supervisory control systems increases the potential for making control decisions that utilize real-time information on component conditions. Such decision making would limit the possibility of plant operations that increase the likelihood of degrading the functionality of one or more components while maintaining the overall functionality of the plant.more » ERM uses sensor data for providing real-time information about equipment condition for deriving risk monitors. This information is used to estimate the remaining useful life and probability of failure of these components. By combining this information with plant probabilistic risk assessment models, predictive estimates of risk posed by continued plant operation in the presence of detected degradation may be estimated. In this paper, we describe this methodology in greater detail, and discuss its integration with a prototypic software-based plant supervisory control platform. In order to integrate these two technologies and evaluate the integrated system, software to simulate the sensor data was developed, prognostic models for feedwater valves were developed, and several use cases defined. The full paper will describe these use cases, and the results of the initial evaluation.« less

Method and system for monitoring and displaying engine performance parameters

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abbott, Terence S. (Inventor); Person, Lee H., Jr. (Inventor)

1988-01-01

The invention is believed a major improvement that will have a broad application in governmental and commercial aviation. It provides a dynamic method and system for monitoring and simultaneously displaying in easily scanned form the available, predicted, and actual thrust of a jet aircraft engine under actual operating conditions. The available and predicted thrusts are based on the performance of a functional model of the aircraft engine under the same operating conditions. Other critical performance parameters of the aircraft engine and functional model are generated and compared, the differences in value being simultaneously displayed in conjunction with the displayed thrust values. Thus, the displayed information permits the pilot to make power adjustments directly while keeping him aware of total performance at a glance of a single display panel.

Empowered citizen 'health hackers' who are not waiting.

PubMed

Omer, Timothy

2016-08-17

Due to the easier access to information, the availability of low cost technologies and the involvement of well educated, passionate patients, a group of citizen 'Health Hackers', who are building their own medical systems to help them overcome the unmet needs of their conditions, is emerging. This has recently been the case in the type 1 diabetes community, under the movement #WeAreNotWaiting, with innovative use of current medical devices hacked to access data and Open-Source code producing solutions ranging from remote monitoring of diabetic children to producing an Artificial Pancreas System to automate the management and monitoring of a patient's condition. Timothy Omer is working with the community to utilise the technology already in his pocket to build a mobile- and smartwatch-based Artificial Pancreas System.

Data Mining and Optimization Tools for Developing Engine Parameters Tools

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dhawan, Atam P.

1998-01-01

This project was awarded for understanding the problem and developing a plan for Data Mining tools for use in designing and implementing an Engine Condition Monitoring System. Tricia Erhardt and I studied the problem domain for developing an Engine Condition Monitoring system using the sparse and non-standardized datasets to be available through a consortium at NASA Lewis Research Center. We visited NASA three times to discuss additional issues related to dataset which was not made available to us. We discussed and developed a general framework of data mining and optimization tools to extract useful information from sparse and non-standard datasets. These discussions lead to the training of Tricia Erhardt to develop Genetic Algorithm based search programs which were written in C++ and used to demonstrate the capability of GA algorithm in searching an optimal solution in noisy, datasets. From the study and discussion with NASA LeRC personnel, we then prepared a proposal, which is being submitted to NASA for future work for the development of data mining algorithms for engine conditional monitoring. The proposed set of algorithm uses wavelet processing for creating multi-resolution pyramid of tile data for GA based multi-resolution optimal search.

Wireless modification of the intraoperative examination monitor for awake surgery.

PubMed

Yoshimitsu, Kitaro; Maruyama, Takashi; Muragaki, Yoshihiro; Suzuki, Takashi; Saito, Taiichi; Nitta, Masayuki; Tanaka, Masahiko; Chernov, Mikhail; Tamura, Manabu; Ikuta, Soko; Okamoto, Jun; Okada, Yoshikazu; Iseki, Hiroshi

2011-01-01

The dedicated intraoperative examination monitor for awake surgery (IEMAS) was originally developed by us to facilitate the process of brain mapping during awake craniotomy and successfully used in 186 neurosurgical procedures. This information-sharing device provides the opportunity for all members of the surgical team to visualize a wide spectrum of the integrated intraoperative information related to the condition of the patient, nuances of the surgical procedure, and details of the cortical mapping, practically without interruption of the surgical manipulations. The wide set of both anatomical and functional parameters, such as view of the patient's mimic and face movements while answering the specific questions, type of the examination test, position of the surgical instruments, parameters of the bispectral index monitor, and general view of the surgical field through the operating microscope, is presented compactly in one screen with several displays. However, the initially designed IEMAS system was occasionally affected by interruption or detachment of the connecting cables, which sometimes interfered with its effective clinical use. Therefore, a new modification of the device was developed. The specific feature is installation of wireless information transmitting technology using audio-visual transmitters and receivers for transfer of images and verbal information. The modified IEMAS system is very convenient to use in the narrow space of the operating room.

Linking Ecosystem Condition to Goods and Services: Monitoring to Inform the Science and Vision of Gulf Coast Restoration

EPA Science Inventory

The natural resources of the Gulf’s coastal and marine habitats and the services they provide are essential to the regional economy and provide 17% of the Nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). Restoring these natural resources, goods and services will be important t...

77 FR 37678 - Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Application From American Association for Accreditation of...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-06-22

... pertaining to activities relating to the survey and certification of facilities are at 42 CFR part 488. The...; resources for conducting required surveys; capacity to furnish information for use in enforcement activities; monitoring procedures for provider entities found not in compliance with the conditions or requirements; and...

77 FR 31362 - Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Application From the Community Health Accreditation Program for...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-05-25

.... Regulations concerning provider agreements are at 42 CFR part 489 and those pertaining to activities relating...; resources for conducting required surveys; capacity to furnish information for use in enforcement activities; monitoring procedures for provider entities found not in compliance with the conditions or requirements; and...

Bird Communities of Southern Forests

Treesearch

William C. Hunter; James G. Dickson; David N. Pashley; Paul B. Hamel

2002-01-01

Birds constitute a high-profile group of species that attract a great deal of attention as watchable wildlife. Also, birds are important as indicators of habitat conditions and environmental health. Compared to other groups of animals and plants, birds are relatively conspicuous and can be easily monitored. Available information on bird ecology is substantial, but...

Chapter 1. Overview

Treesearch

Mary M. Rowland; Greg Kujawa; Bryce Rickel; Christina D. Vojta

2013-01-01

Information about status and trend of wildlife habitat is important for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service to accomplish its mission and meet its legal requirements. As the steward of 193 million acres (ac) of Federal land, the Forest Service needs to evaluate the status of wildlife habitat and how it compares with desired conditions. Habitat monitoring...

Achievement Information Monitoring in Schools (AIMS): Larger Straws in the Winds of Change. Professional Paper 36.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Follettie, Joseph F.

The Southwest Regional Laboratory for Educational Research and Development (SWRL) is dedicated to the belief that individual differences among students do not stand in the way of universal quality instructional achievement in the nation's schools. Important steps towards the condition of universal instructionalized achievement are: (1) the…

76 FR 53129 - Proposed Agency Information Collection Activities; Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-08-25

... shareholders. The Federal Reserve uses the data to monitor holding company operations and determine holding... continuing source of strength to its U.S. operations and to determine compliance with U.S. laws and... to analyze a BHC's overall financial condition to ensure safe and sound operations. The FR Y-9C...

77 FR 3793 - Certain Liquid Crystal Display Devices, Including Monitors, Televisions, and Modules, and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-01-25

... infringing inventory. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: James R. Holbein, Secretary to the Commission, U.S... if the Commission finds a violation it shall exclude the articles concerned from the United States... conditions in the United States economy, the production of like or directly competitive articles in the...

An efficient estimator to monitor rapidly changing forest conditions

Treesearch

Raymond L. Czaplewski; Michael T. Thompson; Gretchen G. Moisen

2012-01-01

Extensive expanses of forest often change at a slow pace. In this common situation, FIA produces informative estimates of current status with the Moving Average (MA) method and post-stratification with a remotely sensed map of forest-nonforest cover. However, MA "smoothes out" estimates over time, which confounds analyses of temporal trends; and post-...

The Effect of Reading Upon Pupil Dilation. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carver, Ronald P.

The question of whether pupil diameter indicates information processing load during reading was investigated in three experiments involving 24 college students reading passages of varying difficulty. A TV camera and monitor, together with a video-recorder, were used to measure the diameter of the pupil under a reading condition and under three…

75 FR 51242 - Fisheries of the South Atlantic; Southeast Data, Assessment, and Review (SEDAR); Public Meeting

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-08-19

... benchmarks, projects future population conditions, and recommends research and monitoring needs. Participants....--4 p.m. Assessment panelists will discuss data inputs to the stock assessment model and make recommendations for additional years of data to be updated in the model. New information on black sea bass life...

Wilderness visitors and recreation impacts: baseline data available for twentieth century conditions

Treesearch

David N. Cole; Vita Wright

2003-01-01

This report provides an assessment and compilation of recreation-related monitoring data sources across the National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS). Telephone interviews with managers of all units of the NWPS and a literature search were conducted to locate studies that provide campsite impact data, trail impact data, and information about visitor...

When and where in aging: the role of music on source monitoring.

PubMed

Palumbo, Rocco; Mammarella, Nicola; Di Domenico, Alberto; Fairfield, Beth

2018-06-01

Difficulties in source monitoring (SM) tasks observed in healthy older adults may be linked to associative memory deficits since SM requires individuals to correctly bind and later remember these bound features to discriminate the origin of a memory. Therefore, focusing attention on discriminating factors that may attenuate older adults' difficulties in attributing contextual information to memories is necessary. We investigated the effect of affective information on source monitoring in younger and older adults by manipulating the type of affective information (pictures and music) and assessing the ability to remember spatial and temporal source details for affective pictures encoded while listening to classical music. Older and younger adults viewed a series of affective IAPS pictures presented on the left or right side of the computer screen in two different lists. At test, participants were asked to remember if the picture was seen (right/left), in which list (list1/list2) or whether it was new. Results showed that spatial information was attributed better than temporal information and emotional pictures were attributed better than neutral pictures in both younger and older adults. In addition, although music significantly increased source memory performance in both younger and older participants compared to the white noise condition, the pleasantness of music differentially affected memory for source details. The authors discuss findings in terms of an interaction between music, emotion and cognition in aging.

Public Participation, Education, and Engagement in Drought Planning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bathke, D. J.; Wall, N.; Haigh, T.; Smith, K. H.; Bernadt, T.

2014-12-01

Drought is a complex problem that typically goes beyond the capacity, resources, and jurisdiction of any single person, program, organization, political boundary, or sector. Thus, by nature, monitoring, planning for, and reducing drought risk must be a collaborative process. The National Drought Mitigation Center, in partnership with the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) Program Office and others, provides active engagement and education drought professionals, stakeholders, and the general public about managing drought-related risks through resilience planning, monitoring, and education. Using case studies, we discuss recruitment processes, network building, participation techniques, and educational methods as they pertain to a variety of unique audiences with distinct objectives. Examples include collaborative decision-making at a World Meteorological Organization conference; planning, and peer-learning among drought professionals in a community of practice; drought condition monitoring through citizen science networks; research and education dissemination with stakeholder groups; and informal learning activities for all ages. Finally, we conclude with evaluation methods, indicators of success, and lessons learned for increasing the effectiveness of our programs in increasing drought resilience.

Control and monitoring method and system for electromagnetic forming process

DOEpatents

Kunerth, Dennis C.; Lassahn, Gordon D.

1990-01-01

A process, system, and improvement for a process for electromagnetic forming of a workpiece in which characteristics of the workpiece such as its geometry, electrical conductivity, quality, and magnetic permeability can be determined by monitoring the current and voltage in the workcoil. In an electromagnet forming process in which a power supply provides current to a workcoil and the electromagnetic field produced by the workcoil acts to form the workpiece, the dynamic interaction of the electromagnetic fields produced by the workcoil with the geometry, electrical conductivity, and magnetic permeability of the workpiece, provides information pertinent to the physical condition of the workpiece that is available for determination of quality and process control. This information can be obtained by deriving in real time the first several time derivatives of the current and voltage in the workcoil. In addition, the process can be extended by injecting test signals into the workcoil during the electromagnetic forming and monitoring the response to the test signals in the workcoil.

Thermal Analysis of the NASA Integrated Vehicle Health Monitoring Experiment Technology for X-Vehicles (NITEX)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hegab, Hisham E.

2002-01-01

The purpose of this project was to perform a thermal analysis for the NASA Integrated Vehicle Health Monitoring (IVHM) Technology Experiment for X-vehicles (NITEX). This electronics package monitors vehicle sensor information in flight and downlinks vehicle health summary information via telemetry. The experiment will be tested on the X-34 in an unpressurized compartment, in the vicinity of one of the vehicle's liquid oxygen tanks. The transient temperature profile for the electronics package has been determined using finite element analysis for possible mission profiles that will most likely expose the package to the most extreme hot and cold environmental conditions. From the analyses, it was determined that temperature limits for the electronics would be exceeded for the worst case cold environment mission profile. The finite element model used for the analyses was modified to examine the use of insulation to address this problem. Recommendations for insulating the experiment for the cold environment are presented, and were analyzed to determine their effect on a nominal mission profile.

Thermal Analysis Of The NASA Integrated Vehicle Health Monitoring Experiment Technology For X-Vehicles (NITEX)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hegab, Hisham E.

2001-01-01

The purpose of this project was to perform a thermal analysis for the NASA Integrated Vehicle Health Monitoring (IVHM) Technology Experiment for X-vehicles (NITEX). This electronics package monitors vehicle sensor information in flight and downlinks vehicle health summary information via telemetry. The experiment will be tested on the X-34 in an unpressurized compartment, in the vicinity of one of the vehicle's liquid oxygen tanks. The transient temperature profile for the electronics package has been determined using finite element analysis for possible mission profiles that will most likely expose the package to the most extreme hot and cold environmental conditions. From the analyses, it was determined that temperature limits for the electronics would be exceeded for the worst case cold environment mission profile. The finite element model used for the analyses was modified to examine the use of insulation to address this problem. Recommendations for insulating the experiment for the cold environment are presented, and were analyzed to determine their effect on a nominal mission profile.

Real-Time Mapping alert system; user's manual

USGS Publications Warehouse

Torres, L.A.

1996-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey has an extensive hydrologic network that records and transmits precipitation, stage, discharge, and other water- related data on a real-time basis to an automated data processing system. Data values are recorded on electronic data collection platforms at field monitoring sites. These values are transmitted by means of orbiting satellites to receiving ground stations, and by way of telecommunication lines to a U.S. Geological Survey office where they are processed on a computer system. Data that exceed predefined thresholds are identified as alert values. These alert values can help keep water- resource specialists informed of current hydrologic conditions. The current alert status at monitoring sites is of critical importance during floods, hurricanes, and other extreme hydrologic events where quick analysis of the situation is needed. This manual provides instructions for using the Real-Time Mapping software, a series of computer programs developed by the U.S. Geological Survey for quick analysis of hydrologic conditions, and guides users through a basic interactive session. The software provides interactive graphics display and query of real-time information in a map-based, menu-driven environment.

A strategy for monitoring and managing declines in an amphibian community.

PubMed

Grant, Evan H Campbell; Zipkin, Elise F; Nichols, James D; Campbell, J Patrick

2013-12-01

Although many taxa have declined globally, conservation actions are inherently local. Ecosystems degrade even in protected areas, and maintaining natural systems in a desired condition may require active management. Implementing management decisions under uncertainty requires a logical and transparent process to identify objectives, develop management actions, formulate system models to link actions with objectives, monitor to reduce uncertainty and identify system state (i.e., resource condition), and determine an optimal management strategy. We applied one such structured decision-making approach that incorporates these critical elements to inform management of amphibian populations in a protected area managed by the U.S. National Park Service. Climate change is expected to affect amphibian occupancy of wetlands and to increase uncertainty in management decision making. We used the tools of structured decision making to identify short-term management solutions that incorporate our current understanding of the effect of climate change on amphibians, emphasizing how management can be undertaken even with incomplete information. Estrategia para Monitorear y Manejar Disminuciones en una Comunidad de Anfibios. © 2013 Society for Conservation Biology.

Blue sensors : technology and cooperative monitoring in UN peacekeeping.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dorn, A. Walter Dr.

2004-04-01

For over a half-century, the soldiers and civilians deployed to conflict areas in UN peacekeeping operations have monitored ceasefires and peace agreements of many types with varying degrees of effectiveness. Though there has been a significant evolution of peacekeeping, especially in the 1990s, with many new monitoring functions, the UN has yet to incorporate monitoring technologies into its operations in a systematic fashion. Rather, the level of technology depends largely on the contributing nations and the individual field commanders. In most missions, sensor technology has not been used at all. So the UN has not been able to fully benefitmore » from the sensor technology revolution that has seen effectiveness greatly amplified and costs plummet. This paper argues that monitoring technologies need not replace the human factor, which is essential for confidence building in conflict areas, but they can make peacekeepers more effective, more knowledgeable and safer. Airborne, ground and underground sensors can allow peacekeepers to do better monitoring over larger areas, in rugged terrain, at night (when most infractions occur) and in adverse weather conditions. Technology also allows new ways to share gathered information with the parties to create confidence and, hence, better pre-conditions for peace. In the future sensors should become 'tools of the trade' to help the UN keep the peace in war-torn areas.« less

Analysis and Remediation of the 2013 LAC-MÉGANTIC Train Derailment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brunke, Suzanne; Aubé, Guy; Legaré, Serge; Auger, Claude

2016-06-01

On July 6, 2013 a train owned by Montréal, Maine & Atlantic Railway (MMA) Company derailed in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, Canada triggering the explosion of the tankers carrying crude oil. Several buildings in the downtown core were destroyed. The Sûreté du Québec confirmed the death of 47 people in the disaster. Through the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) Rapid Information Products and Services (RIPS) program, MDA developed value-added products that allowed stakeholders and all levels of government (municipal, provincial and federal) to get an accurate picture of the disaster. The goal of this RIPS Project was to identify the contribution that remote sensing technology can provide to disasters such as the train derailment and explosion at Lac-Mégantic through response and remediation monitoring. Through monitoring and analysis, the Lac-Mégantic train derailment response and remediation demonstrated how Earth observation data can be used for situational awareness in a disaster and in documenting the remediation process. Both high resolution optical and RADARSAT-2 SAR image products were acquired and analyzed over the disaster remediation period as each had a role in monitoring. High resolution optical imagery provided a very clear picture of the current state of remediation efforts, however it can be difficult to acquire due to cloud cover and weather conditions. The RADARSAT-2 SAR images can be acquired in all weather conditions at any time of day making it ideal for mission critical information gathering. MDA's automated change detection processing enabled rapid delivery of advanced information products.

Information system of quality assessment for liquid and gaseous medium production

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bobrov, V. N.; Us, N. A.; Davidov, I. S.

2018-05-01

A method and a technical solution for controlling the quality of production of liquid and gaseous media is proposed. It is also proposed to monitor harmful factors in production while ensuring safe working conditions. Initially, using the mathematical model of an ideal atmosphere, the projection to the horizontal surface of the observation trajectory is calculated. At the second stage, the horizontal projection of the observation trajectory in real conditions is measured. The quality of the medium is judged by the difference between the projections of observation trajectories. The technical result is presented in the form of a device allowing obtaining information about the quality of the medium under investigation.

Design and implementation of a Bluetooth-based infant monitoring/saver (BIMS) system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sonmez, Ahmet E.; Nalcaci, Murat T.; Pazarbasi, Mehmet A.; Toker, Onur; Fidanboylu, Kemal

2007-04-01

In this work, we discuss the design and implementation of a Bluetooth technology based infant monitoring system, which will enable the mother to monitor her baby's health condition remotely in real-time. The system will measure the heart rate, and temperature of the infant, and stream this data to the mother's Bluetooth based mobile unit, e.g. cell phone, PDA, etc. Existing infant monitors either require so many cables, or transmit only voice and/or video information, which is not enough for monitoring the health condition of an infant. With the proposed system, the mother will be warned against any abnormalities, which may be an indication of a disease, which in turn may result a sudden infant death. High temperature is a common symptom for several diseases, and heart rate is an essential sign of life, low or high heart rates are also essentials symptoms. Because of these reasons, the proposed system continously measures these two critical values. A 12 bits digital temperature sensor is used to measure infant's body temperature, and a piezo film sensor is used measure infant's heartbeat rate. These sensors, some simple analog circuitry, and a ToothPick unit are the main components of our embedded system. ToothPick unit is basically a Microchip 18LF6720 microcontroller, plus an RF circuitry with Bluetooth stack.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Coble, Jamie; Orton, Christopher; Schwantes, Jon

Abstract—The Multi-Isotope Process (MIP) Monitor provides an efficient approach to monitoring the process conditions in used nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities to support process verification and validation. The MIP Monitor applies multivariate analysis to gamma spectroscopy of reprocessing streams in order to detect small changes in the gamma spectrum, which may indicate changes in process conditions. This research extends the MIP Monitor by characterizing a used fuel sample after initial dissolution according to the type of reactor of origin (pressurized or boiling water reactor), initial enrichment, burn up, and cooling time. Simulated gamma spectra were used to develop and test threemore » fuel characterization algorithms. The classification and estimation models employed are based on the partial least squares regression (PLS) algorithm. A PLS discriminate analysis model was developed which perfectly classified reactor type. Locally weighted PLS models were fitted on-the-fly to estimate continuous fuel characteristics. Burn up was predicted within 0.1% root mean squared percent error (RMSPE) and both cooling time and initial enrichment within approximately 2% RMSPE. This automated fuel characterization can be used to independently verify operator declarations of used fuel characteristics and inform the MIP Monitor anomaly detection routines at later stages of the fuel reprocessing stream to improve sensitivity to changes in operational parameters and material diversions.« less

TRAK App Suite: A Web-Based Intervention for Delivering Standard Care for the Rehabilitation of Knee Conditions.

PubMed

Spasić, Irena; Button, Kate; Divoli, Anna; Gupta, Satyam; Pataky, Tamas; Pizzocaro, Diego; Preece, Alun; van Deursen, Robert; Wilson, Chris

2015-10-16

Standard care for the rehabilitation of knee conditions involves exercise programs and information provision. Current methods of rehabilitation delivery struggle to keep up with large volumes of patients and the length of treatment required to maximize the recovery. Therefore, the development of novel interventions to support self-management is strongly recommended. Such interventions need to include information provision, goal setting, monitoring, feedback, and support groups, but the most effective methods of their delivery are poorly understood. The Internet provides a medium for intervention delivery with considerable potential for meeting these needs. The objective of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility of a Web-based app and to conduct a preliminary review of its practicability as part of a complex medical intervention in the rehabilitation of knee disorders. This paper describes the development, implementation, and usability of such an app. An interdisciplinary team of health care professionals and researchers, computer scientists, and app developers developed the TRAK app suite. The key functionality of the app includes information provision, a three-step exercise program based on a standard care for the rehabilitation of knee conditions, self-monitoring with visual feedback, and a virtual support group. There were two types of stakeholders (patients and physiotherapists) that were recruited for the usability study. The usability questionnaire was used to collect both qualitative and quantitative information on computer and Internet usage, task completion, and subjective user preferences. A total of 16 patients and 15 physiotherapists participated in the usability study. Based on the System Usability Scale, the TRAK app has higher perceived usability than 70% of systems. Both patients and physiotherapists agreed that the given Web-based approach would facilitate communication, provide information, help recall information, improve understanding, enable exercise progression, and support self-management in general. The Web app was found to be easy to use and user satisfaction was very high. The TRAK app suite can be accessed at http://apps.facebook.com/kneetrak/. The usability study suggests that a Web-based intervention is feasible and acceptable in supporting self-management of knee conditions.

TRAK App Suite: A Web-Based Intervention for Delivering Standard Care for the Rehabilitation of Knee Conditions

PubMed Central

Divoli, Anna; Gupta, Satyam; Pataky, Tamas; Pizzocaro, Diego; Preece, Alun; van Deursen, Robert; Wilson, Chris

2015-01-01

Background Standard care for the rehabilitation of knee conditions involves exercise programs and information provision. Current methods of rehabilitation delivery struggle to keep up with large volumes of patients and the length of treatment required to maximize the recovery. Therefore, the development of novel interventions to support self-management is strongly recommended. Such interventions need to include information provision, goal setting, monitoring, feedback, and support groups, but the most effective methods of their delivery are poorly understood. The Internet provides a medium for intervention delivery with considerable potential for meeting these needs. Objective The objective of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility of a Web-based app and to conduct a preliminary review of its practicability as part of a complex medical intervention in the rehabilitation of knee disorders. This paper describes the development, implementation, and usability of such an app. Methods An interdisciplinary team of health care professionals and researchers, computer scientists, and app developers developed the TRAK app suite. The key functionality of the app includes information provision, a three-step exercise program based on a standard care for the rehabilitation of knee conditions, self-monitoring with visual feedback, and a virtual support group. There were two types of stakeholders (patients and physiotherapists) that were recruited for the usability study. The usability questionnaire was used to collect both qualitative and quantitative information on computer and Internet usage, task completion, and subjective user preferences. Results A total of 16 patients and 15 physiotherapists participated in the usability study. Based on the System Usability Scale, the TRAK app has higher perceived usability than 70% of systems. Both patients and physiotherapists agreed that the given Web-based approach would facilitate communication, provide information, help recall information, improve understanding, enable exercise progression, and support self-management in general. The Web app was found to be easy to use and user satisfaction was very high. The TRAK app suite can be accessed at http://apps.facebook.com/kneetrak/. Conclusions The usability study suggests that a Web-based intervention is feasible and acceptable in supporting self-management of knee conditions. PMID:26474643

Novel wireless health monitor with acupuncture bio-potentials obtained by using a replaceable salt-water-wetted foam-rubber cushions on RFID-tag.

PubMed

Lin, Jium-Ming; Lu, Hung-Han; Lin, Cheng-Hung

2014-01-01

This paper proposes a bio-potential measurement apparatus including a wireless device for transmitting acupuncture bio-potential information to a remote control station for health conditions analysis and monitor. The key technology of this system is to make replaceable foam-rubber cushions, double-side conducting tapes, chip and antenna on the radio frequency identification (RFID) tag. The foam-rubber cushions can be wetted with salt-water and contact with the acupuncture points to reduce contact resistance. Besides, the double-side conducting tapes are applied to fix foam-rubber cushions. Thus, one can peel the used cushions or tapes away and supply new ones quickly. Since the tag is a flexible plastic substrate, it is easy to deploy on the skin. Besides, the amplifier made by CMOS technology on RFID chip could amplify the signals to improve S/N ratio and impedance matching. Thus, cloud server can wirelessly monitor the health conditions. An example shows that the proposed system can be used as a wireless health condition monitor, the numerical method and the criteria are given to analyze eleven bio-potentials for the important acupunctures of eleven meridians on a person's hands and legs. Then a professional doctor can know the performance of an individual and the cross-linking effects of the organs.

[Source monitoring: general presentation and review of literature in schizophrenia].

PubMed

Ferchiou, A; Schürhoff, F; Bulzacka, E; Mahbouli, M; Leboyer, M; Szöke, A

2010-09-01

SOURCE MONITORING FRAMEWORK: Source monitoring refers to the ability to remember the origin of information. Three source monitoring processes can be distinguished: external source monitoring, internal or self-monitoring and reality monitoring (i.e. discrimination between internal and external sources of information). Source monitoring decisions are based on memory characteristics recorded such as perceptions, contextual information or emotional reactions and heuristic or more controlled judgement processes. Several studies suggested that specific structures in the prefrontal and the mediotemporal lobes are the main areas implicated in source monitoring. A typical source monitoring paradigm includes an items generation stage and a second stage of recognition of items (old versus new) and identification of their sources: external (usually the examiner) or internal (the subject). Several indices can be calculated based on the raw data such as the number of false alarms, attribution biases or discrimination indexes. To date, there is no standardized source monitoring task and differences in the type of items used (words, pictures), in the cognitive or emotional effort involved or in the delay between the two test stages, contribute to the heterogeneity of results. Factors such as age (either very young or very old) and emotions influence source monitoring performances. Influence of gender was not properly explored, whereas the role of IQ and selective attention is still debated. Source monitoring deficits are observed mainly in disorders affecting frontotemporal areas, such as frontal trauma, Alzheimer's disease or frontotemporal dementia. Source monitoring errors (e.g. external misattribution of self-generated information) are observed in schizophrenia and seem to correlate with positive symptomatology, in particular auditory hallucinations, thought intrusion and alien control symptoms. These results are of particular interest in clinical research because source monitoring is one of the rare cognitive tests showing a correlation with the positive dimension. Source monitoring deficits have been proposed as a potential explanation for the positive symptoms and some, but not all studies lent support to this hypothesis. Heterogeneity of studied samples, in particular different criteria to define hallucinating subjects (e.g. currently versus anytime during their lives), could explain the discordant results. Source monitoring impairments were observed in pharmacological models of psychosis, in first degree relatives of schizophrenic patients, and also in the general population associated with schizotypal dimensions. These results support a relationship between source monitoring deficits and some of the symptomatic dimensions of the schizophrenic spectrum but still await replication. Some studies found source monitoring deficits in other psychiatric conditions such as mania or obsessive-compulsive disorder. Thus, those studies suggest that source monitoring deficits may be not specific to schizophrenia. Source monitoring competencies are critical for good (i.e. adapted) everyday functioning. Source monitoring deficits have been suggested as a potential explanation for some (or all) positive psychotic symptoms. However, to date, methodological inconsistencies (especially with regard to test design and choice of subjects' samples) have precluded firm, definite conclusions. Copyright © 2010 L’Encéphale, Paris. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Indoor Air Contamination from Hazardous Waste Sites: Improving the Evidence Base for Decision-Making.

PubMed

Johnston, Jill; MacDonald Gibson, Jacqueline

2015-11-27

At hazardous waste sites, volatile chemicals can migrate through groundwater and soil into buildings, a process known as vapor intrusion. Due to increasing recognition of vapor intrusion as a potential indoor air pollution source, in 2015 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a new vapor intrusion guidance document. The guidance specifies two conditions for demonstrating that remediation is needed: (1) proof of a vapor intrusion pathway; and (2) evidence that human health risks exceed established thresholds (for example, one excess cancer among 10,000 exposed people). However, the guidance lacks details on methods for demonstrating these conditions. We review current evidence suggesting that monitoring and modeling approaches commonly employed at vapor intrusion sites do not adequately characterize long-term exposure and in many cases may underestimate risks. On the basis of this evidence, we recommend specific approaches to monitoring and modeling to account for these uncertainties. We propose a value of information approach to integrate the lines of evidence at a site and determine if more information is needed before deciding whether the two conditions specified in the vapor intrusion guidance are satisfied. To facilitate data collection and decision-making, we recommend a multi-directional community engagement strategy and consideration of environment justice concerns.

Indoor Air Contamination from Hazardous Waste Sites: Improving the Evidence Base for Decision-Making

PubMed Central

Johnston, Jill; MacDonald Gibson, Jacqueline

2015-01-01

At hazardous waste sites, volatile chemicals can migrate through groundwater and soil into buildings, a process known as vapor intrusion. Due to increasing recognition of vapor intrusion as a potential indoor air pollution source, in 2015 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a new vapor intrusion guidance document. The guidance specifies two conditions for demonstrating that remediation is needed: (1) proof of a vapor intrusion pathway; and (2) evidence that human health risks exceed established thresholds (for example, one excess cancer among 10,000 exposed people). However, the guidance lacks details on methods for demonstrating these conditions. We review current evidence suggesting that monitoring and modeling approaches commonly employed at vapor intrusion sites do not adequately characterize long-term exposure and in many cases may underestimate risks. On the basis of this evidence, we recommend specific approaches to monitoring and modeling to account for these uncertainties. We propose a value of information approach to integrate the lines of evidence at a site and determine if more information is needed before deciding whether the two conditions specified in the vapor intrusion guidance are satisfied. To facilitate data collection and decision-making, we recommend a multi-directional community engagement strategy and consideration of environment justice concerns. PMID:26633433

Underwater robot society doing internal inspection and leak monitoring of water systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Halme, Aarne; Vainio, Mika; Appelqvist, Pekka; Jakubik, Peter; Schonberg, Torsten; Visala, Arto

1997-09-01

In the field of civil engineering an effective internal monitoring of pipes and water storage is very problematic. Normally the sensors used for the task are either fixed or manually movable. Thus they will only provide locally and temporally restricted information. As a solution an underwater robotic sensor/actuator society is presented. The system is capable of operating inside a fluid environment as a kind of distributed sensory system. The value of the system emerges from the interactions between the members. Through a communication system the society fuses information from individual members and provides a more reliable estimate of the conditions inside water systems. Tests results in a transparent demo process consisting of tanks and pipes with a volume of 700 liters are presented.

Monitoring and seasonal forecasting of meteorological droughts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dutra, Emanuel; Pozzi, Will; Wetterhall, Fredrik; Di Giuseppe, Francesca; Magnusson, Linus; Naumann, Gustavo; Barbosa, Paulo; Vogt, Jurgen; Pappenberger, Florian

2015-04-01

Near-real time drought monitoring can provide decision makers valuable information for use in several areas, such as water resources management, or international aid. Unfortunately, a major constraint in current drought outlooks is the lack of reliable monitoring capability for observed precipitation globally in near-real time. Furthermore, drought monitoring systems requires a long record of past observations to provide mean climatological conditions. We address these constraints by developing a novel drought monitoring approach in which monthly mean precipitation is derived from short-range using ECMWF probabilistic forecasts and then merged with the long term precipitation climatology of the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) dataset. Merging the two makes available a real-time global precipitation product out of which the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) can be estimated and used for global or regional drought monitoring work. This approach provides stability in that by-passes problems of latency (lags) in having local rain-gauge measurements available in real time or lags in satellite precipitation products. Seasonal drought forecasts can also be prepared using the common methodology and based upon two data sources used to provide initial conditions (GPCC and the ECMWF ERA-Interim reanalysis (ERAI) combined with either the current ECMWF seasonal forecast or a climatology based upon ensemble forecasts. Verification of the forecasts as a function of lead time revealed a reduced impact on skill for: (i) long lead times using different initial conditions, and (ii) short lead times using different precipitation forecasts. The memory effect of initial conditions was found to be 1 month lead time for the SPI-3, 3 to 4 months for the SPI-6 and 5 months for the SPI-12. Results show that dynamical forecasts of precipitation provide added value, a skill similar to or better than climatological forecasts. In some cases, particularly for long SPI time scales, it is very difficult to improve on the use of climatological forecasts. However, results presented regionally and globally pinpoint several regions in the world where drought onset forecasting is feasible and skilful.

GEOGLAM Crop Assessment Tool: Adapting from global agricultural monitoring to food security monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Humber, M. L.; Becker-Reshef, I.; Nordling, J.; Barker, B.; McGaughey, K.

2014-12-01

The GEOGLAM Crop Monitor's Crop Assessment Tool was released in August 2013 in support of the GEOGLAM Crop Monitor's objective to develop transparent, timely crop condition assessments in primary agricultural production areas, highlighting potential hotspots of stress/bumper crops. The Crop Assessment Tool allows users to view satellite derived products, best available crop masks, and crop calendars (created in collaboration with GEOGLAM Crop Monitor partners), then in turn submit crop assessment entries detailing the crop's condition, drivers, impacts, trends, and other information. Although the Crop Assessment Tool was originally intended to collect data on major crop production at the global scale, the types of data collected are also relevant to the food security and rangelands monitoring communities. In line with the GEOGLAM Countries at Risk philosophy of "foster[ing] the coordination of product delivery and capacity building efforts for national and regional organizations, and the development of harmonized methods and tools", a modified version of the Crop Assessment Tool is being developed for the USAID Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET). As a member of the Countries at Risk component of GEOGLAM, FEWS NET provides agricultural monitoring, timely food security assessments, and early warnings of potential significant food shortages focusing specifically on countries at risk of food security emergencies. While the FEWS NET adaptation of the Crop Assessment Tool focuses on crop production in the context of food security rather than large scale production, the data collected is nearly identical to the data collected by the Crop Monitor. If combined, the countries monitored by FEWS NET and GEOGLAM Crop Monitor would encompass over 90 countries representing the most important regions for crop production and food security.

Damage Detection Sensitivity of a Vehicle-based Bridge Health Monitoring System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miyamoto, Ayaho; Yabe, Akito; Lúcio, Válter J. G.

2017-05-01

As one solution to the problem for condition assessment of existing short and medium span (10-30m) reinforced/prestressed concrete bridges, a new monitoring method using a public bus as part of a public transit system (called “Bus monitoring system”) was proposed, along with safety indices, namely, “characteristic deflection”, which is relatively free from the influence of dynamic disturbances due to such factors as the roughness of the road surface, and a structural anomaly parameter. In this study, to evaluate the practicality of the newly developed bus monitoring system, it has been field-tested over a period of about four years by using an in-service fixed-route bus operating on a bus route in the city of Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. In here, although there are some useful monitoring methods for short and medium span bridges based on the qualitative or quantitative information, the sensitivity of damage detection was newly discussed for safety assessment based on long term health monitoring data. The verification results thus obtained are also described in this paper, and also evaluates the sensitivity of the “characteristic deflection”, which is a bridge (health) condition indicator used by the bus monitoring system, in damage detection. Sensitivity of “characteristic deflection” is verified by introducing artificial damage into a bridge that has ended its service life and is awaiting removal. Furthermore, the sensitivity of “characteristic deflection” is verified by 3D FEM analysis.

Mobile Phone-Based Field Monitoring for Satsuma Mandarin and Its Application to Watering Advice System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kamiya, Toshiyuki; Numano, Nagisa; Yagyu, Hiroyuki; Shimazu, Hideo

This paper describes a mobile phone-based data logging system for monitoring the growing status of Satsuma mandarin, a type of citrus fruit, in the field. The system can provide various feedback to the farm producers with collected data, such as visualization of related data as a timeline chart or advice on the necessity of watering crops. It is important to collect information on environment conditions, plant status and product quality, to analyze it and to provide it as feedback to the farm producers to aid their operations. This paper proposes a novel framework of field monitoring and feedback for open-field farming. For field monitoring, it combines a low-cost plant status monitoring method using a simple apparatus and a Field Server for environment condition monitoring. Each field worker has a simple apparatus to measure fruit firmness and records data with a mobile phone. The logged data are stored in the database of the system on the server. The system analyzes stored data for each field and is able to show the necessity of watering to the user in five levels. The system is also able to show various stored data in timeline chart form. The user and coach can compare or analyze these data via a web interface. A test site was built at a Satsuma mandarin field at Kumano in Mie Prefecture, Japan using the framework, and farm workers monitor in the area used and evaluated the system.

Virtual groups for patient WBAN monitoring in medical environments.

PubMed

Ivanov, Stepan; Foley, Christopher; Balasubramaniam, Sasitharan; Botvich, Dmitri

2012-11-01

Wireless body area networks (WBAN) provide a tremendous opportunity for remote health monitoring. However, engineering WBAN health monitoring systems encounters a number of challenges including efficient WBAN monitoring information extraction, dynamically fine tuning the monitoring process to suit the quality of data, and to allow the translation of high-level requirements of medical officers to low-level sensor reconfiguration. This paper addresses these challenges, by proposing an architecture that allows virtual groups to be formed between devices of patients, nurses, and doctors in order to enable remote analysis of WBAN data. Group formation and modification is performed with respect to patients' conditions and medical officers' requirements, which could be easily adjusted through high-level policies. We also propose, a new metric called the Quality of Health Monitoring, which allows medical officers to provide feedback on the quality of WBAN data received. The WBAN data gathered are transmitted to the virtual group members through an underlying environmental sensor network. The proposed approach is evaluated through a series of simulation.

Flexible Sensing Electronics for Wearable/Attachable Health Monitoring.

PubMed

Wang, Xuewen; Liu, Zheng; Zhang, Ting

2017-07-01

Wearable or attachable health monitoring smart systems are considered to be the next generation of personal portable devices for remote medicine practices. Smart flexible sensing electronics are components crucial in endowing health monitoring systems with the capability of real-time tracking of physiological signals. These signals are closely associated with body conditions, such as heart rate, wrist pulse, body temperature, blood/intraocular pressure and blood/sweat bio-information. Monitoring such physiological signals provides a convenient and non-invasive way for disease diagnoses and health assessments. This Review summarizes the recent progress of flexible sensing electronics for their use in wearable/attachable health monitoring systems. Meanwhile, we present an overview of different materials and configurations for flexible sensors, including piezo-resistive, piezo-electrical, capacitive, and field effect transistor based devices, and analyze the working principles in monitoring physiological signals. In addition, the future perspectives of wearable healthcare systems and the technical demands on their commercialization are briefly discussed. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Online monitoring of a photocatalytic reaction by real-time high resolution FlowNMR spectroscopy.

PubMed

Hall, Andrew M R; Broomfield-Tagg, Rachael; Camilleri, Matthew; Carbery, David R; Codina, Anna; Whittaker, David T E; Coombes, Steven; Lowe, John P; Hintermair, Ulrich

2017-12-19

We demonstrate how FlowNMR spectroscopy can readily be applied to investigate photochemical reactions that require sustained input of light and air to yield mechanistic insight under realistic conditions. The Eosin Y mediated photo-oxidation of N-allylbenzylamine is shown to produce imines as primary reaction products from which undesired aldehydes form after longer reaction times. Facile variation of reaction conditions during the reaction in flow allows for probe experiments that give information about the mode of action of the photocatalyst.

Novel Proximal Sensing for Monitoring Soil Organic C Stocks and Condition.

PubMed

Viscarra Rossel, Raphael A; Lobsey, Craig R; Sharman, Chris; Flick, Paul; McLachlan, Gordon

2017-05-16

Soil information is needed for environmental monitoring to address current concerns over food, water and energy securities, land degradation, and climate change. We developed the Soil Condition ANalysis System (SCANS) to help address these needs. It integrates an automated soil core sensing system (CSS) with statistical analytics and modeling to characterize soil at fine depth resolutions and across landscapes. The CSS's sensors include a γ-ray attenuation densitometer to measure bulk density, digital cameras to image the measured soil, and a visible-near-infrared (vis-NIR) spectrometer to measure iron oxides and clay mineralogy. The spectra are also modeled to estimate total soil organic carbon (C), particulate, humus, and resistant organic C (POC, HOC, and ROC, respectively), clay content, cation exchange capacity (CEC), pH, volumetric water content, available water capacity (AWC), and their uncertainties. Measurements of bulk density and organic C are combined to estimate C stocks. Kalman smoothing is used to derive complete soil property profiles with propagated uncertainties. The SCANS provides rapid, precise, quantitative, and spatially explicit information about the properties of soil profiles with a level of detail that is difficult to obtain with other approaches. The information gained effectively deepens our understanding of soil and calls attention to the central role soil plays in our environment.

Using Air Temperature to Quantitatively Predict the MODIS Fractional Snow Cover Retrieval Errors over the Continental US (CONUS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dong, Jiarui; Ek, Mike; Hall, Dorothy K.; Peters-Lidard, Christa; Cosgrove, Brian; Miller, Jeff; Riggs, George A.; Xia, Youlong

2013-01-01

In the middle to high latitude and alpine regions, the seasonal snow pack can dominate the surface energy and water budgets due to its high albedo, low thermal conductivity, high emissivity, considerable spatial and temporal variability, and ability to store and then later release a winters cumulative snowfall (Cohen, 1994; Hall, 1998). With this in mind, the snow drought across the U.S. has raised questions about impacts on water supply, ski resorts and agriculture. Knowledge of various snow pack properties is crucial for short-term weather forecasts, climate change prediction, and hydrologic forecasting for producing reliable daily to seasonal forecasts. One potential source of this information is the multi-institution North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) project (Mitchell et al., 2004). Real-time NLDAS products are used for drought monitoring to support the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) and as initial conditions for a future NCEP drought forecast system. Additionally, efforts are currently underway to assimilate remotely-sensed estimates of land-surface states such as snowpack information into NLDAS. It is believed that this assimilation will not only produce improved snowpack states that better represent snow evolving conditions, but will directly improve the monitoring of drought.

A Real-Time Construction Safety Monitoring System for Hazardous Gas Integrating Wireless Sensor Network and Building Information Modeling Technologies.

PubMed

Cheung, Weng-Fong; Lin, Tzu-Hsuan; Lin, Yu-Cheng

2018-02-02

In recent years, many studies have focused on the application of advanced technology as a way to improve management of construction safety management. A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), one of the key technologies in Internet of Things (IoT) development, enables objects and devices to sense and communicate environmental conditions; Building Information Modeling (BIM), a revolutionary technology in construction, integrates database and geometry into a digital model which provides a visualized way in all construction lifecycle management. This paper integrates BIM and WSN into a unique system which enables the construction site to visually monitor the safety status via a spatial, colored interface and remove any hazardous gas automatically. Many wireless sensor nodes were placed on an underground construction site and to collect hazardous gas level and environmental condition (temperature and humidity) data, and in any region where an abnormal status is detected, the BIM model will alert the region and an alarm and ventilator on site will start automatically for warning and removing the hazard. The proposed system can greatly enhance the efficiency in construction safety management and provide an important reference information in rescue tasks. Finally, a case study demonstrates the applicability of the proposed system and the practical benefits, limitations, conclusions, and suggestions are summarized for further applications.

Distributed cyberinfrastructure tools for automated data processing of structural monitoring data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Yilan; Kurata, Masahiro; Lynch, Jerome P.; van der Linden, Gwendolyn; Sederat, Hassan; Prakash, Atul

2012-04-01

The emergence of cost-effective sensing technologies has now enabled the use of dense arrays of sensors to monitor the behavior and condition of large-scale bridges. The continuous operation of dense networks of sensors presents a number of new challenges including how to manage such massive amounts of data that can be created by the system. This paper reports on the progress of the creation of cyberinfrastructure tools which hierarchically control networks of wireless sensors deployed in a long-span bridge. The internet-enabled cyberinfrastructure is centrally managed by a powerful database which controls the flow of data in the entire monitoring system architecture. A client-server model built upon the database provides both data-provider and system end-users with secured access to various levels of information of a bridge. In the system, information on bridge behavior (e.g., acceleration, strain, displacement) and environmental condition (e.g., wind speed, wind direction, temperature, humidity) are uploaded to the database from sensor networks installed in the bridge. Then, data interrogation services interface with the database via client APIs to autonomously process data. The current research effort focuses on an assessment of the scalability and long-term robustness of the proposed cyberinfrastructure framework that has been implemented along with a permanent wireless monitoring system on the New Carquinez (Alfred Zampa Memorial) Suspension Bridge in Vallejo, CA. Many data interrogation tools are under development using sensor data and bridge metadata (e.g., geometric details, material properties, etc.) Sample data interrogation clients including those for the detection of faulty sensors, automated modal parameter extraction.

Portable System for Monitoring the Microclimate in the Footwear-Foot Interface

PubMed Central

Sandoval-Palomares, José de Jesús; Yáñez-Mendiola, Javier; Gómez-Espinosa, Alfonso; López-Vela, José Martin

2016-01-01

A new, continuously-monitoring portable device that monitors the diabetic foot has shown to help in reduction of diabetic foot complications. Persons affected by diabetic foot have shown to be particularly sensitive in the plantar surface; this sensitivity coupled with certain ambient conditions may cause dry skin. This dry skin leads to the formation of fissures that may eventually result in a foot ulceration and subsequent hospitalization. This new device monitors the micro-climate temperature and humidity areas between the insole and sole of the footwear. The monitoring system consists of an array of ten sensors that take readings of relative humidity within the range of 100% ± 2% and temperature within the range of −40 °C to 123.8 ± 0.3 °C. Continuous data is collected using embedded C software and the recorded data is processed in Matlab. This allows for the display of data; the implementation of the iterative Gauss-Newton algorithm method was used to display an exponential response curve. Therefore, the aim of our system is to obtain feedback data and provide the critical information to various footwear manufacturers. The footwear manufactures will utilize this critical information to design and manufacture diabetic footwear that reduce the risk of ulcers in diabetic feet. PMID:27399718

Graph-theoretic analysis of discrete-phase-space states for condition change detection and quantification of information

DOEpatents

Hively, Lee M.

2014-09-16

Data collected from devices and human condition may be used to forewarn of critical events such as machine/structural failure or events from brain/heart wave data stroke. By monitoring the data, and determining what values are indicative of a failure forewarning, one can provide adequate notice of the impending failure in order to take preventive measures. This disclosure teaches a computer-based method to convert dynamical numeric data representing physical objects (unstructured data) into discrete-phase-space states, and hence into a graph (structured data) for extraction of condition change.

Near-Real-Time Monitoring and Reporting of Crop Growth Condition and Harvest Status Using an Integrated Optical and Radar Approach at the National-Scale in Canada

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shang, J.

2015-12-01

There has been an increasing need to have accurate and spatially detailed information on crop growth condition and harvest status over Canada's agricultural land so that the impacts of environmental conditions, market supply and demand, and transportation network limitations on crop production can be understood fully and acted upon in a timely manner. Presently, Canada doesn't have a national dataset that can provide near-real-time geospatial information on crop growth stage and harvest systematically so that reporting on risk events can be linked directly to the grain supply chain and crop production fluctuations. The intent of this study is to develop an integrated approach using Earth observation (EO) technology to provide a consistent, comprehensive picture of crop growth cycles (growth conditions and stages) and agricultural management activities (field preparation for seeding, harvest, and residue management). Integration of the optical and microwave satellite remote sensing technologies is imperative for robust methodology development and eventually for operational implementation. Particularly, the current synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system Radarsat-2 and to be launched Radarsat Constellation Mission (RCM) are unique EO resources to Canada. Incorporating these Canadian SAR resources with international SAR missions such as the Cosmesky-Med and TerraSAR, could be of great potential for developing change detection technologies particularly useful for monitoring harvest as well as other types of agricultural management events. The study revealed that radar and multi-scale (30m and 250m) optical satellite data can directly detect or infer 1) seeding date, 2) crop growth stages and gross primary productivity (GPP), and 3) harvest progress. Operational prototypes for providing growing-season information at the crop-specific level will be developed across the Canadian agricultural land base.

Marine ecosystem health status assessment through integrative biomarker indices: a comparative study after the Prestige oil spill "Mussel Watch".

PubMed

Marigómez, Ionan; Garmendia, Larraitz; Soto, Manu; Orbea, Amaia; Izagirre, Urtzi; Cajaraville, Miren P

2013-04-01

Five integrative biomarker indices are compared: Bioeffects Assessment Index (BAI), Health Status Index (HSI), integrated biological response (IBR), ecosystem health condition chart (EHCC) and Integrative Biomarker Index (IBI). They were calculated on the basis of selected biomarker data collected in the framework of the Prestige oil spill (POS) Mussel Watch monitoring (2003-2006) carried out in Galicia and the Bay of Biscay. According to the BAI, the health status of mussels was severely affected by POS and signals of recovery were evidenced in Galicia after April-04 and in Biscay Bay after April-05. The HSI (computed by an expert system) revealed high levels of environmental stress in 2003 and a recovery trend from April-04 to April-05. In July-05, the health status of mussels worsened but in October-05 and April-06 healthy condition was again recorded in almost all localities. IBR/n and IBI indicated that mussel health was severely affected in 2003 and improved from 2004 onwards. EHCC reflected a deleterious environmental condition in 2003 and a recovery trend after April-04, although a healthy ecosystem condition was not achieved in April-06 yet. Whereas BAI and HSI provide a basic indication of the ecosystem health status, star plots accompanying IBR/n and IBI provide complementary information concerning the mechanisms of biological response to environmental insult. Overall, although the integrative indices based on biomarkers show different sensitivity, resolution and informative output, all of them provide coherent information, useful to simplify the interpretation of biological effects of pollution in marine pollution monitoring. Each others' advantages, disadvantages and applicability for ecosystem health assessment are discussed.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - On a tour of the KSC Beach Corrosion Test Site, Testbed Manager Louis MacDowell (right) explains to Center Director Jim Kennedy about the test blocks being used to test a newly developed coating to protect steel inside concrete. Between MacDowell and Kennedy are Dr. Paul Hintze and Lead Scientist Dr. Luz Marina Calle. The KSC Beach Corrosion Test Site was established in the 1960s and has provided more than 30 years of historical information on the long-term performance of many materials in use at KSC and other locations around the world. Located 100 feet from the Atlantic Ocean approximately 1 mile south of the Space Shuttle launch sites, the test facility includes an atmospheric exposure site, a flowing seawater exposure site, and an on-site electrochemistry laboratory and monitoring station. The beach laboratory is used to conduct real-time corrosion experiments and provides for the remote monitoring of surrounding weather conditions. The newly added flowing seawater immersion facility provides for the immersion testing of materials and devices under controlled conditions.

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-08-21

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - On a tour of the KSC Beach Corrosion Test Site, Testbed Manager Louis MacDowell (right) explains to Center Director Jim Kennedy about the test blocks being used to test a newly developed coating to protect steel inside concrete. Between MacDowell and Kennedy are Dr. Paul Hintze and Lead Scientist Dr. Luz Marina Calle. The KSC Beach Corrosion Test Site was established in the 1960s and has provided more than 30 years of historical information on the long-term performance of many materials in use at KSC and other locations around the world. Located 100 feet from the Atlantic Ocean approximately 1 mile south of the Space Shuttle launch sites, the test facility includes an atmospheric exposure site, a flowing seawater exposure site, and an on-site electrochemistry laboratory and monitoring station. The beach laboratory is used to conduct real-time corrosion experiments and provides for the remote monitoring of surrounding weather conditions. The newly added flowing seawater immersion facility provides for the immersion testing of materials and devices under controlled conditions.

GRACE-Assimilated Drought Indicators for the U.S. Drought Monitor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rui, Hualan; Vollmer, Bruce; Teng, Bill; Loeser, Carlee; Beaudoing, Hiroko; Rodell, Matt

2018-01-01

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission detects changes in Earth's gravity field by precisely monitoring the changes in distance between two satellites orbiting the Earth in tandem. Scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center generate GRACE-assimilated groundwater and soil moisture drought indicators each week, for drought monitor-related studies and applications. The GRACE-assimilated Drought Indicator Version 2.0 data product (GRACE-DA-DM V2.0) is archived at, and distributed by, the NASA GES DISC (Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center). More information about the data and data access is available on the data product landing page at https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datasets /GRACEDADM_CLSM0125US_7D_2.0/summary. The GRACE-DA-DM V2.0 data product contains three drought indicators: Groundwater Percentile, Root Zone Soil Moisture Percentile, and Surface Soil Moisture Percentile. The drought indicators are of wet or dry conditions, expressed as a percentile, indicating the probability of occurrence within the period of record from 1948 to 2012. These GRACE-assimilated drought indicators, with improved spatial and temporal resolutions, should provide a more comprehensive and objective identification of drought conditions. This presentation describes the basic characteristics of the data and data services at NASA GES DISC and collaborative organizations, and uses a few examples to demonstrate the simple ways to explore the GRACE-assimilated drought indicator data.

Novel texture-based descriptors for tool wear condition monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Antić, Aco; Popović, Branislav; Krstanović, Lidija; Obradović, Ratko; Milošević, Mijodrag

2018-01-01

All state-of-the-art tool condition monitoring systems (TCM) in the tool wear recognition task, especially those that use vibration sensors, heavily depend on the choice of descriptors containing information about the tool wear state which are extracted from the particular sensor signals. All other post-processing techniques do not manage to increase the recognition precision if those descriptors are not discriminative enough. In this work, we propose a tool wear monitoring strategy which relies on the novel texture based descriptors. We consider the module of the Short Term Discrete Fourier Transform (STDFT) spectra obtained from the particular vibration sensors signal utterance as the 2D textured image. This is done by identifying the time scale of STDFT as the first dimension, and the frequency scale as the second dimension of the particular textured image. The obtained textured image is then divided into particular 2D texture patches, covering a part of the frequency range of interest. After applying the appropriate filter bank, 2D textons are extracted for each predefined frequency band. By averaging in time, we extract from the textons for each band of interest the information regarding the Probability Density Function (PDF) in the form of lower order moments, thus obtaining robust tool wear state descriptors. We validate the proposed features by the experiments conducted on the real TCM system, obtaining the high recognition accuracy.

The Joint Experiment for Crop Assessment and Monitoring (JECAM): Update on Multisite Inter-comparison Experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jarvis, I.; Gilliams, S. J. B.; Defourny, P.

2016-12-01

Globally there is significant convergence on agricultural monitoring research questions. The focus of interest usually revolves around crop type, crop area estimation and near real time crop condition and yield forecasting. Notwithstanding this convergence, agricultural systems differ significantly throughout the world, reflecting the diversity of ecosystems they are located in. Consequently, a global system of systems for operational monitoring must be based on multiple approaches. Research is required to compare and assess these approaches to identify which are most appropriate for any given location. To this end the Joint Experiments for Crop Assessment and Monitoring (JECAM) was established in 2009 to as a research platform to allow the global agricultural monitoring community to work towards a set of best practices and recommendations for using earth observation data to map, monitor and report on agricultural productivity globally. The JECAM initiative brings together researchers from a large number of globally distributed, well monitored agricultural test sites that cover a range of crop types, cropping systems and climate regimes. The results of JECAM optical inter-comparison research taking place in the Stimulating Innovation for Global Monitoring of Agriculture (SIGMA) project and the Sentinel-2 for Agriculture project will be discussed. The presentation will also highlight upcoming work on a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) inter-comparison study. The outcome of these projects will result in a set of best practices that cover the range of remote sensing monitoring and reporting needs, including satellite data acquisition, pre-processing techniques, information retrieval and ground data validation. These outcomes provide the R&D foundation for GEOGLAM and will help to inform the development of the GEOGLAM system of systems for global agricultural monitoring.

Ratiometric Gas Reporting: A Nondisruptive Approach To Monitor Gene Expression in Soils.

PubMed

Cheng, Hsiao-Ying; Masiello, Caroline A; Del Valle, Ilenne; Gao, Xiaodong; Bennett, George N; Silberg, Jonathan J

2018-03-16

Fluorescent proteins are ubiquitous tools that are used to monitor the dynamic functions of natural and synthetic genetic circuits. However, these visual reporters can only be used in transparent settings, a limitation that complicates nondisruptive measurements of gene expression within many matrices, such as soils and sediments. We describe a new ratiometric gas reporting method for nondisruptively monitoring gene expression within hard-to-image environmental matrices. With this approach, C 2 H 4 is continuously synthesized by ethylene forming enzyme to provide information on viable cell number, and CH 3 Br is conditionally synthesized by placing a methyl halide transferase gene under the control of a conditional promoter. We show that ratiometric gas reporting enables the creation of Escherichia coli biosensors that report on acylhomoserine lactone (AHL) autoinducers used for quorum sensing by Gram-negative bacteria. Using these biosensors, we find that an agricultural soil decreases the bioavailable concentration of a long-chain AHL up to 100-fold. We also demonstrate that these biosensors can be used in soil to nondisruptively monitor AHLs synthesized by Rhizobium leguminosarum and degraded by Bacillus thuringiensis. Finally, we show that this new reporting approach can be used in Shewanella oneidensis, a bacterium that lives in sediments.

Characterization and comparison of phytoplankton in selected lakes of five Great Lakes area national parks

USGS Publications Warehouse

Nevers, Meredith Becker; Whitman, Richard L.

2004-01-01

Phytoplankton species have been widely used as indicators of lake conditions, and they may be useful for detecting changes in overall lake condition. In an attempt to inventory and monitor its natural resources, the National Park Service wants to establish a monitoring program for aquatic resources in the Great Lakes Cluster National Parks. This study sought to establish baseline information on the phytoplankton and water chemistry of selected lakes in five national parks in a preliminary effort toward establishing a long-term monitoring program. Phytoplankton and water chemistry samples were collected from ten lakes in five national parks over a two-year period. A total of 176 taxa were identified during the study. Northern lakes generally had higher Shannon-Wiener diversity and clustered together in similarity. Lakes exhibited a south to north gradient of many water chemistry variables, with northern lakes having lower hardness, sulfate, turbidity, and temperature and higher dissolved oxygen. Chloride and sulfate concentrations were the variables that best explained variation among phytoplankton in the ten lakes. A monitoring plan will have to incorporate the differences among lakes, but by coordinating the effort, comparisons within and among parks and other regions will prove useful for determining environmental change.

Non-contact and Unrestrained Respiration Monitoring System for Sleeping Person Using Near-infrared Bright Spots Matrix Irradiation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aoki, Hirooki; Aoki, Hiroichi; Nakajima, Masato

Measurement of biological information appears to be an effective method to obtain an understanding of health conditions measures to maintain and improve the health of elderly people. However, every conventional bioinstrumentation technique imposes a sense of restraint that results in aversion against measurements that would last over consecutive days. To solve this problem, we propose a system for monitoring the respiration of sleepers, and it uses a fiber grating vision sensor, which is a type of optical range finder, to achieve non-contact and unrestrained monitoring. The signals obtained by the system include the respiration rate, shifts of the ventilation, and the body movement interval of the sleeper. The information enables to investigate the stability of the sleeper throughout the night. We examined the measuring accuracy, validity, and effectiveness of our proposed system. And all-night monitoring performed at elderly care facility revealed that respiratory disturbances during sleep occurred in many of the residents and that sleep apnea is a common syndrome, especially among residents who have senile dementia or have had a stroke. We were able to carry out the all-night monitoring with this system for a total of about 370 times, according to our schedule, without experiencing any failure, accident, or interruption. Our proposed system is highly effective for monitoring elderly dementia patients who are likely to become uncooperative during measurement with existing monitoring methods that use certain amounts of restraint.

Chronic Medication and or Monitoring for Long Duration Space Flight: What Should The Policy Be?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hamilton, Douglas R.

2004-01-01

While a private individual with a chronic medical condition could perhaps justifiably claim the right to become a "space tourist" through informed consent, NASA and other International crew members are national assets, trained at government expense to fulfill a mission considered essential to national goals. The medical requirements/policy for selection and certification of crewmembers for long duration missions to the International Space Station (ISS) should address: (1) Crewmembers with chronic conditions that require regular dosing of life-sustaining medication for the purposes of secondary or tertiary prevention (i.e. tumor suppression therapy or anticoagulation). (2) Crew members with conditions that will be worsened by spaceflight exposure, placing them at additional personal health risk though not necessarily increasing mission risk (i.e. previous radiation exposure or preflight osteopenia/osteoporosis) The following policies are recommended. A crewmember should not be assigned to an International Space Station mission who: (3) Requires medications to sustain life or who has a disease, which requires medical procedures or diagnostics to monitor and treat same. (4) Has medical condition, which would prevent participation as a candidate in many scientific and medical operational research studies, as their underlying condition would confound the collected data. (5) Requires specialized medical devices for monitoring or treatment of a medical condition, including conditions that require special provisions to conduct routine required countermeasure activities. (6) Who has a disease or requires treatment for same, and for which the effects of space travel may be deleterious to the short or long term health of the individual, An evidence-based approach will be used to provide rationale for policy recommendations under these scenarios. Operational impacts of allowing these medical conditions to fly on the ISS will also be presented.

Global Estimates of Fine Particulate Matter Using a Combined Geophysical-Statistical Method with Information from Satellites, Models, and Monitors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Van Donkelaar, Aaron; Martin, Randall V.; Brauer, Michael; Hsu, N. Christina; Kahn, Ralph A.; Levy, Robert C.; Lyapustin, Alexei; Sayer, Andrew M.; Winker, David M.

2016-01-01

We estimated global fine particulate matter (PM(sub 2.5)) concentrations using information from satellite-, simulation- and monitor-based sources by applying a Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) to global geophysically-based satellite-derived PM(sub 2.5) estimates. Aerosol optical depth from multiple satellite products (MISR, MODIS Dark Target, MODIS and SeaWiFS Deep Blue, and MODIS MAIAC) was combined with simulation (GEOS-Chem) based upon their relative uncertainties as determined using ground-based sun photometer (AERONET) observations for 1998-2014. The GWR predictors included simulated aerosol composition and land use information. The resultant PM(sub 2.5) estimates were highly consistent (R(sup 2) equals 0.81) with out-of-sample cross-validated PM(sub 2.5) concentrations from monitors. The global population-weighted annual average PM(sub 2.5) concentrations were 3-fold higher than the 10 micrograms per cubic meter WHO guideline, driven by exposures in Asian and African regions. Estimates in regions with high contributions from mineral dust were associated with higher uncertainty, resulting from both sparse ground-based monitoring, and challenging conditions for retrieval and simulation. This approach demonstrates that the addition of even sparse ground-based measurements to more globally continuous PM(sub 2.5) data sources can yield valuable improvements to PM(sub 2.5) characterization on a global scale.

A Review of Passive RFID Tag Antenna-Based Sensors and Systems for Structural Health Monitoring Applications

PubMed Central

Zhang, Jun; Tian, Gui Yun; Marindra, Adi M. J.; Sunny, Ali Imam; Zhao, Ao Bo

2017-01-01

In recent few years, the antenna and sensor communities have witnessed a considerable integration of radio frequency identification (RFID) tag antennas and sensors because of the impetus provided by internet of things (IoT) and cyber-physical systems (CPS). Such types of sensor can find potential applications in structural health monitoring (SHM) because of their passive, wireless, simple, compact size, and multimodal nature, particular in large scale infrastructures during their lifecycle. The big data from these ubiquitous sensors are expected to generate a big impact for intelligent monitoring. A remarkable number of scientific papers demonstrate the possibility that objects can be remotely tracked and intelligently monitored for their physical/chemical/mechanical properties and environment conditions. Most of the work focuses on antenna design, and significant information has been generated to demonstrate feasibilities. Further information is needed to gain deep understanding of the passive RFID antenna sensor systems in order to make them reliable and practical. Nevertheless, this information is scattered over much literature. This paper is to comprehensively summarize and clearly highlight the challenges and state-of-the-art methods of passive RFID antenna sensors and systems in terms of sensing and communication from system point of view. Future trends are also discussed. The future research and development in UK are suggested as well. PMID:28146067

Direct data access protocols benchmarking on DPM

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Furano, Fabrizio; Devresse, Adrien; Keeble, Oliver; Mancinelli, Valentina

2015-12-01

The Disk Pool Manager is an example of a multi-protocol, multi-VO system for data access on the Grid that went though a considerable technical evolution in the last years. Among other features, its architecture offers the opportunity of testing its different data access frontends under exactly the same conditions, including hardware and backend software. This characteristic inspired the idea of collecting monitoring information from various testbeds in order to benchmark the behaviour of the HTTP and Xrootd protocols for the use case of data analysis, batch or interactive. A source of information is the set of continuous tests that are run towards the worldwide endpoints belonging to the DPM Collaboration, which accumulated relevant statistics in its first year of activity. On top of that, the DPM releases are based on multiple levels of automated testing that include performance benchmarks of various kinds, executed regularly every day. At the same time, the recent releases of DPM can report monitoring information about any data access protocol to the same monitoring infrastructure that is used to monitor the Xrootd deployments. Our goal is to evaluate under which circumstances the HTTP-based protocols can be good enough for batch or interactive data access. In this contribution we show and discuss the results that our test systems have collected under the circumstances that include ROOT analyses using TTreeCache and stress tests on the metadata performance.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Incorporation of real-time component information using equipment condition assessment (ECA) through the developmentof enhanced risk monitors (ERM) for active components in advanced reactor (AR) and advanced small modular reactor (SMR) designs. We incorporate time-dependent failure probabilities from prognostic health management (PHM) systems to dynamically update the risk metric of interest. This information is used to augment data used for supervisory control and plant-wide coordination of multiple modules by providing the incremental risk incurred due to aging and demands placed on components that support mission requirements.

Imputing historical statistics, soils information, and other land-use data to crop area

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Perry, C. R., Jr.; Willis, R. W.; Lautenschlager, L.

1982-01-01

In foreign crop condition monitoring, satellite acquired imagery is routinely used. To facilitate interpretation of this imagery, it is advantageous to have estimates of the crop types and their extent for small area units, i.e., grid cells on a map represent, at 60 deg latitude, an area nominally 25 by 25 nautical miles in size. The feasibility of imputing historical crop statistics, soils information, and other ancillary data to crop area for a province in Argentina is studied.

Hydrological extremes in the media: The 2015 drought event in Germany

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zink, Matthias; Samaniego, Luis; Kumar, Rohini; Thober, Stephan; Mai, Juliane; Schäfer, David; Marx, Andreas

2017-04-01

The 2003 drought event had major implications on many societal sectors, including energy production, health, forestry and agriculture. The reduced availability of water accompanied by high temperatures led to substantial economic losses in Germany on the order of 1.5 Billion Euros, in agriculture alone. Furthermore, soil droughts have considerable impacts on ecosystems, forest fires and water management. In 2015, another drought event impacted Germany which had impacts on inland navigation, forest fire risk and agriculture among others. Due to this drought event, corn yield reduced by 22% compared to the preceding 5 years. This drought event was tracked by the 2014 implemented German Drought Monitor, a near real-time, online soil water monitoring platform (Zink et al., 2016). This platform uses an high resolution, operational modeling system which delivers easy to understand maps of soil drought conditions that are published on a daily basis on www.ufz.de/droughtmonitor. During the 2015 event, the German Drought Monitor was used by several regional to national newspapers as well as by television to inform the public about the recent status of soil moisture conditions. Next to publishing the drought maps, we were asked to comment the drought development and especially the severity of the ongoing drought event. On the one hand, this gave us the opportunity to inform the public about different types and the characterization of droughts. On the other hand, some journalists just tried to invoke statements such as "this is the most severe drought event ever recorded" to get a good headline. Further the secondmost pressing question of the journalists was, if the current event could be directly attributed to climate change. A clear answer to this question could not be given since the drought monitor is based on only a 65 year period of data. Depending on the media company, different depths of information and knowledge was finally transferred to the newsletter article and thus the public. In conclusion, the German Drought Monitor is the most objective instrument to assess agricultural droughts in Germany.

Multiscale guidance and tools for implementing a landscape approach to resource management in the Bureau of Land Management

USGS Publications Warehouse

Carter, Sarah K.; Carr, Natasha B.; Miller, Kevin H.; Wood, David J.A.

2017-01-19

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is implementing a landscape approach to resource management (hereafter, landscape approach) to more effectively work with partners and understand the effects of management decisions. A landscape approach is a set of concepts and principles used to guide resource management when multiple stakeholders are involved and goals include diverse and sustainable social, environmental, and economic outcomes. Core principles of a landscape approach include seeking meaningful participation of diverse stakeholders, considering diverse resource values in multifunctional landscapes, acknowledging the tradeoffs needed to meet diverse objectives in the context of sustainable resource management, and addressing the complexity of social and ecological processes by embracing interdisciplinarity and considering multiple and broad spatial and temporal perspectives.In chapter 1, we outline the overall goal of this report: to provide a conceptual foundation and framework for implementing a landscape approach to resource management in the BLM, focusing on the role of multiscale natural resource monitoring and assessment information. In chapter 2, we describe a landscape approach to resource management. BLM actions taken to implement a landscape approach include a major effort to compile broad-scale data on natural resource status and condition across much of the west. These broadscale data now provide a regional context for interpreting monitoring data collected at individual sites and informing decisions made for local projects. We also illustrate the utility of using multiscale data to understand potential effects of different resource management decisions, define relevant terms in landscape ecology, and identify spatial scales at which planning and management decisions may be evaluated.In chapter 3, we describe how the BLM Rapid Ecoregional Assessment program and Assessment, Inventory and Monitoring program may be integrated to provide the multiscale monitoring data needed to inform a landscape approach. We propose six core, broad-scale indicators of natural resource status and condition: the amount, spatial distribution, patch size and connectivity of ecosystems and wildlife habitats, and the pattern of existing development across the landscape. Additional supplemental broad-scale indicators may include fire return intervals, distributions of invasive species, and vulnerability of ecosystems to a changing climate. Landscape intactness is an additional derived indicator that is calculated from one or more of the core and supplemental broad-scale indicators. We then outline a process for assessing broad-scale indicators that is consistent with the overall BLM Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring process, facilitating development of a multiscale natural resource monitoring program. Finally, we describe how broad-scale indicators of natural resource status and condition may guide field monitoring implemented through the BLM Assessment, Inventory and Monitoring program and help address complex management questions.In chapter 4, we consider the specific question of assessing the ecological integrity of rangelands across the western United States. We first define ecological integrity and its relation to land health. We then suggest that a combination of six local-scale indicators collected through field sampling at individual sites and five complementary broad-scale indicators together provide information on the composition, structure, and function of rangelands. The terrestrial monitoring indicators collected at the level of individual field sites are the amount of bare ground, vegetation composition (including invasive plants and plants of management concern), vegetation height, and the proportion of the soil surface in large intercanopy gaps. The broad-scale indicators are vegetation amount, distribution, patch size, connectivity, and productivity, along with the pattern of terrestrial development. Our suggested approach to quantifying ecological integrity focuses specifically on informing management of public lands for multiple resource uses, and illustrates how existing data collected through BLM monitoring and assessment programs may be used together to provide multiscale information on land condition across broad extents.In chapter 5, we develop a method for quantifying landscape intactness and apply this method to the western United States. Our multiscale index of landscape intactness is designed to be defensible, decomposable, and easy to understand. The foundation of the multiscale index of landscape intactness is the surface disturbance footprint of anthropogenic development, including energy and urban development, roads and railroads, cultivated croplands, surface mines and quarries, and energy transmission lines and pipelines. The index represents a gradient of anthropogenic influence as represented by development summarized at two spatial scales of analysis: 2.5 and 20 kilometers. We provide several example applications of the index, illustrating how these data may inform natural resource decisions at the spatial extent of BLM field and district offices, states, ecoregions, and the western United States. We find that 19.2 percent of lands managed by the BLM across the 17 western states of the conterminous United States had the highest landscape intactness. The largest intact areas occur on public lands at high elevations or in the Great Basin.We believe the frameworks, processes, and analyses provided in this report will improve the ability of the BLM to identify and evaluate potential direct and indirect effects of management actions (such as habitat restoration and renewable energy development), and assist the BLM in further implementing a landscape approach to resource management.

The research and application of green computer room environmental monitoring system based on internet of things technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wei, Wang; Chongchao, Pan; Yikai, Liang; Gang, Li

2017-11-01

With the rapid development of information technology, the scale of data center increases quickly, and the energy consumption of computer room also increases rapidly, among which, energy consumption of air conditioning cooling makes up a large proportion. How to apply new technology to reduce the energy consumption of the computer room becomes an important topic of energy saving in the current research. This paper study internet of things technology, and design a kind of green computer room environmental monitoring system. In the system, we can get the real-time environment data from the application of wireless sensor network technology, which will be showed in a creative way of three-dimensional effect. In the environment monitor, we can get the computer room assets view, temperature cloud view, humidity cloud view, microenvironment view and so on. Thus according to the condition of the microenvironment, we can adjust the air volume, temperature and humidity parameters of the air conditioning for the individual equipment cabinet to realize the precise air conditioning refrigeration. And this can reduce the energy consumption of air conditioning, as a result, the overall energy consumption of the green computer room will reduce greatly. At the same time, we apply this project in the computer center of Weihai, and after a year of test and running, we find that it took a good energy saving effect, which fully verified the effectiveness of this project on the energy conservation of the computer room.

Review of Portable and Low-Cost Sensors for the Ambient Air Monitoring of Benzene and Other Volatile Organic Compounds

PubMed Central

Kok, Gertjan; Persijn, Stefan; Sauerwald, Tilman

2017-01-01

This article presents a literature review of sensors for the monitoring of benzene in ambient air and other volatile organic compounds. Combined with information provided by stakeholders, manufacturers and literature, the review considers commercially available sensors, including PID-based sensors, semiconductor (resistive gas sensors) and portable on-line measuring devices as for example sensor arrays. The bibliographic collection includes the following topics: sensor description, field of application at fixed sites, indoor and ambient air monitoring, range of concentration levels and limit of detection in air, model descriptions of the phenomena involved in the sensor detection process, gaseous interference selectivity of sensors in complex VOC matrix, validation data in lab experiments and under field conditions. PMID:28657595

Review of Portable and Low-Cost Sensors for the Ambient Air Monitoring of Benzene and Other Volatile Organic Compounds.

PubMed

Spinelle, Laurent; Gerboles, Michel; Kok, Gertjan; Persijn, Stefan; Sauerwald, Tilman

2017-06-28

This article presents a literature review of sensors for the monitoring of benzene in ambient air and other volatile organic compounds. Combined with information provided by stakeholders, manufacturers and literature, the review considers commercially available sensors, including PID-based sensors, semiconductor (resistive gas sensors) and portable on-line measuring devices as for example sensor arrays. The bibliographic collection includes the following topics: sensor description, field of application at fixed sites, indoor and ambient air monitoring, range of concentration levels and limit of detection in air, model descriptions of the phenomena involved in the sensor detection process, gaseous interference selectivity of sensors in complex VOC matrix, validation data in lab experiments and under field conditions.

Support vector machine in machine condition monitoring and fault diagnosis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Widodo, Achmad; Yang, Bo-Suk

2007-08-01

Recently, the issue of machine condition monitoring and fault diagnosis as a part of maintenance system became global due to the potential advantages to be gained from reduced maintenance costs, improved productivity and increased machine availability. This paper presents a survey of machine condition monitoring and fault diagnosis using support vector machine (SVM). It attempts to summarize and review the recent research and developments of SVM in machine condition monitoring and diagnosis. Numerous methods have been developed based on intelligent systems such as artificial neural network, fuzzy expert system, condition-based reasoning, random forest, etc. However, the use of SVM for machine condition monitoring and fault diagnosis is still rare. SVM has excellent performance in generalization so it can produce high accuracy in classification for machine condition monitoring and diagnosis. Until 2006, the use of SVM in machine condition monitoring and fault diagnosis is tending to develop towards expertise orientation and problem-oriented domain. Finally, the ability to continually change and obtain a novel idea for machine condition monitoring and fault diagnosis using SVM will be future works.

Framework for Structural Online Health Monitoring of Aging and Degradation of Secondary Systems due to some Aspects of Erosion

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gribok, Andrei; Patnaik, Sobhan; Williams, Christian

This report describes the current state of research related to critical aspects of erosion and selected aspects of degradation of secondary components in nuclear power plants. The report also proposes a framework for online health monitoring of aging and degradation of secondary components. The framework consists of an integrated multi-sensor modality system which can be used to monitor different piping configurations under different degradation conditions. The report analyses the currently known degradation mechanisms and available predictive models. Based on this analysis, the structural health monitoring framework is proposed. The Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program began to evaluate technologies that couldmore » be used to perform online monitoring of piping and other secondary system structural components in commercial NPPs. These online monitoring systems have the potential to identify when a more detailed inspection is needed using real-time measurements, rather than at a pre-determined inspection interval. This transition to condition-based, risk informed automated maintenance will contribute to a significant reduction of operations and maintenance costs that account for the majority of nuclear power generation costs. There is unanimous agreement between industry experts and academic researchers that identifying and prioritizing inspection locations in secondary piping systems (for example, in raw water piping or diesel piping) would eliminate many excessive in-service inspections. The proposed structural health monitoring framework takes aim at answering this challenge by combining long-range guided wave technologies with other monitoring techniques, which can significantly increase the inspection length and pinpoint the locations that degraded the most. More widely, the report suggests research efforts aimed at developing, validating, and deploying online corrosion monitoring techniques for complex geometries, which are pervasive in NPPs.« less

Industrial application of ultrasound based in-line rheometry: From stationary to pulsating pipe flow of chocolate suspension in precrystallization process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ouriev, Boris; Windhab, Erich; Braun, Peter; Birkhofer, Beat

2004-10-01

In-line visualization and on-line characterization of nontransparent fluids becomes an important subject for process development in food and nonfood industries. In our work, a noninvasive Doppler ultrasound-based technique is introduced. Such a technique is applied for investigation of nonstationary flow in the chocolate precrystallization process. Unstable flow conditions were induced by abrupt flow interruption and were followed up by strong flow pulsations in the piping system. While relying on available process information, such as absolute pressures and temperatures, no analyses of flow conditions or characterization of suspension properties could possibly be done. It is obvious that chocolate flow properties are sensitive to flow boundary conditions. Therefore, it becomes essential to perform reliable structure state monitoring and particularly in application to nonstationary flow processes. Such flow instabilities in chocolate processing can often lead to failed product quality with interruption of the mainstream production. As will be discussed, a combination of flow velocity profiles, on-line fit into flow profiles, and pressure difference measurement are sufficient for reliable analyses of fluid properties and flow boundary conditions as well as monitoring of the flow state. Analyses of the flow state and flow properties of chocolate suspension are based on on-line measurement of one-dimensional velocity profiles across the flow channel and their on-line characterization with the power-law model. Conclusions about flow boundary conditions were drawn from a calculated velocity standard mean deviation, the parameters of power-law fit into velocity profiles, and volumetric flow rate information.

Non-Dispersive Infrared Sensor for Online Condition Monitoring of Gearbox Oil.

PubMed

Rauscher, Markus S; Tremmel, Anton J; Schardt, Michael; Koch, Alexander W

2017-02-18

The condition of lubricating oil used in automotive and industrial gearboxes must be controlled in order to guarantee optimum performance and prevent damage to machinery parts. In normal practice, this is done by regular oil change intervals and routine laboratory analysis, both of which involve considerable operating costs. In this paper, we present a compact and robust optical sensor that can be installed in the lubrication circuit to provide quasi-continuous information about the condition of the oil. The measuring principle is based on non-dispersive infrared spectroscopy. The implemented sensor setup consists of an optical measurement cell, two thin-film infrared emitters, and two four-channel pyroelectric detectors equipped with optical bandpass filters. We present a method based on multivariate partial least squares regression to select appropriate optical bandpass filters for monitoring the oxidation, water content, and acid number of the oil. We perform a ray tracing analysis to analyze and correct the influence of the light path in the optical setup on the optical parameters of the bandpass filters. The measurement values acquired with the sensor for three different gearbox oil types show high correlation with laboratory reference data for the oxidation, water content, and acid number. The presented sensor can thus be a useful supplementary tool for the online condition monitoring of lubricants when integrated into a gearbox oil circuit.

Non-Dispersive Infrared Sensor for Online Condition Monitoring of Gearbox Oil

PubMed Central

Rauscher, Markus S.; Tremmel, Anton J.; Schardt, Michael; Koch, Alexander W.

2017-01-01

The condition of lubricating oil used in automotive and industrial gearboxes must be controlled in order to guarantee optimum performance and prevent damage to machinery parts. In normal practice, this is done by regular oil change intervals and routine laboratory analysis, both of which involve considerable operating costs. In this paper, we present a compact and robust optical sensor that can be installed in the lubrication circuit to provide quasi-continuous information about the condition of the oil. The measuring principle is based on non-dispersive infrared spectroscopy. The implemented sensor setup consists of an optical measurement cell, two thin-film infrared emitters, and two four-channel pyroelectric detectors equipped with optical bandpass filters. We present a method based on multivariate partial least squares regression to select appropriate optical bandpass filters for monitoring the oxidation, water content, and acid number of the oil. We perform a ray tracing analysis to analyze and correct the influence of the light path in the optical setup on the optical parameters of the bandpass filters. The measurement values acquired with the sensor for three different gearbox oil types show high correlation with laboratory reference data for the oxidation, water content, and acid number. The presented sensor can thus be a useful supplementary tool for the online condition monitoring of lubricants when integrated into a gearbox oil circuit. PMID:28218701

Unintended changes in cognition, mood, and behavior arising from cell-based interventions for neurological conditions: ethical challenges.

PubMed

Duggan, P S; Siegel, A W; Blass, D M; Bok, H; Coyle, J T; Faden, R; Finkel, J; Gearhart, J D; Greely, H T; Hillis, A; Hoke, A; Johnson, R; Johnston, M; Kahn, J; Kerr, D; King, P; Kurtzberg, J; Liao, S M; McDonald, J W; McKhann, G; Nelson, K B; Rao, M; Regenberg, A; Smith, K; Solter, D; Song, H; Sugarman, J; Traystman, R J; Vescovi, A; Yanofski, J; Young, W; Mathews, D J H

2009-05-01

The prospect of using cell-based interventions (CBIs) to treat neurological conditions raises several important ethical and policy questions. In this target article, we focus on issues related to the unique constellation of traits that characterize CBIs targeted at the central nervous system. In particular, there is at least a theoretical prospect that these cells will alter the recipients' cognition, mood, and behavior-brain functions that are central to our concept of the self. The potential for such changes, although perhaps remote, is cause for concern and careful ethical analysis. Both to enable better informed consent in the future and as an end in itself, we argue that early human trials of CBIs for neurological conditions must monitor subjects for changes in cognition, mood, and behavior; further, we recommend concrete steps for that monitoring. Such steps will help better characterize the potential risks and benefits of CBIs as they are tested and potentially used for treatment.

Operational Use of Southern Pine Beetle Survey Information

Treesearch

Maria D. Tchakerian; Robert N. Coulson

2011-01-01

Survey and monitoring activities are generally undertaken to identify where and to what extent insects and diseases are impacting the resources and conditions of the forest environment. Often the usefulness of a survey is directly related to how quickly the data can be collected, organized, interpreted, and viewed. The USDA Forest Service, Forest Health Protection (FHP...

Wilderness recreation use estimation: a handbook of methods and systems

Treesearch

Alan E. Watson; David N. Cole; David L. Turner; Penny S. Reynolds

2000-01-01

Documented evidence shows that managers of units within the U.S. National Wilderness Preservation System are making decisions without reliable information on the amount, types, and distribution of recreation use occurring at these areas. There are clear legislative mandates and agency policies that direct managers to monitor trends in use and conditions in wilderness....

Husbandry of wild-caught song sparrows (Melospiza melodia).

PubMed

Smith, Lori; Hallager, Sara; Kendrick, Erin; Hope, Katharine; Danner, Raymond M

2018-05-08

Conservation and research efforts occasionally rely upon bringing wild animals into human care to establish breeding programs and to understand their biology. Wild-caught birds may have husbandry requirements that differ from captive-reared animals due, in part, to their social development in the wild and potential exposure to novel pathogens. We developed husbandry techniques to minimize stress and monitor health in a population of wild-caught song sparrows (Melospiza melodia). We describe enclosure conditions, diet and enrichment, and best practices for stress reduction. In addition, we describe several health monitoring strategies, including assessing feces quality, body condition scores, and specific signs of infection. These techniques led to successful housing of song sparrows during formal behavioral and developmental studies. This information will be useful for guiding the husbandry of wild-caught passerine birds in the future. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Mental health care Monitor Older adults (MEMO): monitoring patient characteristics and outcome in Dutch mental health services for older adults.

PubMed

Veerbeek, Marjolein; Oude Voshaar, Richard; Depla, Marja; Pot, Anne Margriet

2013-06-01

Information on which older adults attend mental health care and whether they profit from the care they receive is important for policy-makers. To assess this information in daily practice, the "Mental health care Monitor Older adults" (MEMO) was developed in the Netherlands. The aim of this paper is to describe MEMO and the older adults who attend outpatient mental health care regarding their predisposing and enabling characteristics and need for care. In MEMO all patients referred to the division of old age psychiatry of the participating mental health care organisations are assessed at baseline and monitored at 4, 8 and 12-month follow-up. Primary outcomes are mental and social functioning, consumer satisfaction, and type of treatment provided (MEMO Basic). Over the years, MEMO Basic is repeated. In each cycle, additional information on specific patient groups is added (e.g. mood disorders). Data collection is supported by a web-based system for clinicians, including direct feedback to monitor patients throughout treatment. First results at baseline showed that the majority of patients that entered the division of old age psychiatry was female (69%), had low education (83%), lived alone (53%), was depressed (42%) and had a comorbid condition (82%). It seemed that older immigrants were not sufficiently reached. The current study is the first in the Netherlands to evaluate patient characteristics and outcome in mental health care provided for older adults in day-to-day practice. If MEMO works out successfully, the method should be extended to other target groups. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

30 CFR 250.221 - What environmental monitoring information must accompany the EP?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false What environmental monitoring information must... monitoring information must accompany the EP? The following environmental monitoring information, as applicable, must accompany your EP: (a) Monitoring systems. A description of any existing and planned...

Remocean : a marine radar as a safety tool for offshore platforms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Serafino, Francesco; Ludeno, Giovanni; Arturi, Daniele; Lugni, Claudio; Natale, Antonio; Soldovieri, Francesco

2013-04-01

In the recent years, there is a growing interest towards offshore platforms for electric power energy with a focus to the ones exploiting wind or sea surface currents force. In this frame, an important role can be played the marine X-band radar systems, which are able to acquire high resolution information (of the order of the meters) on the sea state (direction and height of the waves) and sea surface current in a range of several kilometers from the radar platform. The information gained from the radar is therefore very useful for many issues related to the offshore platforms installation and safety. In fact, the X-band radar system can be deployed to gain a long-term information about the direction and the velocity of sea surface current so to drive in a proper way the installation of the turbines by choosing the right areas; to use the information about the long-term sea state monitoring to evaluate the vulnerability of the platforms not only against the extreme climate events but also against the structural solicitation due to ordinary conditions; to gain indirect information about the wind intensity and direction for the right management of the wind farms. In this work, we will present the marine radar system designed and developed by REMOCEAN (www.remocean.com), a Spin-off of the National Research Council (CNR, Italy). In particular, we will present the application of the REMOCEAN system to the case of the monitoring of the sea state for the offshore platform safety in real conditions.

Coupling of ground biosensor networks for water monitoring with satellite observations in assessing Leptospirosis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Skouloudis, A. N.; Rickerby, D. G.

2012-12-01

Leptospirosis became recently a major public-health problem that is closely related with the environment (Nature review Oct 2009, Vol 7, pp 736-747). This disease originates from zoonotic pathogens associated with asymptomatic rodent carriers. Unfortunately, it effects human populations via various direct and indirect routes. This disease can claim many victims with large outbreaks during natural disasters or floods occurring during seasonal conditions. The severity of the illness ranges from subclinical infection to a fulminating fatal disease. Improved water quality monitoring techniques based on biosensor, optical, micro-fluidic and information technologies are leading to radical changes in our ability to perceive and monitor the aquatic environment. Biosensors are capable of providing specific, high spatial resolution information and allow unattended operation that will be particularly useful for water borne related diseases. Current research on biosensors is leading to solutions to problems for several contaminants that were previously irresolvable due to their high degree of complexity. Networking of the sensors enables sensitive monitoring systems allowing real-time monitoring of pollutants and facilitates data transmission between the measurement points and central control stations for continuous surveillance and to provide an early warning capability. The application of intelligent biosensor networks for water quality monitoring and detection of localized sources of pollution are discussed together with the setting up of a methodology that utilizes images from satellite coupled with in-situ sensors for anticipating the zones of potential evolution of this disease and assessing the population at risk. Environmental and climatic conditions that are associated the outbreaks are described and the rational of combining earth observations coupled with advanced in-situ biosensors is explained. The implementation of sensor networks for data collection and exposure mapping is reliant on the identification of location where such networks could be of use. Systematic monitoring from satellite images are utilized for increasing the potential areas of application, for assessing the geographical representativeness on the measurements of the sensors and proposing the methodology on assessing the environmental conditions that are associated with outbreaks of leptospirosis. Unfortunately, several combined deployments of earth observations with ground sensors are required before for the understanding of the connections between hydrology and the human health. Ultimately this will lead to the establishment of early warning system that might investigate the effectiveness of key control measures, including vaccine (when they will become available) and affront the water decontamination, and animal control issues.

Infrastructure sensing.

PubMed

Soga, Kenichi; Schooling, Jennifer

2016-08-06

Design, construction, maintenance and upgrading of civil engineering infrastructure requires fresh thinking to minimize use of materials, energy and labour. This can only be achieved by understanding the performance of the infrastructure, both during its construction and throughout its design life, through innovative monitoring. Advances in sensor systems offer intriguing possibilities to radically alter methods of condition assessment and monitoring of infrastructure. In this paper, it is hypothesized that the future of infrastructure relies on smarter information; the rich information obtained from embedded sensors within infrastructure will act as a catalyst for new design, construction, operation and maintenance processes for integrated infrastructure systems linked directly with user behaviour patterns. Some examples of emerging sensor technologies for infrastructure sensing are given. They include distributed fibre-optics sensors, computer vision, wireless sensor networks, low-power micro-electromechanical systems, energy harvesting and citizens as sensors.

Infrastructure sensing

PubMed Central

Soga, Kenichi; Schooling, Jennifer

2016-01-01

Design, construction, maintenance and upgrading of civil engineering infrastructure requires fresh thinking to minimize use of materials, energy and labour. This can only be achieved by understanding the performance of the infrastructure, both during its construction and throughout its design life, through innovative monitoring. Advances in sensor systems offer intriguing possibilities to radically alter methods of condition assessment and monitoring of infrastructure. In this paper, it is hypothesized that the future of infrastructure relies on smarter information; the rich information obtained from embedded sensors within infrastructure will act as a catalyst for new design, construction, operation and maintenance processes for integrated infrastructure systems linked directly with user behaviour patterns. Some examples of emerging sensor technologies for infrastructure sensing are given. They include distributed fibre-optics sensors, computer vision, wireless sensor networks, low-power micro-electromechanical systems, energy harvesting and citizens as sensors. PMID:27499845

Coma Patient Monitoring System Using Image Processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sankalp, Meenu

2011-12-01

COMA PATIENT MONITORING SYSTEM provides high quality healthcare services in the near future. To provide more convenient and comprehensive medical monitoring in big hospitals since it is tough job for medical personnel to monitor each patient for 24 hours.. The latest development in patient monitoring system can be used in Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Critical Care Unit (CCU), and Emergency Rooms of hospital. During treatment, the patient monitor is continuously monitoring the coma patient to transmit the important information. Also in the emergency cases, doctor are able to monitor patient condition efficiently to reduce time consumption, thus it provides more effective healthcare system. So due to importance of patient monitoring system, the continuous monitoring of the coma patient can be simplified. This paper investigates about the effects seen in the patient using "Coma Patient Monitoring System" which is a very advanced product related to physical changes in body movement of the patient and gives Warning in form of alarm and display on the LCD in less than one second time. It also passes a sms to a person sitting at the distant place if there exists any movement in any body part of the patient. The model for the system uses Keil software for the software implementation of the developed system.

Trail resource impacts and an examination of alternative assessment techniques

USGS Publications Warehouse

Marion, J.L.; Leung, Y.-F.

2001-01-01

Trails are a primary recreation resource facility on which recreation activities are performed. They provide safe access to non-roaded areas, support recreational opportunities such as hiking, biking, and wildlife observation, and protect natural resources by concentrating visitor traffic on resistant treads. However, increasing recreational use, coupled with poorly designed and/or maintained trails, has led to a variety of resource impacts. Trail managers require objective information on trails and their conditions to monitor trends, direct trail maintenance efforts, and evaluate the need for visitor management and resource protection actions. This paper reviews trail impacts and different types of trail assessments, including inventory, maintenance, and condition assessment approaches. Two assessment methods, point sampling and problem assessment, are compared empirically from separate assessments of a 15-mile segment of the Appalachian Trail in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Results indicate that point sampling and problem assessment methods yield distinctly different types of quantitative information. The point sampling method provides more accurate and precise measures of trail characteristics that are continuous or frequent (e.g., tread width or exposed soil). The problem assessment method is a preferred approach for monitoring trail characteristics that can be easily predefined or are infrequent (e.g., excessive width or secondary treads), particularly when information on the location of specific trail impact problems is needed. The advantages and limitations of these two assessment methods are examined in relation to various management and research information needs. The choice and utility of these assessment methods are also discussed.

Review of wildlife resources of Vandenberg Air Force Base, California

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Breininger, David R.

1989-01-01

Wildlife resources are reviewed for purposes of developing a Base Biological Monitoring Program (BMP) for Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in Santa Barbara County, California. The review and recommendations were prepared by review of applicable scientific literature and environmental documents for VAFB, discussing information needs with natural resource management professionals at VAFB, and observations of base field conditions. This process found that there are 29 federally listed vertebrates (endangered, threatened, or Category 2) that occur or may occur in the vicinity of VAFB. There are also 63 other state listed or regionally declining species that may occur in the vicinity of VAFB. Habitats of VAFB represent a very valuable environmental resource for rare and declining wildlife in California. However, little information is available on VAFB wildlife resources other than lists of species that occur or are expected to occur. Recommendations are presented to initiate a long-term wildlife monitoring program at VAFB to provide information for environmental impact assessment and wise land use planning.

Influences of Source - Item Contingency and Schematic Knowledge on Source Monitoring: Tests of the Probability-Matching Account

PubMed Central

Bayen, Ute J.; Kuhlmann, Beatrice G.

2010-01-01

The authors investigated conditions under which judgments in source-monitoring tasks are influenced by prior schematic knowledge. According to a probability-matching account of source guessing (Spaniol & Bayen, 2002), when people do not remember the source of information, they match source guessing probabilities to the perceived contingency between sources and item types. When they do not have a representation of a contingency, they base their guesses on prior schematic knowledge. The authors provide support for this account in two experiments with sources presenting information that was expected for one source and somewhat unexpected for another. Schema-relevant information about the sources was provided at the time of encoding. When contingency perception was impeded by dividing attention, participants showed schema-based guessing (Experiment 1). Manipulating source - item contingency also affected guessing (Experiment 2). When this contingency was schema-inconsistent, it superseded schema-based expectations and led to schema-inconsistent guessing. PMID:21603251

Adaptive resource management and the value of information

USGS Publications Warehouse

Williams, Byron K.; Eaton, Mitchell J.; Breininger, David R.

2011-01-01

The value of information is a general and broadly applicable concept that has been used for several decades to aid in making decisions in the face of uncertainty. Yet there are relatively few examples of its use in ecology and natural resources management, and almost none that are framed in terms of the future impacts of management decisions. In this paper we discuss the value of information in a context of adaptive management, in which actions are taken sequentially over a timeframe and both future resource conditions and residual uncertainties about resource responses are taken into account. Our objective is to derive the value of reducing or eliminating uncertainty in adaptive decision making. We describe several measures of the value of information, with each based on management objectives that are appropriate for adaptive management. We highlight some mathematical properties of these measures, discuss their geometries, and illustrate them with an example in natural resources management. Accounting for the value of information can help to inform decisions about whether and how much to monitor resource conditions through time.

Adaptive resource management and the value of information

USGS Publications Warehouse

Williams, B.K.; Eaton, M.J.; Breininger, D.R.

2011-01-01

The value of information is a general and broadly applicable concept that has been used for several decades to aid in making decisions in the face of uncertainty. Yet there are relatively few examples of its use in ecology and natural resources management, and almost none that are framed in terms of the future impacts of management decisions. In this paper we discuss the value of information in a context of adaptive management, in which actions are taken sequentially over a timeframe and both future resource conditions and residual uncertainties about resource responses are taken into account. Our objective is to derive the value of reducing or eliminating uncertainty in adaptive decision making. We describe several measures of the value of information, with each based on management objectives that are appropriate for adaptive management. We highlight some mathematical properties of these measures, discuss their geometries, and illustrate them with an example in natural resources management. Accounting for the value of information can help to inform decisions about whether and how much to monitor resource conditions through time. ?? 2011.

Social Monitoring Matters for Deterring Social Deviance in Stable but Not Mobile Socio-Ecological Contexts

PubMed Central

Su, Jenny C.; Chiu, Chi-Yue; Lin, Wei-Fang; Oishi, Shigehiro

2016-01-01

Previous research suggests that reputational concerns can incentivize cooperation and deter socially deviant behavior. The current research showed that social monitoring of information that has the potential to damage one’s reputation has differential effects on deviant behavior in social-ecological environments that vary in level of mobility. Study 1 showed that residentially stable cities that employed more journalists—who can be regarded as social monitoring agents in a community—tended to have lower rates of violent crime than residentially stable cities that employed fewer journalists; by contrast, in residentially mobile cities, violent crime rates did not vary as a function of the number of journalists employed. In Study 2, we found that individual differences in perceptions of relational mobility moderated the effects of social monitoring on cheating in a die-under-cup game. Specifically, social monitoring cues reduced the likelihood of cheating but only among participants who perceived their immediate social environment to be low in relational mobility. The same results were replicated in Study 3, an experiment in which participants’ perception of relational mobility was manipulated before completing an online maze game that allowed them to earn extra cash. In the low mobility condition, the percentage of participants who continued working on the mazes after reaching the time limit decreased as a function of social monitoring; however, this pattern was not observed in the high mobility condition. Together, our findings suggest that socioecological context matters for understanding effective mechanisms of social control. PMID:27880826

Social Monitoring Matters for Deterring Social Deviance in Stable but Not Mobile Socio-Ecological Contexts.

PubMed

Su, Jenny C; Chiu, Chi-Yue; Lin, Wei-Fang; Oishi, Shigehiro

2016-01-01

Previous research suggests that reputational concerns can incentivize cooperation and deter socially deviant behavior. The current research showed that social monitoring of information that has the potential to damage one's reputation has differential effects on deviant behavior in social-ecological environments that vary in level of mobility. Study 1 showed that residentially stable cities that employed more journalists-who can be regarded as social monitoring agents in a community-tended to have lower rates of violent crime than residentially stable cities that employed fewer journalists; by contrast, in residentially mobile cities, violent crime rates did not vary as a function of the number of journalists employed. In Study 2, we found that individual differences in perceptions of relational mobility moderated the effects of social monitoring on cheating in a die-under-cup game. Specifically, social monitoring cues reduced the likelihood of cheating but only among participants who perceived their immediate social environment to be low in relational mobility. The same results were replicated in Study 3, an experiment in which participants' perception of relational mobility was manipulated before completing an online maze game that allowed them to earn extra cash. In the low mobility condition, the percentage of participants who continued working on the mazes after reaching the time limit decreased as a function of social monitoring; however, this pattern was not observed in the high mobility condition. Together, our findings suggest that socioecological context matters for understanding effective mechanisms of social control.

Optimization of remediation strategies using vadose zone monitoring systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dahan, Ofer

2016-04-01

In-situ bio-remediation of the vadose zone depends mainly on the ability to change the subsurface hydrological, physical and chemical conditions in order to enable development of specific, indigenous, pollutants degrading bacteria. As such the remediation efficiency is much dependent on the ability to implement optimal hydraulic and chemical conditions in deep sections of the vadose zone. These conditions are usually determined in laboratory experiments where parameters such as the chemical composition of the soil water solution, redox potential and water content of the sediment are fully controlled. Usually, implementation of desired optimal degradation conditions in deep vadose zone at full scale field setups is achieved through infiltration of water enriched with chemical additives on the land surface. It is assumed that deep percolation into the vadose zone would create chemical conditions that promote biodegradation of specific compounds. However, application of water with specific chemical conditions near land surface dose not necessarily results in promoting of desired chemical and hydraulic conditions in deep sections of the vadose zone. A vadose-zone monitoring system (VMS) that was recently developed allows continuous monitoring of the hydrological and chemical properties of deep sections of the unsaturated zone. The VMS includes flexible time-domain reflectometry (FTDR) probes which allow continuous monitoring of the temporal variation of the vadose zone water content, and vadose-zone sampling ports (VSPs) which are designed to allow frequent sampling of the sediment pore-water and gas at multiple depths. Implementation of the vadose zone monitoring system in sites that undergoes active remediation provides real time information on the actual chemical and hydrological conditions in the vadose zone as the remediation process progresses. Up-to-date the system has been successfully implemented in several studies on water flow and contaminant transport in the unsaturated zone including enhanced bioremediation of contaminated deep vadose zone (40 m depth). Manipulating subsurface conditions for enhanced bioremediation was demonstrated through two remediation projects. One site is characterized by 20 m deep vadose zone that is contaminated with gasoline products and the other is a 40 m deep vadose zone that is contaminated with perchlorate. In both cases temporal variation of the sediment water content as well as the variations in the vadose zone chemical and isotopic composition allowed real time detection of water flow velocities, contaminants transport rates and bio-degradation degree. Results and conclusions from each wetting cycle were used to improve the following wetting cycles in order to optimize contaminants degradation conditions while minimizing leaching of contaminants to the groundwater.

Parameter monitoring compensation system and method

DOEpatents

Barkman, William E.; Babelay, Edwin F.; DeMint, Paul D.; Hebble, Thomas L.; Igou, Richard E.; Williams, Richard R.; Klages, Edward J.; Rasnick, William H.

1995-01-01

A compensation system for a computer-controlled machining apparatus having a controller and including a cutting tool and a workpiece holder which are movable relative to one another along preprogrammed path during a machining operation utilizes sensors for gathering information at a preselected stage of a machining operation relating to an actual condition. The controller compares the actual condition to a condition which the program presumes to exist at the preselected stage and alters the program in accordance with detected variations between the actual condition and the assumed condition. Such conditions may be related to process parameters, such as a position, dimension or shape of the cutting tool or workpiece or an environmental temperature associated with the machining operation, and such sensors may be a contact or a non-contact type of sensor or a temperature transducer.

The Effects of Continuous Vs. Intermittent Self-Monitoring on the Duration and Magnitude of Behavior Change.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schayer, Laurel L.; Schroeder, Harold E.

Continuous self-monitoring (CSM) was compared with a demand characteristics control condition (non self-monitoring), with intermittent self-monitoring (ISM) and with another control condition. It was predicted that both self-monitoring conditions would produce effects over and above the demand characteristics inherent in the self-monitoring…

A National Crop Progress Monitoring and Decision Support System Based on NASA Earth Science Results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

di, L.; Yang, Z.

2009-12-01

Timely and accurate information on weekly crop progress and development is essential to a dynamic agricultural industry in the U. S. and the world. By law, the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) of the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) is responsible for monitoring and assessing U.S. agricultural production. Currently NASS compiles and issues weekly state and national crop progress and development reports based on reports from knowledgeable state and county agricultural officials and farmers. Such survey-based reports are subjectively estimated for an entire county, lack spatial coverage, and are labor intensive. There has been limited use of remote sensing data to assess crop conditions. NASS produces weekly 1-km resolution un-calibrated AVHRR-based NDVI static images to represent national vegetation conditions but there is no quantitative crop progress information. This presentation discusses the early result for developing a National Crop Progress Monitoring and Decision Support System. The system will overcome the shortcomings of the existing systems by integrating NASA satellite and model-based land surface and weather products, NASS’ wealth of internal crop progress and condition data and Cropland Data Layers (CDL), and the Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) Common Land Units (CLU). The system, using service-oriented architecture and web service technologies, will automatically produce and disseminate quantitative national crop progress maps and associated decision support data at 250-m resolution, as well as summary reports to support NASS and worldwide users in their decision-making. It will provide overall and specific crop progress for individual crops from the state level down to CLU field level to meet different users’ needs on all known croplands. This will greatly enhance the effectiveness and accuracy of the NASS aggregated crop condition data and charts of and provides objective and scientific evidence and guidance for the adjustment of NASS survey data. This presentation will discuss the architecture, Earth observation data, and the crop progress model used in the decision support system.

Conceptual Design for the Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Battaglin, W. A.; Langtimm, C. A.; Adams, M. J.; Gallant, A. L.; James, D. L.

2001-12-01

In 2000, the President of the United States (US) and Congress directed Department of Interior (DOI) agencies to develop a program for monitoring trends in amphibian populations on DOI lands and to conduct research into causes of declines. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) was given lead responsibility for planning and implementing the Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI) in cooperation with the National Park Service (NPS), Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Land Management. The program objectives are to (1) establish a network for monitoring the status and distribution of amphibian species on DOI lands; (2) identify and monitor environmental conditions known to affect amphibian populations; (3) conduct research on causes of amphibian population change and malformations; and (4) provide information to resource managers, policy makers, and the public in support of amphibian conservation. The ARMI program will integrate research efforts of USGS, other Federal, and non-federal herpetologists, hydrologists, and geographers across the Nation. ARMI will conduct a small number (~20) of intensive research efforts (for example, studies linking amphibian population changes to hydrologic conditions) and a larger number (~50) of more generalized inventory and monitoring studies encompassing broader areas such as NPS units. ARMI will coordinate with and try to augment other amphibian inventory studies such as the National Amphibian Atlas and the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program. ARMI will develop and test protocols for the standardized collection of amphibian data and provide a centrally managed database designed to simplify data entry, retrieval, and analysis. ARMI pilot projects are underway at locations across the US.

Integrating Land Cover Modeling and Adaptive Management to Conserve Endangered Species and Reduce Catastrophic Fire Risk

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Breininger, David; Duncan, Brean; Eaton, Mitchell; Johnson, Fred; Nichols, James

2014-01-01

Land cover modeling is used to inform land management, but most often via a two-step process where science informs how management alternatives can influence resources and then decision makers can use this to make decisions. A more efficient process is to directly integrate science and decision making, where science allows us to learn to better accomplish management objectives and is developed to address specific decisions. Co-development of management and science is especially productive when decisions are complicated by multiple objectives and impeded by uncertainty. Multiple objectives can be met by specification of tradeoffs, and relevant uncertainty can be addressed through targeted science (i.e., models and monitoring). We describe how to integrate habitat and fuels monitoring with decision making focused on dual objectives of managing for endangered species and minimizing catastrophic fire risk. Under certain conditions, both objectives might be achieved by a similar management policy, but habitat trajectories suggest tradeoffs. Knowledge about system responses to actions can be informed by applying competing management actions to different land units in the same system state and by ideas about fire behavior. Monitoring and management integration is important to optimize state-specific management decisions and increase knowledge about system responses. We believe this approach has broad utility for and cover modeling programs intended to inform decision making.

Display/control requirements for automated VTOL aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hoffman, W. C.; Kleinman, D. L.; Young, L. R.

1976-01-01

A systematic design methodology for pilot displays in advanced commercial VTOL aircraft was developed and refined. The analyst is provided with a step-by-step procedure for conducting conceptual display/control configurations evaluations for simultaneous monitoring and control pilot tasks. The approach consists of three phases: formulation of information requirements, configuration evaluation, and system selection. Both the monitoring and control performance models are based upon the optimal control model of the human operator. Extensions to the conventional optimal control model required in the display design methodology include explicit optimization of control/monitoring attention; simultaneous monitoring and control performance predictions; and indifference threshold effects. The methodology was applied to NASA's experimental CH-47 helicopter in support of the VALT program. The CH-47 application examined the system performance of six flight conditions. Four candidate configurations are suggested for evaluation in pilot-in-the-loop simulations and eventual flight tests.

Human factors approach to evaluate the user interface of physiologic monitoring.

PubMed

Fidler, Richard; Bond, Raymond; Finlay, Dewar; Guldenring, Daniel; Gallagher, Anthony; Pelter, Michele; Drew, Barbara; Hu, Xiao

2015-01-01

As technology infiltrates more of our personal and professional lives, user expectations for intuitive design have driven many consumer products, while medical equipment continues to have high training requirements. Not much is known about the usability and user experience associated with hospital monitoring equipment. This pilot project aimed to better understand and describe the user interface interaction and user experience with physiologic monitoring technology. This was a prospective, descriptive, mixed-methods quality improvement project to analyze perceptions and task analyses of physiologic monitors. Following a survey of practice patterns and perceived abilities to accomplish key tasks, 10 voluntary experienced physician and nurse subjects were asked to perform a series of tasks in 7 domains of monitor operations on GE Monitoring equipment in a single institution. For each task analysis, data were collected on time to complete the task, the number of button pushes or clicks required to accomplish the task, economy of motion, and observed errors. Although 60% of the participants reported incorporating monitoring data into patient care, 80% of participants preferred to receive monitoring data at the point of care (bedside). Average perceived central station usability is 5.3 out of 10 (ten is easiest). High variability exists in monitoring station interaction performance among those participating in this project. Alarms were almost universally silenced without cognitive recognition of the alarm state. Education related to monitoring operations appeared largely absent in this sample. Most users perceived the interface to not be intuitive, complaining of multiple layers and steps for data retrieval. These clinicians report real-time monitoring helpful for abrupt changes in condition like arrhythmias; however, reviewing alarms is not prioritized as valuable due to frequent false alarms. Participants requested exporting monitoring data to electronic medical records. Much research is needed to develop best practices for display of real-time information, organization and filtering of meaningful data, and simplified ways to find information. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Space Data for Crop Management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1990-01-01

CROPIX, Inc., formed in 1984 by Frank Lamb, president of the Eastern Oregon Farming Company, monitors primarily potato crops in a 20,000 square mile area of northern Oregon and central Washington. Potatoes are a high value specialty crop that can be more profitable to the farmer if he has advance knowledge of market conditions, knows when to harvest, and when to take it to market. By processing and collecting data collected by the NASA-developed Landsat Earth Resources survey satellites, Lamb is able to provide accurate information on crop acreage and conditions on a more timely basis than the routine estimates by the USDA. CROPIX uses Landsat data to make acreage estimates of crops, and to calculate a field-by-field vegetative index number. CROPIX then distributes to its customers a booklet containing color-coded maps, an inventory of crops, plus data and graphs on crop conditions and other valuable information.

[Application of electronic fence technology based on GIS in Oncomelania hupensis snail monitoring].

PubMed

Zhi-Hua, Chen; Yi-Sheng, Zhu; Zhi-Qiang, Xue; Xue-Bing, Li; Yi-Min, Ding; Li-Jun, Bi; Kai-Min, Gao; You, Zhang

2017-07-27

To study the application of Geographic Information System (GIS) electronic fence technique in Oncomelania hupensis snail monitoring. The electronic fence was set around the history and existing snail environments in the electronic map, the information about snail monitoring and controlling was linked to the electronic fence, and the snail monitoring information system was established on these bases. The monitoring information was input through the computer and smart phone. The electronic fence around the history and existing snail environments was set in the electronic map (Baidu map), and the snail monitoring information system and smart phone APP were established. The monitoring information was input and upload real-time, and the snail monitoring information was demonstrated in real time on Baidu map. By using the electronic fence technology based on GIS, the unique "environment electronic archives" for each snail monitoring environment can be established in the electronic map, and real-time, dynamic monitoring and visual management can be realized.

Applications of Low Altitude Remote Sensing in Agriculture upon Farmers' Requests– A Case Study in Northeastern Ontario, Canada

PubMed Central

Zhang, Chunhua; Walters, Dan; Kovacs, John M.

2014-01-01

With the growth of the low altitude remote sensing (LARS) industry in recent years, their practical application in precision agriculture seems all the more possible. However, only a few scientists have reported using LARS to monitor crop conditions. Moreover, there have been concerns regarding the feasibility of such systems for producers given the issues related to the post-processing of images, technical expertise, and timely delivery of information. The purpose of this study is to showcase actual requests by farmers to monitor crop conditions in their fields using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Working in collaboration with farmers in northeastern Ontario, we use optical and near-infrared imagery to monitor fertilizer trials, conduct crop scouting and map field tile drainage. We demonstrate that LARS imagery has many practical applications. However, several obstacles remain, including the costs associated with both the LARS system and the image processing software, the extent of professional training required to operate the LARS and to process the imagery, and the influence from local weather conditions (e.g. clouds, wind) on image acquisition all need to be considered. Consequently, at present a feasible solution for producers might be the use of LARS service provided by private consultants or in collaboration with LARS scientific research teams. PMID:25386696

High-resolution near real-time drought monitoring in South Asia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aadhar, Saran; Mishra, Vimal

2017-10-01

Drought in South Asia affect food and water security and pose challenges for millions of people. For policy-making, planning, and management of water resources at sub-basin or administrative levels, high-resolution datasets of precipitation and air temperature are required in near-real time. We develop a high-resolution (0.05°) bias-corrected precipitation and temperature data that can be used to monitor near real-time drought conditions over South Asia. Moreover, the dataset can be used to monitor climatic extremes (heat and cold waves, dry and wet anomalies) in South Asia. A distribution mapping method was applied to correct bias in precipitation and air temperature, which performed well compared to the other bias correction method based on linear scaling. Bias-corrected precipitation and temperature data were used to estimate Standardized precipitation index (SPI) and Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) to assess the historical and current drought conditions in South Asia. We evaluated drought severity and extent against the satellite-based Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) anomalies and satellite-driven Drought Severity Index (DSI) at 0.05°. The bias-corrected high-resolution data can effectively capture observed drought conditions as shown by the satellite-based drought estimates. High resolution near real-time dataset can provide valuable information for decision-making at district and sub-basin levels.

Applications of low altitude remote sensing in agriculture upon farmers' requests--a case study in northeastern Ontario, Canada.

PubMed

Zhang, Chunhua; Walters, Dan; Kovacs, John M

2014-01-01

With the growth of the low altitude remote sensing (LARS) industry in recent years, their practical application in precision agriculture seems all the more possible. However, only a few scientists have reported using LARS to monitor crop conditions. Moreover, there have been concerns regarding the feasibility of such systems for producers given the issues related to the post-processing of images, technical expertise, and timely delivery of information. The purpose of this study is to showcase actual requests by farmers to monitor crop conditions in their fields using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Working in collaboration with farmers in northeastern Ontario, we use optical and near-infrared imagery to monitor fertilizer trials, conduct crop scouting and map field tile drainage. We demonstrate that LARS imagery has many practical applications. However, several obstacles remain, including the costs associated with both the LARS system and the image processing software, the extent of professional training required to operate the LARS and to process the imagery, and the influence from local weather conditions (e.g. clouds, wind) on image acquisition all need to be considered. Consequently, at present a feasible solution for producers might be the use of LARS service provided by private consultants or in collaboration with LARS scientific research teams.

The Implementation Internet of Things(IoT) Technology in Real Time Monitoring of Electrical Quantities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Despa, D.; Nama, G. F.; Muhammad, M. A.; Anwar, K.

2018-04-01

Electrical quantities such as Voltage, Current, Power, Power Factor, Energy, and Frequency in electrical power system tends to fluctuate, as a result of load changes, disturbances, or other abnormal states. The change-state in electrical quantities should be identify immediately, otherwise it can lead to serious problem for whole system. Therefore a necessity is required to determine the condition of electricity change-state quickly and appropriately in order to make effective decisions. Online monitoring of power distribution system based on Internet of Things (IoT) technology was deploy and implemented on Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Lampung (Unila), especially at three-phase main distribution panel H-building. The measurement system involve multiple sensors such current sensors and voltage sensors, while data processing conducted by Arduino, the measurement data stored in to the database server and shown in a real-time through a web-based application. This measurement system has several important features especially for realtime monitoring, robust data acquisition and logging, system reporting, so it will produce an important information that can be used for various purposes of future power analysis such estimation and planning. The result of this research shown that the condition of electrical power system at H-building performed unbalanced load, which often leads to drop-voltage condition

Monitoring and control of amygdala neurofeedback involves distributed information processing in the human brain.

PubMed

Paret, Christian; Zähringer, Jenny; Ruf, Matthias; Gerchen, Martin Fungisai; Mall, Stephanie; Hendler, Talma; Schmahl, Christian; Ende, Gabriele

2018-03-30

Brain-computer interfaces provide conscious access to neural activity by means of brain-derived feedback ("neurofeedback"). An individual's abilities to monitor and control feedback are two necessary processes for effective neurofeedback therapy, yet their underlying functional neuroanatomy is still being debated. In this study, healthy subjects received visual feedback from their amygdala response to negative pictures. Activation and functional connectivity were analyzed to disentangle the role of brain regions in different processes. Feedback monitoring was mapped to the thalamus, ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), ventral striatum (VS), and rostral PFC. The VS responded to feedback corresponding to instructions while rPFC activity differentiated between conditions and predicted amygdala regulation. Control involved the lateral PFC, anterior cingulate, and insula. Monitoring and control activity overlapped in the VS and thalamus. Extending current neural models of neurofeedback, this study introduces monitoring and control of feedback as anatomically dissociated processes, and suggests their important role in voluntary neuromodulation. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Transcranial diffuse optical monitoring of microvascular cerebral hemodynamics after thrombolysis in ischemic stroke

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zirak, Peyman; Delgado-Mederos, Raquel; Dinia, Lavinia; Carrera, David; Martí-Fàbregas, Joan; Durduran, Turgut

2014-01-01

The ultimate goal of therapeutic strategies for ischemic stroke is to reestablish the blood flow to the ischemic region of the brain. However, currently, the local cerebral hemodynamics (microvascular) is almost entirely inaccessible for stroke clinicians at the patient bed-side, and the recanalization of the major cerebral arteries (macrovascular) is the only available measure to evaluate the therapy, which does not always reflect the local conditions. Here we report the case of an ischemic stroke patient whose microvascular cerebral blood flow and oxygenation were monitored by a compact hybrid diffuse optical monitor during thrombolytic therapy. This monitor combined diffuse correlation spectroscopy and near-infrared spectroscopy. The reperfusion assessed by hybrid diffuse optics temporally correlated with the recanalization of the middle cerebral artery (assessed by transcranial-Doppler) and was in agreement with the patient outcome. This study suggests that upon further investigation, diffuse optics might have a potential for bed-side acute stroke monitoring and therapy guidance by providing hemodynamics information at the microvascular level.

Transcranial diffuse optical monitoring of microvascular cerebral hemodynamics after thrombolysis in ischemic stroke.

PubMed

Zirak, Peyman; Delgado-Mederos, Raquel; Dinia, Lavinia; Carrera, David; Martí-Fàbregas, Joan; Durduran, Turgut

2014-01-01

The ultimate goal of therapeutic strategies for ischemic stroke is to reestablish the blood flow to the ischemic region of the brain. However, currently, the local cerebral hemodynamics (microvascular) is almost entirely inaccessible for stroke clinicians at the patient bed-side, and the recanalization of the major cerebral arteries (macrovascular) is the only available measure to evaluate the therapy, which does not always reflect the local conditions. Here we report the case of an ischemic stroke patient whose microvascular cerebral blood flow and oxygenation were monitored by a compact hybrid diffuse optical monitor during thrombolytic therapy. This monitor combined diffuse correlation spectroscopy and near-infrared spectroscopy. The reperfusion assessed by hybrid diffuse optics temporally correlated with the recanalization of the middle cerebral artery (assessed by transcranial-Doppler) and was in agreement with the patient outcome. This study suggests that upon further investigation, diffuse optics might have a potential for bed-side acute stroke monitoring and therapy guidance by providing hemodynamics information at the microvascular level.

The utility of Bayesian predictive probabilities for interim monitoring of clinical trials

PubMed Central

Connor, Jason T.; Ayers, Gregory D; Alvarez, JoAnn

2014-01-01

Background Bayesian predictive probabilities can be used for interim monitoring of clinical trials to estimate the probability of observing a statistically significant treatment effect if the trial were to continue to its predefined maximum sample size. Purpose We explore settings in which Bayesian predictive probabilities are advantageous for interim monitoring compared to Bayesian posterior probabilities, p-values, conditional power, or group sequential methods. Results For interim analyses that address prediction hypotheses, such as futility monitoring and efficacy monitoring with lagged outcomes, only predictive probabilities properly account for the amount of data remaining to be observed in a clinical trial and have the flexibility to incorporate additional information via auxiliary variables. Limitations Computational burdens limit the feasibility of predictive probabilities in many clinical trial settings. The specification of prior distributions brings additional challenges for regulatory approval. Conclusions The use of Bayesian predictive probabilities enables the choice of logical interim stopping rules that closely align with the clinical decision making process. PMID:24872363

2012 Annual Industrial Wastewater Reuse Report for the Idaho National Laboratory Site’s Materials and Fuels Complex Industrial Waste Ditch and Industrial Waste Pond

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mike Lewis

2013-02-01

This report describes conditions, as required by the state of Idaho Industrial Wastewater Reuse Permit (WRU-I-0160-01, formerly LA 000160 01), for the wastewater reuse site at the Idaho National Laboratory Site’s Materials and Fuels Complex Industrial Waste Ditch and Industrial Waste Pond from November 1, 2011 through October 31, 2012. The report contains the following information: • Facility and system description • Permit required effluent monitoring data and loading rates • Groundwater monitoring data • Status of special compliance conditions • Discussion of the facility’s environmental impacts During the 2012 reporting year, an estimated 11.84 million gallons of wastewater weremore » discharged to the Industrial Waste Ditch and Pond which is well below the permit limit of 17 million gallons per year. The concentrations of all permit-required analytes in the samples from the down gradient monitoring wells were below the Ground Water Quality Rule Primary and Secondary Constituent Standards.« less

Correlation of Electrical Resistance to CMC Stress-Strain and Fracture Behavior Under High Heat-Flux Thermal and Stress Gradients

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Appleby, Matthew; Morscher, Gregory; Zhu, Dongming

2015-01-01

Because SiCSiC ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) are under consideration for use as turbine engine hot-section components in extreme environments, it becomes necessary to investigate their performance and damage morphologies under complex loading and environmental conditions. Monitoring of electrical resistance (ER) has been shown as an effective tool for detecting damage accumulation of woven melt-infiltrated SiCSiC CMCs. However, ER change under complicated thermo-mechanical loading is not well understood. In this study a systematic approach is taken to determine the capabilities of ER as a relevant non-destructive evaluation technique for high heat-flux testing, including thermal gradients and localized stress concentrations. Room temperature and high temperature, laser-based tensile tests were conducted in which stress-dependent damage locations were determined using modal acoustic emission (AE) monitoring and compared to full-field strain mapping using digital image correlation (DIC). This information is then compared with the results of in-situ ER monitoring, post-test ER inspection and fractography in order to correlate ER response to convoluted loading conditions and damage evolution.

Management system of occupational diseases in Korea: statistics, report and monitoring system.

PubMed

Rhee, Kyung Yong; Choe, Seong Weon

2010-12-01

The management system of occupational diseases in Korea can be assessed from the perspective of a surveillance system. Workers' compensation insurance reports are used to produce official statistics on occupational diseases in Korea. National working conditions surveys are used to monitor the magnitude of work-related symptoms and signs in the labor force. A health examination program was introduced to detect occupational diseases through both selective and mass screening programs. The Working Environment Measurement Institution assesses workers' exposure to hazards in the workplace. Government regulates that the employer should do health examinations and working conditions measurement through contracted private agencies and following the Occupational Safety and Health Act. It is hoped that these institutions may be able to effectively detect and monitor occupational diseases and hazards in the workplace. In view of this, the occupational management system in Korea is well designed, except for the national survey system. In the future, national surveys for detection of hazards and ill-health outcomes in workers should be developed. The existing surveillance system for occupational disease can be improved by providing more refined information through statistical analysis of surveillance data.

2014 Annual Industrial Wastewater Reuse Report for the Idaho National Laboratory Site’s Materials and Fuels Complex Industrial Waste Ditch and Industrial Waste Pond

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lewis, Mike

This report describes conditions, as required by the state of Idaho Industrial Wastewater Reuse Permit (WRU-I-0160-01, formerly LA 000160 01), for the wastewater reuse site at the Idaho National Laboratory Site’s Materials and Fuels Complex Industrial Waste Ditch and Industrial Waste Pond from November 1, 2013 through October 31, 2014. The report contains the following information; Facility and system description; Permit required effluent monitoring data and loading rates; Groundwater monitoring data; Status of special compliance conditions; Noncompliance issues; and Discussion of the facility’s environmental impacts During the 2014 reporting year, an estimated 10.11 million gallons of wastewater were discharged tomore » the Industrial Waste Ditch and Pond which is well below the permit limit of 17 million gallons per year. The concentrations of all permit-required analytes in the samples from the down gradient monitoring wells were below the applicable Idaho Department of Environmental Quality’s groundwater quality standard levels.« less

2013 Annual Industrial Wastewater Reuse Report for the Idaho National Laboratory Site’s Materials and Fuels Complex Industrial Waste Ditch and Industrial Waste Pond

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mike Lewis

This report describes conditions, as required by the state of Idaho Industrial Wastewater Reuse Permit (WRU-I-0160-01, formerly LA 000160 01), for the wastewater reuse site at the Idaho National Laboratory Site’s Materials and Fuels Complex Industrial Waste Ditch and Industrial Waste Pond from November 1, 2012 through October 31, 2013. The report contains the following information: • Facility and system description • Permit required effluent monitoring data and loading rates • Groundwater monitoring data • Status of special compliance conditions • Discussion of the facility’s environmental impacts During the 2013 reporting year, an estimated 9.64 million gallons of wastewater weremore » discharged to the Industrial Waste Ditch and Pond which is well below the permit limit of 17 million gallons per year. The concentrations of all permit-required analytes in the samples from the down gradient monitoring wells were below the applicable Idaho Department of Environmental Quality’s groundwater quality standard levels.« less

30 CFR 550.221 - What environmental monitoring information must accompany the EP?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false What environmental monitoring information must... Information Contents of Exploration Plans (ep) § 550.221 What environmental monitoring information must accompany the EP? The following environmental monitoring information, as applicable, must accompany your EP...

30 CFR 550.221 - What environmental monitoring information must accompany the EP?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false What environmental monitoring information must... Information Contents of Exploration Plans (ep) § 550.221 What environmental monitoring information must accompany the EP? The following environmental monitoring information, as applicable, must accompany your EP...

30 CFR 550.221 - What environmental monitoring information must accompany the EP?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false What environmental monitoring information must... Information Contents of Exploration Plans (ep) § 550.221 What environmental monitoring information must accompany the EP? The following environmental monitoring information, as applicable, must accompany your EP...

Critical care nursing: Embedded complex systems.

PubMed

Trinier, Ruth; Liske, Lori; Nenadovic, Vera

2016-01-01

Variability in parameters such as heart rate, respiratory rate and blood pressure defines healthy physiology and the ability of the person to adequately respond to stressors. Critically ill patients have lost this variability and require highly specialized nursing care to support life and monitor changes in condition. The critical care environment is a dynamic system through which information flows. The critical care unit is typically designed as a tree structure with generally one attending physician and multiple nurses and allied health care professionals. Information flow through the system allows for identification of deteriorating patient status and timely interventionfor rescue from further deleterious effects. Nurses provide the majority of direct patient care in the critical care setting in 2:1, 1:1 or 1:2 nurse-to-patient ratios. The bedside nurse-critically ill patient relationship represents the primary, real-time feedback loop of information exchange, monitoring and treatment. Variables that enhance information flow through this loop and support timely nursing intervention can improve patient outcomes, while barriers can lead to errors and adverse events. Examining patient information flow in the critical care environment from a dynamic systems perspective provides insights into how nurses deliver effective patient care and prevent adverse events.

Forecasting the wellness of elderly through SNMS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Yuan; Li, Lingling; Ma, Chao; Li, Lian; Huang, Bingqing; Liu, Li

2017-03-01

Accurate and timely information collection is important for physicians to provide prompt and appropriate treatment for patients. In this paper, a smart nursing home monitoring system which can predict the health conditions of the elderly people who live in the nursing home is presented. A framework integrating temporal and spatial contextual information for evaluating the wellness of an elderly has been modeled. A novel activity detection process based on the location information collects by the RFID technology in performing essential daily activities has been designed and developed. A BP neural network is trained using the activity information of the elderly live in the nursing home, wellness models are tested and the results are encouraging.

Designing Robust and Reliable Timestamps for Remote Patient Monitoring.

PubMed

Clarke, Malcolm; Schluter, Paul; Reinhold, Barry; Reinhold, Brian

2015-09-01

Having timestamps that are robust and reliable is essential for remote patient monitoring in order for patient data to have context and to be correlated with other data. However, unlike hospital systems for which guidelines on timestamps are currently provided by HL7 and IHE, remote patient monitoring platforms are: operated in environments where it can be difficult to synchronize with reliable time sources; include devices with simple or no clock; and may store data spanning significant periods before able to upload. Existing guidelines prove inadequate. This paper analyzes the requirements and the operating scenarios of remote patient monitoring platforms and defines a framework to convey information on the conditions under which observations were made by the device and forwarded by the gateway in order for data to be managed appropriately and to include both reference to local time and an underlying continuous reference timeline. We define the timestamp formats of HL7 to denote the different conditions of operation and describe extensions to the existing definition of the HL7 timestamp to differentiate between time local to GMT (+0000) and universal coordinated time or network time protocol time where no geographic time zone is implied (-0000). We further describe how timestamps from devices having only simple or no clocks might be managed reliably by a gateway to provide timestamps that are referenced to local time and an underlying continuous reference timeline. We extend the HL7 message to include information to permit a subsequent receiver of the data to understand the quality of the timestamp and how it has been translated. We present evaluation from deploying a platform for 12 months.

Satellite Phenology Observations Inform Peak Season of Allergenic Grass Pollen Aerobiology across Two Continents

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huete, A. R.; Devadas, R.; Davies, J.

2015-12-01

Pollen exposure and prevalence of allergenic diseases have increased in many parts of the world during the last 30 years, with exposure to aeroallergen grass pollen expected to intensify with climate change, raising increased concerns for allergic diseases. The primary contributing factors to higher allergenic plant species presence are thought to be climate change, land conversion, and biotic mixing of species. Conventional methods for monitoring airborne pollen are hampered by a lack of sampling sites and heavily rely on meteorology with less attention to land cover updates and monitoring of key allergenic species phenology stages. Satellite remote sensing offers an alternative method to overcome the restrictive coverage afforded by in situ pollen networks by virtue of its synoptic coverage and repeatability of measurements that enable timely updates of land cover and land use information and monitoring landscape dynamics and interactions with human activity and climate. In this study, we assessed the potential of satellite observations of urban/peri-urban environments to directly inform landscape conditions conducive to pollen emissions. We found satellite measurements of grass cover phenological evolution to be highly correlated with in situ aerobiological grass pollen concentrations in five urban centres located across two hemispheres (Australia and France). Satellite greenness data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) were found to be strongly synchronous with grass pollen aerobiology in both temperate grass dominated sites (France and Melbourne), as well as in Sydney, where multiple pollen peaks coincided with the presence of subtropical grasses. Employing general additive models (GAM), the satellite phenology data provided strong predictive capabilities to inform airborne pollen levels and forecast periods of grass pollen emissions at all five sites. Satellite phenology offer promising opportunities of improving public health risk management through dissemination of timely data for use in public health action and alerts and to minimise the impact of these common chronic conditions.