Sample records for performance assessment monitoring
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Deng, Yang; Liu, Yang; Chen, Suren
2017-01-01
Despite the recent developments in structural health monitoring, there remain great challenges for accurately, conveniently, and economically assessing the in-service performance of the main cables for long-span suspension bridges. A long-term structural health monitoring technique is developed to measure the tension force with a conventional sensing technology and further provide the in-service performance assessment strategy of the main cable. The monitoring system adopts conventional vibrating strings transducers to monitor the tension forces of separate cable strands of the main cable in the anchor span. The performance evaluation of the main cable is conducted based on the collected health monitoring data: (1) the measured strand forces are used to derive the overall tension force of a main cable, which is further translated into load bearing capacity assessment using the concept of safety factor; and (2) the proposed technique can also evaluate the uniformity of tension forces from different cable strands. The assessment of uniformity of strand forces of a main cable offers critical information in terms of potential risks of partial damage and performance deterioration of the main cable. The results suggest the proposed low-cost monitoring system is an option to provide approximate estimation of tension forces of main cables for suspension bridges. With the long-term monitoring data, the proposed monitoring-based evaluation methods can further provide critical information to assess the safety and serviceability performance of main cables. PMID:28621743
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Deng, Yang; Liu, Yang; Chen, Suren
2017-06-16
Despite the recent developments in structural health monitoring, there remain great challenges for accurately, conveniently, and economically assessing the in-service performance of the main cables for long-span suspension bridges. A long-term structural health monitoring technique is developed to measure the tension force with a conventional sensing technology and further provide the in-service performance assessment strategy of the main cable. The monitoring system adopts conventional vibrating strings transducers to monitor the tension forces of separate cable strands of the main cable in the anchor span. The performance evaluation of the main cable is conducted based on the collected health monitoring data: (1) the measured strand forces are used to derive the overall tension force of a main cable, which is further translated into load bearing capacity assessment using the concept of safety factor; and (2) the proposed technique can also evaluate the uniformity of tension forces from different cable strands. The assessment of uniformity of strand forces of a main cable offers critical information in terms of potential risks of partial damage and performance deterioration of the main cable. The results suggest the proposed low-cost monitoring system is an option to provide approximate estimation of tension forces of main cables for suspension bridges. With the long-term monitoring data, the proposed monitoring-based evaluation methods can further provide critical information to assess the safety and serviceability performance of main cables.
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Pope, Ronald; Wu, Jianguo
2014-06-01
In the United States, air pollution is primarily measured by Air Quality Monitoring Networks (AQMN). These AQMNs have multiple objectives, including characterizing pollution patterns, protecting the public health, and determining compliance with air quality standards. In 2006, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a directive that air pollution agencies assess the performance of their AQMNs. Although various methods to design and assess AQMNs exist, here we demonstrate a geographic information system (GIS)-based approach that combines environmental, economic, and social indicators through the assessment of the ozone (O3) and particulate matter (PM10) networks in Maricopa County, Arizona. The assessment was conducted in three phases: (1) to evaluate the performance of the existing networks, (2) to identify areas that would benefit from the addition of new monitoring stations, and (3) to recommend changes to the AQMN. A comprehensive set of indicators was created for evaluating differing aspects of the AQMNs' objectives, and weights were applied to emphasize important indicators. Indicators were also classified according to their sustainable development goal. Our results showed that O3 was well represented in the county with some redundancy in terms of the urban monitors. The addition of weights to the indicators only had a minimal effect on the results. For O3, urban monitors had greater social scores, while rural monitors had greater environmental scores. The results did not suggest a need for adding more O3 monitoring sites. For PM10, clustered urban monitors were redundant, and weights also had a minimal effect on the results. The clustered urban monitors had overall low scores; sites near point sources had high environmental scores. Several areas were identified as needing additional PM10 monitors. This study demonstrates the usefulness of a multi-indicator approach to assess AQMNs. Network managers and planners may use this method to assess the performance of air quality monitoring networks in urban regions. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a directive in 2006 that air pollution agencies assess the performance of their AQMNs; as a result, we developed a GIS-based, multi-objective assessment approach that integrates environmental, economic, and social indicators, and demonstrates its use through assessing the O3 and PM10 monitoring networks in the Phoenix metropolitan area. We exhibit a method of assessing network performance and identifying areas that would benefit from new monitoring stations; also, we demonstrate the effect of adding weights to the indicators. Our study shows that using a multi-indicator approach gave detailed assessment results for the Phoenix AQMN.
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Deline, Christopher A; van Sark, Wilfried; Georghiou, George E.
2017-08-16
This Special Issue entitled 'Performance Assessment and Condition Monitoring of Photovoltaic Systems for Improved Energy Yield', contains ten papers that discuss various aspects in performance assessment, thus bringing the reader up to date with the present state-of-the-art technologies. In particular, the following topics are addressed: system performance monitoring; operational analysis and design; solar forecasting.
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Chapter 11: Monitoring and Assessment of Wetlands: Concepts, Case Studies, and Lessons Learned
Monitoring and assessment (M&A) have long been considered critical components of any resource management program where there is a need to evaluate progress and performance over time. Understanding the origins of current monitoring and assessment strategies and techniques for wetl...
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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
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Performance Monitoring Applied to System Supervision
Somon, Bertille; Campagne, Aurélie; Delorme, Arnaud; Berberian, Bruno
2017-01-01
Nowadays, automation is present in every aspect of our daily life and has some benefits. Nonetheless, empirical data suggest that traditional automation has many negative performance and safety consequences as it changed task performers into task supervisors. In this context, we propose to use recent insights into the anatomical and neurophysiological substrates of action monitoring in humans, to help further characterize performance monitoring during system supervision. Error monitoring is critical for humans to learn from the consequences of their actions. A wide variety of studies have shown that the error monitoring system is involved not only in our own errors, but also in the errors of others. We hypothesize that the neurobiological correlates of the self-performance monitoring activity can be applied to system supervision. At a larger scale, a better understanding of system supervision may allow its negative effects to be anticipated or even countered. This review is divided into three main parts. First, we assess the neurophysiological correlates of self-performance monitoring and their characteristics during error execution. Then, we extend these results to include performance monitoring and error observation of others or of systems. Finally, we provide further directions in the study of system supervision and assess the limits preventing us from studying a well-known phenomenon: the Out-Of-the-Loop (OOL) performance problem. PMID:28744209
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Floristic Quality Index of Restored Wetlands in Coastal Louisiana
2017-08-01
been used to monitor and assess project performance, resilience, and adaptive management needs. An emerging tool for performing bioassessments in...condition have been used to monitor and assess project performance, resilience, and adaptive management needs. There are three basic levels of wetland...result of saltwater intrusion and rapid subsidence; nevertheless, multiple hydrologic restoration projects (Naomi Outfall Management BA-03c and
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12 CFR 621.10 - Monitoring of performance categories and other property owned.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-01-01
... 12 Banks and Banking 6 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Monitoring of performance categories and other property owned. 621.10 Section 621.10 Banks and Banking FARM CREDIT ADMINISTRATION FARM CREDIT SYSTEM ACCOUNTING AND REPORTING REQUIREMENTS Loan Performance and Valuation Assessment § 621.10 Monitoring of...
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A New Network Modeling Tool for the Ground-based Nuclear Explosion Monitoring Community
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Merchant, B. J.; Chael, E. P.; Young, C. J.
2013-12-01
Network simulations have long been used to assess the performance of monitoring networks to detect events for such purposes as planning station deployments and network resilience to outages. The standard tool has been the SAIC-developed NetSim package. With correct parameters, NetSim can produce useful simulations; however, the package has several shortcomings: an older language (FORTRAN), an emphasis on seismic monitoring with limited support for other technologies, limited documentation, and a limited parameter set. Thus, we are developing NetMOD (Network Monitoring for Optimal Detection), a Java-based tool designed to assess the performance of ground-based networks. NetMOD's advantages include: coded in a modern language that is multi-platform, utilizes modern computing performance (e.g. multi-core processors), incorporates monitoring technologies other than seismic, and includes a well-validated default parameter set for the IMS stations. NetMOD is designed to be extendable through a plugin infrastructure, so new phenomenological models can be added. Development of the Seismic Detection Plugin is being pursued first. Seismic location and infrasound and hydroacoustic detection plugins will follow. By making NetMOD an open-release package, it can hopefully provide a common tool that the monitoring community can use to produce assessments of monitoring networks and to verify assessments made by others.
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Létourneau, Daniel; Wang, An; Amin, Md Nurul; Pearce, Jim; McNiven, Andrea; Keller, Harald; Norrlinger, Bernhard; Jaffray, David A
2014-12-01
High-quality radiation therapy using highly conformal dose distributions and image-guided techniques requires optimum machine delivery performance. In this work, a monitoring system for multileaf collimator (MLC) performance, integrating semiautomated MLC quality control (QC) tests and statistical process control tools, was developed. The MLC performance monitoring system was used for almost a year on two commercially available MLC models. Control charts were used to establish MLC performance and assess test frequency required to achieve a given level of performance. MLC-related interlocks and servicing events were recorded during the monitoring period and were investigated as indicators of MLC performance variations. The QC test developed as part of the MLC performance monitoring system uses 2D megavoltage images (acquired using an electronic portal imaging device) of 23 fields to determine the location of the leaves with respect to the radiation isocenter. The precision of the MLC performance monitoring QC test and the MLC itself was assessed by detecting the MLC leaf positions on 127 megavoltage images of a static field. After initial calibration, the MLC performance monitoring QC test was performed 3-4 times/week over a period of 10-11 months to monitor positional accuracy of individual leaves for two different MLC models. Analysis of test results was performed using individuals control charts per leaf with control limits computed based on the measurements as well as two sets of specifications of ± 0.5 and ± 1 mm. Out-of-specification and out-of-control leaves were automatically flagged by the monitoring system and reviewed monthly by physicists. MLC-related interlocks reported by the linear accelerator and servicing events were recorded to help identify potential causes of nonrandom MLC leaf positioning variations. The precision of the MLC performance monitoring QC test and the MLC itself was within ± 0.22 mm for most MLC leaves and the majority of the apparent leaf motion was attributed to beam spot displacements between irradiations. The MLC QC test was performed 193 and 162 times over the monitoring period for the studied units and recalibration had to be repeated up to three times on one of these units. For both units, rate of MLC interlocks was moderately associated with MLC servicing events. The strongest association with the MLC performance was observed between the MLC servicing events and the total number of out-of-control leaves. The average elapsed time for which the number of out-of-specification or out-of-control leaves was within a given performance threshold was computed and used to assess adequacy of MLC test frequency. A MLC performance monitoring system has been developed and implemented to acquire high-quality QC data at high frequency. This is enabled by the relatively short acquisition time for the images and automatic image analysis. The monitoring system was also used to record and track the rate of MLC-related interlocks and servicing events. MLC performances for two commercially available MLC models have been assessed and the results support monthly test frequency for widely accepted ± 1 mm specifications. Higher QC test frequency is however required to maintain tighter specification and in-control behavior.
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Diani, Christopher A; Rock, Angie; Moll, Phil
2017-12-01
Background Risk-based monitoring is a concept endorsed by the Food and Drug Administration to improve clinical trial data quality by focusing monitoring efforts on critical data elements and higher risk investigator sites. BIOTRONIK approached this by implementing a comprehensive strategy that assesses risk and data quality through a combination of operational controls and data surveillance. This publication demonstrates the effectiveness of a data-driven risk assessment methodology when used in conjunction with a tailored monitoring plan. Methods We developed a data-driven risk assessment system to rank 133 investigator sites comprising 3442 subjects and identify those sites that pose a potential risk to the integrity of data collected in implantable cardiac device clinical trials. This included identification of specific risk factors and a weighted scoring mechanism. We conducted trend analyses for risk assessment data collected over 1 year to assess the overall impact of our data surveillance process combined with other operational monitoring efforts. Results Trending analyses of key risk factors revealed an improvement in the quality of data collected during the observation period. The three risk factors follow-up compliance rate, unavailability of critical data, and noncompliance rate correspond closely with Food and Drug Administration's risk-based monitoring guidance document. Among these three risk factors, 100% (12/12) of quantiles analyzed showed an increase in data quality. Of these, 67% (8/12) of the improving trends in worst performing quantiles had p-values less than 0.05, and 17% (2/12) had p-values between 0.05 and 0.06. Among the poorest performing site quantiles, there was a statistically significant decrease in subject follow-up noncompliance rates, protocol noncompliance rates, and incidence of missing critical data. Conclusion One year after implementation of a comprehensive strategy for risk-based monitoring, including a data-driven risk assessment methodology to target on-site monitoring visits, statistically significant improvement was seen in a majority of measurable risk factors at the worst performing site quantiles. For the three risk factors which are most critical to the overall compliance of cardiac rhythm management medical device studies: follow-up compliance rate, unavailability of critical data, and noncompliance rate, we measured significant improvement in data quality. Although the worst performing site quantiles improved but not significantly in some risk factors such as subject attrition, the data-driven risk assessment highlighted key areas on which to continue focusing both on-site and centralized monitoring efforts. Data-driven surveillance of clinical trial performance provides actionable observations that can improve site performance. Clinical trials utilizing risk-based monitoring by leveraging a data-driven quality assessment combined with specific operational procedures may lead to an improvement in data quality and resource efficiencies.
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DOT National Transportation Integrated Search
2016-11-01
The onboard monitoring system (OBMS) field operational test (FOT) was conducted to determine whether onboard monitoring systems that provide real-time performance feedback to commercial truck and motorcoach drivers could reduce the number of safety-c...
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Baby-MONITOR: A Composite Indicator of NICU Quality
Kowalkowski, Marc A.; Zupancic, John A. F.; Pietz, Kenneth; Richardson, Peter; Draper, David; Hysong, Sylvia J.; Thomas, Eric J.; Petersen, Laura A.; Gould, Jeffrey B.
2014-01-01
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: NICUs vary in the quality of care delivered to very low birth weight (VLBW) infants. NICU performance on 1 measure of quality only modestly predicts performance on others. Composite measurement of quality of care delivery may provide a more comprehensive assessment of quality. The objective of our study was to develop a robust composite indicator of quality of NICU care provided to VLBW infants that accurately discriminates performance among NICUs. METHODS: We developed a composite indicator, Baby-MONITOR, based on 9 measures of quality chosen by a panel of experts. Measures were standardized, equally weighted, and averaged. We used the California Perinatal Quality Care Collaborative database to perform across-sectional analysis of care given to VLBW infants between 2004 and 2010. Performance on the Baby-MONITOR is not an absolute marker of quality but indicates overall performance relative to that of the other NICUs. We used sensitivity analyses to assess the robustness of the composite indicator, by varying assumptions and methods. RESULTS: Our sample included 9023 VLBW infants in 22 California regional NICUs. We found significant variations within and between NICUs on measured components of the Baby-MONITOR. Risk-adjusted composite scores discriminated performance among this sample of NICUs. Sensitivity analysis that included different approaches to normalization, weighting, and aggregation of individual measures showed the Baby-MONITOR to be robust (r = 0.89–0.99). CONCLUSIONS: The Baby-MONITOR may be a useful tool to comprehensively assess the quality of care delivered by NICUs. PMID:24918221
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CSHM: Web-based safety and health monitoring system for construction management.
Cheung, Sai On; Cheung, Kevin K W; Suen, Henry C H
2004-01-01
This paper describes a web-based system for monitoring and assessing construction safety and health performance, entitled the Construction Safety and Health Monitoring (CSHM) system. The design and development of CSHM is an integration of internet and database systems, with the intent to create a total automated safety and health management tool. A list of safety and health performance parameters was devised for the management of safety and health in construction. A conceptual framework of the four key components of CSHM is presented: (a) Web-based Interface (templates); (b) Knowledge Base; (c) Output Data; and (d) Benchmark Group. The combined effect of these components results in a system that enables speedy performance assessment of safety and health activities on construction sites. With the CSHM's built-in functions, important management decisions can theoretically be made and corrective actions can be taken before potential hazards turn into fatal or injurious occupational accidents. As such, the CSHM system will accelerate the monitoring and assessing of performance safety and health management tasks.
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Feng, Chuan; Rozenblit, Jerzy W; Hamilton, Allan J
2010-11-01
Surgeons performing laparoscopic surgery have strong biases regarding the quality and nature of the laparoscopic video monitor display. In a comparative study, we used a unique computerized sensing and analysis system to evaluate the various types of monitors employed in laparoscopic surgery. We compared the impact of different types of monitor displays on an individual's performance of a laparoscopic training task which required the subject to move the instrument to a set of targets. Participants (varying from no laparoscopic experience to board-certified surgeons) were asked to perform the assigned task while using all three display systems, which were randomly assigned: a conventional laparoscopic monitor system (2D), a high-definition monitor system (HD), and a stereoscopic display (3D). The effects of monitor system on various performance parameters (total time consumed to finish the task, average speed, and movement economy) were analyzed by computer. Each of the subjects filled out a subjective questionnaire at the end of their training session. A total of 27 participants completed our study. Performance with the HD monitor was significantly slower than with either the 3D or 2D monitor (p < 0.0001). Movement economy with the HD monitor was significantly reduced compared with the 3D (p < 0.0004) or 2D (p < 0.0001) monitor. In terms of average time required to complete the task, performance with the 3D monitor was significantly faster than with the HD (p < 0.0001) or 2D (p < 0.0086) monitor. However, the HD system was the overwhelming favorite according to subjective evaluation. Computerized sensing and analysis is capable of quantitatively assessing the seemingly minor effect of monitor display on surgical training performance. The study demonstrates that, while users expressed a decided preference for HD systems, actual quantitative analysis indicates that HD monitors offer no statistically significant advantage and may even worsen performance compared with standard 2D or 3D laparoscopic monitors.
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Resilient Monitoring Systems: Architecture, Design, and Application to Boiler/Turbine Plant
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
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Resilient monitoring systems: architecture, design, and application to boiler/turbine plant.
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.
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MAINTAINING DATA QUALITY IN THE PERFORMANCE OF A LARGE SCALE INTEGRATED MONITORING EFFORT
Macauley, John M. and Linda C. Harwell. In press. Maintaining Data Quality in the Performance of a Large Scale Integrated Monitoring Effort (Abstract). To be presented at EMAP Symposium 2004: Integrated Monitoring and Assessment for Effective Water Quality Management, 3-7 May 200...
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Létourneau, Daniel, E-mail: daniel.letourneau@rmp.uh.on.ca; McNiven, Andrea; Keller, Harald
2014-12-15
Purpose: High-quality radiation therapy using highly conformal dose distributions and image-guided techniques requires optimum machine delivery performance. In this work, a monitoring system for multileaf collimator (MLC) performance, integrating semiautomated MLC quality control (QC) tests and statistical process control tools, was developed. The MLC performance monitoring system was used for almost a year on two commercially available MLC models. Control charts were used to establish MLC performance and assess test frequency required to achieve a given level of performance. MLC-related interlocks and servicing events were recorded during the monitoring period and were investigated as indicators of MLC performance variations. Methods:more » The QC test developed as part of the MLC performance monitoring system uses 2D megavoltage images (acquired using an electronic portal imaging device) of 23 fields to determine the location of the leaves with respect to the radiation isocenter. The precision of the MLC performance monitoring QC test and the MLC itself was assessed by detecting the MLC leaf positions on 127 megavoltage images of a static field. After initial calibration, the MLC performance monitoring QC test was performed 3–4 times/week over a period of 10–11 months to monitor positional accuracy of individual leaves for two different MLC models. Analysis of test results was performed using individuals control charts per leaf with control limits computed based on the measurements as well as two sets of specifications of ±0.5 and ±1 mm. Out-of-specification and out-of-control leaves were automatically flagged by the monitoring system and reviewed monthly by physicists. MLC-related interlocks reported by the linear accelerator and servicing events were recorded to help identify potential causes of nonrandom MLC leaf positioning variations. Results: The precision of the MLC performance monitoring QC test and the MLC itself was within ±0.22 mm for most MLC leaves and the majority of the apparent leaf motion was attributed to beam spot displacements between irradiations. The MLC QC test was performed 193 and 162 times over the monitoring period for the studied units and recalibration had to be repeated up to three times on one of these units. For both units, rate of MLC interlocks was moderately associated with MLC servicing events. The strongest association with the MLC performance was observed between the MLC servicing events and the total number of out-of-control leaves. The average elapsed time for which the number of out-of-specification or out-of-control leaves was within a given performance threshold was computed and used to assess adequacy of MLC test frequency. Conclusions: A MLC performance monitoring system has been developed and implemented to acquire high-quality QC data at high frequency. This is enabled by the relatively short acquisition time for the images and automatic image analysis. The monitoring system was also used to record and track the rate of MLC-related interlocks and servicing events. MLC performances for two commercially available MLC models have been assessed and the results support monthly test frequency for widely accepted ±1 mm specifications. Higher QC test frequency is however required to maintain tighter specification and in-control behavior.« less
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Effects of Selected Task Performance Criteria at Initiating Adaptive Task Real locations
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Montgomery, Demaris A.
2001-01-01
In the current report various performance assessment methods used to initiate mode transfers between manual control and automation for adaptive task reallocation were tested. Participants monitored two secondary tasks for critical events while actively controlling a process in a fictional system. One of the secondary monitoring tasks could be automated whenever operators' performance was below acceptable levels. Automation of the secondary task and transfer of the secondary task back to manual control were either human- or machine-initiated. Human-initiated transfers were based on the operator's assessment of the current task demands while machine-initiated transfers were based on the operators' performance. Different performance assessment methods were tested in two separate experiments.
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Common Progress Monitoring Omissions: Planning and Practice. Progress Monitoring Brief #1
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
National Center on Response to Intervention, 2013
2013-01-01
Progress monitoring, one of the essential components of Response to Intervention (RTI), is characterized by repeated measurement of academic performance that is conducted at least monthly. The process may be used to assess students' academic performance over time, to quantify student rates of improvement or responsiveness to instruction, and to…
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Common Progress Monitoring Omissions: Reporting Information to Parents. Progress Monitoring Brief #4
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
National Center on Response to Intervention, 2013
2013-01-01
Progress monitoring, one of the essential components of Response to Intervention (RTI), is characterized by repeated measurement of academic performance that is conducted at least monthly. The process may be used to assess students' academic performance over time, to quantify student rates of improvement or responsiveness to instruction, and to…
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Real-time seismic monitoring needs of a building owner - And the solution: A cooperative effort
Celebi, M.; Sanli, A.; Sinclair, M.; Gallant, S.; Radulescu, D.
2004-01-01
A recently implemented advanced seismic monitoring system for a 24-story building facilitates recording of accelerations and computing displacements and drift ratios in near-real time to measure the earthquake performance of the building. The drift ratio is related to the damage condition of the specific building. This system meets the owner's needs for rapid quantitative input to assessments and decisions on post-earthquake occupancy. The system is now successfully working and, in absence of strong shaking to date, is producing low-amplitude data in real time for routine analyses and assessment. Studies of such data to date indicate that the configured monitoring system with its building specific software can be a useful tool in rapid assessment of buildings and other structures following an earthquake. Such systems can be used for health monitoring of a building, for assessing performance-based design and analyses procedures, for long-term assessment of structural characteristics, and for long-term damage detection.
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Experimental Validation of a Resilient Monitoring and Control System
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Wen-Chiao Lin; Kris R. E. Villez; Humberto E. Garcia
2014-05-01
Complex, high performance, engineering systems have to be closely monitored and controlled to ensure safe operation and protect public from potential hazards. One of the main challenges in designing monitoring and control algorithms for these systems is that sensors and actuators may be malfunctioning due to malicious or natural causes. To address this challenge, this paper addresses a resilient monitoring and control (ReMAC) system by expanding previously developed resilient condition assessment monitoring systems and Kalman filter-based diagnostic methods and integrating them with a supervisory controller developed here. While the monitoring and diagnostic algorithms assess plant cyber and physical health conditions,more » the supervisory controller selects, from a set of candidates, the best controller based on the current plant health assessments. To experimentally demonstrate its enhanced performance, the developed ReMAC system is then used for monitoring and control of a chemical reactor with a water cooling system in a hardware-in-the-loop setting, where the reactor is computer simulated and the water cooling system is implemented by a machine condition monitoring testbed at Idaho National Laboratory. Results show that the ReMAC system is able to make correct plant health assessments despite sensor malfunctioning due to cyber attacks and make decisions that achieve best control actions despite possible actuator malfunctioning. Monitoring challenges caused by mismatches between assumed system component models and actual measurements are also identified for future work.« less
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DOT National Transportation Integrated Search
1969-04-01
Male subjects were tested after extensive training as two five-man 'crews' in an experiment designed to examine the effects of signal rate on the performance of a task involving the monitoring of a dynamic process. Performance was measured using thre...
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Assessing and Monitoring Student Progress in an E-Learning Personnel Preparation Environment.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Meyen, Edward L.; Aust, Ronald J.; Bui, Yvonne N.; Isaacson, Robert
2002-01-01
Discussion of e-learning in special education personnel preparation focuses on student assessment in e-learning environments. It includes a review of the literature, lessons learned by the authors from assessing student performance in e-learning environments, a literature perspective on electronic portfolios in monitoring student progress, and the…
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Obtaining representative ground water samples is important for site assessment and
remedial performance monitoring objectives. Issues which must be considered prior to initiating a ground-water monitoring program include defining monitoring goals and objectives, sampling point... -
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Jackson, Simon A.; Martin, Gregory D.; Aidman, Eugene; Kleitman, Sabina
2018-01-01
This article presents the results of a systematic review of the literature surrounding the effects that acute sleep deprivation has on metacognitive monitoring. Metacognitive monitoring refers to the ability to accurately assess one's own performance and state of knowledge. The mechanism behind this assessment is captured by subjective feelings of…
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Monitoring loading and environmental effects on bridge performance : research brief.
DOT National Transportation Integrated Search
2011-03-01
A pilot project was initiated to assess the performance of the HPS bridge members as well as to evaluate : the response of the structure to actual traffic and environmental loads under in-service conditions : through monitoring of strain, temperature...
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DOT National Transportation Integrated Search
1980-10-01
The present study examined a variety of possible predictors of complex monitoring performance. The criterion task was designed to resemble that of a highly automated air traffic control radar system containing computer-generated alphanumeric displays...
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ADVANCES IN GROUND WATER SAMPLING PROCEDURES
Obtaining representative ground water samples is important for site assessment and remedial performance monitoring objectives. Issues which must be considered prior to initiating a ground-water monitoring program include defining monitoring goals and objectives, sampling point...
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This presentation will document, benchmark and evalute state-of-the-science research and implementation on BMP performance, monitoring, and integration for green infrastructure applications, to manage wet weather flwo, storm-water-runoff stressor relief and remedial sustainable w...
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Comprehensive Monitoring Program: Air Quality Data Assessment Report for FY90. Volume 2. Version 3.1
1991-09-01
91311R01 If VERSION 3.10) VOLUME II Comm 2ND COPY COMPREHENSIVE MONITORING PROGRAM Contract Number DAAAI5-87-0095 AIR QUALITY DATA ASSESSMENT REPORT...MONITORING PROGRAM. FINAL AIR QUALITY DATA ASSESSMENT REPORT FOR FY90, VERSION 3.1 NONE 6. AUTHOR(S) 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRES.S(S) 8...RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION IS UNLIMITED 13. ABSTRACT (Maximum 200 words) THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS CMP IS TO: VERIFY AND EVALUATE POTENTIAL AIR QUALITY HEALTH
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Assessing performance characteristics of sediment basins constructed in Franklin County.
DOT National Transportation Integrated Search
2012-08-01
The objective of the research project was to monitor the performance of newly designed : sediment basins that were constructed on the ALDOT 502 project in Franklin County. The : project included four tasks: (1) assess performance characteristics of s...
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This poster presentation will document, benchmark and evaluate state-of-the-science research and implementation on BMP performance, monitoring and integration for green infrastructure applications, to manage wet weather flow, storm-water runoff stressor relief and remedial sustai...
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DOT National Transportation Integrated Search
2016-11-01
The primary goal of an onboard monitoring system (OBMS) is to enhance driver performance and safety. OBMSs are employed with the expectation that feedback provided concurrently (via flashing feedback lights in the vehicle) and cumulatively (via coach...
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Handwriting Skills in Children with Spina Bifida: Assessment, Monitoring and Measurement.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hancock, Julie; Alston, Jean
1986-01-01
Case studies of three students with spina bifida (ages 8-11) illustrate an individualized six-week handwriting intervention program which stressed assessment, monitoring, and measurement of changes in writing performance. Appropriate changes in physical support (sitting position, writing surface, and choice of writing tool) are recommended. (JW)
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Miniaturized Monitors for Assessment of Exposure to Air Pollutants: A Review.
Borghi, Francesca; Spinazzè, Andrea; Rovelli, Sabrina; Campagnolo, Davide; Del Buono, Luca; Cattaneo, Andrea; Cavallo, Domenico M
2017-08-12
Air quality has a huge impact on different aspects of life quality, and for this reason, air quality monitoring is required by national and international regulations. Technical and procedural limitations of traditional fixed-site stations for monitoring or sampling of air pollutants are also well-known. Recently, a different type of miniaturized monitors has been developed. These monitors, due to their characteristics (e.g., low cost, small size, high portability) are becoming increasingly important for individual exposure assessment, especially since this kind of instrument can provide measurements at high spatial and temporal resolution, which is a notable advantage when approaching assessment of exposure to environmental contaminants. The aim of this study is indeed to provide information regarding current knowledge regarding the use of miniaturized air pollutant sensors. A systematic review was performed to identify original articles: a literature search was carried out using an appropriate query for the search of papers across three different databases, and the papers were selected using inclusion/exclusion criteria. The reviewed articles showed that miniaturized sensors are particularly versatile and could be applied in studies with different experimental designs, helping to provide a significant enhancement to exposure assessment, even though studies regarding their performance are still sparse.
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Net Assessment: Creating an Institutional Capacity and General Process to Perform It
2017-06-01
PROCESS TO PERFORM IT 5. FUNDING NUMBERS 6. AUTHOR(S) Humberto Enrique Lopez Arellano 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) Naval...Postgraduate School Monterey, CA 93943-5000 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER 9. SPONSORING /MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES...assessment products. Finally, he proposes three different schemes for integrating net assessment capacity into government organizations , public
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The Assessment of Performance in Science Project.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Driver, Rosalind; Worsley, Christopher
1979-01-01
Described are national methods of assessing and monitoring the achievement in science of students of 11, 13, and 16 years old in England and Wales. The tasks of the Assessment of Performance Unit (APU), a unit within the Department of Education and Science, are also described. (HM)
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DOT National Transportation Integrated Search
1969-08-01
This study concerned the rate of presentation of stimuli on a task involving the monitoring of a static process of the kind represented by aircraft warning light indicators. The task was performed concurrently with various combinations of tasks requi...
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Cohen, Wayne R; Hayes-Gill, Barrie
2014-06-01
To evaluate the performance of external electronic fetal heart rate and uterine contraction monitoring according to maternal body mass index. Secondary analysis of prospective equivalence study. Three US urban teaching hospitals. Seventy-four parturients with a normal term pregnancy. The parent study assessed performance of two methods of external fetal heart rate monitoring (abdominal fetal electrocardiogram and Doppler ultrasound) and of uterine contraction monitoring (electrohystero-graphy and tocodynamometry) compared with internal monitoring with fetal scalp electrode and intrauterine pressure transducer. Reliability of external techniques was assessed by the success rate and positive percent agreement with internal methods. Bland-Altman analysis determined accuracy. We analyzed data from that study according to maternal body mass index. We assessed the relationship between body mass index and monitor performance with linear regression, using body mass index as the independent variable and measures of reliability and accuracy as dependent variables. There was no significant association between maternal body mass index and any measure of reliability or accuracy for abdominal fetal electrocardiogram. By contrast, the overall positive percent agreement for Doppler ultrasound declined (p = 0.042), and the root mean square error from the Bland-Altman analysis increased in the first stage (p = 0.029) with increasing body mass index. Uterine contraction recordings from electrohysterography and tocodynamometry showed no significant deterioration related to maternal body mass index. Accuracy and reliability of fetal heart rate monitoring using abdominal fetal electrocardiogram was unaffected by maternal obesity, whereas performance of ultrasound degraded directly with maternal size. Both electrohysterography and tocodynamometry were unperturbed by obesity. © 2014 Nordic Federation of Societies of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
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2011-11-01
assessment to quality of localization/characterization estimates. This protocol includes four critical components: (1) a procedure to identify the...critical factors impacting SHM system performance; (2) a multistage or hierarchical approach to SHM system validation; (3) a model -assisted evaluation...Lindgren, E. A ., Buynak, C. F., Steffes, G., Derriso, M., “ Model -assisted Probabilistic Reliability Assessment for Structural Health Monitoring
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The USEPA is leading an effort to develop technical documentation that provides the policy, scientific and technical framework for assessing the viability of MNA for inorganic contaminants in ground water (hereafter referred to as the Framework Document). Initial guidance on the...
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Jung, Steven M.
Two U.S. Department of Education (ED) systems for establishing the initial eligibility and monitoring the performance of postsecondary institutions that participate in ED financial assistance programs were assessed. The evaluation was designed to describe and evaluate the eligibility and certification functions of ED's Eligibility and Agency…
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Discrimination in measures of knowledge monitoring accuracy
Was, Christopher A.
2014-01-01
Knowledge monitoring predicts academic outcomes in many contexts. However, measures of knowledge monitoring accuracy are often incomplete. In the current study, a measure of students’ ability to discriminate known from unknown information as a component of knowledge monitoring was considered. Undergraduate students’ knowledge monitoring accuracy was assessed and used to predict final exam scores in a specific course. It was found that gamma, a measure commonly used as the measure of knowledge monitoring accuracy, accounted for a small, but significant amount of variance in academic performance whereas the discrimination and bias indexes combined to account for a greater amount of variance in academic performance. PMID:25339979
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Liu, Y; Wickens, C D
1994-11-01
The evaluation of mental workload is becoming increasingly important in system design and analysis. The present study examined the structure and assessment of mental workload in performing decision and monitoring tasks by focusing on two mental workload measurements: subjective assessment and time estimation. The task required the assignment of a series of incoming customers to the shortest of three parallel service lines displayed on a computer monitor. The subject was either in charge of the customer assignment (manual mode) or was monitoring an automated system performing the same task (automatic mode). In both cases, the subjects were required to detect the non-optimal assignments that they or the computer had made. Time pressure was manipulated by the experimenter to create fast and slow conditions. The results revealed a multi-dimensional structure of mental workload and a multi-step process of subjective workload assessment. The results also indicated that subjective workload was more influenced by the subject's participatory mode than by the factor of task speed. The time estimation intervals produced while performing the decision and monitoring tasks had significantly greater length and larger variability than those produced while either performing no other tasks or performing a well practised customer assignment task. This result seemed to indicate that time estimation was sensitive to the presence of perceptual/cognitive demands, but not to response related activities to which behavioural automaticity has developed.
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Morawska, Lidia; Thai, Phong K; Liu, Xiaoting; Asumadu-Sakyi, Akwasi; Ayoko, Godwin; Bartonova, Alena; Bedini, Andrea; Chai, Fahe; Christensen, Bryce; Dunbabin, Matthew; Gao, Jian; Hagler, Gayle S W; Jayaratne, Rohan; Kumar, Prashant; Lau, Alexis K H; Louie, Peter K K; Mazaheri, Mandana; Ning, Zhi; Motta, Nunzio; Mullins, Ben; Rahman, Md Mahmudur; Ristovski, Zoran; Shafiei, Mahnaz; Tjondronegoro, Dian; Westerdahl, Dane; Williams, Ron
2018-07-01
Over the past decade, a range of sensor technologies became available on the market, enabling a revolutionary shift in air pollution monitoring and assessment. With their cost of up to three orders of magnitude lower than standard/reference instruments, many avenues for applications have opened up. In particular, broader participation in air quality discussion and utilisation of information on air pollution by communities has become possible. However, many questions have been also asked about the actual benefits of these technologies. To address this issue, we conducted a comprehensive literature search including both the scientific and grey literature. We focused upon two questions: (1) Are these technologies fit for the various purposes envisaged? and (2) How far have these technologies and their applications progressed to provide answers and solutions? Regarding the former, we concluded that there is no clear answer to the question, due to a lack of: sensor/monitor manufacturers' quantitative specifications of performance, consensus regarding recommended end-use and associated minimal performance targets of these technologies, and the ability of the prospective users to formulate the requirements for their applications, or conditions of the intended use. Numerous studies have assessed and reported sensor/monitor performance under a range of specific conditions, and in many cases the performance was concluded to be satisfactory. The specific use cases for sensors/monitors included outdoor in a stationary mode, outdoor in a mobile mode, indoor environments and personal monitoring. Under certain conditions of application, project goals, and monitoring environments, some sensors/monitors were fit for a specific purpose. Based on analysis of 17 large projects, which reached applied outcome stage, and typically conducted by consortia of organizations, we observed that a sizable fraction of them (~ 30%) were commercial and/or crowd-funded. This fact by itself signals a paradigm change in air quality monitoring, which previously had been primarily implemented by government organizations. An additional paradigm-shift indicator is the growing use of machine learning or other advanced data processing approaches to improve sensor/monitor agreement with reference monitors. There is still some way to go in enhancing application of the technologies for source apportionment, which is of particular necessity and urgency in developing countries. Also, there has been somewhat less progress in wide-scale monitoring of personal exposures. However, it can be argued that with a significant future expansion of monitoring networks, including indoor environments, there may be less need for wearable or portable sensors/monitors to assess personal exposure. Traditional personal monitoring would still be valuable where spatial variability of pollutants of interest is at a finer resolution than the monitoring network can resolve. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Assessing the quality of activities in a smart environment.
Cook, Diane J; Schmitter-Edgecombe, M
2009-01-01
Pervasive computing technology can provide valuable health monitoring and assistance technology to help individuals live independent lives in their own homes. As a critical part of this technology, our objective is to design software algorithms that recognize and assess the consistency of activities of daily living that individuals perform in their own homes. We have designed algorithms that automatically learn Markov models for each class of activity. These models are used to recognize activities that are performed in a smart home and to identify errors and inconsistencies in the performed activity. We validate our approach using data collected from 60 volunteers who performed a series of activities in our smart apartment testbed. The results indicate that the algorithms correctly label the activities and successfully assess the completeness and consistency of the performed task. Our results indicate that activity recognition and assessment can be automated using machine learning algorithms and smart home technology. These algorithms will be useful for automating remote health monitoring and interventions.
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Matsubayashi, Yoshito; Asakawa, Yasuyoshi; Yamaguchi, Haruyasu
2016-01-01
[Purpose] This study examined whether low-frequency group exercise improved the motor functions of community-dwelling elderly people in a rural area when combined with home exercise with self-monitoring. [Subjects] The subjects were community-dwelling elderly people in a rural area of Japan. [Methods] One group (n = 50) performed group exercise combined with home exercise with self-monitoring. Another group (n = 37) performed group exercise only. Low-frequency group exercise (warm-up, exercises for motor functions, and cool-down) was performed in seven 40 to 70-minute sessions over 9 weeks by both groups. Five items of motor functions were assessed before and after the intervention. [Results] Significant interactions were observed between groups and assessment times for all motor functions. Improvements in motor functions were significantly greater in the group that performed group exercise combined with home exercise with self-monitoring than in the group that performed group exercise only. Post-hoc comparisons revealed significant differences in 3 items of motor functions. No significant improvements were observed in motor functions in the group that performed group exercise only. [Conclusions] Group exercise combined with home exercise with self-monitoring improved motor functions in the setting of low-frequency group exercise for community-dwelling elderly people in a rural area. PMID:27065520
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The semi-continuous Monitor for AeRosols and Gases in Ambient air (MARGA) was evaluated using laboratory and field data with a focus on chromatography. The performance and accuracy assessment revealed various errors and uncertainties resulting from mis-identification and mis-int...
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The semi-continuous Monitor for AeRosols and Gases in Ambient air (MARGA) was evaluated using laboratory and field data with a focus on chromatography. The performance and accuracy assessment revealed various errors and uncertainties resulting from mis-identification and mis-int...
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The Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality. Assessment GEMs No. 8
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Australian Council for Educational Research, 2015
2015-01-01
The Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) carries out large-scale cross-national research studies in member countries in the Southern and Eastern Africa region. It aims to assess the conditions of schooling and performance levels of learners and teachers in the areas of literacy and numeracy. SACMEQ has…
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Storm Water Control Management & Monitoring
DOT National Transportation Integrated Search
2017-11-30
Temple and Villanova universities collected monitoring and assessment data along the I-95 corridor to evaluate the performance of current stormwater control design and maintenance practices. An extensive inventory was developed that ranks plants in t...
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Tang, Xiaojing
Fast and accurate monitoring of tropical forest disturbance is essential for understanding current patterns of deforestation as well as helping eliminate illegal logging. This dissertation explores the use of data from different satellites for near real-time monitoring of forest disturbance in tropical forests, including: development of new monitoring methods; development of new assessment methods; and assessment of the performance and operational readiness of existing methods. Current methods for accuracy assessment of remote sensing products do not address the priority of near real-time monitoring of detecting disturbance events as early as possible. I introduce a new assessment framework for near real-time products that focuses on the timing and the minimum detectable size of disturbance events. The new framework reveals the relationship between change detection accuracy and the time needed to identify events. In regions that are frequently cloudy, near real-time monitoring using data from a single sensor is difficult. This study extends the work by Xin et al. (2013) and develops a new time series method (Fusion2) based on fusion of Landsat and MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) data. Results of three test sites in the Amazon Basin show that Fusion2 can detect 44.4% of the forest disturbance within 13 clear observations (82 days) after the initial disturbance. The smallest event detected by Fusion2 is 6.5 ha. Also, Fusion2 detects disturbance faster and has less commission error than more conventional methods. In a comparison of coarse resolution sensors, MODIS Terra and Aqua combined provides faster and more accurate detection of disturbance events than VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) and MODIS single sensor data. The performance of near real-time monitoring using VIIRS is slightly worse than MODIS Terra but significantly better than MODIS Aqua. New monitoring methods developed in this dissertation provide forest protection organizations the capacity to monitor illegal logging events promptly. In the future, combining two Landsat and two Sentinel-2 satellites will provide global coverage at 30 m resolution every 4 days, and routine monitoring may be possible at high resolution. The methods and assessment framework developed in this dissertation are adaptable to newly available datasets.
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Lee, Yi-Hsuan; von Davier, Alina A
2013-07-01
Maintaining a stable score scale over time is critical for all standardized educational assessments. Traditional quality control tools and approaches for assessing scale drift either require special equating designs, or may be too time-consuming to be considered on a regular basis with an operational test that has a short time window between an administration and its score reporting. Thus, the traditional methods are not sufficient to catch unusual testing outcomes in a timely manner. This paper presents a new approach for score monitoring and assessment of scale drift. It involves quality control charts, model-based approaches, and time series techniques to accommodate the following needs of monitoring scale scores: continuous monitoring, adjustment of customary variations, identification of abrupt shifts, and assessment of autocorrelation. Performance of the methodologies is evaluated using manipulated data based on real responses from 71 administrations of a large-scale high-stakes language assessment.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Omenzetter, Piotr; Morris, Hugh; Worth, Margaret; Gaul, Andrew; Jager, Simon; Desgeorges, Yohann
2012-04-01
An innovative three-story timber building, using self-centering, post-tensioned timber shear walls as the main horizontal load resisting system and lightweight non-composite timber-concrete floors, has recently been completed in Nelson, New Zealand. It is expected to be the trailblazer for similar but taller structures to be more widely adopted. Performance based standards require an advanced understanding of building responses and in order to meet the need for in-situ performance data the building has been subjected to forced vibration testing and instrumented for continuous monitoring using a total of approximately 90 data channels to capture its dynamic and long-term responses. The first part of the paper presents a brief discussion of the existing research on the seismic performance of timber frame buildings and footfall induced floor vibrations. An outline of the building structural system, focusing on the novel design solutions, is then discussed. This is followed by the description of the monitoring system. The analysis of monitoring results starts with a discussion of the monitoring of long-term deformations. Next, the assessment of the floor vibration serviceability performance is outlined. Then, the forced vibration tests conducted on the whole building at different construction stages are reviewed. The system identification results from seismic shaking records are also discussed. Finally, updating of a finite element model of the building is conducted.
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NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Nesthus, Thomas E.; Schiflett, Sammuel G.
1993-01-01
Hypobaric decompression sickness (DCS) research presents the medical monitor with the difficult task of assessing the onset and progression of DCS largely on the basis of subjective symptoms. Even with the introduction of precordial Doppler ultrasound techniques for the detection of venous gas emboli (VGE), correct prediction of DCS can be made only about 65 percent of the time according to data from the Armstrong Laboratory's (AL's) hypobaric DCS database. An AL research protocol concerned with exercise and its effects on denitrogenation efficiency includes implementation of a performance assessment test battery to evaluate cognitive functioning during a 4-h simulated 30,000 ft (9144 m) exposure. Information gained from such a test battery may assist the medical monitor in identifying early signs of DCS and subtle neurologic dysfunction related to cases of asymptomatic, but advanced, DCS. This presentation concerns the selection and integration of a test battery and the timely graphic display of subject test results for the principal investigator and medical monitor. A subset of the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics (ANAM) developed through the Office of Military Performance Assessment Technology (OMPAT) was selected. The ANAM software provides a library of simple tests designed for precise measurement of processing efficiency in a variety of cognitive domains. For our application and time constraints, two tests requiring high levels of cognitive processing and memory were chosen along with one test requiring fine psychomotor performance. Accuracy, speed, and processing throughout variables as well as RMS error were collected. An automated mood survey provided 'state' information on six scales including anger, happiness, fear, depression, activity, and fatigue. An integrated and interactive LOTUS 1-2-3 macro was developed to import and display past and present task performance and mood-change information.
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Alpaca, R I Paredes; Migliore, A; Di Rico, R; Canali, Claudia; Rota, Cristina; Trenti, T; Cariani, Elisabetta
2010-01-01
The quality of laboratory data is one of the main factors in guaranteeing efficacy of biological monitoring. To analyze the quality of laboratory data used for biological monitoring of exposed workers. A survey involving 18 companies employing 945 workers in the area of Modena, Italy, was carried out in 2008. Most of the 9 private laboratories receiving biological samples did not perform directly part or all of the laboratory assessments requested, but this was not indicated in the final report. Major problems were observed in the application of internal quality control, and only one laboratory participated in external quality assessment for blood lead measurements. Our results raise major concerns on the traceability and reliability of laboratory assessments performed for biomonitoring of exposed workers. Systematic evaluation of the quality of analytical data would be highly recommendable.
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Deshpande, Abhishek; Donskey, Curtis J
2017-09-01
Cleaning and disinfection in healthcare facilities is essential to ensure patient safety. This review examines practical strategies used to assess and improve the effectiveness of daily and post-discharge manual cleaning in healthcare facilities. Effective implementation of cleaning interventions requires objective monitoring of staff performance with regular feedback on performance. Use of fluorescent markers to assess thoroughness of cleaning and measurement of residual ATP can provide rapid and objective feedback to personnel and have been associated with improved cleaning. Direct observation of cleaning and interviews with front-line staff are useful to identify variations and deficiencies in practice that may not be detected by other methods. Although not recommended for routine monitoring, cultures can be helpful for outbreak investigations. Monitoring and feedback can be effective in improving cleaning and disinfection in healthcare facilities. Ongoing commitment within institutions is needed to sustain successful cleaning and disinfection programs.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Ángel López Comino, José; Kriegerowski, Marius; Cesca, Simone; Dahm, Torsten; Mirek, Janusz; Lasocki, Stanislaw
2016-04-01
Hydraulic fracturing is considered among the human operations which could induce or trigger seismicity or microseismic activity. The influence of hydraulic fracturing operations is typically expected in terms of weak magnitude events. However, the sensitivity of the rock mass to trigger seismicity varies significantly for different sites and cannot be easily predicted prior to operations. In order to assess the sensitivity of microseismity to hydraulic fracturing operations, we perform a seismic monitoring at a shale gas exploration/exploitation site in the central-western part of the Peribaltic synclise at Pomerania (Poland). The monitoring will be continued before, during and after the termination of hydraulic fracturing operations. The fracking operations are planned in April 2016 at a depth 4000 m. A specific network setup has been installed since summer 2015, including a distributed network of broadband stations and three small-scale arrays. The network covers a region of 60 km2. The aperture of small scale arrays is between 450 and 950 m. So far no fracturing operations have been performed, but seismic data can already be used to assess the seismic noise and background microseismicity, and to investigate and assess the detection performance of our monitoring setup. Here we adopt a recently developed tool to generate a synthetic catalogue and waveform dataset, which realistically account for the expected microseismicity. Synthetic waveforms are generated for a local crustal model, considering a realistic distribution of hypocenters, magnitudes, moment tensors, and source durations. Noise free synthetic seismograms are superposed to real noise traces, to reproduce true monitoring conditions at the different station locations. We estimate the detection probability for different magnitudes, source-receiver distances, and noise conditions. This information is used to estimate the magnitude of completeness at the depth of the hydraulic fracturing horizontal wells. Our technique is useful to evaluate the efficiency of the seismic network and validate detection and location algorithms, taking into account the signal to noise ratio. The same dataset may be used at a later time, to assess the performance of other seismological analysis, such as hypocentral location, magnitude estimation and source parameters inversion. This work is funded by the EU H2020 SHEER project.
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Time-Lapse Electrical Geophysical Monitoring of Amendment-Based Biostimulation
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Johnson, Timothy C.; Versteeg, Roelof; Day-Lewis, Frederick D.
Biostimulation is increasingly used to accelerate microbial remediation of recalcitrant groundwater contaminants. Effective application of biostimulation requires successful emplacement of amendment in the contaminant target zone. Verification of remediation performance requires postemplacement assessment and contaminant monitoring. Sampling based approaches are expensive and provide low-density spatial and temporal information. Time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) is an effective geophysical method for determining temporal changes in subsurface electrical conductivity. Because remedial amendments and biostimulation-related biogeochemical processes often change subsurface electrical conductivity, ERT can complement and enhance sampling-based approaches for assessing emplacement and monitoring biostimulation-based remediation. Field studies demonstrating the ability of time-lapse ERTmore » to monitor amendment emplacement and behavior were performed during a biostimulation remediation effort conducted at the Department of Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office (DRMO) Yard, in Brandywine, Maryland, United States. Geochemical fluid sampling was used to calibrate a petrophysical relation in order to predict groundwater indicators of amendment distribution. The petrophysical relations were field validated by comparing predictions to sequestered fluid sample results, thus demonstrating the potential of electrical geophysics for quantitative assessment of amendment-related geochemical properties. Crosshole radar zero-offset profile and borehole geophysical logging were also performed to augment the data set and validate interpretation. In addition to delineating amendment transport in the first 10 months after emplacement, the time-lapse ERT results show later changes in bulk electrical properties interpreted as mineral precipitation. Results support the use of more cost-effective surfacebased ERT in conjunction with limited field sampling to improve spatial and temporal monitoring of amendment emplacement and remediation performance.« less
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Time-lapse electrical geophysical monitoring of amendment-based biostimulation
Johnson, Timothy C.; Versteeg, Roelof J.; Day-Lewis, Frederick D.; Major, William; Lane, John W.
2015-01-01
Biostimulation is increasingly used to accelerate microbial remediation of recalcitrant groundwater contaminants. Effective application of biostimulation requires successful emplacement of amendment in the contaminant target zone. Verification of remediation performance requires postemplacement assessment and contaminant monitoring. Sampling-based approaches are expensive and provide low-density spatial and temporal information. Time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) is an effective geophysical method for determining temporal changes in subsurface electrical conductivity. Because remedial amendments and biostimulation-related biogeochemical processes often change subsurface electrical conductivity, ERT can complement and enhance sampling-based approaches for assessing emplacement and monitoring biostimulation-based remediation.Field studies demonstrating the ability of time-lapse ERT to monitor amendment emplacement and behavior were performed during a biostimulation remediation effort conducted at the Department of Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office (DRMO) Yard, in Brandywine, Maryland, United States. Geochemical fluid sampling was used to calibrate a petrophysical relation in order to predict groundwater indicators of amendment distribution. The petrophysical relations were field validated by comparing predictions to sequestered fluid sample results, thus demonstrating the potential of electrical geophysics for quantitative assessment of amendment-related geochemical properties. Crosshole radar zero-offset profile and borehole geophysical logging were also performed to augment the data set and validate interpretation.In addition to delineating amendment transport in the first 10 months after emplacement, the time-lapse ERT results show later changes in bulk electrical properties interpreted as mineral precipitation. Results support the use of more cost-effective surface-based ERT in conjunction with limited field sampling to improve spatial and temporal monitoring of amendment emplacement and remediation performance.
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Mitchell, Alison; Baron, Lauren; Macaruso, Paul
2018-01-01
Screening and monitoring student reading progress can be costly and time consuming. Assessment embedded within the context of online instructional programs can capture ongoing student performance data while limiting testing time outside of instruction. This paper presents two studies that examined the validity of using performance measures from a…
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GROUND WATER SAMPLING USING LOW-FLOW TECHNIQUES
Obtaining representative ground water samples is important for site assessment and remedial performance monitoring objectives. The sampling device or method used to collect samples from monitoring or compliance well can significantly impact data quality and reliability. Low-flo...
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Survey of hydrogen monitoring devices
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Lai, W.
Presented are results of a survey of commercially available monitoring devices suitable for hydrogen detection in the secondary containment vessel of a nuclear power plant during the post postulated accident period. Available detectors were grouped into the following five classes: combustion, solid state, electrochemical, thermal conductivity, and absorption. The performance of most available sensors is likely to deteriorate when exposed to the postulated conditions which include moisture, which could be at high temperature, and radioactive noncondensibles. Of the commercial devices, those using metallic filament thermal conductivity detectors seem least susceptible to performance change. Absorption detectors are best suited for thismore » monitoring task but the only available device is designed for pipeline corrosion assessment. Initiation of experimental study to assess apparent deficiencies of commercial detectors is recommended. Also recommended is an analytical/experimental effort to determine the optimum detector array for monitoring in the secondary containment vessels.« less
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Common Progress Monitoring Graph Omissions: Missing Goal and Goal Line. Progress Monitoring Brief #2
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
National Center on Response to Intervention, 2013
2013-01-01
Progress monitoring assessment is one of the four essential components of Response to Intervention (RTI), as defined by the National Center on Response to Intervention (NCRTI). Progress data allow teachers to evaluate the academic performance of students over time, quantify rates of improvement or responsiveness to instruction, and evaluate…
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Baltazart, Vincent; Moliard, Jean-Marc; Amhaz, Rabih; Wright, Dean; Jethwa, Manish
2015-04-01
Monitoring road surface conditions is an important issue in many countries. Several projects have looked into this issue in recent years, including TRIMM 2011-2014. The objective of such projects has been to detect surface distresses, like cracking, raveling and water ponding, in order to plan effective road maintenance and to afford a better sustainability of the pavement. The monitoring of cracking conventionally focuses on open cracks on the surface of the pavement, as opposed to reflexive cracks embedded in the pavement materials. For monitoring surface condition, in situ human visual inspection has been gradually replaced by automatic image data collection at traffic speed. Off-line image processing techniques have been developed for monitoring surface condition in support of human visual control. Full automation of crack monitoring has been approached with caution, and depends on a proper manual assessment of the performance. This work firstly presents some aspects of the current state of monitoring that have been reported so far in the literature and in previous projects: imaging technology and image processing techniques. Then, the work presents the two image processing techniques that have been developed within the scope of the TRIMM project to automatically detect pavement cracking from images. The first technique is a heuristic approach (HA) based on the search for gradient within the image. It was originally developed to process pavement images from the French imaging device, Aigle-RN. The second technique, the Minimal Path Selection (MPS) method, has been developed within an ongoing PhD work at IFSTTAR. The proposed new technique provides a fine and accurate segmentation of the crack pattern along with the estimation of the crack width. HA has been assessed against the field data collection provided by Yotta and TRL with the imaging device Tempest 2. The performance assessment has been threefold: first it was performed against the reference data set including 130 km of pavement images over UK roads, second over a few selected short sections of contiguous pavement images, and finally over a few sample images as a case study. The performance of MPS has been assessed against an older image data base. Pixel-based PGT was available to provide the most sensitive performance assessment. MPS has shown its ability to provide a very accurate cracking pattern without reducing the image resolution on the segmented images. Thus, it allows measurement of the crack width; it is found to behave more robustly against the image texture and better matched for dealing with low contrast pavement images. The benchmarking of seven automatic segmentation techniques has been provided at both the pixel and the grid levels. The performance assessment includes three minimal path selection algorithms, namely MPS, Free Form Anisotropy (FFA), one geodesic contour with automatic selection of points of interests (GC-POI), HA, and two Markov-based methods. Among others, MPS approach reached the best performance at the pixel level while it is matched to the FFA approach at the grid level. Finally, the project has emphasized the need for a reliable ground truth data collection. Owing to its accuracy, MPS may serve as a reference benchmark for other methods to provide the automatic segmentation of pavement images at the pixel level and beyond. As a counterpart, MPS requires a reduction in the computing time. Keywords: cracking, automatic segmentation, image processing, pavement, surface distress, monitoring, DICE, performance
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The effects of monitoring environment on problem-solving performance.
Laird, Brian K; Bailey, Charles D; Hester, Kim
2018-01-01
While effective and efficient solving of everyday problems is important in business domains, little is known about the effects of workplace monitoring on problem-solving performance. In a laboratory experiment, we explored the monitoring environment's effects on an individual's propensity to (1) establish pattern solutions to problems, (2) recognize when pattern solutions are no longer efficient, and (3) solve complex problems. Under three work monitoring regimes-no monitoring, human monitoring, and electronic monitoring-114 participants solved puzzles for monetary rewards. Based on research related to worker autonomy and theory of social facilitation, we hypothesized that monitored (versus non-monitored) participants would (1) have more difficulty finding a pattern solution, (2) more often fail to recognize when the pattern solution is no longer efficient, and (3) solve fewer complex problems. Our results support the first two hypotheses, but in complex problem solving, an interaction was found between self-assessed ability and the monitoring environment.
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Quality improvement project to reduce infiltration and extravasation events in a pediatric hospital.
Tofani, Barbara F; Rineair, Sylvia A; Gosdin, Craig H; Pilcher, Patricia M; McGee, Susan; Varadarajan, Kartik R; Schoettker, Pamela J
2012-12-01
A safety event response team at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center developed and tested improvement strategies to reduce peripheral intravenous (PIV) infiltration and extravasation injuries. Improvement activities included development of the touch-look-compare method for hourly PIV site assessment, staff education and mandatory demonstration of PIV site assessment, and performance monitoring and sharing of compliance results. We observed a significant reduction in the injury rate immediately following implementation of the interventions that corresponded with monitoring compliance in performing hourly assessments on patients with a PIV, but this was not sustained. The team is currently examining other strategies to reduce PIV injuries. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Towards a new protocol of scoliosis assessments and monitoring in clinical practice: A pilot study.
Lukovic, Tanja; Cukovic, Sasa; Lukovic, Vanja; Devedzic, Goran; Djordjevic, Dusica
2015-01-01
Although intensively investigated, the procedures for assessment and monitoring of scoliosis are still a subject of controversies. The aim of this study was to assess validity and reliability of a number of physiotherapeutic measurements that could be used for clinical monitoring of scoliosis. Fifteen healthy (symmetric) subjects were subjected to a set of measurements two times, by two experienced and two inexperienced physiotherapists. Intra-observer and inter-observer reliability of measurements were determined. Following measurements were performed: body height and weight, chest girth in inspirium and expirium, the length of legs, the spine translation, the lateral pelvic tilt, the equality of the shoulders, position of scapulas, the equality of stature triangles, the rib hump, the existence of m. iliopsoas contracture, Fröhner index, the size of lumbar lordosis and the angle of trunk rotation. Intraclass correlation coefficient was high (> 0.8) for majority of measurements when experienced physiotherapists performed them, while inexperienced physiotherapists performed precisely only basic, easy measurements. We showed in this pilot study on healthy subjects, that majority of basic physiotherapeutic measurements are valid and reliable when performed by specialized physiotherapist, and it can be expected that this protocol will gain high value when measurements on subjects with scoliosis are performed.
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Petscher, Yaacov; Kershaw, Sarah; Koon, Sharon; Foorman, Barbara R.
2014-01-01
Districts and schools use progress monitoring to assess student progress, to identify students who fail to respond to intervention, and to further adapt instruction to student needs. Researchers and practitioners often use progress monitoring data to estimate student achievement growth (slope) and evaluate changes in performance over time for…
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Training monitoring skills in helicopter pilots.
Potter, Brian A; Blickensderfer, Elizabeth L; Boquet, Albert J
2014-05-01
Prior research has indicated that ineffective pilot monitoring has been associated with aircraft accidents. Despite this finding, empirical research concerning pilot monitoring skill training programs is nearly nonexistent. E-learning may prove to be an effective method to foster nontechnical flight skills, including monitoring. This study examined the effect of using e-learning to enhance helicopter aircrew monitoring skill performance. The design was a posttest only field study. Forty-four helicopter pilots completed either an e-learning training module or a control activity and then flew two scenarios in a high-fidelity flight simulator. Learner reactions and knowledge gained were assessed immediately following the e-learning module. Two observer raters assessed behaviors and performance outcomes using recordings of the simulation flights. Subjects who completed the e-learning training module scored almost twice as high as did the control group on the administered knowledge test (experimental group, mean = 92.8%; control group, mean = 47.7%) and demonstrated up to 150% more monitoring behaviors during the simulated flights than the control subjects. In addition, the participating pilots rated the course highly. The results supported the hypothesis that a relatively inexpensive and brief training course implemented through e-learning can foster monitoring skill development among helicopter pilots.
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Satellite Remote Sensing for Monitoring and Assessment
Remote sensing technology has the potential to enhance the engagement of communities and managers in the implementation and performance of best management practices. This presentation will use examples from U.S. numeric criteria development and state water quality monitoring prog...
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Use of the Progressive Aphasia Severity Scale (PASS) in monitoring speech and language status in PPA
Sapolsky, Daisy; Domoto-Reilly, Kimiko; Dickerson, Bradford C.
2014-01-01
Background Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a devastating neurodegenerative syndrome involving the gradual development of aphasia, slowly impairing the patient’s ability to communicate. Pharmaceutical treatments do not currently exist and intervention often focuses on speech-language behavioral therapies, although further investigation is warranted to determine how best to harness functional benefits. Efforts to develop pharmaceutical and behavioral treatments have been hindered by a lack of standardized methods to monitor disease progression and treatment efficacy. Aims Here we describe our current approach to monitoring progression of PPA, including the development and applications of a novel clinical instrument for this purpose, the Progressive Aphasia Severity Scale (PASS). We also outline some of the issues related to initial evaluation and longitudinal monitoring of PPA. Methods & Procedures In our clinical and research practice we perform initial and follow-up assessments of PPA patients using a multi-faceted approach. In addition to standardized assessment measures, we use the PASS to rate presence and severity of symptoms across distinct domains of speech, language, and functional and pragmatic aspects of communication. Ratings are made using the clinician’s best judgment, integrating information from patient test performance in the office as well as a companion’s description of routine daily functioning. Outcomes & Results Monitoring symptom characteristics and severity with the PASS can assist in developing behavioral therapies, planning treatment goals, and counseling patients and families on clinical status and prognosis. The PASS also has potential to advance the implementation of PPA clinical trials. Conclusions PPA patients display heterogeneous language profiles that change over time given the progressive nature of the disease. The monitoring of symptom progression is therefore crucial to ensure that proposed treatments are appropriate at any given stage, including speech-language therapy and potentially pharmaceutical treatments once these become available. Because of the discrepancy that can exist between a patient’s daily functioning and standardized test performance, we believe a comprehensive assessment and monitoring battery must include performance-based instruments, interviews with the patient and partner, questionnaires about functioning in daily life, and measures of clinician judgment. We hope that our clinician judgment-based rating scale described here will be a valuable addition to the PPA assessment and monitoring battery. PMID:25419031
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A framework for cognitive monitoring using computer game interactions.
Jimison, Holly B; Pavel, Misha; Bissell, Payton; McKanna, James
2007-01-01
Many countries are faced with a rapidly increasing economic and social challenge of caring for their elderly population. Cognitive issues are at the forefront of the list of concerns. People over the age of 75 are at risk for medically related cognitive decline and confusion, and the early detection of cognitive problems would allow for more effective clinical intervention. However, standard cognitive assessments are not diagnostically sensitive and are performed infrequently. To address these issues, we have developed a set of adaptive computer games to monitor cognitive performance in a home environment. Assessment algorithms for various aspects of cognition are embedded in the games. The monitoring of these metrics allows us to detect within subject trends over time, providing a method for the early detection of cognitive decline. In addition, the real-time information on cognitive state is used to adapt the user interface to the needs of the individual user. In this paper we describe the software architecture and methodology for monitoring cognitive performance using data from natural computer interactions in a home setting.
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Assessment of Alternative Conceptual Models Using Reactive Transport Modeling with Monitoring Data
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Dai, Z.; Price, V.; Heffner, D.; Hodges, R.; Temples, T.; Nicholson, T.
2005-12-01
Monitoring data proved very useful in evaluating alternative conceptual models, simulating contaminant transport behavior, and reducing uncertainty. A graded approach using three alternative conceptual site models was formulated to simulate a field case of tetrachloroethene (PCE) transport and biodegradation. These models ranged from simple to complex in their representation of subsurface heterogeneities. The simplest model was a single-layer homogeneous aquifer that employed an analytical reactive transport code, BIOCHLOR (Aziz et al., 1999). Due to over-simplification of the aquifer structure, this simulation could not reproduce the monitoring data. The second model consisted of a multi-layer conceptual model, in combination with numerical modules, MODFLOW and RT3D within GMS, to simulate flow and reactive transport. Although the simulation results from the second model were comparatively better than those from the simple model, they still did not adequately reproduce the monitoring well concentrations because the geological structures were still inadequately defined. Finally, a more realistic conceptual model was formulated that incorporated heterogeneities and geologic structures identified from well logs and seismic survey data using the Petra and PetraSeis software. This conceptual model included both a major channel and a younger channel that were detected in the PCE source area. In this model, these channels control the local ground-water flow direction and provide a preferential chemical transport pathway. Simulation results using this conceptual site model proved compatible with the monitoring concentration data. This study demonstrates that the bias and uncertainty from inadequate conceptual models are much larger than those introduced from an inadequate choice of model parameter values (Neuman and Wierenga, 2003; Meyer et al., 2004; Ye et al., 2004). This case study integrated conceptual and numerical models, based on interpreted local hydrogeologic and geochemical data, with detailed monitoring plume data. It provided key insights for confirming alternative conceptual site models and assessing the performance of monitoring networks. A monitoring strategy based on this graded approach for assessing alternative conceptual models can provide the technical bases for identifying critical monitoring locations, adequate monitoring frequency, and performance indicator parameters for performance monitoring involving ground-water levels and PCE concentrations.
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Integrity monitoring of IGS products
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Zumberge, James F.; Plag, H. -P.
2005-01-01
The IGS has successfully produced precise GPS and GLONASS transmitter parameters, coordinates of IGS tracking stations, Earth rotation parameters, and atmospheric parameters. In this paper we discuss the concepts of integrity monitoring, system monitoring, and performance assessment, all in the context of IGS products. We report on a recent survey of IGS product users, and propose an integrity strategy for the IGS.
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A Curricular-Sampling Approach to Progress Monitoring: Mathematics Concepts and Applications
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Fuchs, Lynn S.; Fuchs, Douglas; Zumeta, Rebecca O.
2008-01-01
Progress monitoring is an important component of effective instructional practice. Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) is a form of progress monitoring that has been the focus of rigorous research. Two approaches for formulating CBM systems exist. The first is to assess performance regularly on a task that serves as a global indicator of competence…
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Miniature Biosensor with Health Risk Assessment Feedback
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Hanson, Andrea; Downs, Meghan; Kalogera, Kent; Buxton, Roxanne; Cooper, Tommy; Cooper, Alan; Cooper, Ross
2016-01-01
Heart rate (HR) monitoring is a medical requirement during exercise on the International Space Station (ISS), fitness tests, and extravehicular activity (EVA); however, NASA does not currently have the technology to consistently and accurately monitor HR and other physiological data during these activities. Performance of currently available HR monitor technologies is dependent on uninterrupted contact with the torso and are prone to data drop-out and motion artifact. Here, we seek an alternative to the chest strap and electrode based sensors currently in use on ISS today. This project aims to develop a high performance, robust earbud based biosensor with focused efforts on improved HR data quality during exercise or EVA. A health risk assessment algorithm will further advance the goals of autonomous crew health care for exploration missions.
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Performance of low-cost monitors to assess household air pollution.
Curto, A; Donaire-Gonzalez, D; Barrera-Gómez, J; Marshall, J D; Nieuwenhuijsen, M J; Wellenius, G A; Tonne, C
2018-05-01
Exposure to household air pollution is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally. However, due to the lack of validated low-cost monitors with long-lasting batteries in indoor environments, most epidemiologic studies use self-reported data or short-term household air pollution assessments as proxies of long-term exposure. We evaluated the performance of three low-cost monitors measuring fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) and carbon monoxide (CO) in a wood-combustion experiment conducted in one household of Spain for 5 days (including the co-location of 2 units of HAPEX and 3 units of TZOA-R for PM 2.5 and 3 units of EL-USB-CO for CO; a total of 40 unit-days). We used Spearman correlation (ρ) and Concordance Correlation Coefficient (CCC) to assess accuracy of low-cost monitors versus equivalent research-grade devices. We also conducted a field study in India for 1 week (including HAPEX in 3 households and EL-USB-CO in 4 households; a total of 49 unit-days). Correlation and agreement at 5-min were moderate-high for one unit of HAPEX (ρ = 0.73 / CCC = 0.59), for one unit of TZOA-R (ρ = 0.89 / CCC = 0.62) and for three units of EL-USB-CO (ρ = 0.82-0.89 / CCC = 0.66-0.91) in Spain, although the failure or malfunction rate among low-cost units was high in both settings (60% of unit-days in Spain and 43% in India). Low-cost monitors tested here are not yet ready to replace more established exposure assessment methods in long-term household air pollution epidemiologic studies. More field validation is needed to assess evolving sensors and monitors with application to health studies. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Krishnan, V; Thirunavukkarasu, J
2016-03-01
Self blood glucose monitoring is an important context of self care in the management of diabetes mellitus. All the guidelines must be followed while performing self blood glucose monitoring and tracking of values is essential to facilitate the physician while titrating the drugs and /or doses of anti diabetes medication. Self titration by patients following self monitoring must be discouraged. To assess the knowledge and practice of self blood glucose monitoring among diabetes patients and extent of self titration of anti diabetes medicines among diabetes patients based on self blood glucose monitoring. This pilot, cross-sectional, observational study was conducted using a validated questionnaire among adult male and female diabetes patients performing self blood glucose monitoring at home. Diabetes patients with complications and juvenile diabetes patients were excluded. Out of 153 patients surveyed, only 37 (24.1%) (20 males, 17 females) patients were aware and have been following self blood glucose monitoring appropriately. About 116 (75.8%) (64 males, 52 females) of patients were devoid of adequate knowledge and did not practice self blood glucose monitoring in a proper way. Ninety eight (64.05%) accepted that they self titrate their anti diabetic medicines based on self monitoring. Self monitoring of blood glucose should be encouraged and patients should be taught importance of following correct steps and tracking of self monitoring by physician or diabetes educator.
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Combined effects of altitude and high temperature on complex performance.
DOT National Transportation Integrated Search
1971-04-01
Nine well-trained subjects were tested on a complex performance device designed to assess functions of relevance to aircrew activities. The tests, which involved tracking, monitoring, and mental arithmetic, were performed during exposure to altitude ...
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Remote Performance Monitoring of a Thermoplastic Composite Bridge at Camp Mackall, NC
2011-11-01
level, flow, creep, and force for slope stability, subsidence, seismicity studies, structural restoration, or site assessment applications. • Mining ...monitors mine ventilation, slope stability, convergence, and equipment performance. • Machinery testing- provides temperature, pressure, RPM, veloci...Contact an Applications Engineer for help in deter- mining the best antenna for your application. • 21831 0 dBd, ’l.t Wave Dipole Whip Antenna
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Interagency Modeling Atmospheric Assessment Center Local Jurisdiction: IMAAC Operations Framework
2010-03-01
Richard Bergin Robert Josefek i REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE Form Approved OMB No. 0704-0188 Public reporting burden for this collection of information...Edward J. Dadosky 5. FUNDING NUMBERS 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) Naval Postgraduate School Monterey, CA 93943-5000 8...PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER 9. SPONSORING /MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) N/A 10. SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY REPORT
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Carrasco, Robert L.
The case study of the use of a classroom observation technique to evaluate the abilities and performance of a bilingual kindergarten student previously assessed as a low achiever is described. There are three objectives: to show the validity of the ethnographic monitoring technique, to show the value of teachers as collaborating researchers, and…
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Petscher, Yaacov; Kershaw, Sarah; Koon, Sharon; Foorman, Barbara R.
2014-01-01
Districts and schools use progress monitoring to assess student progress, to identify students who fail to respond to intervention, and to further adapt instruction to student needs. Researchers and practitioners often use progress monitoring data to estimate student achievement growth (slope) and evaluate changes in performance over time for…
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Effect of disinfectants on glucose monitors.
Mahoney, John J; Lim, Christine G
2012-01-01
Monitoring blood glucose levels is an integral part of routine diabetes management. To minimize the risk of transmission of bloodborne pathogens during monitoring, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that glucose meters be disinfected after each use whenever they are used to test multiple patients. The objective of this study is to assess the compatibility of some common disinfectants with certain blood glucose meter systems. We tested six disinfectants for adverse impact on meter performance or the exterior meter surfaces. The disinfectants tested were 0.525% sodium hypochlorite, 20% 2-propanol and 10% ethanol, 17.2% isopropanol, 55% isopropanol, 70% isopropanol, and hydrogen peroxide. To assess meter performance, we tested OneTouch® Ultra® blood glucose monitoring systems with control solution before and after application of either water or disinfectant. To assess the effect on exterior meter surfaces, we performed a soaking test to simulate long-term exposure to disinfectant. Paired t-test results showed that the control solution data associated with disinfectant and with water application were not significantly different for each meter type. However, most of the meter types were adversely affected by hydrogen peroxide and/or by the higher concentrations of alcohol-based disinfectants. Although none of the six disinfectants affected meter performance, hydrogen peroxide and isopropanol >20% adversely affected the exterior surfaces of the tested meters. When complying with CDC instructions for meter disinfection, users should use caution and choose disinfectants that have been validated by the meter manufacturer. © 2012 Diabetes Technology Society.
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Effect of Disinfectants on Glucose Monitors
Mahoney, John J; Lim, Christine G
2012-01-01
Background Monitoring blood glucose levels is an integral part of routine diabetes management. To minimize the risk of transmission of bloodborne pathogens during monitoring, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that glucose meters be disinfected after each use whenever they are used to test multiple patients. The objective of this study is to assess the compatibility of some common disinfectants with certain blood glucose meter systems. Methods We tested six disinfectants for adverse impact on meter performance or the exterior meter surfaces. The disinfectants tested were 0.525% sodium hypochlorite, 20% 2-propanol and 10% ethanol, 17.2% isopropanol, 55% isopropanol, 70% isopropanol, and hydrogen peroxide. To assess meter performance, we tested OneTouch® Ultra® blood glucose monitoring systems with control solution before and after application of either water or disinfectant. To assess the effect on exterior meter surfaces, we performed a soaking test to simulate long-term exposure to disinfectant. Results Paired t-test results showed that the control solution data associated with disinfectant and with water application were not significantly different for each meter type. However, most of the meter types were adversely affected by hydrogen peroxide and/or by the higher concentrations of alcohol-based disinfectants. Conclusions Although none of the six disinfectants affected meter performance, hydrogen peroxide and isopropanol >20% adversely affected the exterior surfaces of the tested meters. When complying with CDC instructions for meter disinfection, users should use caution and choose disinfectants that have been validated by the meter manufacturer. PMID:22401326
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The assessment of biases in the acoustic discrimination of individuals
Šálek, Martin
2017-01-01
Animal vocalizations contain information about individual identity that could potentially be used for the monitoring of individuals. However, the performance of individual discrimination is subjected to many biases depending on factors such as the amount of identity information, or methods used. These factors need to be taken into account when comparing results of different studies or selecting the most cost-effective solution for a particular species. In this study, we evaluate several biases associated with the discrimination of individuals. On a large sample of little owl male individuals, we assess how discrimination performance changes with methods of call description, an increasing number of individuals, and number of calls per male. Also, we test whether the discrimination performance within the whole population can be reliably estimated from a subsample of individuals in a pre-screening study. Assessment of discrimination performance at the level of the individual and at the level of call led to different conclusions. Hence, studies interested in individual discrimination should optimize methods at the level of individuals. The description of calls by their frequency modulation leads to the best discrimination performance. In agreement with our expectations, discrimination performance decreased with population size. Increasing the number of calls per individual linearly increased the discrimination of individuals (but not the discrimination of calls), likely because it allows distinction between individuals with very similar calls. The available pre-screening index does not allow precise estimation of the population size that could be reliably monitored. Overall, projects applying acoustic monitoring at the individual level in population need to consider limitations regarding the population size that can be reliably monitored and fine-tune their methods according to their needs and limitations. PMID:28486488
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Assessing the limitations of the Banister model in monitoring training
Hellard, Philippe; Avalos, Marta; Lacoste, Lucien; Barale, Frédéric; Chatard, Jean-Claude; Millet, Grégoire P.
2006-01-01
The aim of this study was to carry out a statistical analysis of the Banister model to verify how useful it is in monitoring the training programmes of elite swimmers. The accuracy, the ill-conditioning and the stability of this model were thus investigated. Training loads of nine elite swimmers, measured over one season, were related to performances with the Banister model. Firstly, to assess accuracy, the 95% bootstrap confidence interval (95% CI) of parameter estimates and modelled performances were calculated. Secondly, to study ill-conditioning, the correlation matrix of parameter estimates was computed. Finally, to analyse stability, iterative computation was performed with the same data but minus one performance, chosen randomly. Performances were significantly related to training loads in all subjects (R2= 0.79 ± 0.13, P < 0.05) and the estimation procedure seemed to be stable. Nevertheless, the 95% CI of the most useful parameters for monitoring training were wide τa =38 (17, 59), τf =19 (6, 32), tn =19 (7, 35), tg =43 (25, 61). Furthermore, some parameters were highly correlated making their interpretation worthless. The study suggested possible ways to deal with these problems and reviewed alternative methods to model the training-performance relationships. PMID:16608765
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McAnally, Ken I.; Morris, Adam P.; Best, Christopher
2017-01-01
Metacognitive monitoring and control of situation awareness (SA) are important for a range of safety-critical roles (e.g., air traffic control, military command and control). We examined the factors affecting these processes using a visual change detection task that included representative tactical displays. SA was assessed by asking novice observers to detect changes to a tactical display. Metacognitive monitoring was assessed by asking observers to estimate the probability that they would correctly detect a change, either after study of the display and before the change (judgement of learning; JOL) or after the change and detection response (judgement of performance; JOP). In Experiment 1, observers failed to detect some changes to the display, indicating imperfect SA, but JOPs were reasonably well calibrated to objective performance. Experiment 2 examined JOLs and JOPs in two task contexts: with study-time limits imposed by the task or with self-pacing to meet specified performance targets. JOPs were well calibrated in both conditions as were JOLs for high performance targets. In summary, observers had limited SA, but good insight about their performance and learning for high performance targets and allocated study time appropriately. PMID:28915244
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Wilson Corners SWMU 001 2014 Annual Long Term Monitoring Report Kennedy Space Center, Florida
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Langenbach, James
2015-01-01
This document presents the findings of the 2014 Long Term Monitoring (LTM) that was completed at the Wilson Corners site, located at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida. The goals of the 2014 annual LTM event were to evaluate the groundwater flow direction and gradient and to monitor the vertical and downgradient horizontal extent of the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in groundwater at the site. The LTM activities consisted of an annual groundwater sampling event in December 2014, which included the collection of water levels from the LTM wells. During the annual groundwater sampling event, depth to groundwater was measured and VOC samples were collected using passive diffusion bags (PDBs) from 30 monitoring wells. In addition to the LTM sampling, additional assessment sampling was performed at the site using low-flow techniques based on previous LTM results and assessment activities. Assessment of monitoring well MW0052DD was performed by collecting VOC samples using low-flow techniques before and after purging 100 gallons from the well. Monitoring well MW0064 was sampled to supplement shallow VOC data north of Hot Spot 2 and east of Hot Spot 4. Monitoring well MW0089 was sampled due to its proximity to MW0090. MW0090 is screened in a deeper interval and had an unexpected detection of trichloroethene (TCE) during the 2013 LTM, which was corroborated during the March 2014 verification sampling. Monitoring well MW0130 was sampled to provide additional VOC data beneath the semi-confining clay layer in the Hot Spot 2 area.
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Time-Lapse Electrical Geophysical Monitoring of Amendment-Based Biostimulation.
Johnson, Timothy C; Versteeg, Roelof J; Day-Lewis, Frederick D; Major, William; Lane, John W
2015-01-01
Biostimulation is increasingly used to accelerate microbial remediation of recalcitrant groundwater contaminants. Effective application of biostimulation requires successful emplacement of amendment in the contaminant target zone. Verification of remediation performance requires postemplacement assessment and contaminant monitoring. Sampling-based approaches are expensive and provide low-density spatial and temporal information. Time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) is an effective geophysical method for determining temporal changes in subsurface electrical conductivity. Because remedial amendments and biostimulation-related biogeochemical processes often change subsurface electrical conductivity, ERT can complement and enhance sampling-based approaches for assessing emplacement and monitoring biostimulation-based remediation. Field studies demonstrating the ability of time-lapse ERT to monitor amendment emplacement and behavior were performed during a biostimulation remediation effort conducted at the Department of Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office (DRMO) Yard, in Brandywine, Maryland, United States. Geochemical fluid sampling was used to calibrate a petrophysical relation in order to predict groundwater indicators of amendment distribution. The petrophysical relations were field validated by comparing predictions to sequestered fluid sample results, thus demonstrating the potential of electrical geophysics for quantitative assessment of amendment-related geochemical properties. Crosshole radar zero-offset profile and borehole geophysical logging were also performed to augment the data set and validate interpretation. In addition to delineating amendment transport in the first 10 months after emplacement, the time-lapse ERT results show later changes in bulk electrical properties interpreted as mineral precipitation. Results support the use of more cost-effective surface-based ERT in conjunction with limited field sampling to improve spatial and temporal monitoring of amendment emplacement and remediation performance. Published 2014. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.
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Hemodynamic monitoring in the critically ill.
Voga, G
1995-06-01
Monitoring of vital functions is one of the most important and essential tools in the management of critically ill patients in the ICU. Today it is possible to detect and analyze a great variety of physiological signals by various noninvasive and invasive techniques. An intensivist should be able to select and perform the most appropriate monitoring method for the individual patient considering risk-benefit ratio of the particular monitoring technique and the need for immediate therapy, specific diagnosis, continuous monitoring and evaluation of morphology should be included. Despite rapid development of noninvasive monitoring techniques, invasive hemodynamic monitoring in still one of the most basic ICU procedures. It enables monitoring of pressures, flow and saturation, pressures in the systemic and pulmonary circulation, estimation of cardiac performance and judgment of the adequacy of the cardiocirculatory system. Carefully and correctly obtained information are basis for proper hemodynamic assessment which usually effects the therapeutic decisions.
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Spangler, Lee; Cunningham, Alfred; Lageson, David
2011-03-31
ZERT has made major contributions to five main areas of sequestration science: improvement of computational tools; measurement and monitoring techniques to verify storage and track migration of CO{sub 2}; development of a comprehensive performance and risk assessment framework; fundamental geophysical, geochemical and hydrological investigations of CO{sub 2} storage; and investigate innovative, bio-based mitigation strategies.
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Brett B. Roper; John M. Buffington; Stephen Bennett; Steven H. Lanigan; Eric Archer; Scott T. Downie; John Faustini; Tracy W. Hillman; Shannon Hubler; Kim Jones; Chris Jordan; Philip R. Kaufmann; Glenn Merritt; Chris Moyer; Allen Pleus
2010-01-01
To comply with legal mandates, meet local management objectives, or both, many federal, state, and tribal organizations have monitoring groups that assess stream habitat at different scales. This myriad of groups has difficulty sharing data and scaling up stream habitat assessments to regional or national levels because of differences in their goals and data collection...
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dickson, Peter
The work in second language education of the Assessment of Performance Unit, established by the Department of Education and Science of England and Wales to monitor certain areas of the public education curriculum is described. The focus is on the development of a rationale for testing, the elicitation procedures used in the assessment of speaking…
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Christensen, William Howard
2013-01-01
In 2010, the federal government increased accountability expectations by placing more emphasis on monitoring teacher performance. Using a model that focuses on the New York State teacher evaluation system, that is comprised of a rubric for observation, local student assessment scores, and student state assessment scores, this…
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42 CFR 418.58 - Condition of participation: Quality assessment and performance improvement.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-10-01
... collected to do the following: (i) Monitor the effectiveness and safety of services and quality of care. (ii... 42 Public Health 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Condition of participation: Quality assessment and performance improvement. 418.58 Section 418.58 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES...
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Community assessment of tropical tree biomass: challenges and opportunities for REDD.
Theilade, Ida; Rutishauser, Ervan; Poulsen, Michael K
2015-12-01
REDD+ programs rely on accurate forest carbon monitoring. Several REDD+ projects have recently shown that local communities can monitor above ground biomass as well as external professionals, but at lower costs. However, the precision and accuracy of carbon monitoring conducted by local communities have rarely been assessed in the tropics. The aim of this study was to investigate different sources of error in tree biomass measurements conducted by community monitors and determine the effect on biomass estimates. Furthermore, we explored the potential of local ecological knowledge to assess wood density and botanical identification of trees. Community monitors were able to measure tree DBH accurately, but some large errors were found in girth measurements of large and odd-shaped trees. Monitors with experience from the logging industry performed better than monitors without previous experience. Indeed, only experienced monitors were able to discriminate trees with low wood densities. Local ecological knowledge did not allow consistent tree identification across monitors. Future REDD+ programmes may benefit from the systematic training of local monitors in tree DBH measurement, with special attention given to large and odd-shaped trees. A better understanding of traditional classification systems and concepts is required for local tree identifications and wood density estimates to become useful in monitoring of biomass and tree diversity.
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Shen, Zhongjie; He, Zhengjia; Chen, Xuefeng; Sun, Chuang; Liu, Zhiwen
2012-01-01
Performance degradation assessment based on condition monitoring plays an important role in ensuring reliable operation of equipment, reducing production downtime and saving maintenance costs, yet performance degradation has strong fuzziness, and the dynamic information is random and fuzzy, making it a challenge how to assess the fuzzy bearing performance degradation. This study proposes a monotonic degradation assessment index of rolling bearings using fuzzy support vector data description (FSVDD) and running time. FSVDD constructs the fuzzy-monitoring coefficient ε̄ which is sensitive to the initial defect and stably increases as faults develop. Moreover, the parameter ε̄ describes the accelerating relationships between the damage development and running time. However, the index ε̄ with an oscillating trend disagrees with the irreversible damage development. The running time is introduced to form a monotonic index, namely damage severity index (DSI). DSI inherits all advantages of ε̄ and overcomes its disadvantage. A run-to-failure test is carried out to validate the performance of the proposed method. The results show that DSI reflects the growth of the damages with running time perfectly. PMID:23112591
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Shen, Zhongjie; He, Zhengjia; Chen, Xuefeng; Sun, Chuang; Liu, Zhiwen
2012-01-01
Performance degradation assessment based on condition monitoring plays an important role in ensuring reliable operation of equipment, reducing production downtime and saving maintenance costs, yet performance degradation has strong fuzziness, and the dynamic information is random and fuzzy, making it a challenge how to assess the fuzzy bearing performance degradation. This study proposes a monotonic degradation assessment index of rolling bearings using fuzzy support vector data description (FSVDD) and running time. FSVDD constructs the fuzzy-monitoring coefficient ε⁻ which is sensitive to the initial defect and stably increases as faults develop. Moreover, the parameter ε⁻ describes the accelerating relationships between the damage development and running time. However, the index ε⁻ with an oscillating trend disagrees with the irreversible damage development. The running time is introduced to form a monotonic index, namely damage severity index (DSI). DSI inherits all advantages of ε⁻ and overcomes its disadvantage. A run-to-failure test is carried out to validate the performance of the proposed method. The results show that DSI reflects the growth of the damages with running time perfectly.
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Field comparison of portable and stationary instruments for outdoor urban air exposure assessments
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Viana, M.; Rivas, I.; Reche, C.; Fonseca, A. S.; Pérez, N.; Querol, X.; Alastuey, A.; Álvarez-Pedrerol, M.; Sunyer, J.
2015-12-01
The performance of three portable monitors (micro-aethalometer AE51, DiscMini, Dusttrak DRX) was assessed for outdoor air exposure assessment in a representative Southern European urban environment. The parameters evaluated were black carbon, particle number concentration, alveolar lung-deposited surface area, mean particle diameter, PM10, PM2.5 and PM1. The performance was tested by comparison with widely used stationary instruments (MAAP, CPC, SMPS, NSAM, GRIMM aerosol spectrometer). Results evidenced a good agreement between most portable and stationary instruments, with R2 values mostly >0.80. Relative differences between portable and stationary instruments were mostly <20%, and <10% between different units of the same instrument. The only exception was found for the Dusttrak DRX measurements, for which occasional concentration jumps in the time series were detected. Our results validate the performance of the black carbon, particle number concentration, particle surface area and mean particle diameter monitors as indicative instruments (tier 2) for outdoor air exposure assessment studies.
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Strategic Defense Initiative Organization adaptive structures program overview
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Obal, Michael; Sater, Janet M.
In the currently envisioned architecture none of the Strategic Defense System (SDS) elements to be deployed will receive scheduled maintenance. Assessments of performance capability due to changes caused by the uncertain effects of environments will be difficult, at best. In addition, the system will have limited ability to adjust in order to maintain its required performance levels. The Materials and Structures Office of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) has begun to address solutions to these potential difficulties via an adaptive structures technology program that combines health and environment monitoring with static and dynamic structural control. Conceivable system benefits include improved target tracking and hit-to-kill performance, on-orbit system health monitoring and reporting, and threat attack warning and assessment.
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Behavioral Health Support of NASA Astronauts for International Space Station Missions
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Sipes, Walter
2000-01-01
Two areas of focus for optimizing behavioral health and human performance during International Space Station missions are 1) sleep and circadian assessment and 2) behavioral medicine. The Mir experience provided the opportunity to examine the use and potential effectiveness of tools and procedures to support the behavioral health of the crew. The experience of NASA has shown that on-orbit performance can be better maintained if behavioral health, sleep, and circadian issues are effectively monitored and properly addressed. For example, schedules can be tailored based upon fatigue level of crews and other behavioral and cognitive indicators to maximize performance. Previous research and experience with long duration missions has resulted in the development and upgrade of tools used to monitor fatigue, stress, cognitive function, and behavioral health. Self-assessment and objective tools such as the Spaceflight Cognitive Assessment Tool have been developed and refined to effectively address behavioral medicine countermeasures in space.
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Real-time seismic monitoring and functionality assessment of a building
Celebi, M.; ,
2005-01-01
This paper presents recent developments and approaches (using GPS technology and real-time double-integration) to obtain displacements and, in turn, drift ratios, in real-time or near real-time to meet the needs of the engineering and user community in seismic monitoring and assessing the functionality and damage condition of structures. Drift ratios computed in near real-time allow technical assessment of the damage condition of a building. Relevant parameters, such as the type of connections and story structural characteristics (including geometry) are used in computing drifts corresponding to several pre-selected threshold stages of damage. Thus, drift ratios determined from real-time monitoring can be compared to pre-computed threshold drift ratios. The approaches described herein can be used for performance evaluation of structures and can be considered as building health-monitoring applications.
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10 CFR 851.21 - Hazard identification and assessment.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR
2013-01-01
.... Procedures must include methods to: (1) Assess worker exposure to chemical, physical, biological, or safety workplace hazards through appropriate workplace monitoring; (2) Document assessment for chemical, physical... hazards; (6) Perform routine job activity-level hazard analyses; (7) Review site safety and health...
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10 CFR 851.21 - Hazard identification and assessment.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR
2014-01-01
.... Procedures must include methods to: (1) Assess worker exposure to chemical, physical, biological, or safety workplace hazards through appropriate workplace monitoring; (2) Document assessment for chemical, physical... hazards; (6) Perform routine job activity-level hazard analyses; (7) Review site safety and health...
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Crack identification for rigid pavements using unmanned aerial vehicles
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Bahaddin Ersoz, Ahmet; Pekcan, Onur; Teke, Turker
2017-09-01
Pavement condition assessment is an essential piece of modern pavement management systems as rehabilitation strategies are planned based upon its outcomes. For proper evaluation of existing pavements, they must be continuously and effectively monitored using practical means. Conventionally, truck-based pavement monitoring systems have been in-use in assessing the remaining life of in-service pavements. Although such systems produce accurate results, their use can be expensive and data processing can be time consuming, which make them infeasible considering the demand for quick pavement evaluation. To overcome such problems, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can be used as an alternative as they are relatively cheaper and easier-to-use. In this study, we propose a UAV based pavement crack identification system for monitoring rigid pavements’ existing conditions. The system consists of recently introduced image processing algorithms used together with conventional machine learning techniques, both of which are used to perform detection of cracks on rigid pavements’ surface and their classification. Through image processing, the distinct features of labelled crack bodies are first obtained from the UAV based images and then used for training of a Support Vector Machine (SVM) model. The performance of the developed SVM model was assessed with a field study performed along a rigid pavement exposed to low traffic and serious temperature changes. Available cracks were classified using the UAV based system and obtained results indicate it ensures a good alternative solution for pavement monitoring applications.
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The APU and Assessment in the Middle Years.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Marjoram, D. T. E.
1978-01-01
Because of student characteristics in the middle years, several types of assessment are needed. The national monitoring system being developed by the Assessment of Performance Unit (APU) may prove a useful assessment framework for individual schools, providing developmental data for program comparisons and student movement between schools. (SJL)
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Wyatt, Douglas
Planning for ultimate Decontamination and Decommissioning (D and D) of a nuclear facility is as much a part of a successful nuclear strategy as is the ultimate disposal of radioactive waste. As facilities, in this case radioactive waste disposal trenches, are closed and abandoned leading to ultimate decommissioning, long term monitoring may be required. However, preplanning by characterizing, modeling, and monitoring the environment around the facility prior to and during operations will allow a performance assessment to be made and future behavior predicted. In the radioactive waste burial grounds of the Savannah River Site new slit trenches were constructed tomore » receive demolition debris associated with site foot print reduction. Some of the construction debris and associated process waste contained small amounts of tritium. Since the trenches were constructed over an existing tritium groundwater plume the monitoring and performance assessment of the trench, particularly with respect to tritium contributions to the vadose zone and groundwater, were important. These disposal trenches vary in length and width but are typically constructed within the upper 7 to 8 meters (21 to 24 feet) of the local sediments. The unconfined aquifer (water table) typically underlies the area at depths varying from 20 to 24 meters (60 to 72 feet), depending on elevation. Therefore, with downward flow and 13 to 16 meters (40 to 48 feet) of unsaturated sediments separating the base of the waste trenches from the unconfined aquifer, there was potential for an environmental impact to the sediments within the vadose zone and to the underlying groundwater. Monitoring and predicting this impact can support ultimate D and D activities and future performance assessment evaluation. From this work several key observations were made that will support long term monitoring and subsequent D and D: - The observed lateral variation of thinly bedded sands and clays may be less than 20 meters particularly if lenticular sands are present. Ultimate D and D should consider monitoring and remedial activities that consider sampling on scales to address this issue. - The detailed modeling, when compared with the modeled depositional patterns, indicates flow paths for vadose zone fluids, therefore a plan should allow for these flow paths. - Detailed lithostratigraphic modeling, when based on correlations between soil properties, CPT soundings and borehole geophysical logs, can aid in precision placement of subsurface sensors and sample points for performance monitoring and D and D assessment.« less
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Do prospective workday appraisals influence end-of-workday affect and self-monitored performance?
Grawitch, Matthew J; Granda, Stephanie E; Barber, Larissa K
2008-10-01
The current study uses self-regulation as the basis for a model that examines the influence of three types of workday appraisals (resource, task, and response). At the beginning of their workday, a total of 170 faculty, graduate students, and staff of a university completed appraisal ratings of their anticipated workday tasks, resources, and responses. At the end of the workday, they completed assessments of positive and negative affect and self-monitored performance. Results suggested that resource appraisals of control and skills were predictive of task appraisals of difficulty, threat, and ambiguity. Task appraisals were then predictive of both response appraisals, in terms of anticipated support and effort, and self-monitored performance at the end of the day. Anticipated effort and self-monitored performance were both positively related to positive affect at the end of the day. Anticipated support and self-monitored performance were both negatively related to negative affect at the end of the day, while threat task appraisals were positively related to negative affect. Implications of the results for workplace interventions are discussed.
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A passive discrete-level multilayer ground-water sampler was evaluated to determine its capability to obtain representative discrete-interval samples within the screen intervals of traditional monitoring wells without purging. Results indicate that the device is able to provide ...
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Assessment of interobserver concordance in polysomnography scoring of sleep bruxism☆
Ferraz, Otávio; de Moura Guimarães, Thais; Maluly Filho, Milton; Dal-Fabbro, Cibele; Abraão Crosara Cunha, Thays; Cristina Lotaif, Ana; Cristina Barros Schütz, Teresa; Santos-Silva, Rogério; Tufik, Sergio; Bittencourt, Lia
2015-01-01
Introduction Objective evaluation of sleep bruxism (SB) using whole-night polysomnography (PSG) is relevant for diagnostic confirmation. Nevertheless, the PSG electromyogram (EMG) scoring may give rise to controversy, particularly when audiovisual monitoring is not performed. Therefore, the present study assessed the concordance between two independent scorers to visual SB on a PSG performed without audiovisual monitoring. Methods Fifty-six PSG tests were scored from individuals with clinical history and polysomnography criteria of SB. In addition to the protocol of conventional whole-night PSG, electrodes were also placed bilaterally on the masseter and temporal muscles. Visual EMG scoring without audio video monitoring was scored by two independent scorers (Dentist 1 and Dentist 2) according the recommendations formulated in the AASM manual (2007). Kendall Tau correlation was used to assess interobserver concordance relative to variables “total duration of events (seconds), “shortest events”, “longest events” and index in each phasic, tonic or mixed event. Results The correlation was positive and significant relative to all the investigated variables, being T>0.54. Conclusion It was found a good inter-examiner concordance rate in SB scoring in absence of audio video monitoring. PMID:26779318
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DOT National Transportation Integrated Search
2017-03-01
The performance-planning tool developed as part of this project is intended for use with the guidebook for establishing and using rural performance based transportation system assessment, monitoring, planning, and programming to support the rural pla...
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Median of patient results as a tool for assessment of analytical stability.
Jørgensen, Lars Mønster; Hansen, Steen Ingemann; Petersen, Per Hyltoft; Sölétormos, György
2015-06-15
In spite of the well-established external quality assessment and proficiency testing surveys of analytical quality performance in laboratory medicine, a simple tool to monitor the long-term analytical stability as a supplement to the internal control procedures is often needed. Patient data from daily internal control schemes was used for monthly appraisal of the analytical stability. This was accomplished by using the monthly medians of patient results to disclose deviations from analytical stability, and by comparing divergences with the quality specifications for allowable analytical bias based on biological variation. Seventy five percent of the twenty analytes achieved on two COBASs INTEGRA 800 instruments performed in accordance with the optimum and with the desirable specifications for bias. Patient results applied in analytical quality performance control procedures are the most reliable sources of material as they represent the genuine substance of the measurements and therefore circumvent the problems associated with non-commutable materials in external assessment. Patient medians in the monthly monitoring of analytical stability in laboratory medicine are an inexpensive, simple and reliable tool to monitor the steadiness of the analytical practice. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Application of Dynamic naïve Bayesian classifier to comprehensive drought assessment
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Park, D. H.; Lee, J. Y.; Lee, J. H.; KIm, T. W.
2017-12-01
Drought monitoring has already been extensively studied due to the widespread impacts and complex causes of drought. The most important component of drought monitoring is to estimate the characteristics and extent of drought by quantitatively measuring the characteristics of drought. Drought assessment considering different aspects of the complicated drought condition and uncertainty of drought index is great significance in accurate drought monitoring. This study used the dynamic Naïve Bayesian Classifier (DNBC) which is an extension of the Hidden Markov Model (HMM), to model and classify drought by using various drought indices for integrated drought assessment. To provide a stable model for combined use of multiple drought indices, this study employed the DNBC to perform multi-index drought assessment by aggregating the effect of different type of drought and considering the inherent uncertainty. Drought classification was performed by the DNBC using several drought indices: Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), Streamflow Drought Index (SDI), and Normalized Vegetation Supply Water Index (NVSWI)) that reflect meteorological, hydrological, and agricultural drought characteristics. Overall results showed that in comparison unidirectional (SPI, SDI, and NVSWI) or multivariate (Composite Drought Index, CDI) drought assessment, the proposed DNBC was able to synthetically classify of drought considering uncertainty. Model provided method for comprehensive drought assessment with combined use of different drought indices.
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Developments in seismic monitoring for risk reduction
Celebi, M.
2007-01-01
This paper presents recent state-of-the-art developments to obtain displacements and drift ratios for seismic monitoring and damage assessment of buildings. In most cases, decisions on safety of buildings following seismic events are based on visual inspections of the structures. Real-time instrumental measurements using GPS or double integration of accelerations, however, offer a viable alternative. Relevant parameters, such as the type of connections and structural characteristics (including storey geometry), can be estimated to compute drifts corresponding to several pre-selected threshold stages of damage. Drift ratios determined from real-time monitoring can then be compared to these thresholds in order to estimate damage conditions drift ratios. This approach is demonstrated in three steel frame buildings in San Francisco, California. Recently recorded data of strong shaking from these buildings indicate that the monitoring system can be a useful tool in rapid assessment of buildings and other structures following an earthquake. Such systems can also be used for risk monitoring, as a method to assess performance-based design and analysis procedures, for long-term assessment of structural characteristics of a building, and as a possible long-term damage detection tool.
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NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Bell, Jordan R.; Molthan, Andrew L.; Burks, Jason E.; McGrath, Kevin M.
2014-01-01
NASA's Short-term Prediction, Research, and Transition (SPoRT) Center uses a wide array of satellites to monitor and assess the impacts of natural disasters, with support from NASA's Applied Sciences Program. One of the newest sensors SPoRT is utilizing in these activities is the International Space Station (ISS) SERVIR Environmental Research and Visualization System (ISERV) instrument. ISERV provides a unique view of the areas impacted and will play a big role in monitoring the recovery these areas. High-resolution commercial satellite data is also used to monitor urban areas that have been impacted by natural disasters. SPoRT is developing techniques to measure the extent of these disasters and to monitor recovery. Several of these techniques include semi-automatic feature detection and change as well as developing an experimental damage assessment based upon the visible damage observed by the satellites. Furthermore, throughout these activities SPoRT hopes to provide additional data to the NOAA National Weather Service Damage Assessment Toolkit, which will help to supplement those activities being performed in the field.
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Ten-year monitoring of high-rise building columns using long-gauge fiber optic sensors
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Glisic, B.; Inaudi, D.; Lau, J. M.; Fong, C. C.
2013-05-01
A large-scale lifetime building monitoring program was implemented in Singapore in 2001. The monitoring aims of this unique program were to increase safety, verify performance, control quality, increase knowledge, optimize maintenance costs, and evaluate the condition of the structures after a hazardous event. The first instrumented building, which has now been monitored for more than ten years, is presented in this paper. The long-gauge fiber optic strain sensors were embedded in fresh concrete of ground-level columns, thus the monitoring started at the birth of both the construction material and the structure. Measurement sessions were performed during construction, upon completion of each new story and the roof, and after the construction, i.e., in-service. Based on results it was possible to follow and evaluate long-term behavior of the building through every stage of its life. The results of monitoring were analyzed at a local (column) and global (building) level. Over-dimensioning of one column was identified. Differential settlement of foundations was detected, localized, and its magnitude estimated. Post-tremor analysis was performed. Real long-term behavior of concrete columns was assessed. Finally, the long-term performance of the monitoring system was evaluated. The researched monitoring method, monitoring system, rich results gathered over approximately ten years, data analysis algorithms, and the conclusions on the structural behavior and health condition of the building based on monitoring are presented in this paper.
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Groundwater monitoring well assessment final work plan
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Not Available
1993-10-01
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (JEG) has been contracted by Environmental Management Operations (EMO) to develop and implement a Groundwater Monitoring Well Assessment Plan for Canal Creek in the Edgewood Area of Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG-EA). The task will be performed under the provisions of Master Agreement 071914-A-D7, Task Order 142133. The project consists of assessing the condition of existing groundwater monitoring wells in the Canal Creek Area prior to a groundwater sampling program. The following Work Plan describes the technical approach that will be used to conduct field work for the project. Integrity of some monitoring wells installed at APG-EAmore » has come into question because of problems with well completions that were detected in wells at the O-field Study Area during a recent sampling event. Because of this, EPA and APG-DSHE officials have requested a well integrity assessment for a percentage of 168 monitoring wells installed at the Canal Creek Study Area(14 by USATHAMA, 152 by USGS). Results of the well assessment will be used to determine if these wells were completed in a fashion that minimizes the potential for either cross-contamination of aquifers or leakage of water from the surface into the well.« less
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Dodson, Chad S; Spaniol, Maggie; O'Connor, Maureen K; Deason, Rebecca G; Ally, Brandon A; Budson, Andrew E
2011-07-01
We assessed the ability of two groups of patients with mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) and two groups of older adults to monitor the likely accuracy of recognition judgments and source identification judgments about who spoke something earlier. Alzheimer's patients showed worse performance on both memory judgments and were less able to monitor with confidence ratings the likely accuracy of both kinds of memory judgments, as compared to a group of older adults who experienced the identical study and test conditions. Critically, however, when memory performance was made comparable between the AD patients and the older adults (e.g., by giving AD patients extra exposures to the study materials), AD patients were still greatly impaired at monitoring the likely accuracy of their recognition and source judgments. This result indicates that the monitoring impairment in AD patients is actually worse than their memory impairment, as otherwise there would have been no differences between the two groups in monitoring performance when there were no differences in accuracy. We discuss the brain correlates of this memory-monitoring deficit and also propose a Remembrance-Evaluation model of memory-monitoring. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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A statistical model for predicting muscle performance
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Byerly, Diane Leslie De Caix
The objective of these studies was to develop a capability for predicting muscle performance and fatigue to be utilized for both space- and ground-based applications. To develop this predictive model, healthy test subjects performed a defined, repetitive dynamic exercise to failure using a Lordex spinal machine. Throughout the exercise, surface electromyography (SEMG) data were collected from the erector spinae using a Mega Electronics ME3000 muscle tester and surface electrodes placed on both sides of the back muscle. These data were analyzed using a 5th order Autoregressive (AR) model and statistical regression analysis. It was determined that an AR derived parameter, the mean average magnitude of AR poles, significantly correlated with the maximum number of repetitions (designated Rmax) that a test subject was able to perform. Using the mean average magnitude of AR poles, a test subject's performance to failure could be predicted as early as the sixth repetition of the exercise. This predictive model has the potential to provide a basis for improving post-space flight recovery, monitoring muscle atrophy in astronauts and assessing the effectiveness of countermeasures, monitoring astronaut performance and fatigue during Extravehicular Activity (EVA) operations, providing pre-flight assessment of the ability of an EVA crewmember to perform a given task, improving the design of training protocols and simulations for strenuous International Space Station assembly EVA, and enabling EVA work task sequences to be planned enhancing astronaut performance and safety. Potential ground-based, medical applications of the predictive model include monitoring muscle deterioration and performance resulting from illness, establishing safety guidelines in the industry for repetitive tasks, monitoring the stages of rehabilitation for muscle-related injuries sustained in sports and accidents, and enhancing athletic performance through improved training protocols while reducing injury.
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Self-assessment in schizophrenia: Accuracy of evaluation of cognition and everyday functioning.
Gould, Felicia; McGuire, Laura Stone; Durand, Dante; Sabbag, Samir; Larrauri, Carlos; Patterson, Thomas L; Twamley, Elizabeth W; Harvey, Philip D
2015-09-01
Self-assessment deficits, often referred to as impaired insight or unawareness of illness, are well established in people with schizophrenia. There are multiple levels of awareness, including awareness of symptoms, functional deficits, cognitive impairments, and the ability to monitor cognitive and functional performance in an ongoing manner. The present study aimed to evaluate the comparative predictive value of each aspect of awareness on the levels of everyday functioning in people with schizophrenia. We examined multiple aspects of self-assessment of functioning in 214 people with schizophrenia. We also collected information on everyday functioning rated by high contact clinicians and examined the importance of self-assessment for the prediction of real-world functional outcomes. The relative impact of performance-based measures of cognition, functional capacity, and metacognitive performance on everyday functioning was also examined. Misestimation of ability emerged as the strongest predictor of real-world functioning and exceeded the influences of cognitive performance, functional capacity performance, and performance-based assessment of metacognitive monitoring. The relative contribution of the factors other than self-assessment varied according to which domain of everyday functioning was being examined, but, in all cases, accounted for less predictive variance. These results underscore the functional impact of misestimating one's current functioning and relative level of ability. These findings are consistent with the use of insight-focused treatments and compensatory strategies designed to increase self-awareness in multiple functional domains. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).
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Self Assessment in Schizophrenia: Accuracy of Evaluation of Cognition and Everyday Functioning
Gould, Felicia; McGuire, Laura Stone; Durand, Dante; Sabbag, Samir; Larrauri, Carlos; Patterson, Thomas L.; Twamley, Elizabeth W.; Harvey, Philip D.
2015-01-01
Objective Self-assessment deficits, often referred to as impaired insight or unawareness of illness, are well established in people with schizophrenia. There are multiple levels of awareness, including awareness of symptoms, functional deficits, cognitive impairments, and the ability to monitor cognitive and functional performance in an ongoing manner. The present study aimed to evaluate the comparative predictive value of each aspect of awareness on the levels of everyday functioning in people with schizophrenia. Method We examined multiple aspects of self-assessment of functioning in 214 people with schizophrenia. We also collected information on everyday functioning rated by high contact clinicians and examined the importance of self-assessment for the prediction of real world functional outcomes. The relative impact of performance based measures of cognition, functional capacity, and metacognitive performance on everyday functioning was also examined. Results Misestimation of ability emerged as the strongest predictor of real world functioning and exceeded the influences of cognitive performance, functional capacity performance, and performance-based assessment of metacognitive monitoring. The relative contribution of the factors other than self-assessment varied according to which domain of everyday functioning was being examined, but in all cases, accounted for less predictive variance. Conclusions These results underscore the functional impact of misestimating one’s current functioning and relative level of ability. These findings are consistent with the use of insight-focused treatments and compensatory strategies designed to increase self-awareness in multiple functional domains. PMID:25643212
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
López-Comino, J. A.; Cesca, S.; Kriegerowski, M.; Heimann, S.; Dahm, T.; Mirek, J.; Lasocki, S.
2017-07-01
Ideally, the performance of a dedicated seismic monitoring installation should be assessed prior to the observation of target seismicity. This work is focused on a hydrofracking experiment monitored at Wysin, NE Poland. A microseismic synthetic catalogue is generated to assess the monitoring performance during the pre-operational phase, where seismic information only concerns the noise conditions and the potential background seismicity. Full waveform, accounting for the expected spatial, magnitude and focal mechanism distributions and a realistic local crustal model, are combined with real noise recording to produce either event based or continuous synthetic waveforms. The network detection performance is assessed in terms of the magnitude of completeness (Mc) through two different techniques. First, we use an amplitude threshold, taking into the ratio among the maximal amplitude of synthetic waveforms and station-dependent noise levels, for different values of signal-to-noise ratio. The detection probability at each station is estimated for the whole data set and extrapolated to a broader range of magnitude and distances. We estimate an Mc of about 0.55, when considering the distributed network, and can further decrease Mc to 0.45 using arrays techniques. The second approach, taking advantage on an automatic, coherence-based detection algorithm, can lower Mc to ∼ 0.1, at the cost of an increase of false detections. Mc experiences significant changes during day hours, in consequence of strongly varying noise conditions. Moreover, due to the radiation patterns and network geometry, double-couple like sources are better detected than tensile cracks, which may be induced during fracking.
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SCIENCE BRIEF: CONDITION ASSESSMENT OF COLLECTION SYSTEMS
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...
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Assessing exposures to household air pollution in public health research and program evaluation.
Northcross, Amanda L; Hwang, Nina; Balakrishnan, Kalpana; Mehta, Sumi
2015-03-01
Exposure to smoke from the use of solid fuels and inefficient stoves for cooking and heating is responsible for approximately 4 million premature deaths yearly. As increasing investments are made to tackle this important public health issue, there is a need for identifying and providing guidance on best practices for exposure and stove performance monitoring, particularly for public health research and evaluation studies. This paper, which builds upon the discussion at an expert consultation on exposure assessment convened by the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and PATH in late 2012, aims to provide general guidance on what to monitor, who and where to monitor, and how to monitor household air pollution exposures. In addition, we summarize information about commercially available monitoring equipment and the technical properties of these monitors most important for household air pollution exposure assessment. The target audience includes epidemiologists conducting health studies and program evaluators aiming to quantify changes in exposures to estimate the potential health benefits of cookstoves intervention projects.
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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.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Lorenzoni, Filippo; Casarin, Filippo; Caldon, Mauro; Islami, Kleidi; Modena, Claudio
2016-01-01
In the last decades the need for an effective seismic protection and vulnerability reduction of cultural heritage buildings and sites determined a growing interest in structural health monitoring (SHM) as a knowledge-based assessment tool to quantify and reduce uncertainties regarding their structural performance. Monitoring can be successfully implemented in some cases as an alternative to interventions or to control the medium- and long-term effectiveness of already applied strengthening solutions. The research group at the University of Padua, in collaboration with public administrations, has recently installed several SHM systems on heritage structures. The paper reports the application of monitoring strategies implemented to avoid (or at least minimize) the execution of strengthening interventions/repairs and control the response as long as a clear worsening or damaging process is detected. Two emblematic case studies are presented and discussed: the Roman Amphitheatre (Arena) of Verona and the Conegliano Cathedral. Both are excellent examples of on-going monitoring activities, performed through static and dynamic approaches in combination with automated procedures to extract meaningful structural features from collected data. In parallel to the application of innovative monitoring techniques, statistical models and data processing algorithms have been developed and applied in order to reduce uncertainties and exploit monitoring results for an effective assessment and protection of historical constructions. Processing software for SHM was implemented to perform the continuous real time treatment of static data and the identification of modal parameters based on the structural response to ambient vibrations. Statistical models were also developed to filter out the environmental effects and thermal cycles from the extracted features.
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Oxford Optronix MPM 3S: a clinical assessment of a microvascular perfusion monitor.
Dryden, C M; Gray, W M; Asbury, A J
1992-01-01
The Oxford Optronix MPM 3S is a new microvascular perfusion monitor which is promoted as a device for use in the operating theatre. It uses a semiconductor laser diode and applies the Doppler principle to derive a semi-quantitative estimation of microvascular flow. We assessed this instrument with eight healthy volunteers who each performed eight different orthostatic arm manoeuvres while forearm skin blood flow was monitored. The different manoeuvres caused statistically significant changes in the instrument's reading which generally were consistent with expected changes in blood flow. The monitor also was assessed in the theatre environment with four anaesthetized patients. It proved easy to use, and was not subject to electrical interference from other equipment including short-wave diathermy. The major practical limitation of the technique is the semi-quantitative nature of the measurement. The instrument appears to have potential clinical uses in plastic and vascular surgery.
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Bus, Sicco A; Waaijman, Roelof; Nollet, Frans
2012-11-01
To assess the validity and feasibility of a new temperature-based adherence monitor to measure footwear use. Observational study. University medical center and participants' homes. Convenience sample of healthy subjects (n=11) and neuropathic diabetic patients at high risk for foot ulceration (n=14). In healthy subjects, the validity of the in-shoe attached adherence monitor was investigated by comparing its registrations of donning and doffing of footwear during 7 days to an accurately kept log registration. In diabetic patients, the feasibility of using the adherence monitor for 7 days in conjunction with a time-synchronized ankle-worn step activity monitor to register prescribed footwear use during walking was assessed. Furthermore, a usability questionnaire was completed. For validity, the mean time difference and 95% confidence interval (CI) between moments of donning/doffing footwear recorded with the adherence monitor and in the log were calculated. For feasibility, technical performance, usability, and the percentage of steps that the footwear was worn (adherence) were assessed. The mean time difference between the adherence monitor and log recordings was 0.4 minutes (95% CI, 0.2-0.6min). One erroneous recording and 2 incomplete recordings were obtained in diabetic patients. Three patients reported discomfort with the step activity monitor, and 4 patients would not favor repeated testing. Patients used their footwear for between 9% and 99% of their walking steps. The adherence monitor shows good validity in measuring when footwear is used or not, and is, together with instrumented monitoring of walking activity, a feasible and objective method to assess treatment adherence. This method can have wide application in clinical practice and research regarding prescribed footwear and other body-worn assistive devices. Copyright © 2012 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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A strategy for monitoring and evaluating massive open online courses.
Chapman, S A; Goodman, S; Jawitz, J; Deacon, A
2016-08-01
We argue that the complex, innovative and adaptive nature of Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) initiatives poses particular challenges to monitoring and evaluation, in that any evaluation strategy will need to follow a systems approach. This article aims to guide organizations implementing MOOCs through a series of steps to assist them in developing a strategy to monitor, improve, and judge the merit of their initiatives. We describe how we operationalise our strategy by first defining the different layers of interacting agents in a given MOOC system. We then tailor our approach to these different layers. Specifically, a two-pronged approach was developed, where we suggest that individual projects be assessed through performance monitoring; assessment criteria for which would be defined at the outset to include coverage, participation, quality and student achievement. In contrast, the success of an overall initiative should be considered within a more adaptive, emergent evaluation inquiry framework. We present the inquiry framework we developed for MOOC initiatives, and show how this framework might be used to develop evaluation questions and an assessment methodology. We also define the more fixed indicators and measures for project performance monitoring. Our strategy is described as it was developed to inform the evaluation of a MOOC initiative at the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Monitoring and Analysing Attendance in First Year University Mathematics Tutorials
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Higgins, Patrick; Read, Wayne
2012-01-01
As part of an innovative tutorial structure introduced to a first year university mathematics subject, an attendance monitoring system was implemented. The system collected data that was used to investigate the relationship between student attendance and assessment performance which is reported here. The implementation of this system also assisted…
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McKanna, James A; Pavel, Misha; Jimison, Holly
2010-11-13
Assessment of cognitive functionality is an important aspect of care for elders. Unfortunately, few tools exist to measure divided attention, the ability to allocate attention to different aspects of tasks. An accurate determination of divided attention would allow inference of generalized cognitive decline, as well as providing a quantifiable indicator of an important component of driving skill. We propose a new method for determining relative divided attention ability through unobtrusive monitoring of computer use. Specifically, we measure performance on a dual-task cognitive computer exercise as part of a health coaching intervention. This metric indicates whether the user has the ability to pay attention to both tasks at once, or is primarily attending to one task at a time (sacrificing optimal performance). The monitoring of divided attention in a home environment is a key component of both the early detection of cognitive problems and for assessing the efficacy of coaching interventions.
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Mechanical systems readiness assessment and performance monitoring study
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
1972-01-01
The problem of mechanical devices which lack the real-time readiness assessment and performance monitoring capability required for future space missions is studied. The results of a test program to establish the feasibility of implementing structure borne acoustics, a nondestructive test technique, are described. The program included the monitoring of operational acoustic signatures of five separate mechanical components, each possessing distinct sound characteristics. Acoustic signatures were established for normal operation of each component. Critical failure modes were then inserted into the test components, and faulted acoustic signatures obtained. Predominant features of the sound signature were related back to operational events occurring within the components both for normal and failure mode operations. All of these steps can be automated. The structure borne acoustics technique lends itself to reducing checkout time, simplifying maintenance procedures, and reducing manual involvement in the checkout, operation, maintenance, and fault diagnosis of mechanical systems.
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2011-09-01
a quality evaluation with limited data, a model -based assessment must be...that affect system performance, a multistage approach to system validation, a modeling and experimental methodology for efficiently addressing a ...affect system performance, a multistage approach to system validation, a modeling and experimental methodology for efficiently addressing a wide range
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing, Los Angeles, CA.
Information was gathered about current state interest, activity, and concerns related to performance assessment for students. The Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing of the University of California (Los Angeles) conducted telephone interviews with directors of testing in each of the 50 states in the spring of 1990.…
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CCTV Data Management for Effective Condition Assessment of Wastewater Collection Systems - slides
The project objectives are: Research current state of condition assessment technology for wastewater collection systems; Evaluate performance and cost of innovative and advanced infrastructure monitoring technologies; Identify and evaluate innovative CCTV technologies; and Prepar...
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Decker, Andrew S.; Cipriano, Gabriela C.; Tsouri, Gill
2016-01-01
Objective. To assess and improve student adherence to hand hygiene indications using radio frequency identification (RFID) enabled hand hygiene stations and performance report cards. Design. Students volunteered to wear RFID-enabled hospital employee nametags to monitor their adherence to hand-hygiene indications. After training in World Health Organization (WHO) hand hygiene methods and indications, student were instructed to treat the classroom as a patient care area. Report cards illustrating individual performance were distributed via e-mail to students at the middle and end of each 5-day observation period. Students were eligible for individual and team prizes consisting of Starbucks gift cards in $5 increments. Assessment. A hand hygiene station with an RFID reader and dispensing sensor recorded the nametag nearest to the station at the time of use. Mean frequency of use per student was 5.41 (range: 2-10). Distance between the student’s seat and the dispenser was the only variable significantly associated with adherence. Student satisfaction with the system was assessed by a self-administered survey at the end of the study. Most students reported that the system increased their motivation to perform hand hygiene as indicated. Conclusion. The RFID-enabled hand hygiene system and benchmarking reports with performance incentives was feasible, reliable, and affordable. Future studies should record video to monitor adherence to the WHO 8-step technique. PMID:27170822
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Decker, Andrew S; Cipriano, Gabriela C; Tsouri, Gill; Lavigne, Jill E
2016-04-25
Objective. To assess and improve student adherence to hand hygiene indications using radio frequency identification (RFID) enabled hand hygiene stations and performance report cards. Design. Students volunteered to wear RFID-enabled hospital employee nametags to monitor their adherence to hand-hygiene indications. After training in World Health Organization (WHO) hand hygiene methods and indications, student were instructed to treat the classroom as a patient care area. Report cards illustrating individual performance were distributed via e-mail to students at the middle and end of each 5-day observation period. Students were eligible for individual and team prizes consisting of Starbucks gift cards in $5 increments. Assessment. A hand hygiene station with an RFID reader and dispensing sensor recorded the nametag nearest to the station at the time of use. Mean frequency of use per student was 5.41 (range: 2-10). Distance between the student's seat and the dispenser was the only variable significantly associated with adherence. Student satisfaction with the system was assessed by a self-administered survey at the end of the study. Most students reported that the system increased their motivation to perform hand hygiene as indicated. Conclusion. The RFID-enabled hand hygiene system and benchmarking reports with performance incentives was feasible, reliable, and affordable. Future studies should record video to monitor adherence to the WHO 8-step technique.
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Samuelson, Teresa C.
2010-01-01
The purpose of this study was to examine progress monitoring, reading self-concept, and the literacy skills of first and second grade struggling readers. Progress monitoring is an instructional process used by teachers to assess students' academic performance on a regular basis, typically weekly or monthly. When based on the skill level of the…
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Ambulatory monitoring of activities and motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease.
Zwartjes, Daphne G M; Heida, Tjitske; van Vugt, Jeroen P P; Geelen, Jan A G; Veltink, Peter H
2010-11-01
Ambulatory monitoring of motor symptoms in Parkinsons disease (PD) can improve our therapeutic strategies, especially in patients with motor fluctuations. Previously published monitors usually assess only one or a few basic aspects of the cardinal motor symptoms in a laboratory setting. We developed a novel ambulatory monitoring system that provides a complete motor assessment by simultaneously analyzing current motor activity of the patient (e.g. sitting, walking) and the severity of many aspects related to tremor, bradykinesia, and hypokinesia. The monitor consists of a set of four inertial sensors. Validity of our monitor was established in seven healthy controls and six PD patients treated with deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus. Patients were tested at three different levels of DBS treatment. Subjects were monitored while performing different tasks, including motor tests of the Unified Parkinsons Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). Output of the monitor was compared to simultaneously recorded videos. The monitor proved very accurate in discriminating between several motor activities. Monitor output correlated well with blinded UPDRS ratings during different DBS levels. The combined analysis of motor activity and symptom severity by our PD monitor brings true ambulatory monitoring of a wide variety of motor symptoms one step closer..
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Lo Presti, D; Massaroni, C; Saccomandi, P; Caponero, M A; Formica, D; Schena, E
2017-07-01
The interest on wearable textiles to monitor vital signs is growing in the research field and clinical scenario related to the increasing demands of long-term monitoring. Despite several smart textile-based solutions have been proposed for assessing the respiratory status, only a limited number of devices allow the respiratory monitoring in a harsh environment or in different positions of the human body. In this paper, we investigated the performances of a smart textile for respiratory rate monitoring characterized by 12 fiber optic sensors (i.e., fiber Bragg grating) placed on specific landmarks for compartmental analysis of the chest wall movements during quiet breathing. We focused on the analysis of the influence of sensor position on both peak-to-peak amplitude of sensors output and accuracy of respiratory rate measurements. This analysis was performed on two participants, who wore the textile in two positions (i.e., standing and supine). Bland-Altman analysis on respiratory rate showed promising results (better than 0.3 breaths per minute). Referring to the peak-to-peak output amplitude, the abdomen compartment showed the highest excursions in both the enrolled participants and positions. Our findings open up new approaches to design and develop smart textile for respiratory rate monitoring.
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Objective assessment of operator performance during ultrasound-guided procedures.
Tabriz, David M; Street, Mandie; Pilgram, Thomas K; Duncan, James R
2011-09-01
Simulation permits objective assessment of operator performance in a controlled and safe environment. Image-guided procedures often require accurate needle placement, and we designed a system to monitor how ultrasound guidance is used to monitor needle advancement toward a target. The results were correlated with other estimates of operator skill. The simulator consisted of a tissue phantom, ultrasound unit, and electromagnetic tracking system. Operators were asked to guide a needle toward a visible point target. Performance was video-recorded and synchronized with the electromagnetic tracking data. A series of algorithms based on motor control theory and human information processing were used to convert raw tracking data into different performance indices. Scoring algorithms converted the tracking data into efficiency, quality, task difficulty, and targeting scores that were aggregated to create performance indices. After initial feasibility testing, a standardized assessment was developed. Operators (N = 12) with a broad spectrum of skill and experience were enrolled and tested. Overall scores were based on performance during ten simulated procedures. Prior clinical experience was used to independently estimate operator skill. When summed, the performance indices correlated well with estimated skill. Operators with minimal or no prior experience scored markedly lower than experienced operators. The overall score tended to increase according to operator's clinical experience. Operator experience was linked to decreased variation in multiple aspects of performance. The aggregated results of multiple trials provided the best correlation between estimated skill and performance. A metric for the operator's ability to maintain the needle aimed at the target discriminated between operators with different levels of experience. This study used a highly focused task model, standardized assessment, and objective data analysis to assess performance during simulated ultrasound-guided needle placement. The performance indices were closely related to operator experience.
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Lopes Antunes, Ana Carolina; Dórea, Fernanda; Halasa, Tariq; Toft, Nils
2016-05-01
Surveillance systems are critical for accurate, timely monitoring and effective disease control. In this study, we investigated the performance of univariate process monitoring control algorithms in detecting changes in seroprevalence for endemic diseases. We also assessed the effect of sample size (number of sentinel herds tested in the surveillance system) on the performance of the algorithms. Three univariate process monitoring control algorithms were compared: Shewart p Chart(1) (PSHEW), Cumulative Sum(2) (CUSUM) and Exponentially Weighted Moving Average(3) (EWMA). Increases in seroprevalence were simulated from 0.10 to 0.15 and 0.20 over 4, 8, 24, 52 and 104 weeks. Each epidemic scenario was run with 2000 iterations. The cumulative sensitivity(4) (CumSe) and timeliness were used to evaluate the algorithms' performance with a 1% false alarm rate. Using these performance evaluation criteria, it was possible to assess the accuracy and timeliness of the surveillance system working in real-time. The results showed that EWMA and PSHEW had higher CumSe (when compared with the CUSUM) from week 1 until the end of the period for all simulated scenarios. Changes in seroprevalence from 0.10 to 0.20 were more easily detected (higher CumSe) than changes from 0.10 to 0.15 for all three algorithms. Similar results were found with EWMA and PSHEW, based on the median time to detection. Changes in the seroprevalence were detected later with CUSUM, compared to EWMA and PSHEW for the different scenarios. Increasing the sample size 10 fold halved the time to detection (CumSe=1), whereas increasing the sample size 100 fold reduced the time to detection by a factor of 6. This study investigated the performance of three univariate process monitoring control algorithms in monitoring endemic diseases. It was shown that automated systems based on these detection methods identified changes in seroprevalence at different times. Increasing the number of tested herds would lead to faster detection. However, the practical implications of increasing the sample size (such as the costs associated with the disease) should also be taken into account. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Hou, Gary Y.; Marquet, Fabrice; Wang, Shutao; Apostolakis, Iason-Zacharias; Konofagou, Elisa E.
2015-01-01
Harmonic Motion Imaging for Focused Ultrasound (HMIFU) is a recently developed High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) treatment monitoring method that utilizes an amplitude-modulated therapeutic ultrasound beam to induce an oscillatory radiation force at the HIFU focus and estimates the focal tissue displacement to monitor the HIFU thermal treatment. In this study, the performance of HMIFU under acoustic, thermal and mechanical effects were investigated. The performance of HMIFU was assessed in ex vivo canine liver specimens (n=13) under slow denaturation or boiling regimes. Passive Cavitation Detector (PCD) was used to assess the acoustic cavitation activity while a bare-wire thermocouple was used to monitor the focal temperature change. During lesioning with slow denaturation, high quality displacements (correlation coefficient above 0.97) were observed under minimum cavitation noise, indicating tissue the initial-softening-then-stiffening property change. During HIFU with boiling, HMIFU monitored a consistent change in lesion-to-background displacement contrast (0.46±0.37) despite the presence of strong cavitation noise due to boiling during lesion formation. Therefore, HMIFU effectively monitored softening-then-stiffening during lesioning under slow denaturation, and detected lesioning under boiling with a distinct change in displacement contrast under boiling in the presence of cavitation. In conclusion, HMIFU was shown effective in HIFU monitoring and lesioning identification without being significantly affected by cavitation noise. PMID:26168177
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Glucose Biosensors: An Overview of Use in Clinical Practice
Yoo, Eun-Hyung; Lee, Soo-Youn
2010-01-01
Blood glucose monitoring has been established as a valuable tool in the management of diabetes. Since maintaining normal blood glucose levels is recommended, a series of suitable glucose biosensors have been developed. During the last 50 years, glucose biosensor technology including point-of-care devices, continuous glucose monitoring systems and noninvasive glucose monitoring systems has been significantly improved. However, there continues to be several challenges related to the achievement of accurate and reliable glucose monitoring. Further technical improvements in glucose biosensors, standardization of the analytical goals for their performance, and continuously assessing and training lay users are required. This article reviews the brief history, basic principles, analytical performance, and the present status of glucose biosensors in the clinical practice. PMID:22399892
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Dose assessment of aircraft crew in The Netherlands.
Van Dijk, J W E
2003-01-01
As the operator of the National Dose Registration and Information System, NRG has implemented a system for radiation exposure monitoring for the Dutch airlines. The system is based on the use of computer generated flight plans together with dose calculations using the CARI-6M program. Before installing the system a study was performed to estimate the uncertainty in the assessment of the annual dose of the crew members. It was concluded that the proposed system complies with international recommendations on the uncertainty in dose assessments in individual monitoring and that the operational costs of the system are low.
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The impact of visual scanning in the laparoscopic environment after engaging in strain coping.
Klein, Martina I; DeLucia, Patricia R; Olmstead, Ryan
2013-06-01
We aimed to determine whether visual scanning has a detrimental impact on the monitoring of critical signals and the performance of a concurrent laparoscopic training task after participants engaged in Hockey's strain coping. Strain coping refers to straining cognitive (attentional) resources joined with latent decrements (i.e., stress). DeLucia and Betts (2008) reported that monitoring critical signals degraded performance of a laparoscopic peg-reversal task compared with no monitoring. However, performance did not differ between displays in which critical signals were shown on split screens (less visual scanning) and separated displays (more visual scanning). We hypothesized that effects of scanning may occur after prolonged strain coping. Using a between-subjects design, we had undergraduates perform a laparoscopic training task that induced strain coping. Then they performed a laparoscopic peg-reversal task while monitoring critical signals with a split-screen or separated display. We administered the NASA-Task Load Index (TLX) and Dundee Stress State Questionnaire (DSSQ) to assess strain coping. The TLX and DSSQ profiles indicated that participants engaged in strain coping. Monitoring critical signals resulted in slowed peg-reversal performance compared with no monitoring. Separated displays degraded critical-signal monitoring compared with split-screen displays. After novice observers experience strain coping, visual scanning can impair the detection of critical signals. Results suggest that the design and arrangement of displays in the operating room must incorporate the attentional limitations of the surgeon. Designs that induce visual scanning may impair monitoring of critical information at least in novices. Presenting displays closely in space may be beneficial.
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Predictors of Time-Based Prospective Memory in Children
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Mackinlay, Rachael J.; Kliegel, Matthias; Mantyla, Timo
2009-01-01
This study identified age differences in time-based prospective memory performance in school-aged children and explored possible cognitive correlates of age-related performance. A total of 56 7- to 12-year-olds performed a prospective memory task in which prospective memory accuracy, ongoing task performance, and time monitoring were assessed.…
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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.
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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
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Gawęda, Ł; Li, E; Lavoie, S; Whitford, T J; Moritz, S; Nelson, B
2018-01-01
Self-monitoring biases and overconfidence in incorrect judgments have been suggested as playing a role in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Little is known about whether self-monitoring biases may contribute to early risk factors for psychosis. In this study, action self-monitoring (i.e., discrimination between imagined and performed actions) was investigated, along with confidence in judgments among ultra-high risk (UHR) for psychosis individuals and first-episode psychosis (FEP) patients. Thirty-six UHR for psychosis individuals, 25 FEP patients and 33 healthy controls (CON) participated in the study. Participants were assessed with the Action memory task. Simple actions were presented to participants verbally or non-verbally. Some actions were required to be physically performed and others were imagined. Participants were asked whether the action was presented verbally or non-verbally (action presentation type discrimination), and whether the action was performed or imagined (self-monitoring). Confidence self-ratings related to self-monitoring responses were obtained. The analysis of self-monitoring revealed that both UHR and FEP groups misattributed imagined actions as being performed (i.e., self-monitoring errors) significantly more often than the CON group. There were no differences regarding performed actions as being imagined. UHR and FEP groups made their false responses with higher confidence in their judgments than the CON group. There were no group differences regarding discrimination between the types of actions presented (verbal vs non-verbal). A specific type of self-monitoring bias (i.e., misattributing imagined actions with performed actions), accompanied by high confidence in this judgment, may be a risk factor for the subsequent development of a psychotic disorder. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Wade, Cherrie; Brennan, Patrick C.; Mc Entee, Mark F.
2005-04-01
Diagnostic efficacy in soft-copy reporting relies heavily on the quality of workstation monitors and an investigation performed in 2002 demonstrated that CRT monitors in Dublin imaging departments were not operating at optimal levels. The current work examines the performance of CRTs being used in Dublin and other parts of Ireland to establish if problems reported in the earlier work have been rectified. All hospitals performing soft-copy reporting for general radiology using CRTs were included in the work. Examination of ambient lighting, calibration of monitors and analysis of CRT performance using the SMPTE test pattern and a selection of the AAPM test images was performed. Maximum luminance, spatial uniformity of luminance, temporal luminance stability, gamma, geometry, sharpness, veiling glare and spatial resolution of each monitor was evaluated. Ambient lighting in all reporting areas was within recommended levels. All the monitors were calibrated appropriately and were performing at acceptable levels for maximum luminance and temporal stability and only one of the thirty-three investigated failed to reach the standard for spatial uniformity. In contrast a number of the CRTs investigated showed poor adherence to acceptable levels for geometrical distortions, veiling glare and spatial resolution all of which are important influencers of image quality. Gamma values also appeared to be low for a number of monitors but this interpretation is provisional and subject to the establishment of ratified guideline values. The results demonstrate that although some improvement on the previous situation is evident, greater adherence to acceptable levels is required for certain parameters.
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To comply with legal mandates, meet local management objectives, or both, many federal, state, and tribal organizations have monitoring groups that assess stream habitat at different scales. This myriad of groups has difficulty sharing data and scaling up stream habitat assessmen...
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Kim, Jung Hyup; Rothrock, Ling; Laberge, Jason
2014-05-01
This paper provides a case study of Signal Detection Theory (SDT) as applied to a continuous monitoring dual-task environment. Specifically, SDT was used to evaluate the independent contributions of sensitivity and bias to different qualitative gauges used in process control. To assess detection performance in monitoring the gauges, we developed a Time Window-based Human-In-The-Loop (TWHITL) simulation bed. Through this test bed, we were able to generate a display similar to those monitored by console operators in oil and gas refinery plants. By using SDT and TWHITL, we evaluated the sensitivity, operator bias, and response time of flow, level, pressure, and temperature gauge shapes developed by Abnormal Situation Management(®) (ASM(®)) Consortium (www.asmconsortium.org). Our findings suggest that display density influences the effectiveness of participants in detecting abnormal shapes. Furthermore, results suggest that some shapes elicit better detection performance than others. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.
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The Effect of Initial Knee Angle on Concentric-Only Squat Jump Performance
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Mitchell, Lachlan J.; Argus, Christos K.; Taylor, Kristie-Lee; Sheppard, Jeremy M.; Chapman, Dale W.
2017-01-01
Purpose: There is uncertainty as to which knee angle during a squat jump (SJ) produces maximal jump performance. Importantly, understanding this information will aid in determining appropriate ratios for assessment and monitoring of the explosive characteristics of athletes. Method: This study compared SJ performance across different knee…
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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.
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Human Factors Engineering #3 Crewstation Assessment for the OH-58F Helicopter
2014-03-01
Additionally, workload was assessed for level of interoperability 2 (LOI 2) tasks that the aircrew performed with an unmanned aircraft system (UAS...TTP tactics, techniques, and procedures UAS unmanned aircraft system 47 VFR visual flight rules VMC visual meteorological conditions VTR...For example, pilots often perform navigation tasks, communicate via multiple radios, monitor aircraft systems , and assist the pilot on the controls
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Sandle, Tim
2012-01-01
Environmental monitoring programs are essential for pharmaceutical facilities in order to assess the level of environmental control. For biotechnology facilities there is little advice as to the frequency at which viable environmental monitoring should be conducted. This paper outlines an approach, based on the principles of quality risk management, for the development of a framework from which monitoring frequencies can be determined. This involved the identification of common hazards and the evaluation those hazards in terms of the severity of contamination and the probability of contamination occurring. These elements of risk were evaluated for different cleanrooms and the relative risks ranked. Once the risk scores were calculated, the methods for detecting risks within the cleanrooms were assessed. Risk filtering was then used to group different cleanrooms based on their relative risks and detection methods against predetermined monitoring frequencies. Through use of case study examples, the paper presents the model and describes how appropriate frequencies for the environmental monitoring of cleanrooms can be set. Cleanrooms in which biotechnology pharmaceutical processing takes place are subject to environmental monitoring. The frequency at which such monitoring should be performed can be difficult to determine. This paper uses quality risk assessment methods to construct a framework for determining monitoring frequencies and illustrates the suitability of the framework through a case study.
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Intraoperative Functional Mapping and Monitoring during Glioma Surgery
SAITO, Taiichi; MURAGAKI, Yoshihiro; MARUYAMA, Takashi; TAMURA, Manabu; NITTA, Masayuki; OKADA, Yoshikazu
2015-01-01
Glioma surgery represents a significant advance with respect to improving resection rates using new surgical techniques, including intraoperative functional mapping, monitoring, and imaging. Functional mapping under awake craniotomy can be used to detect individual eloquent tissues of speech and/or motor functions in order to prevent unexpected deficits and promote extensive resection. In addition, monitoring the patient’s neurological findings during resection is also very useful for maximizing the removal rate and minimizing deficits by alarming that the touched area is close to eloquent regions and fibers. Assessing several types of evoked potentials, including motor evoked potentials (MEPs), sensory evoked potentials (SEPs) and visual evoked potentials (VEPs), is also helpful for performing surgical monitoring in patients under general anesthesia (GA). We herein review the utility of intraoperative mapping and monitoring the assessment of neurological findings, with a particular focus on speech and the motor function, in patients undergoing glioma surgery. PMID:25744346
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Motivation Monitoring and Assessment Extension for Input-Process-Outcome Game Model
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ghergulescu, Ioana; Muntean, Cristina Hava
2014-01-01
This article proposes a Motivation Assessment-oriented Input-Process-Outcome Game Model (MotIPO), which extends the Input-Process-Outcome game model with game-centred and player-centred motivation assessments performed right from the beginning of the game-play. A feasibility case-study involving 67 participants playing an educational game and…
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Simulation of car movement along circular path
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Fedotov, A. I.; Tikhov-Tinnikov, D. A.; Ovchinnikova, N. I.; Lysenko, A. V.
2017-10-01
Under operating conditions, suspension system performance changes which negatively affects vehicle stability and handling. The paper aims to simulate the impact of changes in suspension system performance on vehicle stability and handling. Methods. The paper describes monitoring of suspension system performance, testing of vehicle stability and handling, analyzes methods of suspension system performance monitoring under operating conditions. The mathematical model of a car movement along a circular path was developed. Mathematical tools describing a circular movement of a vehicle along a horizontal road were developed. Turning car movements were simulated. Calculation and experiment results were compared. Simulation proves the applicability of a mathematical model for assessment of the impact of suspension system performance on vehicle stability and handling.
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In-Suit Doppler Technology Assessment
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Schulze, Arthur E.; Greene, Ernest R.; Nadeau, John J.
1991-01-01
The objective of this program was to perform a technology assessment survey of non-invasive air embolism detection utilizing Doppler ultrasound methodologies. The primary application of this technology will be a continuous monitor for astronauts while performing extravehicular activities (EVA's). The technology assessment was to include: (1) development of a full understanding of all relevant background research; and (2) a survey of the medical ultrasound marketplace for expertise, information, and technical capability relevant to this development. Upon completion of the assessment, LSR was to provide an overview of technological approaches and R&D/manufacturing organizations.
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1993-01-01
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION AUTHORITY 3. DISTRIBUTION JAVAILABIUITY OF REPORT 2b. DECLASSIFICATION I OWNGRAD)ING SCHEDULE I4. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION ...REPORT NUMBER(S) 5. MONITORING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER(S) RESEARCH REPORT NO. 9 6a. NAME OF PERFORMING ORGANIZATION 6b. OFFICE SYMBOL 7a. NAME OF...MONITORING ORGANIZATION Markman & Associates, Inc.(I plcbe 6c. ADDRESS (City. State. and ZIP Code) 7b. ADDRESS (City. State. and ZIP Code) 824 N. Bl
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Merchant, Bion J
2015-12-22
NetMOD is a tool to model the performance of global ground-based explosion monitoring systems. The version 2.0 of the software supports the simulation of seismic, hydroacoustic, and infrasonic detection capability. The tool provides a user interface to execute simulations based upon a hypothetical definition of the monitoring system configuration, geophysical properties of the Earth, and detection analysis criteria. NetMOD will be distributed with a project file defining the basic performance characteristics of the International Monitoring System (IMS), a network of sensors operated by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). Network modeling is needed to be able to assess and explainmore » the potential effect of changes to the IMS, to prioritize station deployment and repair, and to assess the overall CTBTO monitoring capability currently and in the future. Currently the CTBTO uses version 1.0 of NetMOD, provided to them in early 2014. NetMOD will provide a modern tool that will cover all the simulations currently available and allow for the development of additional simulation capabilities of the IMS in the future. NetMOD simulates the performance of monitoring networks by estimating the relative amplitudes of the signal and noise measured at each of the stations within the network based upon known geophysical principles. From these signal and noise estimates, a probability of detection may be determined for each of the stations. The detection probabilities at each of the stations may then be combined to produce an estimate of the detection probability for the entire monitoring network.« less
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Assessing Green Infrastructure Performance Using Remote Hydologic Monitoring Measures
Two locations in Cincinnati were instrumented with level sensing technologies to measure stormwater flow in porous pavement and bioretention areas. Results indicate good performance of porous pavement and a cost effective application of technology to measure those flows. Result...
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The inland water macro-invertebrate occurrences in Flanders, Belgium.
Vannevel, Rudy; Brosens, Dimitri; Cooman, Ward De; Gabriels, Wim; Frank Lavens; Mertens, Joost; Vervaeke, Bart
2018-01-01
The Flanders Environment Agency (VMM) has been performing biological water quality assessments on inland waters in Flanders (Belgium) since 1989 and sediment quality assessments since 2000. The water quality monitoring network is a combined physico-chemical and biological network, the biological component focusing on macro-invertebrates. The sediment monitoring programme produces biological data to assess the sediment quality. Both monitoring programmes aim to provide index values, applying a similar conceptual methodology based on the presence of macro-invertebrates. The biological data obtained from both monitoring networks are consolidated in the VMM macro-invertebrates database and include identifications at family and genus level of the freshwater phyla Coelenterata, Platyhelminthes, Annelida, Mollusca, and Arthropoda. This paper discusses the content of this database, and the dataset published thereof: 282,309 records of 210 observed taxa from 4,140 monitoring sites located on 657 different water bodies, collected during 22,663 events. This paper provides some background information on the methodology, temporal and spatial coverage, and taxonomy, and describes the content of the dataset. The data are distributed as open data under the Creative Commons CC-BY license.
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Armitage, James M; Cousins, Ian T; Hauck, Mara; Harbers, Jasper V; Huijbregts, Mark A J
2007-06-01
Multimedia environmental fate models are commonly-applied tools for assessing the fate and distribution of contaminants in the environment. Owing to the large number of chemicals in use and the paucity of monitoring data, such models are often adopted as part of decision-support systems for chemical risk assessment. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of three multimedia environmental fate models (spatially- and non-spatially-explicit) at a European scale. The assessment was conducted for four polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and compared predicted and median observed concentrations using monitoring data collected for air, water, sediments and soils. Model performance in the air compartment was reasonable for all models included in the evaluation exercise as predicted concentrations were typically within a factor of 3 of the median observed concentrations. Furthermore, there was good correspondence between predictions and observations in regions that had elevated median observed concentrations for both spatially-explicit models. On the other hand, all three models consistently underestimated median observed concentrations in sediment and soil by 1-3 orders of magnitude. Although regions with elevated median observed concentrations in these environmental media were broadly identified by the spatially-explicit models, the magnitude of the discrepancy between predicted and median observed concentrations is of concern in the context of chemical risk assessment. These results were discussed in terms of factors influencing model performance such as the steady-state assumption, inaccuracies in emission estimates and the representativeness of monitoring data.
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Emodnet Med Sea Check-Point - Indicators for decision- maker
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Besnard, Sophie; Claverie, Vincent; Blanc, Frédérique
2015-04-01
The Emodnet Checkpoint projects aim is to assess the cost-effectiveness, reliability and utility of the existing monitoring at the sea basin level. This involves the development of monitoring system indicators and a GIS Platform to perform the assessment and make it available. Assessment or production of Check-Point information is made by developing targeted products based on the monitoring data and determining whether the products are meeting the needs of industry and public authorities. Check-point users are the research community, the 'institutional' policy makers for IMP and MSFD implementation, the 'intermediate users', i.e., users capable to understand basic raw data but that benefit from seeing the Checkpoint targeted products and the assessment of the fitness for purpose. We define assessment criteria aimed to characterize/depict the input datasets in terms of 3 territories capable to show performance and gaps of the present monitoring system, appropriateness, availability and fitness for purpose. • Appropriateness: What is made available to users? What motivate/decide them to select this observation rather than this one. • Availability: How this is made available to the user? Place to understand the readiness and service performance of the EU infrastructure • Fitness for use / fitness for purpose: Ability for non-expert user to appreciate the data exploitability (feedback on efficiency & reliability of marine data) For each territory (appropriateness, Availability and Fitness for purpose / for use), we define several indicators. For example, for Availability we define Visibility, Accessibility and Performance. And Visibility is itself defined by "Easily found" and "EU service". So these indicators can be classified according to their territory and sub-territory as seen above, but also according to the complexity to build them. Indicators are built from raw descriptors in 3 stages: Stage 1: to give a neutral and basic status directly computed from the raw checkpoint descriptors. Stage 2: to get a more sectorial status, aggregating level 1 results for instance depending on processing level. Stage 3: to synthesize and focus view at characteristic level for decision making and actions plan. They are computed from stage 2 indicators. To produce this checkpoint information, we describe upstream data as input data sets which are uniquely identified as a combination of (variable, dataset, intended use) or of (geographical feature, dataset, intended use) depending on their nature. The information is called descriptors. The descriptors cover 8 sections: 1. Characteristics (= What) 2. Data sources (= From) 3. Overview elements (= Why for) 4. Spatial coverage (= Where) 5. Temporal coverage (= When) 6. Accessibility (= How) 7. Quality elements (= ISO 19113 quality elements) 8. Other information (= for administration/management needs) Check-Point services should be permanent services, because: • Monitoring systems will evolve and every few years there is need to re-assess; • Different/more use cases of monitoring are required to really show gaps and complementarities in the monitoring system components; • Monitoring system evolution for the European Sea and the global ocean require constant upgrade of the assessment indicators and descriptors; • Need to establish strong & permanent links with intermediate and end users from industry to public authorities and 'regional' approach is appropriate and feasible. • Need to maintain the process, methodology used and to be applied.
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Continuous Glucose Monitoring and Trend Accuracy
Gottlieb, Rebecca; Le Compte, Aaron; Chase, J. Geoffrey
2014-01-01
Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices are being increasingly used to monitor glycemia in people with diabetes. One advantage with CGM is the ability to monitor the trend of sensor glucose (SG) over time. However, there are few metrics available for assessing the trend accuracy of CGM devices. The aim of this study was to develop an easy to interpret tool for assessing trend accuracy of CGM data. SG data from CGM were compared to hourly blood glucose (BG) measurements and trend accuracy was quantified using the dot product. Trend accuracy results are displayed on the Trend Compass, which depicts trend accuracy as a function of BG. A trend performance table and Trend Index (TI) metric are also proposed. The Trend Compass was tested using simulated CGM data with varying levels of error and variability, as well as real clinical CGM data. The results show that the Trend Compass is an effective tool for differentiating good trend accuracy from poor trend accuracy, independent of glycemic variability. Furthermore, the real clinical data show that the Trend Compass assesses trend accuracy independent of point bias error. Finally, the importance of assessing trend accuracy as a function of BG level is highlighted in a case example of low and falling BG data, with corresponding rising SG data. This study developed a simple to use tool for quantifying trend accuracy. The resulting trend accuracy is easily interpreted on the Trend Compass plot, and if required, performance table and TI metric. PMID:24876437
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Mazur, Lukasz M; Mosaly, Prithima R; Hoyle, Lesley M; Jones, Ellen L; Marks, Lawrence B
2013-01-01
To quantify, and compare, workload for several common physician-based treatment planning tasks using objective and subjective measures of workload. To assess the relationship between workload and performance to define workload levels where performance could be expected to decline. Nine physicians performed the same 3 tasks on each of 2 cases ("easy" vs "hard"). Workload was assessed objectively throughout the tasks (via monitoring of pupil size and blink rate), and subjectively at the end of each case (via National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index; NASA-TLX). NASA-TLX assesses the 6 dimensions (mental, physical, and temporal demands, frustration, effort, and performance); scores > or ≈ 50 are associated with reduced performance in other industries. Performance was measured using participants' stated willingness to approve the treatment plan. Differences in subjective and objective workload between cases, tasks, and experience were assessed using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The correlation between subjective and objective workload measures were assessed via the Pearson correlation test. The relationships between workload and performance measures were assessed using the t test. Eighteen case-wise and 54 task-wise assessments were obtained. Subjective NASA-TLX scores (P < .001), but not time-weighted averages of objective scores (P > .1), were significantly lower for the easy vs hard case. Most correlations between the subjective and objective measures were not significant, except between average blink rate and NASA-TLX scores (r = -0.34, P = .02), for task-wise assessments. Performance appeared to decline at NASA-TLX scores of ≥55. The NASA-TLX may provide a reasonable method to quantify subjective workload for broad activities, and objective physiologic eye-based measures may be useful to monitor workload for more granular tasks within activities. The subjective and objective measures, as herein quantified, do not necessarily track each other, and more work is needed to assess their utilities. From a series of controlled experiments, we found that performance appears to decline at subjective workload levels ≥55 (as measured via NASA-TLX), which is consistent with findings from other industries. Copyright © 2013 American Society for Radiation Oncology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Cassidy-Floyd, Juliet
2017-01-01
Florida, from 1971 to 2014 has used the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) as a yearly accountability tool throughout the education system in the state (Bureau of K-12 Assessment, 2005). Schools use their own assessments to determine if students are making progress throughout the year. In one school district within Florida, Performance…
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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.
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Suggesting a new framework for predictive performance assessment: Trait vs State dimensions.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Pattyn, Nathalie; Neyt, Xavier; Migeotte, Pierre-François; Morais, José; Soetens, Eric; Cluydts, Raymond; Meeusen, Romain; de Schutter, Guy; Nederhof, Esther; Kolinsky, Régine
IntroductionA major aim of performance investigation is to predict real-life performance, which is why both ESA (1) and NASA (2) have described the need to validly and reliably detect potential performance decrement as absolute requirements to manned long-duration missions. Whereas the predictive validity of such assessment has been extensively described for medium-term to long-term outcomes, as is the case for cognitive performance selection of student pilots for example, similar evidence is lacking regarding the immediate predictive value of cognitive testing, i.e., whether these results reflect real-life performance on an immediately subsequent task. Furthermore, whereas selection procedures are derived from population-based approaches, real-time monitoring of performance is often meant to be individual, which is an additional call for caution before concluding results from one setting to be applied to another. The MiniCog Rapid Assessment Battery (MRAB), which was termed by its authors "a blood pressure cuff for the mind" (3), aims at reflecting the functional status of a subject at any given moment. This battery was designed to provide a remote cognitive assessment of astronauts on a regular basis. We investigated its predictive value for real-life performance, together with a new approach to the assessment of cognitive performance in operational conditions, based on interference paradigms, the addition of emotionally loaded material and the concomitant measure of cardio-respiratory responses (4). MethodIn a first experiment, we investigated whether psychophysiological results would predict success of military student pilots (SPs; N=14) on a major evaluation flight right after the testing, and success in the rest of their flight training after a 6 months period. In a second experiment, we investigated whether extensive preliminary cognitive testing and individually tailored longitudinal monitoring of physical and cognitive performance could predict success of Special Forces trainees (N=7) during their training. ResultsThe first experiment showed no relationship whatsoever between cognitive performance on the very broad array of tests and immediately subsequent performance on the evaluation flight. However, physiological results showed a trend for students who passed the test to exhibit a larger physiological reactivity. Furthermore, the medium-term outcome of SPs in their flight training showed to be related to their test performance. Results of the second experiment (still in progress) will show whether, for an individual monitoring situation, there is a potential link between performance IQ and success on the training, and whether the longitudinal assessment of both cognitive performance, physical performance and physiological reactivity relates to immediately subsequent performance. DiscussionThese results suggest that a critical distinction could be made regarding predictive performance assessment, namely trait and state dimensions. Since one of the intended uses of operational test batteries is to provide an instantaneous measure of the cognitive status of the subject to allow the immediate execution of critical tasks, our results show this would be an inappropriate application so far. However, a dimension showing promising potential is the physiological reactivity. Whereas operational priorities clearly state the need for performance evaluation tools, their application cannot guide operational choices before sufficient validation allows justifying such decisions. References(1) HUMEX: Study on the Survivability and Adaptation of Humans to Long-duration Exploratory Missions (2000). European Space Agency. (2)BPCR: Bioastronautics Critical Path Roadmap (2004). National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (3) Shephard, J. M. and Kosslyn, S. M. (2005). The MiniCog rapid assessment battery: Developing a "blood pressure cuff for the mind". Avn Space Enl Medicine, 76, B192-B197. (4) Pattyn, N.; Migeotte, P.F.; Morais, J.; Soetens, E.; Cluydts, R. and Kolinsky, R. (2007). Crew performance monitoring: Putting some feeling into it. Proceedings of the 58th International Astronautical Congress, IAC-07-A1.1.04.
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PERFORMANCE VERIFICATION OF ADVANCED MONITORING SYSTEMS FOR AIR, WATER, AND SOIL
The Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) Program, beginning as an initiative of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1995, verifies the performance of commercially available, innovative technologies that can be used to assess environmental quality. The ETV p...
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1975-12-01
139 APPENDIX A* BASIC CONCEPT OF MILITARY TECHNICAL CONTROL.142 6 APIENDIX Es TEST EQUIPMENI REQUIRED FOR lEASURF.4ENr OF 1AF’AMETE RS...Control ( SATEC ) Automatic Facilities heport Army Automated Quality Monitoring Reporting System (AQMPS) Army Autcmated Technical Control-Semi (ATC-Semi...technical control then beco.. es equipment status monitoring. All the major equipment in a system wculd have internal sensors with properly selected parameters
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Evaluation of the VIIRS Ocean Color Monitoring Performance in Coastal Regions
2013-09-17
collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number. PLEASE DO NOT RETURN YOUR FORM TO THE ABOVE ORGANIZATION. 1...part of the VIIRS sensor calibration and validation efforts, our group has been continuously monitoring the validity of the VIlRS’s OC and atmospheric...the necessity for monitoring and assessing the validity and consistency of VIIRS’ ocean color pioducts. especially for coaslal waters. 15. SUBJECT
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Van den Bosch, Kyle; Matthews, Jeffrey W
2017-04-01
Under the US Clean Water Act, wetland restoration is used to compensate for adverse impacts to wetlands. Following construction, compensation wetlands are monitored for approximately 5 years to determine if they comply with project-specific performance standards. Once a compensation site complies with performance standards, it is assumed that the site will continue to meet standards indefinitely. However, there have been few assessments of long-term compliance. We surveyed, in 2012, 30 compensation sites 8-20 years after restoration to determine whether projects continued to meet performance standards. Additionally, we compared floristic quality of compensation sites to the quality of adjacent natural wetlands to determine whether wetland condition in compensation sites could be predicted based on the condition of nearby wetlands. Compensation sites met, on average, 65% of standards during the final year of monitoring and 53% of standards in 2012, a significant decrease in compliance. Although forested wetlands often failed to meet standards for planted tree survival, the temporal decrease in compliance was driven by increasing dominance by invasive plants in emergent wetlands. The presumption of continued compliance with performance standards after a 5-year monitoring period was not supported. Wetlands restored near better quality natural wetlands achieved and maintained greater floristic quality, suggesting that landscape context was an important determinant of long-term restoration outcomes. Based on our findings, we recommend that compensation wetlands should be monitored for longer time periods, and we suggest that nearby or adjacent natural wetlands provide good examples of reasonably achievable restoration outcomes in a particular landscape.
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Kuhlmann, Levin; Manton, Jonathan H; Heyse, Bjorn; Vereecke, Hugo E M; Lipping, Tarmo; Struys, Michel M R F; Liley, David T J
2017-04-01
Tracking brain states with electrophysiological measurements often relies on short-term averages of extracted features and this may not adequately capture the variability of brain dynamics. The objective is to assess the hypotheses that this can be overcome by tracking distributions of linear models using anesthesia data, and that anesthetic brain state tracking performance of linear models is comparable to that of a high performing depth of anesthesia monitoring feature. Individuals' brain states are classified by comparing the distribution of linear (auto-regressive moving average-ARMA) model parameters estimated from electroencephalographic (EEG) data obtained with a sliding window to distributions of linear model parameters for each brain state. The method is applied to frontal EEG data from 15 subjects undergoing propofol anesthesia and classified by the observers assessment of alertness/sedation (OAA/S) scale. Classification of the OAA/S score was performed using distributions of either ARMA parameters or the benchmark feature, Higuchi fractal dimension. The highest average testing sensitivity of 59% (chance sensitivity: 17%) was found for ARMA (2,1) models and Higuchi fractal dimension achieved 52%, however, no statistical difference was observed. For the same ARMA case, there was no statistical difference if medians are used instead of distributions (sensitivity: 56%). The model-based distribution approach is not necessarily more effective than a median/short-term average approach, however, it performs well compared with a distribution approach based on a high performing anesthesia monitoring measure. These techniques hold potential for anesthesia monitoring and may be generally applicable for tracking brain states.
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Hemodynamic monitoring of middle cerebral arteries during cognitive tasks performance.
Boban, Marina; Črnac, Petra; Junaković, Anamari; Malojčić, Branko
2014-11-01
The aim of this study was to obtain temporal pattern and hemispheric dominance of blood flow velocity (BFV) changes and to assess suitability of different cognitive tasks for monitoring of BFV changes in the middle cerebral arteries (MCA). BFV were recorded simultaneously in MCA during performance of phonemic verbal fluency test (pVFT), Trail Making Tests A and B (TMTA and TMTB) and Stroop tests in 14 healthy, right-handed volunteers aged 20-26 years. A significant increase of BFV in both MCA was obtained during performance of all cognitive tasks. Statistically significant lateralization was found during performance of Stroop test with incongruent stimuli, while TMTB was found to have the best activation potential for MCA. Our findings specify TMTB as the most suitable cognitive test for monitoring of BFV in MCA. © 2014 The Authors. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences © 2014 Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology.
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From Rationale to Results: Implementing Performance Indicators in a Public Library.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Alston, Ruth
This paper describes the theoretical design and practical implementation of a set of performance indicators in a public library system in London (England). Bromley Libraries has 15 branch libraries and serves 300,000 people. The need for improved management control by assessing performance and monitoring progress, library restructuring, and…
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Integrated monitoring and assessment of soil restoration treatments in the Lake Tahoe Basin.
Grismer, M E; Schnurrenberger, C; Arst, R; Hogan, M P
2009-03-01
Revegetation and soil restoration efforts, often associated with erosion control measures on disturbed soils, are rarely monitored or otherwise evaluated in terms of improved hydrologic, much less, ecologic function and longer term sustainability. As in many watersheds, sediment is a key parameter of concern in the Tahoe Basin, particularly fine sediments less than about ten microns. Numerous erosion control measures deployed in the Basin during the past several decades have under-performed, or simply failed after a few years and new soil restoration methods of erosion control are under investigation. We outline a comprehensive, integrated field-based evaluation and assessment of the hydrologic function associated with these soil restoration methods with the hypothesis that restoration of sustainable function will result in longer term erosion control benefits than that currently achieved with more commonly used surface treatment methods (e.g. straw/mulch covers and hydroseeding). The monitoring includes cover-point and ocular assessments of plant cover, species type and diversity; soil sampling for nutrient status; rainfall simulation measurement of infiltration and runoff rates; cone penetrometer measurements of soil compaction and thickness of mulch layer depths. Through multi-year hydrologic and vegetation monitoring at ten sites and 120 plots, we illustrate the results obtained from the integrated monitoring program and describe how it might guide future restoration efforts and monitoring assessments.
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Morales, José M; Díaz-Piedra, Carolina; Rieiro, Héctor; Roca-González, Joaquín; Romero, Samuel; Catena, Andrés; Fuentes, Luis J; Di Stasi, Leandro L
2017-12-01
Driver fatigue can impair performance as much as alcohol does. It is the most important road safety concern, causing thousands of accidents and fatalities every year. Thanks to technological developments, wearable, single-channel EEG devices are now getting considerable attention as fatigue monitors, as they could help drivers to assess their own levels of fatigue and, therefore, prevent the deterioration of performance. However, the few studies that have used single-channel EEG devices to investigate the physiological effects of driver fatigue have had inconsistent results, and the question of whether we can monitor driver fatigue reliably with these EEG devices remains open. Here, we assessed the validity of a single-channel EEG device (TGAM-based chip) to monitor changes in mental state (from alertness to fatigue). Fifteen drivers performed a 2-h simulated driving task while we recorded, simultaneously, their prefrontal brain activity and saccadic velocity. We used saccadic velocity as the reference index of fatigue. We also collected subjective ratings of alertness and fatigue, as well as driving performance. We found that the power spectra of the delta EEG band showed an inverted U-shaped quadratic trend (EEG power spectra increased for the first hour and half, and decreased during the last thirty minutes), while the power spectra of the beta band linearly increased as the driving session progressed. Coherently, saccadic velocity linearly decreased and speeding time increased, suggesting a clear effect of fatigue. Subjective data corroborated these conclusions. Overall, our results suggest that the TGAM-based chip EEG device is able to detect changes in mental state while performing a complex and dynamic everyday task as driving. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Installation Boundary Fence Replacement: Upland Areas: Environmental Assessment
2004-05-27
Moody Air Force Base, GA Environmental Assessment Installation Boundary Fence Replacement INSTALLATION BOUNDARY...347 CES/CEV),3485 Georgia Street,Moody AFB, GA ,31699 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER 9. SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES...Standard Form 298 (Rev. 8-98) Prescribed by ANSI Std Z39-18 Moody Air Force Base, GA Environmental Assessment
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Maddox, Bryan; Zumbo, Bruno D.; Tay-Lim, Brenda; Qu, Demin
2015-01-01
This article explores the potential for ethnographic observations to inform the analysis of test item performance. In 2010, a standardized, large-scale adult literacy assessment took place in Mongolia as part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Literacy Assessment and Monitoring Programme (LAMP). In a novel form…
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hill, Tory C.
2013-01-01
The introduction of No Child Left Behind increased performance expectations for students across the United States and compelled teachers to focus on standardized assessments instead of frequent formative assessments to monitor instruction and promote student learning. Common formative assessments (CFAs) help teachers align curriculum, assessment,…
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Weitzendorfer, Michael; Pfandner, Richard; Antoniou, Stavros A; Langsteger, Werner; Witzel, Kai; Emmanuel, Klaus; Koch, Oliver O
2017-09-01
The aim of this study was to evaluate the value of salivary pepsin and oropharyngeal pH-monitoring to assess the surgical outcome of patients with laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR). Twenty consecutive patients with LPR despite proton pump inhibitor treatment received laparoscopic antireflux surgery. Twenty-four hour esophageal pH-monitoring (multichannel intraluminal impedance monitoring [MII]-pH) and esophageal manometry (high-resolution manometry) data were documented preoperatively and at 3-month follow-up. An ears, nose and throat (ENT) examination was performed, including assessment of Belafsky Reflux Finding Score (RFS). Clinical symptoms were evaluated with the Belafsky Reflux Symptom Index (RSI) and the Gastrointestinal Quality of Life Index (GIQLI). Simultaneous to the MII-pH and collection of saliva samples, detection of oropharyngeal reflux events was performed. Treatment failure was defined as postoperative pathologic RFS or RSI score and improvement of GIQLI of <10 points, despite showing a normal DeMeester score. At baseline, all patients had a pathological ENT examination, RSI score, and MII-pH data. All patients showed postoperatively a normal DeMeester score (mean 6.39 ± 4.87). Five patients were defined as treatment failures with a change of pepsin concentration from median 157.0 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0-422) to 180.7 (95% CI: 0-500). In patients defined as treatment success, median pepsin value decreased from 206.3 (95% CI: 89-278) to 76.0 (95% CI: 55-205); (P = .093). Oropharyngeal pH-monitoring data showed no significant change in both groups. Salivary pepsin could be a marker for treatment success, while oropharyngeal pH-monitoring seems to be inadequate in these terms. However, larger studies are required to reach firm conclusions.
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Telecommunications end-to-end systems monitoring on TOPEX/Poseidon: Tools and techniques
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Calanche, Bruno J.
1994-01-01
The TOPEX/Poseidon Project Satellite Performance Analysis Team's (SPAT) roles and responsibilities have grown to include functions that are typically performed by other teams on JPL Flight Projects. In particular, SPAT Telecommunication's role has expanded beyond the nominal function of monitoring, assessing, characterizing, and trending the spacecraft (S/C) RF/Telecom subsystem to one of End-to-End Information Systems (EEIS) monitoring. This has been accomplished by taking advantage of the spacecraft and ground data system structures and protocols. By processing both the received spacecraft telemetry minor frame ground generated CRC flags and NASCOM block poly error flags, bit error rates (BER) for each link segment can be determined. This provides the capability to characterize the separate link segments, determine science data recovery, and perform fault/anomaly detection and isolation. By monitoring and managing the links, TOPEX has successfully recovered approximately 99.9 percent of the science data with an integrity (BER) of better than 1 x 10(exp 8). This paper presents the algorithms used to process the above flags and the techniques used for EEIS monitoring.
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DOT National Transportation Integrated Search
2012-08-01
The objective of the study was to monitor and : document the performance of newly designed : sediment basins that were constructed for the 502 : project in Franklin County. The following tasks were : proposed by the research team to achieve the : obj...
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PERSONAL EXPOSURES TO POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS ASSOCIATED WITH THE NHEXAS PILOT
Personal exposure monitoring for select polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was performed as part of the National Human Exposure Assessment Survey (NHEXAS) Pilot Study in Baltimore, MD. Twenty-four hour PM10 sample collections (~5.7 m3) were performed using personal envi...
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DOT National Transportation Integrated Search
2014-02-01
"The Federal Highway Administration has been encouraging states to improve their monitoring and tracking of the : mobility impacts of work zones. The use of mobility performance measures will enable agencies to assess better the : contribution of wor...
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School Accountability and Assessment: Should We Put the Roof up First?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Klinger, Don A.; Maggi, Stefania; D'Angiulli, Amedeo
2011-01-01
School accountability and student assessment are closely associated in educational jurisdictions' attempts to monitor student achievement, focus instruction, and improve subsequent student and school performance. The research reported in this article examines the School Effectiveness Framework in Ontario, Canada, exploring the foundations upon…
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The impact of emotion on prospective memory and monitoring: no pain, big gain.
May, Cynthia; Owens, Max; Einstein, Gilles O
2012-12-01
The emotionally enhanced memory effect is robust across studies of retrospective memory, with heightened recall for items with emotional content (e.g., words like "murder") relative to neutral items (e.g., words like "envelope"). Only a handful of studies have examined the influence of emotion on prospective memory (PM), with mixed results. In some cases emotion enhances PM, and in others it impairs PM. Interpretation of these findings is clouded by methodological differences across studies and by the fact that, to date, no study has examined the impact of emotion on PM monitoring. In our study, we assessed PM performance when PM targets were neutral, negative, and positive, and also investigated monitoring across these different PM target types. Participants showed heightened PM performance for positive and negative relative to neutral targets, yet there was no evidence of additional monitoring for emotional targets. In fact, measures of monitoring were significantly reduced when the PM targets were emotional rather than neutral. Our findings suggest that it is possible to boost PM performance in a focal task using emotional cues, and that the use of emotional cues reduces the need for monitoring.
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Clare, Linda; Whitaker, Christopher J; Roberts, Judith L; Nelis, Sharon M; Martyr, Anthony; Marková, Ivana S; Roth, Ilona; Woods, Robert T; Morris, Robin G
2013-01-01
Measures of memory awareness based on evaluative judgement and performance monitoring are often regarded as equivalent, but the Levels of Awareness Framework suggests they reflect different awareness phenomena. Examination of memory awareness among groups with differing degrees of impairment provides a test of this proposition. Ninety-nine people with dementia (PwD), 30 people with mild cognitive impairment (PwMCI), and their relatives completed isomorphic performance monitoring and evaluative judgement measures of memory awareness and were followed up at 12 and (PwD only) 20 months. In addition to the resulting awareness indices, comparative accuracy scores were calculated using the relatives' data to establish whether any inaccuracy was specific to self-ratings. When making evaluative judgements about their memory in general, both PwD and PwMCI tended to overestimate their own functioning relative to informant ratings made by relatives. When monitoring performance on memory tests, PwD again overestimated performance relative to test scores, but PwMCI were much more accurate. Comparative accuracy scores indicated that, unlike PwD, PwMCI do not show a specific inaccuracy in self-related appraisals. The results support the proposition that awareness indices at the levels of evaluative judgement and performance monitoring should be regarded as reflecting distinct awareness phenomena. Copyright © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel.
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Multitasking During Degraded Speech Recognition in School-Age Children
Ward, Kristina M.; Brehm, Laurel
2017-01-01
Multitasking requires individuals to allocate their cognitive resources across different tasks. The purpose of the current study was to assess school-age children’s multitasking abilities during degraded speech recognition. Children (8 to 12 years old) completed a dual-task paradigm including a sentence recognition (primary) task containing speech that was either unprocessed or noise-band vocoded with 8, 6, or 4 spectral channels and a visual monitoring (secondary) task. Children’s accuracy and reaction time on the visual monitoring task was quantified during the dual-task paradigm in each condition of the primary task and compared with single-task performance. Children experienced dual-task costs in the 6- and 4-channel conditions of the primary speech recognition task with decreased accuracy on the visual monitoring task relative to baseline performance. In all conditions, children’s dual-task performance on the visual monitoring task was strongly predicted by their single-task (baseline) performance on the task. Results suggest that children’s proficiency with the secondary task contributes to the magnitude of dual-task costs while multitasking during degraded speech recognition. PMID:28105890
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Multitasking During Degraded Speech Recognition in School-Age Children.
Grieco-Calub, Tina M; Ward, Kristina M; Brehm, Laurel
2017-01-01
Multitasking requires individuals to allocate their cognitive resources across different tasks. The purpose of the current study was to assess school-age children's multitasking abilities during degraded speech recognition. Children (8 to 12 years old) completed a dual-task paradigm including a sentence recognition (primary) task containing speech that was either unprocessed or noise-band vocoded with 8, 6, or 4 spectral channels and a visual monitoring (secondary) task. Children's accuracy and reaction time on the visual monitoring task was quantified during the dual-task paradigm in each condition of the primary task and compared with single-task performance. Children experienced dual-task costs in the 6- and 4-channel conditions of the primary speech recognition task with decreased accuracy on the visual monitoring task relative to baseline performance. In all conditions, children's dual-task performance on the visual monitoring task was strongly predicted by their single-task (baseline) performance on the task. Results suggest that children's proficiency with the secondary task contributes to the magnitude of dual-task costs while multitasking during degraded speech recognition.
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Molina-García, Angel; Campelo, José Carlos; Blanc, Sara; Serrano, Juan José; García-Sánchez, Tania; Bueso, María C.
2015-01-01
This paper proposes and assesses an integrated solution to monitor and diagnose photovoltaic (PV) solar modules based on a decentralized wireless sensor acquisition system. Both DC electrical variables and environmental data are collected at PV module level using low-cost and high-energy efficiency node sensors. Data is real-time processed locally and compared with expected PV module performances obtained by a PV module model based on symmetrized-shifted Gompertz functions (as previously developed and assessed by the authors). Sensor nodes send data to a centralized sink-computing module using a multi-hop wireless sensor network architecture. Such integration thus provides extensive analysis of PV installations, and avoids off-line tests or post-processing processes. In comparison with previous approaches, this solution is enhanced with a low-cost system and non-critical performance constraints, and it is suitable for extensive deployment in PV power plants. Moreover, it is easily implemented in existing PV installations, since no additional wiring is required. The system has been implemented and assessed in a Spanish PV power plant connected to the grid. Results and estimations of PV module performances are also included in the paper. PMID:26230694
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Ayaz, Hasan; Onaral, Banu; Izzetoglu, Kurtulus; Shewokis, Patricia A.; McKendrick, Ryan; Parasuraman, Raja
2013-01-01
Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a non-invasive, safe, and portable optical neuroimaging method that can be used to assess brain dynamics during skill acquisition and performance of complex work and everyday tasks. In this paper we describe neuroergonomic studies that illustrate the use of fNIRS in the examination of training-related brain dynamics and human performance assessment. We describe results of studies investigating cognitive workload in air traffic controllers, acquisition of dual verbal-spatial working memory skill, and development of expertise in piloting unmanned vehicles. These studies used conventional fNIRS devices in which the participants were tethered to the device while seated at a workstation. Consistent with the aims of mobile brain imaging (MoBI), we also describe a compact and battery-operated wireless fNIRS system that performs with similar accuracy as other established fNIRS devices. Our results indicate that both wired and wireless fNIRS systems allow for the examination of brain function in naturalistic settings, and thus are suitable for reliable human performance monitoring and training assessment. PMID:24385959
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Molina-García, Angel; Campelo, José Carlos; Blanc, Sara; Serrano, Juan José; García-Sánchez, Tania; Bueso, María C
2015-07-29
This paper proposes and assesses an integrated solution to monitor and diagnose photovoltaic (PV) solar modules based on a decentralized wireless sensor acquisition system. Both DC electrical variables and environmental data are collected at PV module level using low-cost and high-energy efficiency node sensors. Data is real-time processed locally and compared with expected PV module performances obtained by a PV module model based on symmetrized-shifted Gompertz functions (as previously developed and assessed by the authors). Sensor nodes send data to a centralized sink-computing module using a multi-hop wireless sensor network architecture. Such integration thus provides extensive analysis of PV installations, and avoids off-line tests or post-processing processes. In comparison with previous approaches, this solution is enhanced with a low-cost system and non-critical performance constraints, and it is suitable for extensive deployment in PV power plants. Moreover, it is easily implemented in existing PV installations, since no additional wiring is required. The system has been implemented and assessed in a Spanish PV power plant connected to the grid. Results and estimations of PV module performances are also included in the paper.
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Kobayashi, Leo; Gosbee, John W; Merck, Derek L
2017-07-01
(1) To develop a clinical microsystem simulation methodology for alarm fatigue research with a human factors engineering (HFE) assessment framework and (2) to explore its application to the comparative examination of different approaches to patient monitoring and provider notification. Problems with the design, implementation, and real-world use of patient monitoring systems result in alarm fatigue. A multidisciplinary team is developing an open-source tool kit to promote bedside informatics research and mitigate alarm fatigue. Simulation, HFE, and computer science experts created a novel simulation methodology to study alarm fatigue. Featuring multiple interconnected simulated patient scenarios with scripted timeline, "distractor" patient care tasks, and triggered true and false alarms, the methodology incorporated objective metrics to assess provider and system performance. Developed materials were implemented during institutional review board-approved study sessions that assessed and compared an experimental multiparametric alerting system with a standard monitor telemetry system for subject response, use characteristics, and end-user feedback. A four-patient simulation setup featuring objective metrics for participant task-related performance and response to alarms was developed along with accompanying structured HFE assessment (questionnaire and interview) for monitor systems use testing. Two pilot and four study sessions with individual nurse subjects elicited true alarm and false alarm responses (including diversion from assigned tasks) as well as nonresponses to true alarms. In-simulation observation and subject questionnaires were used to test the experimental system's approach to suppressing false alarms and alerting providers. A novel investigative methodology applied simulation and HFE techniques to replicate and study alarm fatigue in controlled settings for systems assessment and experimental research purposes.
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Soja, Stacie L.; Pandharipande, Pratik P.; Fleming, Sloan B.; Cotton, Bryan A.; Miller, Leanna R.; Weaver, Stefanija G.; Lee, Byron T.; Ely, E. Wesley
2013-01-01
Objective To implement delirium monitoring, test reliability, and monitor compliance of performing the Confusion Assessment Method for the Intensive Care Unit (CAM-ICU) in trauma patients. Design and setting Prospective, observational study in a Level 1 trauma unit of a tertiary care, university-based medical center. Patients Acutely injured patients admitted to the trauma unit from February 1, 2006–April 16, 2006. Measurements and Results Following web-based teaching modules and group in-services, bedside nurses evaluated patients daily for depth of sedation with the Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale (RASS) and for the presence of delirium with the CAM-ICU. On randomly assigned days over a 10-week period, evaluations by nursing staff were followed by evaluations by an expert evaluator of the RASS and the CAM-ICU, in order to assess compliance and reliability of the CAM-ICU in trauma patients. Following the audit period, the nurses completed a post-implementation survey. One thousand and eleven random CAM-ICU assessments were performed by the expert evaluator, within 1 hour of the bedside nurses’ assessments. Nurses completed the CAM-ICU assessments in 84% (849 of 1011) of evaluations. Overall agreement (κ) between nurses and the expert evaluator was 0.77 (0.721, 0.822; p<0.0001). In TBI patients κ was 0.75 (0.667, 0.829; p<0.0001), while in mechanically-ventilated patients κ was 0.62 (0.534, 0.704; p<0.0001). The survey revealed nurses were confident in performing the CAM-ICU, realized the importance of delirium, and were satisfied with the training they received. The survey also acknowledged obstacles to implementation including nursing time and failure of physicians/surgeons to address treatment approaches for delirium. Conclusions The CAM-ICU can be successfully implemented in a university-based trauma unit with high compliance and reliability. Quality improvement projects seeking to implement delirium monitoring would be wise to address potential pitfalls including time complaints and the negative impact of physician indifference regarding this form of organ dysfunction. PMID:18297270
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Pilot performance in zero-visibility precision approach. Ph.D. Thesis
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Ephrath, A. R.
1975-01-01
The pilot's short-term decisions regarding performance assessment and failure monitoring is examined. The performance of airline pilots who flew simulated zero-visibility landing approaches is reported. Results indicate that the pilot's mode of participation in the control task has a strong effect on his workload, the induced workload being lowest when the pilot acts as a monitor during a coupled approach and highest when the pilot is an active element in the control loop. A marked increase in workload at altitudes below 500 ft. is documented at all participation modes; this increase is inversely related to distance-to-go. The participation mode is shown to have a dominant effect on failure-detection performance, with a failure in a monitored (coupled) axis being detected faster than a comparable failure in a manually-controlled axis. Touchdown performance is also documented. It is concluded that the conventional instrument panel and its associated displays are inadequate for zero-visibility operations in the final phases of the landing approach.
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Pharmacokinetic monitoring of chronic treatment with digoxin from Primary Health Care.
García-Iranzo, Emma M; Rodríguez-Lucena, Francisco J; Matoses-Chirivella, Carmen; García-Monsalve, Ana; Murcia-López, Ana Cristina; Navarro-Ruiz, Andrés
2017-07-01
The serum digoxin concentration (SDC) should be between 0.8 and 2 ng/ml. The objective is to assess the pharmacokinetic monitoring of SDC performed from primary healthcare (PH) in patients with chronic treatment. Cross-sectional retrospective study of patients with chronic treatment with digoxin belonging to the department of a General University Hospital.Data were analized: age, sex, diagnosis, number of serum digoxin concentration determinations, date and origin of the request for monitoring, analytical result and pharmacokinetic assessment are collected. 624 patients are undergoing chronic treatment with digoxin, 68% women, mean age 78.4 (39-98) years. 308 (49.4%) patients haven't analytical determination of SDC (Group 1), 183 (29.3%) patients have a SDC occasionally performed with a request from specialist care (Group 2) and 133 (21,3%) patients have CSD performed with a request from primary healthcare doctors, with an average of 2.42 monitoring per patient and year (Group 3). These are those patients who have pharmacokinetic monitoring of chronic treatment with digoxin. Of the group 2.25 (13.6%) patientes were hospital admission from emergency department for presenting digitalis intoxication with CSD>2 ng/ml, and 39 (21.3%) patients for low dosing with CSD<0.5 ng/ml. Group 3.4 (3%) patients presented digitalis intoxication and 5 (3.8%) for insufficient dosing. A small proportion of patients undergoing chronic treatment with digoxin are under pharmacokinetic monitoring and a reduction in complications derived from inappropriate CSD compared to those not under pharmacokinetic follow-up is observed. Copyright AULA MEDICA EDICIONES 2014. Published by AULA MEDICA. All rights reserved.
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Influence of Point Count Length and Repeated Visits on Habitat Model Performance
Randy Dettmers; David A. Buehler; John G. Bartlett; Nathan A. Klaus
1999-01-01
Point counts are commonly used to monitor bird populations, and a substantial amount of research has investigated how conducting counts for different lengths of time affects the accuracy of these counts and the subsequent ability to monitor changes in population trends. However, little work has been done io assess how changes in count duration affect bird-habitat...
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Mitchell, Karen J.; Raye, Carol L.; McGuire, Joseph T.; Frankel, Hillary; Greene, Erich J.; Johnson, Marcia K.
2008-01-01
A short-term source monitoring procedure with functional magnetic resonance imaging assessed neural activity when participants made judgments about the format of 1 of 4 studied items (picture, word), the encoding task performed (cost, place), or whether an item was old or new. The results support findings from long-term memory studies showing that…
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Ambient air monitoring as part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (U.S. EPA’s) Clean Air Status and Trends Network (CASTNet) currently uses filter packs to measure weekly integrated concentrations. The U.S. EPA is interested in supplementing CASTNet with semi-continuou...
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Satisfaction monitoring for quality control in campground management
Wilbur F. LaPage; Malcolm I. Bevins
1981-01-01
A 4-year study of camper satisfaction indicates that satisfaction monitoring is a useful tool for campground managers to assess their performance and achieve a high level of quality control in their service to the public. An indication of camper satisfaction with campground management is gained from a report card on which a small sample of visitors rates 14 elements of...
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bean, Rita M.; And Others
The purpose of a project was to develop and test curriculum-based procedures and measures to monitor and assess the reading and writing progress of adults in a basic education program. The most efficient, reliable, and feasible measure of reading performance from beginning reading level through eighth-grade level was the repeated oral reading…
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Assessment of a head-mounted miniature monitor
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Hale, J. P., II
1992-01-01
Two experiments were conducted to assess the capabilities and limitations of the Private Eye, a miniature, head-mounted monitor. The first experiment compared the Private Eye with a cathode ray tube (CRT) and hard copy in both a constrained and unconstrained work envelope. The task was a simulated maintenance and assembly task that required frequent reference to the displayed information. A main effect of presentation media indicated faster placement times using the CRT as compared with hard copy. There were no significant differences between the Private Eye and either the CRT or hard copy for identification, placement, or total task times. The goal of the second experiment was to determine the effects of various local visual parameters on the ability of the user to accurately perceive the information of the Private Eye. The task was an interactive video game. No significant performance differences were found under either bright or dark ambient illumination environments nor with either visually simple or complex task backgrounds. Glare reflected off of the bezel surrounding the monitor did degrade performance. It was concluded that this head-mounted, miniature monitor could serve a useful role for in situ operations, especially in microgravity environments.
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Nichols, Will E.
In accordance with U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) requirements in DOE O 435.1 Chg 11 and DOE M 435.1-1 Chg 1,2 a determination of continued adequacy of the performance assessment (PA), composite analysis (CA), and disposal authorization statement (DAS) is required on an annual basis. This determination must consider the results of data collection and analysis from research, field studies, and monitoring.
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Monitoring Trends in Student Satisfaction
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Grebennikov, Leonid; Shah, Mahsood
2013-01-01
Over the last decade, the assessment of student experience has gained significant prominence in Australian higher education. Universities conduct internal surveys in order to identify which of their services students rate higher or lower on importance and performance. Thus, institutions can promote highly performing areas and work on those needing…
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The Association between Mild Traumatic Brain Injury History and Cognitive Control
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Pontifex, Matthew B.; O'Connor, Phillip M.; Broglio, Steven P.; Hillman, Charles H.
2009-01-01
The influence of multiple mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBIs) on neuroelectric and task performance indices of the cognitive control of action monitoring was assessed in individuals with and without a history of concussion. Participants completed a standard clinical neurocognitive assessment and the error-related negativity of the…
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Shaw, Robert E.; And Others
1997-01-01
Proposes a theoretical framework for designing online-situated assessment tools for multimedia instructional systems. Uses a graphic method based on ecological psychology to monitor student performance through a learning activity. Explores the method's feasibility in case studies describing instructional systems teaching critical-thinking and…
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PISA 2009 Assessment Framework: Key Competencies in Reading, Mathematics and Science
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Schleicher, Andreas; Zimmer, Karin; Evans, Juliet; Clements, Niccolina
2009-01-01
In response to the need for cross-nationally comparable evidence on student performance, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) launched the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 1997. PISA represents a commitment by governments to monitor the outcomes of education systems through measuring…
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In-flight spectral performance monitoring of the Airborne Prism Experiment.
D'Odorico, Petra; Alberti, Edoardo; Schaepman, Michael E
2010-06-01
Spectral performance of an airborne dispersive pushbroom imaging spectrometer cannot be assumed to be stable over a whole flight season given the environmental stresses present during flight. Spectral performance monitoring during flight is commonly accomplished by looking at selected absorption features present in the Sun, atmosphere, or ground, and their stability. The assessment of instrument performance in two different environments, e.g., laboratory and airborne, using precisely the same calibration reference, has not been possible so far. The Airborne Prism Experiment (APEX), an airborne dispersive pushbroom imaging spectrometer, uses an onboard in-flight characterization (IFC) facility, which makes it possible to monitor the sensor's performance in terms of spectral, radiometric, and geometric stability in flight and in the laboratory. We discuss in detail a new method for the monitoring of spectral instrument performance. The method relies on the monitoring of spectral shifts by comparing instrument-induced movements of absorption features on ground and in flight. Absorption lines originate from spectral filters, which intercept the full field of view (FOV) illuminated using an internal light source. A feature-fitting algorithm is used for the shift estimation based on Pearson's correlation coefficient. Environmental parameter monitoring, coregistered on board with the image and calibration data, revealed that differential pressure and temperature in the baffle compartment are the main driving parameters explaining the trend in spectral performance deviations in the time and the space (across-track) domains, respectively. The results presented in this paper show that the system in its current setup needs further improvements to reach a stable performance. Findings provided useful guidelines for the instrument revision currently under way. The main aim of the revision is the stabilization of the instrument for a range of temperature and pressure conditions to be encountered during operation.
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Hanford Internal Dosimetry Project manual. Revision 1
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Carbaugh, E.H.; Bihl, D.E.; MacLellan, J.A.
1994-07-01
This document describes the Hanford Internal Dosimetry Project, as it is administered by Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) in support of the US Department of Energy and its Hanford contractors. Project services include administrating the bioassay monitoring program, evaluating and documenting assessment of potential intakes and internal dose, ensuring that analytical laboratories conform to requirements, selecting and applying appropriate models and procedures for evaluating radionuclide deposition and the resulting dose, and technically guiding and supporting Hanford contractors in matters regarding internal dosimetry. Specific chapters deal with the following subjects: practices of the project, including interpretation of applicable DOE Orders, regulations, andmore » guidance into criteria for assessment, documentation, and reporting of doses; assessment of internal dose, including summary explanations of when and how assessments are performed; recording and reporting practices for internal dose; selection of workers for bioassay monitoring and establishment of type and frequency of bioassay measurements; capability and scheduling of bioassay monitoring services; recommended dosimetry response to potential internal exposure incidents; quality control and quality assurance provisions of the program.« less
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Lee, Seung Yup; Pakela, Julia M.; Hedrick, Taylor L.; Vishwanath, Karthik; Helton, Michael C.; Chung, Yooree; Kolodziejski, Noah J.; Stapels, Christopher J.; McAdams, Daniel R.; Fernandez, Daniel E.; Christian, James F.; O'Reilly, Jameson; Farkas, Dana; Ward, Brent B.; Feinberg, Stephen E.; Mycek, Mary-Ann
2017-02-01
In reconstructive surgery, tissue perfusion/vessel patency is critical to the success of microvascular free tissue flaps. Early detection of flap failure secondary to compromise of vascular perfusion would significantly increase the chances of flap salvage. We have developed a compact, clinically-compatible monitoring system to enable automated, minimally-invasive, continuous, and quantitative assessment of flap viability/perfusion. We tested the system's continuous monitoring capability during extended non-recovery surgery using an in vivo porcine free flap model. Initial results indicated that the system could assess flap viability/perfusion in a quantitative and continuous manner. With proven performance, the compact form constructed with cost-effective components would make this system suitable for clinical translation.
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The nursing perspective on monitoring hemodynamics and oxygen transport.
Tucker, Dawn; Hazinski, Mary Fran
2011-07-01
Maintenance of adequate systemic oxygen delivery requires careful clinical assessment integrated with hemodynamic measurements and calculations to detect and treat conditions that may compromise oxygen delivery and lead to life-threatening shock, respiratory failure, or cardiac arrest. The bedside nurse constantly performs such assessments and measurements to detect subtle changes and trends in patient condition. The purpose of this editorial is to highlight nursing perspectives about the hemodynamic and oxygen transport monitoring systems summarized in the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Society Evidence- Based Review and Consensus Statement on Monitoring of Hemodynamics and Oxygen Transport Balance. There is no substitute for the observations of a knowledgeable and experienced clinician who understands the patient's condition and potential causes of deterioration and is able to evaluate response to therapy.
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Tsao, Mei-Fen; Chang, Hui-Wen; Chang, Chien-Hsi; Cheng, Chi-Hsuan; Lin, Hsiu-Chen
2017-05-01
Neonatal hypoglycemia may cause severe neurological damages; therefore, tight glycemic control is crucial to identify neonate at risk. Previous blood glucose monitoring system (BGMS) failed to perform well in neonates; there are calls for the tightening of accuracy requirements. It remains a need for accurate BGMS for effective bedside diabetes management in neonatal care within a hospital population. A total of 300 neonates were recruited from local hospitals. Accuracy performance of a commercially available BGMS was evaluated against reference instrument in screening for neonatal hypoglycemia, and assessment was made based on the ISO15197:2013 and a tighter standard. At blood glucose level < 47 mg/dl, BGMS assessed met the minimal accuracy requirement of ISO 15197:2013 and tighter standard at 100% and 97.2%, respectively.
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A monitoring tool for performance improvement in plastic surgery at the individual level.
Maruthappu, Mahiben; Duclos, Antoine; Orgill, Dennis; Carty, Matthew J
2013-05-01
The assessment of performance in surgery is expanding significantly. Application of relevant frameworks to plastic surgery, however, has been limited. In this article, the authors present two robust graphic tools commonly used in other industries that may serve to monitor individual surgeon operative time while factoring in patient- and surgeon-specific elements. The authors reviewed performance data from all bilateral reduction mammaplasties performed at their institution by eight surgeons between 1995 and 2010. Operative time was used as a proxy for performance. Cumulative sum charts and exponentially weighted moving average charts were generated using a train-test analytic approach, and used to monitor surgical performance. Charts mapped crude, patient case-mix-adjusted, and case-mix and surgical-experience-adjusted performance. Operative time was found to decline from 182 minutes to 118 minutes with surgical experience (p < 0.001). Cumulative sum and exponentially weighted moving average charts were generated using 1995 to 2007 data (1053 procedures) and tested on 2008 to 2010 data (246 procedures). The sensitivity and accuracy of these charts were significantly improved by adjustment for case mix and surgeon experience. The consideration of patient- and surgeon-specific factors is essential for correct interpretation of performance in plastic surgery at the individual surgeon level. Cumulative sum and exponentially weighted moving average charts represent accurate methods of monitoring operative time to control and potentially improve surgeon performance over the course of a career.
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Helmet-Cam: tool for assessing miners’ respirable dust exposure
Cecala, A.B.; Reed, W.R.; Joy, G.J.; Westmoreland, S.C.; O’Brien, A.D.
2015-01-01
Video technology coupled with datalogging exposure monitors have been used to evaluate worker exposure to different types of contaminants. However, previous application of this technology used a stationary video camera to record the worker’s activity while the worker wore some type of contaminant monitor. These techniques are not applicable to mobile workers in the mining industry because of their need to move around the operation while performing their duties. The Helmet-Cam is a recently developed exposure assessment tool that integrates a person-wearable video recorder with a datalogging dust monitor. These are worn by the miner in a backpack, safety belt or safety vest to identify areas or job tasks of elevated exposure. After a miner performs his or her job while wearing the unit, the video and dust exposure data files are downloaded to a computer and then merged together through a NIOSH-developed computer software program called Enhanced Video Analysis of Dust Exposure (EVADE). By providing synchronized playback of the merged video footage and dust exposure data, the EVADE software allows for the assessment and identification of key work areas and processes, as well as work tasks that significantly impact a worker’s personal respirable dust exposure. The Helmet-Cam technology has been tested at a number of metal/nonmetal mining operations and has proven to be a valuable assessment tool. Mining companies wishing to use this technique can purchase a commercially available video camera and an instantaneous dust monitor to obtain the necessary data, and the NIOSH-developed EVADE software will be available for download at no cost on the NIOSH website. PMID:26380529
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Bueno Yáñez, Olga; Rodríguez Arrieta, Jimena; Bagüés Bafaluy, Miren I; Calvo Aguirre, Juan José
2015-01-01
Tackling the huge problem of Pressure Ulcers (PU), involves looking for new recording methods and strategies, as well as the standardization of the assessment and intervention criteria. In this context, a specific software application for PU management has been developed and was used for assessing its acceptability, usefulness and applicability by professional nurses from three residential homes for the elderly over a period of one year. A software application is designed and evaluated. This software application allows health professionals to: Manage and monitor PUs.; to determine the risk of PUs; and perform a nutritional status screen, based on a comprehensive data collection, processing and interpretation. It also allows health professionals to exchange data between themselves and at different care levels, which could provide a new approach based on the use of ICT as a tool for an agreement to shared care. This approach has an important journey ahead in terms of its assessment, to which we attempt to contribute through this article. Three centres and 69 residents are taking part in this project. During these processes, 27 nutritional status screens and 22 PU risk assessments, as well as the monitoring of 230 PUs have been performed. Nurses professionals think that the system is useful, easy to use, and perceive that it improves patient monitoring, but not relationship between professionals. Moreover, they would like to makethe web a more powerful part of the application and to speed up the procedures. Copyright © 2014 SEGG. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.
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Performance monitoring for brain-computer-interface actions.
Schurger, Aaron; Gale, Steven; Gozel, Olivia; Blanke, Olaf
2017-02-01
When presented with a difficult perceptual decision, human observers are able to make metacognitive judgements of subjective certainty. Such judgements can be made independently of and prior to any overt response to a sensory stimulus, presumably via internal monitoring. Retrospective judgements about one's own task performance, on the other hand, require first that the subject perform a task and thus could potentially be made based on motor processes, proprioceptive, and other sensory feedback rather than internal monitoring. With this dichotomy in mind, we set out to study performance monitoring using a brain-computer interface (BCI), with which subjects could voluntarily perform an action - moving a cursor on a computer screen - without any movement of the body, and thus without somatosensory feedback. Real-time visual feedback was available to subjects during training, but not during the experiment where the true final position of the cursor was only revealed after the subject had estimated where s/he thought it had ended up after 6s of BCI-based cursor control. During the first half of the experiment subjects based their assessments primarily on the prior probability of the end position of the cursor on previous trials. However, during the second half of the experiment subjects' judgements moved significantly closer to the true end position of the cursor, and away from the prior. This suggests that subjects can monitor task performance when the task is performed without overt movement of the body. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Bramesfeld, A; Stegbauer, C
2016-10-01
The World Health Organisation has defined health service responsiveness as one of the key-objectives of health systems. Health service responsiveness relates to the ability to respond to service users' legitimate expectations on non-medical issues when coming into contact with the services of a healthcare system. It is defined by the areas showing respect for persons and patient orientation. Health service responsiveness is particularly relevant to mental health services, due to the specific vulnerability of mental health patients but also because it matches what mental health patients consider as good quality of care as well as their priorities when seeking healthcare. As (mental) health service responsiveness applies equally to all concerned services it would be suitable as a universal indicator for the quality of services' performance. However, performance monitoring programs in mental healthcare rarely assess health service performance with respect to meeting patient priorities. This is in part due of patient priorities as an outcome being underrepresented in studies that evaluate service provision. The lack of studies using patient priorities as outcomes transmits into evidence based guidelines and subsequently, into underrepresentation of patient priorities in performance monitoring. Possible ways out of this situation include more intervention studies using patient priorities as outcome, considering evidence from qualitative studies in guideline development and developing performance monitoring programs along the patient pathway and on key-points of relevance for service quality from a patient perspective.
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Spectrally-Based Assessment of Crop Seasonal Performance and Yield
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Kancheva, Rumiana; Borisova, Denitsa; Georgiev, Georgy
The rapid advances of space technologies concern almost all scientific areas from aeronautics to medicine, and a wide range of application fields from communications to crop yield predictions. Agricultural monitoring is among the priorities of remote sensing observations for getting timely information on crop development. Monitoring agricultural fields during the growing season plays an important role in crop health assessment and stress detection provided that reliable data is obtained. Successfully spreading is the implementation of hyperspectral data to precision farming associated with plant growth and phenology monitoring, physiological state assessment, and yield prediction. In this paper, we investigated various spectral-biophysical relationships derived from in-situ reflectance measurements. The performance of spectral data for the assessment of agricultural crops condition and yield prediction was examined. The approach comprisesd development of regression models between plant spectral and state-indicative variables such as biomass, vegetation cover fraction, leaf area index, etc., and development of yield forecasting models from single-date (growth stage) and multitemporal (seasonal) reflectance data. Verification of spectral predictions was performed through comparison with estimations from biophysical relationships between crop growth variables. The study was carried out for spring barley and winter wheat. Visible and near-infrared reflectance data was acquired through the whole growing season accompanied by detailed datasets on plant phenology and canopy structural and biochemical attributes. Empirical relationships were derived relating crop agronomic variables and yield to various spectral predictors. The study findings were tested using airborne remote sensing inputs. A good correspondence was found between predicted and actual (ground-truth) estimates
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The Jackson Career Explorer: Correlates With Self-Monitoring and Social Desirability.
Schermer, Julie Aitken
2018-01-01
The Jackson Career Explorer (JCE) is a short form and continuous version of the Jackson Vocational Interest Survey measuring 34 vocational interest dimensions which can be reduced to seven factors (six vocational interest factors and one work style factor). Both the scales and factors were examined for possible significant correlations with social desirability and self-monitoring. Volunteer participants ( N = 779) aged 14 to 92 years completed the JCE, a social desirability scale, and a self-monitoring scale. Social desirability did not correlate significantly with the JCE scales and factors. Self-monitoring was found to correlate significantly with only a few of the JCE dimensions, including the performing arts, dominant leadership, and law scales as well as the business factor. Interestingly, the accountability JCE work style scale, which assesses a preference to work in an environment requiring high levels of honesty, had a significant negative correlation with self-monitoring. These results add to the validity of the JCE and add information to the area of vocational interest assessment.
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Assessment of hypoglycaemia awareness using continuous glucose monitoring.
Kubiak, T; Hermanns, N; Schreckling, H J; Kulzer, B; Haak, T
2004-05-01
To investigate the possibility of assessing hypoglycaemia awareness in patients with Type 1 diabetes using continuous glucose monitoring. Twenty patients with Type 1 diabetes were investigated. Ten patients with Type 1 diabetes and strongly impaired hypoglycaemia awareness were compared with 10 patients with intact hypoglycaemia awareness regarding quality of hypoglycaemia perception (number of undetected hypoglycaemic episodes per 24 h, glucose level < 3.3 mmol/l). Hypoglycaemia detection was assessed using the event function of the Continuous Glucose Monitoring System (CGMS; Medtronic MiniMed, Northridge, CA, USA). Patients were instructed to enter an event upon suspecting being hypoglycaemic. Satisfactory CGMS performance could be achieved [mean r = 0.893 between calibration measurements and CGMS data, mean absolute difference (MAD) = 20.6%], although artefacts were observable and had to be controlled. Hypoglycaemia unaware patients showed a significantly higher total number of hypoglycaemic episodes (P < 0.05), number of undetected hypoglycaemic episodes (P < 0.01), and mean glucose levels (P < 0.05). Even in aware patients, undetected hypoglycaemia was observable. No significant differences regarding occurrence of nocturnal hypoglycaemia were observable. The possibility of direct assessment of hypoglycaemia awareness using continuous glucose monitoring was demonstrated. Its application in clinical practice could be of use for assessing hypoglycaemia perception and evaluating the impact of treatment changes on hypoglycaemia awareness.
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Automated Clinical Assessment from Smart home-based Behavior Data
Dawadi, Prafulla Nath; Cook, Diane Joyce; Schmitter-Edgecombe, Maureen
2016-01-01
Smart home technologies offer potential benefits for assisting clinicians by automating health monitoring and well-being assessment. In this paper, we examine the actual benefits of smart home-based analysis by monitoring daily behaviour in the home and predicting standard clinical assessment scores of the residents. To accomplish this goal, we propose a Clinical Assessment using Activity Behavior (CAAB) approach to model a smart home resident’s daily behavior and predict the corresponding standard clinical assessment scores. CAAB uses statistical features that describe characteristics of a resident’s daily activity performance to train machine learning algorithms that predict the clinical assessment scores. We evaluate the performance of CAAB utilizing smart home sensor data collected from 18 smart homes over two years using prediction and classification-based experiments. In the prediction-based experiments, we obtain a statistically significant correlation (r = 0.72) between CAAB-predicted and clinician-provided cognitive assessment scores and a statistically significant correlation (r = 0.45) between CAAB-predicted and clinician-provided mobility scores. Similarly, for the classification-based experiments, we find CAAB has a classification accuracy of 72% while classifying cognitive assessment scores and 76% while classifying mobility scores. These prediction and classification results suggest that it is feasible to predict standard clinical scores using smart home sensor data and learning-based data analysis. PMID:26292348
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Guidelines for evaluating performance of oyster habitat restoration
Baggett, Lesley P.; Powers, Sean P.; Brumbaugh, Robert D.; Coen, Loren D.; DeAngelis, Bryan M.; Greene, Jennifer K.; Hancock, Boze T.; Morlock, Summer M.; Allen, Brian L.; Breitburg, Denise L.; Bushek, David; Grabowski, Jonathan H.; Grizzle, Raymond E.; Grosholz, Edwin D.; LaPeyre, Megan K.; Luckenbach, Mark W.; McGraw, Kay A.; Piehler, Michael F.; Westby, Stephanie R.; zu Ermgassen, Philine S. E.
2015-01-01
Restoration of degraded ecosystems is an important societal goal, yet inadequate monitoring and the absence of clear performance metrics are common criticisms of many habitat restoration projects. Funding limitations can prevent adequate monitoring, but we suggest that the lack of accepted metrics to address the diversity of restoration objectives also presents a serious challenge to the monitoring of restoration projects. A working group with experience in designing and monitoring oyster reef projects was used to develop standardized monitoring metrics, units, and performance criteria that would allow for comparison among restoration sites and projects of various construction types. A set of four universal metrics (reef areal dimensions, reef height, oyster density, and oyster size–frequency distribution) and a set of three universal environmental variables (water temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen) are recommended to be monitored for all oyster habitat restoration projects regardless of their goal(s). In addition, restoration goal-based metrics specific to four commonly cited ecosystem service-based restoration goals are recommended, along with an optional set of seven supplemental ancillary metrics that could provide information useful to the interpretation of prerestoration and postrestoration monitoring data. Widespread adoption of a common set of metrics with standardized techniques and units to assess well-defined goals not only allows practitioners to gauge the performance of their own projects but also allows for comparison among projects, which is both essential to the advancement of the field of oyster restoration and can provide new knowledge about the structure and ecological function of oyster reef ecosystems.
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2010-01-01
Permanent middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion (pMCAO) by electrocoagulation is a commonly used model but with potential traumatic lesions. Early MRI monitoring may assess pMCAO for non-specific brain damage. The surgical steps of pMCAO were evaluated for traumatic cerebral injury in 22 Swiss mice using diffusion and T2-weighted MRI (7T) performed within 1 h and 24 h after surgery. Temporal muscle cauterization without MCA occlusion produced an early T2 hyperintensity mimicking an infarct. No lesion was visible after temporal muscle incision or craniotomy. Early MRI monitoring is useful to identify non-specific brain injury that could hamper neuroprotective drugs assessment. PMID:20298536
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Omondi Aduda, Dickens S; Ouma, Collins; Onyango, Rosebella; Onyango, Mathews; Bertrand, Jane
2014-01-01
Considerable conceptual and operational complexities related to service quality measurements and variability in delivery contexts of scaled-up medical male circumcision, pose real challenges to monitoring implementation of quality and safety. Clarifying latent factors of the quality instruments can enhance contextual applicability and the likelihood that observed service outcomes are appropriately assessed. To explore factors underlying SYMMACS service quality assessment tool (adopted from the WHO VMMC quality toolkit) and; determine service quality performance using composite quality index derived from the latent factors. Using a comparative process evaluation of Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision Scale-Up in Kenya site level data was collected among health facilities providing VMMC over two years. Systematic Monitoring of the Medical Male Circumcision Scale-Up quality instrument was used to assess availability of guidelines, supplies and equipment, infection control, and continuity of care services. Exploratory factor analysis was performed to clarify quality structure. Fifty four items and 246 responses were analyzed. Based on Eigenvalue >1.00 cut-off, factors 1, 2 & 3 were retained each respectively having eigenvalues of 5.78; 4.29; 2.99. These cumulatively accounted for 29.1% of the total variance (12.9%; 9.5%; 6.7%) with final communality estimates being 13.06. Using a cut-off factor loading value of ≥0.4, fifteen items loading on factor 1, five on factor 2 and one on factor 3 were retained. Factor 1 closely relates to preparedness to deliver safe male circumcisions while factor two depicts skilled task performance and compliance with protocols. Of the 28 facilities, 32% attained between 90th and 95th percentile (excellent); 45% between 50th and 75th percentiles (average) and 14.3% below 25th percentile (poor). the service quality assessment instrument may be simplified to have nearly 20 items that relate more closely to service outcomes. Ranking of facilities and circumcision procedure using a composite index based on these items indicates that majority performed above average.
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Turkish Students' Science Performance and Related Factors in PISA 2006 and 2009
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Topçu, Mustafa Sami; Arikan, Serkan; Erbilgin, Evrim
2015-01-01
The OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) enables participating countries to monitor 15-year old students' progress in reading, mathematics, and science literacy. The present study investigates persistent factors that contribute to science performance of Turkish students in PISA 2006 and PISA 2009. Additionally, the study…
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Capacity for self-monitoring reading comprehension in Elementary School.
Bueno, Gabriela Juliane; Carvalho, Carolina Alves Ferreira; Ávila, Clara Regina Brandão de
2017-06-08
To investigate the capacity for self-monitoring reading comprehension in Brazilian Elementary School students. Fifty-three Elementary students in the 5th and 9th grades from two Public Schools in the city of São Paulo were assessed. They were selected based on their oral reading rate and grouped according to their performance in reading comprehension in the following categories: Group with best comprehension: students with adequate rate and accuracy, without difficulties in reading comprehension; Group with worst comprehension: students with adequate rate and accuracy but with difficulties in reading comprehension. Two narrative texts followed by eight questions to assess reading comprehension were presented. Two sentences and two words were replaced by ungrammatical elements and pseudo-words. Under the condition of spontaneous monitoring, students read the text aloud and answered the questions. The analysis considered the calculation of hesitation, self-correction, repetitions and mistakes. Under the condition of directed monitoring, students were instructed to read the text, either aloud or silently, after being told that certain parts of the text could not make sense, and they were oriented to underline such parts. The analysis was carried out by counting of underlined items. The comparisons were made with the Mann-Whitney test. A difference was observed between the groups only at the sentence level among the 9th grade schoolchildren under the spontaneous monitoring and among the 5th grade schoolchildren under directed monitoring. Students with worst comprehension had a poorer performance to monitor the presence of ungrammatical sentences than their peers with best comprehension.
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Lim, Hyun-ju; Chung, Myung Jin; Lee, Geewon; Yie, Miyeon; Shin, Kyung Eun; Moon, Jung Won; Lee, Kyung Soo
2013-01-01
To compare the diagnostic performance of light emitting diode (LED) backlight monitors and cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) monitors for the interpretation of digital chest radiographs. We selected 130 chest radiographs from health screening patients. The soft copy image data were randomly sorted and displayed on a 3.5 M LED (2560 × 1440 pixels) monitor and a 3 M CCFL (2048 × 1536 pixels) monitor. Eight radiologists rated their confidence in detecting nodules and abnormal interstitial lung markings (ILD). Low dose chest CT images were used as a reference standard. The performance of the monitor systems was assessed by analyzing 2080 observations and comparing them by multi-reader, multi-case receiver operating characteristic analysis. The observers reported visual fatigue and a sense of heat. Radiant heat and brightness of the monitors were measured. Measured brightness was 291 cd/m(2) for the LED and 354 cd/m(2) for the CCFL monitor. Area under curves for nodule detection were 0.721 ± 0.072 and 0.764 ± 0.098 for LED and CCFL (p = 0.173), whereas those for ILD were 0.871 ± 0.073 and 0.844 ± 0.068 (p = 0.145), respectively. There were no significant differences in interpretation time (p = 0.446) or fatigue score (p = 0.102) between the two monitors. Sense of heat was lower for the LED monitor (p = 0.024). The temperature elevation was 6.7℃ for LED and 12.4℃ for the CCFL monitor. Although the LED monitor had lower maximum brightness compared with the CCFL monitor, soft copy reading of the digital chest radiographs on LED and CCFL showed no difference in terms of diagnostic performance. In addition, LED emitted less heat.
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Living Labs: overview of ecological approaches for health promotion and rehabilitation.
Korman, M; Weiss, P L; Kizony, R
2016-01-01
The term "Living Lab" was coined to reflect the use of sensors to monitor human behavior in real life environments. Until recently such measurements had been feasible only within experimental laboratory settings. The objective of this paper is to highlight research on health care sensing and monitoring devices that enable direct, objective and accurate capture of real-world functioning. Selected articles exemplifying the key technologies that allow monitoring of the motor-cognitive activity of persons with disabilities during naturally occurring daily experiences in real-life settings are discussed in terms of (1) the ways in which the Living Lab approach has been used to date, (2) limitations related to clinical assessment in rehabilitation settings and (3) three categories of the instruments most commonly used for this purpose: personal technologies, ambient technologies and external assistive systems. Technology's most important influences on clinical practice and rehabilitation are in a shift from laboratory-based to field-centered research and a transition between in-clinic performance to daily life activities. Numerous applications show its potential for real-time clinical assessment. Current technological solutions that may provide clinicians with objective, unobtrusive measurements of health and function, as well as tools that support rehabilitation on an individual basis in natural environments provide an important asset to standard clinical measures. Until recently objective clinical assessment could not be readily performed in a client's daily functional environment. Novel technologies enable health care sensing and monitoring devices that enable direct, objective and accurate capture of real-world functioning. Such technologies are referred to as a "Living Lab" approach since they enable the capture of objective and non-obtrusive data that clinicians can use to assess performance. Research and development in this field help clinicians support maintain independence and quality of life for people who have disabilities or who are aging, and to promote more effective methods of long-term rehabilitation and maintenance of a healthy life style.
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Gonda-Kotani, Chiaki; White, Glen W
2017-01-01
This article examines the use of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to analyze the effect of contingent contracts and performance feedback in completing data entries to self-monitor community participation of people with mobility-related disabilities. Two participants with mobility-related disabilities were assigned to self-monitor their community participation activities using a personal digital assistant (PDA), which had been preprogrammed to signal four times a day throughout the entire study. At each prompt, participants were asked to complete a brief survey on a PDA. Participants received the monetary rewards based on their PDA completion rate. All participants maintained more than 95% completion and received the full monetary reward available.
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On the relevance of using open wireless sensor networks in environment monitoring.
Bagula, Antoine B; Inggs, Gordon; Scott, Simon; Zennaro, Marco
2009-01-01
This paper revisits the problem of the readiness for field deployments of wireless sensor networks by assessing the relevance of using Open Hardware and Software motes for environment monitoring. We propose a new prototype wireless sensor network that fine-tunes SquidBee motes to improve the life-time and sensing performance of an environment monitoring system that measures temperature, humidity and luminosity. Building upon two outdoor sensing scenarios, we evaluate the performance of the newly proposed energy-aware prototype solution in terms of link quality when expressed by the Received Signal Strength, Packet Loss and the battery lifetime. The experimental results reveal the relevance of using the Open Hardware and Software motes when setting up outdoor wireless sensor networks.
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Chandnani, Sonia R; Ramakrishna, C D; Dave, Bhargav A; Kothavade, Pankaj S; Thakkar, Ashok S
2017-05-01
The performance of Blood Glucose Monitoring System (BGMS) is critical as the information provided by the system guide the patient or health care professional in making treatment decisions. However, besides evaluating accuracy of the BGMS in laboratory setting, it is equally important that the intended users (healthcare professionals and patients) should be able to achieve blood glucose measurements with similar level of high accuracy. To assess the performance of EXIMO™ (Meril Diagnostics Pvt. Ltd., Vapi, Gujarat, India) BGMS as per International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 15197:2013 section 8 user performance criteria. This was a non-randomized and post-marketing study conducted at a tertiary care centre of India. A total of 1005 patients with diabetes themselves performed fingertip blood glucose measurement using EXIMO™ BGMS. Immediately after capillary blood glucose measurement using the blood glucose monitoring system, venous blood sample from each patient was obtained by a trained technician which was assessed by reference laboratory method- Cobas Integra 400 plus (Roche Instrument Centre, Rotkreuz, Switzerland). All the blood glucose measurements assessed by EXIMO™ were compared with laboratory results. Performance of the system was assessed as per ISO 15197:2013 criteria using Bland-Altman plot, Parkes-Consensus Error Grid (CEG) and Surveillance Error Grid analyses (SEG). A total of 1005 patients participated in the study. Average age of the patients was 44.93±14.65 years. Evaluation of capillary fingertip blood glucose measurements demonstrated that 95.82% measurements fulfilled ISO 15197:2013 section 8 user performance criteria. All the results lie within clinically non-critical zones; Zone A (99.47%; n=1000) and Zone B (0.53%; n=05) of the CEG analysis. As per SEG analysis, majority of the results fell within "no-risk" zone (risk score 0 to 0.5; 90.42%). The result of the study confirmed that intended users are able to obtain accurate glucose measurements when operating EXIMO™ BGMS, given only the instructions and training materials routinely provided with the system, in clinical practice.
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Chandnani, Sonia R.; Ramakrishna, C. D.; Dave, Bhargav A.; Kothavade, Pankaj S.
2017-01-01
Introduction The performance of Blood Glucose Monitoring System (BGMS) is critical as the information provided by the system guide the patient or health care professional in making treatment decisions. However, besides evaluating accuracy of the BGMS in laboratory setting, it is equally important that the intended users (healthcare professionals and patients) should be able to achieve blood glucose measurements with similar level of high accuracy. Aim To assess the performance of EXIMO™ (Meril Diagnostics Pvt. Ltd., Vapi, Gujarat, India) BGMS as per International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 15197:2013 section 8 user performance criteria. Materials and Methods This was a non-randomized and post-marketing study conducted at a tertiary care centre of India. A total of 1005 patients with diabetes themselves performed fingertip blood glucose measurement using EXIMO™ BGMS. Immediately after capillary blood glucose measurement using the blood glucose monitoring system, venous blood sample from each patient was obtained by a trained technician which was assessed by reference laboratory method- Cobas Integra 400 plus (Roche Instrument Centre, Rotkreuz, Switzerland). All the blood glucose measurements assessed by EXIMO™ were compared with laboratory results. Performance of the system was assessed as per ISO 15197:2013 criteria using Bland-Altman plot, Parkes-Consensus Error Grid (CEG) and Surveillance Error Grid analyses (SEG). Results A total of 1005 patients participated in the study. Average age of the patients was 44.93±14.65 years. Evaluation of capillary fingertip blood glucose measurements demonstrated that 95.82% measurements fulfilled ISO 15197:2013 section 8 user performance criteria. All the results lie within clinically non-critical zones; Zone A (99.47%; n=1000) and Zone B (0.53%; n=05) of the CEG analysis. As per SEG analysis, majority of the results fell within “no-risk” zone (risk score 0 to 0.5; 90.42%). Conclusion The result of the study confirmed that intended users are able to obtain accurate glucose measurements when operating EXIMO™ BGMS, given only the instructions and training materials routinely provided with the system, in clinical practice. PMID:28658800
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Nashville Solar-Water-Heater Demonstration Project. Monitoring-data analysis
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
1982-03-01
Field monitoring data which were collected for the Nashville Solar Water Heater Demonstration Project from September through November of 1981 are presented. Twenty-six solar domestic water heaters were monitored during September, 35 during October, and 37 during November. Homeowners were audited to assure adequate solar access, and each selected a solar water heating system from an approved list. Two tank and one tank systems are included. The monitoring sample technique and monitoring system are described. Data are analyzed by computer to produce daily and monthly total summaries for each site. The performance of each site was assessed to compare total energy saved by the solar system, solar system savings percentage, and the energy multiplier.
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Lessons Learned from Radioactive Waste Storage and Disposal Facilities
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Esh, David W.; Bradford, Anna H.
2008-01-15
The safety of radioactive waste disposal facilities and the decommissioning of complex sites may be predicated on the performance of engineered and natural barriers. For assessing the safety of a waste disposal facility or a decommissioned site, a performance assessment or similar analysis is often completed. The analysis is typically based on a site conceptual model that is developed from site characterization information, observations, and, in many cases, expert judgment. Because waste disposal facilities are sited, constructed, monitored, and maintained, a fair amount of data has been generated at a variety of sites in a variety of natural systems. Thismore » paper provides select examples of lessons learned from the observations developed from the monitoring of various radioactive waste facilities (storage and disposal), and discusses the implications for modeling of future waste disposal facilities that are yet to be constructed or for the development of dose assessments for the release of decommissioning sites. Monitoring has been and continues to be performed at a variety of different facilities for the disposal of radioactive waste. These include facilities for the disposal of commercial low-level waste (LLW), reprocessing wastes, and uranium mill tailings. Many of the lessons learned and problems encountered provide a unique opportunity to improve future designs of waste disposal facilities, to improve dose modeling for decommissioning sites, and to be proactive in identifying future problems. Typically, an initial conceptual model was developed and the siting and design of the disposal facility was based on the conceptual model. After facility construction and operation, monitoring data was collected and evaluated. In many cases the monitoring data did not comport with the original site conceptual model, leading to additional investigation and changes to the site conceptual model and modifications to the design of the facility. The following cases are discussed: commercial LLW disposal facilities; uranium mill tailings disposal facilities; and reprocessing waste storage and disposal facilities. The observations developed from the monitoring and maintenance of waste disposal and storage facilities provide valuable lessons learned for the design and modeling of future waste disposal facilities and the decommissioning of complex sites.« less
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Perkins, Casey J.; Brigantic, Robert T.; Keating, Douglas H.
There is a need to develop and demonstrate technical approaches for verifying potential future agreements to limit and reduce total warhead stockpiles. To facilitate this aim, warhead monitoring systems employ both concepts of operations (CONOPS) and technologies. A systems evaluation approach can be used to assess the relative performance of CONOPS and technologies in their ability to achieve monitoring system objectives which include: 1) confidence that a treaty accountable item (TAI) initialized by the monitoring system is as declared; 2) confidence that there is no undetected diversion from the monitoring system; and 3) confidence that a TAI is dismantled asmore » declared. Although there are many quantitative methods that can be used to assess system performance for the above objectives, this paper focuses on a simulation perspective primarily for the ability to support analysis of the probabilities that are used to define operating characteristics of CONOPS and technologies. This paper describes a discrete event simulation (DES) model, comprised of three major sub-models: including TAI lifecycle flow, monitoring activities, and declaration behavior. The DES model seeks to capture all processes and decision points associated with the progressions of virtual TAIs, with notional characteristics, through the monitoring system from initialization through dismantlement. The simulation updates TAI progression (i.e., whether the generated test objects are accepted and rejected at the appropriate points) all the way through dismantlement. Evaluation of TAI lifecycles primarily serves to assess how the order, frequency, and combination of functions in the CONOPS affect system performance as a whole. It is important, however, to note that discrete event simulation is also capable (at a basic level) of addressing vulnerabilities in the CONOPS and interdependencies between individual functions as well. This approach is beneficial because it does not rely on complex mathematical models, but instead attempts to recreate the real world system as a decision and event driven simulation. Finally, because the simulation addresses warhead confirmation, chain of custody, and warhead dismantlement in a modular fashion, a discrete-event model could be easily adapted to multiple CONOPS for the exploration of a large number of “what if” scenarios.« less
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Performance Assessment as a Diagnostic Tool for Science Teachers
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Kruit, Patricia; Oostdam, Ron; van den Berg, Ed; Schuitema, Jaap
2018-04-01
Information on students' development of science skills is essential for teachers to evaluate and improve their own education, as well as to provide adequate support and feedback to the learning process of individual students. The present study explores and discusses the use of performance assessments as a diagnostic tool for formative assessment to inform teachers and guide instruction of science skills in primary education. Three performance assessments were administered to more than 400 students in grades 5 and 6 of primary education. Students performed small experiments using real materials while following the different steps of the empirical cycle. The mutual relationship between the three performance assessments is examined to provide evidence for the value of performance assessments as useful tools for formative evaluation. Differences in response patterns are discussed, and the diagnostic value of performance assessments is illustrated with examples of individual student performances. Findings show that the performance assessments were difficult for grades 5 and 6 students but that much individual variation exists regarding the different steps of the empirical cycle. Evaluation of scores as well as a more substantive analysis of students' responses provided insight into typical errors that students make. It is concluded that performance assessments can be used as a diagnostic tool for monitoring students' skill performance as well as to support teachers in evaluating and improving their science lessons.
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Stabile, Luca; Cauda, Emanuele; Marini, Sara; Buonanno, Giorgio
2014-08-01
Adverse health effects caused by worker exposure to ultrafine particles have been detected in recent years. The scientific community focuses on the assessment of ultrafine aerosols in different microenvironments in order to determine the related worker exposure/dose levels. To this end, particle size distribution measurements have to be taken along with total particle number concentrations. The latter are obtainable through hand-held monitors. A portable particle size distribution analyzer (Nanoscan SMPS 3910, TSI Inc.) was recently commercialized, but so far no metrological assessment has been performed to characterize its performance with respect to well-established laboratory-based instruments such as the scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) spectrometer. The present paper compares the aerosol monitoring capability of the Nanoscan SMPS to the laboratory SMPS in order to evaluate whether the Nanoscan SMPS is suitable for field experiments designed to characterize particle exposure in different microenvironments. Tests were performed both in a Marple calm air chamber, where fresh diesel particulate matter and atomized dioctyl phthalate particles were monitored, and in microenvironments, where outdoor, urban, indoor aged, and indoor fresh aerosols were measured. Results show that the Nanoscan SMPS is able to properly measure the particle size distribution for each type of aerosol investigated, but it overestimates the total particle number concentration in the case of fresh aerosols. In particular, the test performed in the Marple chamber showed total concentrations up to twice those measured by the laboratory SMPS-likely because of the inability of the Nanoscan SMPS unipolar charger to properly charge aerosols made up of aggregated particles. Based on these findings, when field test exposure studies are conducted, the Nanoscan SMPS should be used in tandem with a condensation particle counter in order to verify and correct the particle size distribution data. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Occupational Hygiene Society 2014.
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Villas-Boas, Mariana D; Olivera, Francisco; de Azevedo, Jose Paulo S
2017-09-01
Water quality monitoring is a complex issue that requires support tools in order to provide information for water resource management. Budget constraints as well as an inadequate water quality network design call for the development of evaluation tools to provide efficient water quality monitoring. For this purpose, a nonlinear principal component analysis (NLPCA) based on an autoassociative neural network was performed to assess the redundancy of the parameters and monitoring locations of the water quality network in the Piabanha River watershed. Oftentimes, a small number of variables contain the most relevant information, while the others add little or no interpretation to the variability of water quality. Principal component analysis (PCA) is widely used for this purpose. However, conventional PCA is not able to capture the nonlinearities of water quality data, while neural networks can represent those nonlinear relationships. The results presented in this work demonstrate that NLPCA performs better than PCA in the reconstruction of the water quality data of Piabanha watershed, explaining most of data variance. From the results of NLPCA, the most relevant water quality parameter is fecal coliforms (FCs) and the least relevant is chemical oxygen demand (COD). Regarding the monitoring locations, the most relevant is Poço Tarzan (PT) and the least is Parque Petrópolis (PP).
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Optimizing Monitoring Designs under Alternative Objectives
Gastelum, Jason A.; USA, Richland Washington; Porter, Ellen A.; ...
2014-12-31
This paper describes an approach to identify monitoring designs that optimize detection of CO2 leakage from a carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) reservoir and compares the results generated under two alternative objective functions. The first objective function minimizes the expected time to first detection of CO2 leakage, the second more conservative objective function minimizes the maximum time to leakage detection across the set of realizations. The approach applies a simulated annealing algorithm that searches the solution space by iteratively mutating the incumbent monitoring design. The approach takes into account uncertainty by evaluating the performance of potential monitoring designs across amore » set of simulated leakage realizations. The approach relies on a flexible two-tiered signature to infer that CO2 leakage has occurred. This research is part of the National Risk Assessment Partnership, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) project tasked with conducting risk and uncertainty analysis in the areas of reservoir performance, natural leakage pathways, wellbore integrity, groundwater protection, monitoring, and systems level modeling.« less
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Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
2011-05-04
... as of June 30 of the relevant year to monitor trends on an annual basis. To continue our time-series... video programming? 24. MVPD Performance. We seek comment on the information and time- series data we... Television Performance. We seek information and time- series data for the analysis of various performance...
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Diagnostic Efficiency of easyCBM[R] Math: Oregon. Technical Report #1009
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Anderson, Daniel; Alonzo, Julie; Tindal, Gerald
2010-01-01
The easyCBM[R] assessment system is an online benchmark and progress monitoring assessment system designed for use within a response to intervention framework. Educators using easyCBM[R] are often interested in using the results to predict students' state test performance. In the following technical document, we report diagnostic efficiency…
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Issues with Self-Monitoring Assessments: Comments on Koretz and Beguin (2010)
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sinharay, Sandip; Haberman, Shelby J.; Zwick, Rebecca
2010-01-01
Several researchers (e.g., Klein, Hamilton, McCaffrey, & Stecher, 2000; Koretz & Barron, 1998; Linn, 2000) have asserted that test-based accountability, a crucial component of U.S. education policy, has resulted in score inflation. This inference has relied on comparisons with performance on other tests such as the National Assessment of…
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An investigation of the concentrations of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from an air quality model and observations at monitoring sites was performed to assess the changes in NOx levels attributable to changes in mobile emissions. This evaluation effort focused on weekday morning rush hou...
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Installation Flightline Fence Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI)
2003-07-28
Georgia Street,Moody AFB, GA ,31699 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER 9. SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 10. SPONSOR...Environmental Protection Committee Finding of No Sign~ficant Impact Installation Flightline Fence Moody Air Force Base, GA Environmental Assessment...Water Resources/Wetlands - Compliance Resources Moody Air Force Base, GA Environmental Assessment
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The Use of Personal Data Assistants in Early Childhood Assessment
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ledoux, Michael W.; Yoder, Noreen N.; Hanes, Barbara
2010-01-01
Four early childhood education teachers, two veteran and two newer teachers, were asked to pilot the use of handheld Personal Data Assistants loaded with Childchart assessment software. The participants were observed in their use of the electronic devices for monitoring student performance and interviewed regarding the use of the devices and their…
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Detection of Abnormal Muscle Activations during Walking Following Spinal Cord Injury (SCI)
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wang, Ping; Low, K. H.; McGregor, Alison H.; Tow, Adela
2013-01-01
In order to identify optimal rehabilitation strategies for spinal cord injury (SCI) participants, assessment of impaired walking is required to detect, monitor and quantify movement disorders. In the proposed assessment, ten healthy and seven SCI participants were recruited to perform an over-ground walking test at slow walking speeds. SCI…
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Performance of vegetation indices from Landsat time series in deforestation monitoring
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Schultz, Michael; Clevers, Jan G. P. W.; Carter, Sarah; Verbesselt, Jan; Avitabile, Valerio; Quang, Hien Vu; Herold, Martin
2016-10-01
The performance of Landsat time series (LTS) of eight vegetation indices (VIs) was assessed for monitoring deforestation across the tropics. Three sites were selected based on differing remote sensing observation frequencies, deforestation drivers and environmental factors. The LTS of each VI was analysed using the Breaks For Additive Season and Trend (BFAST) Monitor method to identify deforestation. A robust reference database was used to evaluate the performance regarding spatial accuracy, sensitivity to observation frequency and combined use of multiple VIs. The canopy cover sensitive Normalized Difference Fraction Index (NDFI) was the most accurate. Among those tested, wetness related VIs (Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI) and the Tasselled Cap wetness (TCw)) were spatially more accurate than greenness related VIs (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Tasselled Cap greenness (TCg)). When VIs were fused on feature level, spatial accuracy was improved and overestimation of change reduced. NDVI and NDFI produced the most robust results when observation frequency varies.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Adinolfi, M.; Archilli, F.; Baldini, W.; Baranov, A.; Derkach, D.; Panin, A.; Pearce, A.; Ustyuzhanin, A.
2017-10-01
Data quality monitoring, DQM, is crucial in a high-energy physics experiment to ensure the correct functioning of the experimental apparatus during the data taking. DQM at LHCb is carried out in two phases. The first one is performed on-site, in real time, using unprocessed data directly from the LHCb detector, while the second, also performed on-site, requires the reconstruction of the data selected by the LHCb trigger system and occurs later. For the LHC Run II data taking the LHCb collaboration has re-engineered the DQM protocols and the DQM graphical interface, moving the latter to a web-based monitoring system, called Monet, thus allowing researchers to perform the second phase off-site. In order to support the operator’s task, Monet is also equipped with an automated, fully configurable alarm system, thus allowing its use not only for DQM purposes, but also to track and assess the quality of LHCb software and simulation over time.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Meier, A. J. Louise; Rensen, Wouter H. J.; de Bokx, Pieter K.; de Nijs, Ron N. J.
2012-08-01
Frequent monitoring of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients enables timely treatment adjustments and improved outcomes. Currently this is not feasible due to a shortage of rheumatologists. An optical spectral transmission device is presented for objective assessment of joint inflammation in RA patients, while improving diagnostic accuracy and clinical workflow. A cross-sectional, nonrandomized observational study was performed with this device. In the study, 77 proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joints in 67 patients have been analyzed. Inflammation of these PIP joints was also assessed by a rheumatologist with a score varying from 1 (not inflamed) to 5 (severely inflamed). Out of 77 measurements, 27 were performed in moderate to strongly inflamed PIP joints. Comparison between the clinical assessment and an optical measurement showed a correlation coefficient r=0.63, p<0.001, 95% CI [0.47, 0.75], and a ROC curve (AUC=0.88) that shows a relative good specificity and sensitivity. Optical spectral transmission measurements in a single joint correlate with clinical assessment of joint inflammation, and therefore might be useful in monitoring joint inflammation in RA patients.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Bezawada, Rajesh; Uijt de Haag, Maarten
2010-04-01
This paper discusses the results of an initial evaluation study of hazard and integrity monitor functions for use with integrated alerting and notification. The Hazard and Integrity Monitor (HIM) (i) allocates information sources within the Integrated Intelligent Flight Deck (IIFD) to required functionality (like conflict detection and avoidance) and determines required performance of these information sources as part of that function; (ii) monitors or evaluates the required performance of the individual information sources and performs consistency checks among various information sources; (iii) integrates the information to establish tracks of potential hazards that can be used for the conflict probes or conflict prediction for various time horizons including the 10, 5, 3, and <3 minutes used in our scenario; (iv) detects and assesses the class of the hazard and provide possible resolutions. The HIM monitors the operation-dependent performance parameters related to the potential hazards in a manner similar to the Required Navigation Performance (RNP). Various HIM concepts have been implemented and evaluated using a previously developed sensor simulator/synthesizer. Within the simulation framework, various inputs to the IIFD and its subsystems are simulated, synthesized from actual collected data, or played back from actual flight test sensor data. The framework and HIM functions are implemented in SimulinkR, a modeling language developed by The MathworksTM. This modeling language allows for test and evaluation of various sensor and communication link configurations as well as the inclusion of feedback from the pilot on the performance of the aircraft.
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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.
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Stergiou, George S; Nasothimiou, Efthimia G; Destounis, Antonios; Poulidakis, Emanouel; Evagelou, Irini; Tzamouranis, Dimitrios
2012-09-01
A unique advantage of ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) monitoring is the assessment of nocturnal blood pressure (BP) and the detection of non-dippers. This study assessed nocturnal BP and non-dippers using a novel home BP (HBP) monitor. Eighty-one hypertensives performed within 2 weeks ABP (24-h, Microlife WatchBP O3) and HBP monitoring (Microlife WatchBPN) during daytime (6 days, duplicate morning and evening measurements) and nighttime (automated asleep measurements, 3 nights, 3 readings/night). Patients' preference in using ABP or HBP was assessed by a questionnaire. Strong associations were found between ABP and HBP (intraclass correlation coefficients for awake systolic/diastolic 0.75/0.81; asleep 0.87/0.85). No statistically significant difference was found between HBP and ABP (mean difference ± SD awake systolic/diastolic 1.5 ± 10.1/-1.1 ± 6.0 mm Hg, P = 0.20/0.09; asleep -0.4 ± 7.8/-1.0 ± 5.3, P = 0.63/0.09). There was substantial agreement (74%, kappa 0.2) between ABP and HBP in the detection of non-dippers, which was similar to the previously reported test-retest reproducibility of repeated ABP monitoring in the diagnosis of non-dippers. Moderate to severe disturbance from ABP monitoring was reported by 18% of the participants and severe restriction of their daily activities by 9, vs. 3 and 1.5%, respectively for HBP (P < 0.001/ <0.01, for comparisons respectively). Nighttime BP monitoring and cuff discomfort were the main complaints for ABP (46 and 32%, respectively) and HBP (34 and 28%), whereas 89% reported more nighttime sleep disturbance by ABP than HBP (P < 0.001). HBP monitoring appears to be a reliable and well accepted by users alternative to ABP for the assessment of nocturnal BP and the detection of non-dippers.
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High Endoatmospheric Defense Interceptor (HEDI) Technology Testing Program Environmental Assessment
1989-05-31
FICATION I DOWNGRADING SCHEDULE UNLIMITED 4. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER( S ) S . MONITORING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER( S ) 6a. NAME OF...Technology Testing Program Environmental Asessment (U’. 12. PERSONAL AUTHOR( S ) HEDI Environmental Assessment Team, Mr. Dru Barrineau, Chairman. 13a...was the application of assessment criteria to identify test activities deemed to present no S -1 potential for significant environmental consequences
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Salvador, Renato; Pesenti, Elisa; Gobbi, Laura; Capovilla, Giovanni; Spadotto, Lorenzo; Voltarel, Guerrino; Cavallin, Francesco; Nicoletti, Loredana; Valmasoni, Michele; Ruol, Alberto; Merigliano, Stefano; Costantini, Mario
2017-01-01
The most common complication after laparoscopic Heller-Dor (LHD) is gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). The present study aimed (a) to analyze the true incidence of postoperative reflux by objectively assessing a large group of LHD patients and (b) to see whether the presence of typical GERD symptoms correlates with the real incidence of postoperative reflux. After LHD, patients were assessed by means of a symptom score, endoscopy, esophageal manometry, and 24-h pH monitoring. Patients were assigned to three groups: those did not accept to perform 24-h pH monitoring (group NP); those with normal postoperative pH findings (group A); and those with pathological postoperative acid exposure (group B). Four hundred sixty-three of the 806 LHD patients agreed to undergo follow-up 24-h pH monitoring. Normal pH findings were seen in 423 patients (group A, 91.4 %), while 40 (8.6 %) had a pathological acid exposure (group B). The median symptom scores were similar: 3.0 (IQR 0-8) in group A and 6.0 (IQR 0-10) in group B (p = 0.29). At endoscopy, the percentage of esophagitis was also similar (11 % in group A, 19 % in group B; p = 0.28). This study demonstrated that, after LHD was performed by experienced surgeons, the true incidence of postoperative GERD is very low. The incidence of this possible complication should be assessed by pH monitoring because endoscopic findings and symptoms may be misleading.
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Embedded assessment algorithms within home-based cognitive computer game exercises for elders.
Jimison, Holly; Pavel, Misha
2006-01-01
With the recent consumer interest in computer-based activities designed to improve cognitive performance, there is a growing need for scientific assessment algorithms to validate the potential contributions of cognitive exercises. In this paper, we present a novel methodology for incorporating dynamic cognitive assessment algorithms within computer games designed to enhance cognitive performance. We describe how this approach works for variety of computer applications and describe cognitive monitoring results for one of the computer game exercises. The real-time cognitive assessments also provide a control signal for adapting the difficulty of the game exercises and providing tailored help for elders of varying abilities.
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Automated Cognitive Health Assessment From Smart Home-Based Behavior Data.
Dawadi, Prafulla Nath; Cook, Diane Joyce; Schmitter-Edgecombe, Maureen
2016-07-01
Smart home technologies offer potential benefits for assisting clinicians by automating health monitoring and well-being assessment. In this paper, we examine the actual benefits of smart home-based analysis by monitoring daily behavior in the home and predicting clinical scores of the residents. To accomplish this goal, we propose a clinical assessment using activity behavior (CAAB) approach to model a smart home resident's daily behavior and predict the corresponding clinical scores. CAAB uses statistical features that describe characteristics of a resident's daily activity performance to train machine learning algorithms that predict the clinical scores. We evaluate the performance of CAAB utilizing smart home sensor data collected from 18 smart homes over two years. We obtain a statistically significant correlation ( r=0.72) between CAAB-predicted and clinician-provided cognitive scores and a statistically significant correlation ( r=0.45) between CAAB-predicted and clinician-provided mobility scores. These prediction results suggest that it is feasible to predict clinical scores using smart home sensor data and learning-based data analysis.
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Welch, J P; Sims, N; Ford-Carlton, P; Moon, J B; West, K; Honore, G; Colquitt, N
1991-01-01
The article describes a study conducted on general surgical and thoracic surgical floors of a 1000-bed hospital to assess the impact of a new network for portable patient care devices. This network was developed to address the needs of hospital patients who need constant, multi-parameter, vital signs surveillance, but do not require intensive nursing care. Bedside wall jacks were linked to UNIX-based workstations using standard digital network hardware, creating a flexible system (for general care floors of the hospital) that allowed the number of monitored locations to increase and decrease as patient census and acuity levels varied. It also allowed the general care floors to provide immediate, centralized vital signs monitoring for patients who unexpectedly became unstable, and permitted portable monitors to travel with patients as they were transferred between hospital departments. A disk-based log within the workstation automatically collected performance data, including patient demographics, monitor alarms, and network status for analysis. The log has allowed the developers to evaluate the use and performance of the system.
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Wafer level reliability for high-performance VLSI design
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Root, Bryan J.; Seefeldt, James D.
1987-01-01
As very large scale integration architecture requires higher package density, reliability of these devices has approached a critical level. Previous processing techniques allowed a large window for varying reliability. However, as scaling and higher current densities push reliability to its limit, tighter control and instant feedback becomes critical. Several test structures developed to monitor reliability at the wafer level are described. For example, a test structure was developed to monitor metal integrity in seconds as opposed to weeks or months for conventional testing. Another structure monitors mobile ion contamination at critical steps in the process. Thus the reliability jeopardy can be assessed during fabrication preventing defective devices from ever being placed in the field. Most importantly, the reliability can be assessed on each wafer as opposed to an occasional sample.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Nascimento, Micael; Ferreira, Marta S.; Pinto, João. L.
2017-08-01
In this work, an optical fiber sensing network has been developed to assess the impact of different environmental conditions on lithium batteries performance through the real time thermal monitoring. The battery is submitted to constant current charge and different discharge C-rates, under normal and abusive operating conditions. The results show that for the discharge C-rate of 5.77C, the LiB under cold and dry climates had 32.5% and 27.2% lower temperature variations, when compared with temperate climates, respectively. The higher temperature shift detected in the temperate climate was related to the battery better performance regarding discharge capacity and power capabilities.
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Chadwick, R G; McCabe, J F; Walls, A W; Mitchell, H L; Storer, R
1991-02-01
This paper describes monitoring the wear of restorations borne by partial dentures over a 12 months period using a novel photogrammetric technique and modified United States Public Health Service (USPHS) criteria. The performance of Class II restorations of Dispersalloy was compared with that of similar restorations of either KetacFil or Occlusin. The photogrammetric technique highlighted differences in performance not detected by the modified USPHS criteria. It is concluded that the photogrammetric technique should prove valuable in the in vivo assessment of the performance of restorative materials but that further refinement of the method is required particularly with regard to the orientation of replicas for sequential measurements.
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Systematic monitoring and evaluation of M7 scanner performance and data quality
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Stewart, S.; Christenson, D.; Larsen, L.
1974-01-01
An investigation was conducted to provide the information required to maintain data quality of the Michigan M7 Multispectral scanner by systematic checks on specific system performance characteristics. Data processing techniques which use calibration data gathered routinely every mission have been developed to assess current data quality. Significant changes from past data quality are thus identified and attempts made to discover their causes. Procedures for systematic monitoring of scanner data quality are discussed. In the solar reflective region, calculations of Noise Equivalent Change in Radiance on a permission basis are compared to theoretical tape-recorder limits to provide an estimate of overall scanner performance. M7 signal/noise characteristics are examined.
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DeVries, Aaron; Talley, Pamela; Sweet, Kristin; Kline, Susan; Stinchfield, Patricia; Tosh, Pritish; Danila, Richard
2016-01-01
In October 2014, the United States began actively monitoring all persons who had traveled from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone in the previous 21 days. State public health departments were responsible for monitoring all travelers; Minnesota has the largest Liberian population in the United States. The MDH Ebola Clinical Team (ECT) was established to assess travelers with symptoms of concern for Ebola virus disease (EVD), coordinate access to healthcare at appropriate facilities including Ebola Assessment and Treatment Units (EATU), and provide guidance to clinicians. Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) began receiving traveler information collected by U.S. Customs and Border Control and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff on October 21, 2014 via encrypted electronic communication. All travelers returning from Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea during 10/21/14-5/15/15 were monitored by MDH staff in the manner recommended by CDC based on the traveler's risk categorization as "low (but not zero)", "some" and "high" risk. When a traveler reported symptoms or a temperature ≥100.4° F at any time during their 21-day monitoring period, an ECT member would speak to the traveler and perform a clinical assessment by telephone or via video-chat. Based on the assessment the ECT member would recommend 1) continued clinical monitoring while at home with frequent telephone follow-up by the ECT member, 2) outpatient clinical evaluation at an outpatient site agreed upon by all parties, or 3) inpatient clinical evaluation at one of four Minnesota EATUs. ECT members assessed and approved testing for Ebola virus infection at MDH. Traveler data, calls to the ECT and clinical outcomes were logged on a secure server at MDH. During 10/21/14-5/15/15, a total of 783 travelers were monitored; 729 (93%) traveled from Liberia, 30 (4%) Sierra Leone, and 24 (3%) Guinea. The median number monitored per week was 59 (range 45-143). The median age was 35 years; 136 (17%) were aged <18 years. Thirteen of 256 women of reproductive age (5%) were pregnant. The country of passport issuance was known for 720 of the travelers. The majority of monitored travelers (478 [66%]) used a non-U.S. passport including 442 (61%) Liberian nationals. A total of 772 (99%) travelers were "low (but not zero)" risk; 11 (1%) were "some" risk. Among monitored travelers, 43 (5%) experienced illness symptoms; 29 (67%) had a symptom consistent with EVD. Two were tested for Ebola virus disease and had negative results. Most frequently reported symptoms were fever (20/43, 47%) and abdominal pain (12/43, 28%). During evaluation, 16 (37%) of 43 travelers reported their symptoms began prior to travel; chronic health conditions in 24 travelers including tumors/cancer, pregnancy, and orthopedic conditions were most common. Infectious causes in 19 travelers included upper respiratory infection, malaria, and gastrointestinal infections. Prior to 2014, no similar active monitoring program for travelers had been performed in Minnesota; assessment and management of symptomatic travelers was a new activity for MDH. Ensuring safe entrance into healthcare was particularly challenging for children, and pregnant women, as well as those without an established connection to healthcare. Unnecessary inpatient evaluations were successfully avoided by close clinical follow-up by phone. Before similar monitoring programs are considered in the future, careful thought must be given to necessary resources and the impact on affected populations, public health, and the healthcare system.
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2006-12-01
COL Timothy A Mitchener, DC USA 5e. TASK NUMBER 6. AUTHOR( S ) 5f. WORK UNIT NUMBER 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME( S ) AND ADDRESS(ES) 8...SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY NAME( S ) AND 10. SPONSOR/MONITOR’S ACRONYM( S ) ADDRESS(ES) 11. SPONSOR/MONITOR’S REPORT NUMBER( S ) 12. DISTRIBUTION/AVAILABILITY...NATO) Standardization Agreement (STANAG), 5th edition, coding scheme. (See P.J. Amoroso, G.S. Smith, and N.S. Bell : Qualitative assessment of cause
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Smart Sensors Assess Structural Health
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
2010-01-01
NASA frequently inspects launch vehicles, fuel tanks, and other components for structural damage. To perform quick evaluation and monitoring, the Agency pursues the development of structural health monitoring systems. In 2001, Acellent Technologies Inc., of Sunnyvale, California, received Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding from Marshall Space Flight Center to develop a hybrid Stanford Multi-Actuator Receiver Transduction (SMART) Layer for aerospace vehicles and structures. As a result, Acellent expanded the technology's capability and now sells it to aerospace and automotive companies; construction, energy, and utility companies; and the defense, space, transportation, and energy industries for structural condition monitoring, damage detection, crack growth monitoring, and other applications.
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Scanner baseliner monitoring and control in high volume manufacturing
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Samudrala, Pavan; Chung, Woong Jae; Aung, Nyan; Subramany, Lokesh; Gao, Haiyong; Gomez, Juan-Manuel
2016-03-01
We analyze performance of different customized models on baseliner overlay data and demonstrate the reduction in overlay residuals by ~10%. Smart Sampling sets were assessed and compared with the full wafer measurements. We found that performance of the grid can still be maintained by going to one-third of total sampling points, while reducing metrology time by 60%. We also demonstrate the feasibility of achieving time to time matching using scanner fleet manager and thus identify the tool drifts even when the tool monitoring controls are within spec limits. We also explore the scanner feedback constant variation with illumination sources.
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Tapia-Conyer, Roberto; Lyford, Shelley; Saucedo, Rodrigo; Casale, Michael; Gallardo, Hector; Becerra, Karen; Mack, Jonathan; Mujica, Ricardo; Estrada, Daniel; Sanchez, Antonio; Sabido, Ramon; Meier, Carlos; Smith, Joseph
2015-01-01
Background. Fetal and neonatal morbidity and mortality are significant problems in developing countries; remote maternal-fetal monitoring offers promise in addressing this challenge. The Gary and Mary West Health Institute and the Instituto Carlos Slim de la Salud conducted a demonstration project of wirelessly enabled antepartum maternal-fetal monitoring in the state of Yucatán, Mexico, to assess whether there were any fundamental barriers preventing deployment and use. Methods. Following informed consent, high-risk pregnant women at 27–29 weeks of gestation at the Chemax primary clinic participated in remote maternal-fetal monitoring. Study participants were randomized to receive either prototype wireless monitoring or standard-of-care. Feasibility was evaluated by assessing technical aspects of performance, adherence to monitoring appointments, and response to recommendations. Results. Data were collected from 153 high-risk pregnant indigenous Mayan women receiving either remote monitoring (n = 74) or usual standard-of-care (n = 79). Remote monitoring resulted in markedly increased adherence (94.3% versus 45.1%). Health outcomes were not statistically different in the two groups. Conclusions. Remote maternal-fetal monitoring is feasible in resource-constrained environments and can improve maternal compliance for monitoring sessions. Improvement in maternal-fetal health outcomes requires integration of such technology into sociocultural context and addressing logistical challenges of access to appropriate emergency services. PMID:25691900
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Manimaran, S; Jayakumar, S; Lakshmi, K Bhagya
2016-11-14
Education Management Information System (EMIS) is a widely acceptable and developing technology within the Information Technology field. The advancement in technology in this century is being collaborated with scientific invention or explorer and information strengthening or development. This paper presents the results and experiences gained from applying students oriented EMIS for monitoring and managing mental health. The Mental Health of students depends on the acquiring adequate knowledge on basic concepts within a time period or academic schedule. It's obviously significance to evaluate and appraise the stress stimulators as a challenge or threat. The theoretical framework for the study was designed for analyzing the stress stimulators, academic performance and EMIS accessibility. The sample examined in this study was stratified random sample from 75 students specifically all engineering college in Dindigul District of Tamilnadu. The primary factor is the academic stress stimulators that form one module of EMIS for each of the key variable such as curriculum & instruction related stressors, placement related, teamwork related and assessment related. The Mental Health related stress stimulators namely curriculum & syllabus, placement related, assessment related and team work related have a significant influence on academic performance by students in various institution. The important factor leading to the EMIS application in monitoring stress stimulators is curriculum & syllabus related and assessment related.
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Bohachek, Randolph Charles
2015-09-01
The Advanced Test Reactor (ATR; TRA-670), which is located in the ATR Complex at Idaho National Laboratory, was constructed in the 1960s for the purpose of irradiating reactor fuels and materials. Other irradiation services, such as radioisotope production, are also performed at ATR. While ATR is safely fulfilling current mission requirements, assessments are continuing. These assessments intend to identify areas to provide defense–in-depth and improve safety for ATR. One of the assessments performed by an independent group of nuclear industry experts recommended that a remote accident management capability be provided. The report stated that: “contemporary practice in commercial power reactorsmore » is to provide a remote shutdown station or stations to allow shutdown of the reactor and management of long-term cooling of the reactor (i.e., management of reactivity, inventory, and cooling) should the main control room be disabled (e.g., due to a fire in the control room or affecting the control room).” This project will install remote reactor monitoring and management capabilities for ATR. Remote capabilities will allow for post scram reactor management and monitoring in the event the main Reactor Control Room (RCR) must be evacuated.« less
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Chidburee, P.; Mills, J. P.; Miller, P. E.; Fieber, K. D.
2016-06-01
Close-range photogrammetric techniques offer a potentially low-cost approach in terms of implementation and operation for initial assessment and monitoring of landslide processes over small areas. In particular, the Structure-from-Motion (SfM) pipeline is now extensively used to help overcome many constraints of traditional digital photogrammetry, offering increased user-friendliness to nonexperts, as well as lower costs. However, a landslide monitoring approach based on the SfM technique also presents some potential drawbacks due to the difficulty in managing and processing a large volume of data in real-time. This research addresses the aforementioned issues by attempting to combine a mobile device with cloud computing technology to develop a photogrammetric measurement solution as part of a monitoring system for landslide hazard analysis. The research presented here focusses on (i) the development of an Android mobile application; (ii) the implementation of SfM-based open-source software in the Amazon cloud computing web service, and (iii) performance assessment through a simulated environment using data collected at a recognized landslide test site in North Yorkshire, UK. Whilst the landslide monitoring mobile application is under development, this paper describes experiments carried out to ensure effective performance of the system in the future. Investigations presented here describe the initial assessment of a cloud-implemented approach, which is developed around the well-known VisualSFM algorithm. Results are compared to point clouds obtained from alternative SfM 3D reconstruction approaches considering a commercial software solution (Agisoft PhotoScan) and a web-based system (Autodesk 123D Catch). Investigations demonstrate that the cloud-based photogrammetric measurement system is capable of providing results of centimeter-level accuracy, evidencing its potential to provide an effective approach for quantifying and analyzing landslide hazard at a local-scale.
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Cho, Eunsoo; Capin, Philip; Roberts, Greg; Vaughn, Sharon
2017-07-01
Within multitiered instructional delivery models, progress monitoring is a key mechanism for determining whether a child demonstrates an adequate response to instruction. One measure commonly used to monitor the reading progress of students is oral reading fluency (ORF). This study examined the extent to which ORF slope predicts reading comprehension outcomes for fifth-grade struggling readers ( n = 102) participating in an intensive reading intervention. Quantile regression models showed that ORF slope significantly predicted performance on a sentence-level fluency and comprehension assessment, regardless of the students' reading skills, controlling for initial ORF performance. However, ORF slope was differentially predictive of a passage-level comprehension assessment based on students' reading skills when controlling for initial ORF status. Results showed that ORF explained unique variance for struggling readers whose posttest performance was at the upper quantiles at the end of the reading intervention, but slope was not a significant predictor of passage-level comprehension for students whose reading problems were the most difficult to remediate.
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Metrological analysis of a virtual flowmeter-based transducer for cryogenic helium
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Arpaia, P., E-mail: pasquale.arpaia@unina.it; Technology Department, European Organization for Nuclear Research; Girone, M., E-mail: mario.girone@cern.ch
2015-12-15
The metrological performance of a virtual flowmeter-based transducer for monitoring helium under cryogenic conditions is assessed. At this aim, an uncertainty model of the transducer, mainly based on a valve model, exploiting finite-element approach, and a virtual flowmeter model, based on the Sereg-Schlumberger method, are presented. The models are validated experimentally on a case study for helium monitoring in cryogenic systems at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). The impact of uncertainty sources on the transducer metrological performance is assessed by a sensitivity analysis, based on statistical experiment design and analysis of variance. In this way, the uncertainty sourcesmore » most influencing metrological performance of the transducer are singled out over the input range as a whole, at varying operating and setting conditions. This analysis turns out to be important for CERN cryogenics operation because the metrological design of the transducer is validated, and its components and working conditions with critical specifications for future improvements are identified.« less
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Development and layout of a protocol for the field performance of concrete deck and crack sealers.
DOT National Transportation Integrated Search
2009-09-01
The main objective of this project was to develop and layout a protocol for the long-term monitoring and assessment of the performance of concrete deck and crack sealants in the field. To accomplish this goal, a total of six bridge decks were chosen ...
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Monitoring the Performance of Human and Automated Scores for Spoken Responses
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wang, Zhen; Zechner, Klaus; Sun, Yu
2018-01-01
As automated scoring systems for spoken responses are increasingly used in language assessments, testing organizations need to analyze their performance, as compared to human raters, across several dimensions, for example, on individual items or based on subgroups of test takers. In addition, there is a need in testing organizations to establish…
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40 CFR 63.11224 - What are my monitoring, installation, operation, and maintenance requirements?
Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR
2014-07-01
... include a daily calibration drift assessment, a quarterly performance audit, and an annual zero alignment... performance audit, or an annual zero alignment audit. (7) You must calculate and record 6-minute averages from... absolute particulate matter loadings. (5) The bag leak detection system must be equipped with a device to...
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40 CFR 63.11224 - What are my monitoring, installation, operation, and maintenance requirements?
Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR
2013-07-01
... include a daily calibration drift assessment, a quarterly performance audit, and an annual zero alignment... performance audit, or an annual zero alignment audit. (7) You must calculate and record 6-minute averages from... absolute particulate matter loadings. (5) The bag leak detection system must be equipped with a device to...
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42 CFR 418.58 - Condition of participation: Quality assessment and performance improvement.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR
2011-10-01
... collected to do the following: (i) Monitor the effectiveness and safety of services and quality of care. (ii..., patient safety, and quality of care. (2) Performance improvement activities must track adverse patient... care and patient safety, and that all improvement actions are evaluated for effectiveness. (3) That one...
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2010 Neuroscience Director’s Strategic Initiative
2011-02-01
distribution unlimited. 13. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES 14. ABSTRACT Understanding how Soldiers’ cognitive abilities meet the increasing demands of dynamic...In order to acquire, monitor, and assess Soldier sensory, perceptual, emotional, cognitive , and physical performance within realistic operational...brain state classification algorithm from EEG data acquired from participants performing tasks with varied cognitive demands. Third, Kaleb McDowell
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Plews, Daniel J; Laursen, Paul B; Stanley, Jamie; Kilding, Andrew E; Buchheit, Martin
2013-09-01
The measurement of heart rate variability (HRV) is often considered a convenient non-invasive assessment tool for monitoring individual adaptation to training. Decreases and increases in vagal-derived indices of HRV have been suggested to indicate negative and positive adaptations, respectively, to endurance training regimens. However, much of the research in this area has involved recreational and well-trained athletes, with the small number of studies conducted in elite athletes revealing equivocal outcomes. For example, in elite athletes, studies have revealed both increases and decreases in HRV to be associated with negative adaptation. Additionally, signs of positive adaptation, such as increases in cardiorespiratory fitness, have been observed with atypical concomitant decreases in HRV. As such, practical ways by which HRV can be used to monitor training status in elites are yet to be established. This article addresses the current literature that has assessed changes in HRV in response to training loads and the likely positive and negative adaptations shown. We reveal limitations with respect to how the measurement of HRV has been interpreted to assess positive and negative adaptation to endurance training regimens and subsequent physical performance. We offer solutions to some of the methodological issues associated with using HRV as a day-to-day monitoring tool. These include the use of appropriate averaging techniques, and the use of specific HRV indices to overcome the issue of HRV saturation in elite athletes (i.e., reductions in HRV despite decreases in resting heart rate). Finally, we provide examples in Olympic and World Champion athletes showing how these indices can be practically applied to assess training status and readiness to perform in the period leading up to a pinnacle event. The paper reveals how longitudinal HRV monitoring in elites is required to understand their unique individual HRV fingerprint. For the first time, we demonstrate how increases and decreases in HRV relate to changes in fitness and freshness, respectively, in elite athletes.
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Continuous Monitoring of Essential Tremor Using a Portable System Based on Smartwatch.
Zheng, Xiaochen; Vieira Campos, Alba; Ordieres-Meré, Joaquín; Balseiro, Jose; Labrador Marcos, Sergio; Aladro, Yolanda
2017-01-01
Essential tremor (ET) shows amplitude fluctuations throughout the day, presenting challenges in both clinical and treatment monitoring. Tremor severity is currently evaluated by validated rating scales, which only provide a timely and subjective assessment during a clinical visit. Motor sensors have shown favorable performances in quantifying tremor objectively. A new highly portable system was used to monitor tremor continuously during daily lives. It consists of a smartwatch with a triaxial accelerometer, a smartphone, and a remote server. An experiment was conducted involving eight ET patients. The average effective data collection time per patient was 26 (±6.05) hours. Fahn-Tolosa-Marin Tremor Rating Scale (FTMTRS) was adopted as the gold standard to classify tremor and to validate the performance of the system. Quantitative analysis of tremor severity on different time scales is validated. Significant correlations were observed between neurologist's FTMTRS and patient's FTMTRS auto-assessment scores ( r = 0.84; p = 0.009), between the device quantitative measures and the scores from the standardized assessments of neurologists ( r = 0.80; p = 0.005) and patient's auto-evaluation ( r = 0.97; p = 0.032), and between patient's FTMTRS auto-assessment scores day-to-day ( r = 0.87; p < 0.001). A graphical representation of four patients with different degrees of tremor was presented, and a representative system is proposed to summarize the tremor scoring at different time scales. This study demonstrates the feasibility of prolonged and continuous monitoring of tremor severity during daily activities by a highly portable non-restrictive system, a useful tool to analyze efficacy and effectiveness of treatment.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Ubertini, Filippo; Comanducci, Gabriele; Cavalagli, Nicola; Laura Pisello, Anna; Luigi Materazzi, Annibale; Cotana, Franco
2017-01-01
Continuously identified natural frequencies of vibration can provide unique information for low-cost automated condition assessment of civil constructions and infrastructures. However, the effects of changes in environmental parameters, such as temperature and humidity, need to be effectively investigated and accurately removed from identified frequency data for an effective performance assessment. This task is particularly challenging in the case of historical constructions that are typically massive and heterogeneous masonry structures characterized by complex variations of materials' properties with varying environmental parameters and by a differential heat conduction process where thermal capacity plays a major role. While there is abundance of documented monitoring data highlighting correlations between environmental parameters and natural frequencies in the case of new structures, such as long-span bridges, similar studies for historical constructions are still missing, with only a few literature works occasionally reporting increments in natural frequencies with increasing temperature of construction materials due to the closure of internal micro-cracks in the mortar layers caused by thermal expansion. In order to gain some knowledge on the effects of changes in temperature and humidity on the natural frequencies of slender masonry buildings, the paper focuses on the case study of an Italian monumental bell tower that has been monitored by the authors for more than nine months. Correlations between natural frequencies and environmental parameters are investigated in detail and the predictive capabilities of linear statistical regressive models based on the use of several environmental continuous monitoring sensors are assessed. At the end, three basic mechanisms governing environmentally-induced changes in the dynamic behavior of the tower are identified and essential information is achieved on the optimal location and minimum number of environmental sensors that are necessary in a structural health monitoring perspective.
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Schulz, Christian M; Schneider, Erich; Kohlbecher, Stefan; Hapfelmeier, Alexander; Heuser, Fabian; Wagner, Klaus J; Kochs, Eberhard F; Schneider, Gerhard
2014-10-01
Development of accurate Situation Awareness (SA) depends on experience and may be impaired during excessive workload. In order to gain adequate SA for decision making and performance, anaesthetists need to distribute visual attention effectively. Therefore, we hypothesized that in more experienced anaesthetists performance is better and increase of physiological workload is less during critical incidents. Additionally, we investigated the relation between physiological workload indicators and distribution of visual attention. In fifteen anaesthetists, the increase of pupil size and heart rate was assessed in course of a simulated critical incident. Simulator log files were used for performance assessment. An eye-tracking device (EyeSeeCam) provided data about the anaesthetists' distribution of visual attention. Performance was assessed as time until definitive treatment. T tests and multivariate generalized linear models (MANOVA) were used for retrospective statistical analysis. Mean pupil diameter increase was 8.1% (SD ± 4.3) in the less experienced and 15.8% (±10.4) in the more experienced subjects (p = 0.191). Mean heart rate increase was 10.2% (±6.7) and 10.5% (±8.3, p = 0.956), respectively. Performance did not depend on experience. Pupil diameter and heart rate increases were associated with a shift of visual attention from monitoring towards manual tasks (not significant). For the first time, the following four variables were assessed simultaneously: physiological workload indicators, performance, experience, and distribution of visual attention between "monitoring" and "manual" tasks. However, we were unable to detect significant interactions between these variables. This experimental model could prove valuable in the investigation of gaining and maintaining SA in the operation theatre.
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Bridge scour monitoring methods at three sites in Wisconsin
Walker, John F.; Hughes, Peter E.
2005-01-01
Of the nearly 11,500 bridges in Wisconsin, 89 have been assessed with critical scour conditions. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, the Marathon County Highway Department, and the Jefferson County Highway Department, performed routine monitoring of streambed elevations for three bridges. Two monitoring approaches were employed: (1) manual monitoring using moderately simple equipment, and (2) automated monitoring, using moderately sophisticated electronic equipment. The results from all three sites demonstrate that both techniques can produce reasonable measurements of streambed elevation. The manual technique has a lower annual operating cost, and is useful for cases where documentation of long-term trends is desired. The automated technique has a higher annual operating cost and is useful for real-time monitoring of episodic events with short time durations.
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Remote console for virtual telerehabilitation.
Lewis, Jeffrey A; Boian, Rares F; Burdea, Grigore; Deutsch, Judith E
2005-01-01
The Remote Console (ReCon) telerehabilitation system provides a platform for therapists to guide rehabilitation sessions from a remote location. The ReCon system integrates real-time graphics, audio/video communication, private therapist chat, post-test data graphs, extendable patient and exercise performance monitoring, exercise pre-configuration and modification under a single application. These tools give therapists the ability to conduct training, monitoring/assessment, and therapeutic intervention remotely and in real-time.
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Fluidized Bed Boiler Assessment for Navy Applications
1986-11-01
rather than removing it from the flue gas later with "scrubbing" devices. Intro- duction of limestone in the bed will reduce SO emissions; two...boiler in a satisfactory manner, the bed level, combustion temperature, and the flue gas composition and temperature should be continuously monitored...The flue gas composition should be c^-ɝely monitored for pollutants and combustion efficiency. EVOLUTION OF FBC BOILERS The performance of FBC
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Massaroni, C; Ciocchetti, M; Di Tomaso, G; Saccomandi, P; Caponero, M A; Polimadei, A; Formica, D; Schena, E
2016-08-01
Comfortable and easy to wear smart textiles have gained popularity for continuous respiratory monitoring. Among different emerging technologies, smart textiles based on fiber optic sensors (FOSs) have several advantages, like Magnetic Resonance (MR)-compatibility and good metrological properties. In this paper we report on the development and assessment of an MR-compatible smart textiles based on FOSs for respiratory monitoring. The system consists of six fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors glued on the textile to monitor six compartments of the chest wall (i.e., right and left upper thorax, right and left abdominal rib cage, and right and left abdomen). This solution allows monitoring both global respiratory parameters and each compartment volume change. The system converts thoracic movements into strain measured by the FBGs. The positioning of the FBGs was optimized by experiments performed using an optoelectronic system. The feasibility of the smart textile was assessed on 6 healthy volunteers. Experimental data were compared to the ones estimated by an optoelectronic plethysmography used as reference. Promising results were obtained on both breathing period (maximum percentage error is 1.14%), inspiratory and expiratory period, as well as on total volume change (mean percentage difference between the two systems was ~14%). The Bland-Altman analysis shows a satisfactory accuracy for the parameters under investigation. The proposed system is safe and non-invasive, MR-compatible, and allows monitoring compartmental volumes.
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Advanced Engine Health Management Applications of the SSME Real-Time Vibration Monitoring System
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Fiorucci, Tony R.; Lakin, David R., II; Reynolds, Tracy D.; Turner, James E. (Technical Monitor)
2000-01-01
The Real Time Vibration Monitoring System (RTVMS) is a 32-channel high speed vibration data acquisition and processing system developed at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). It Delivers sample rates as high as 51,200 samples/second per channel and performs Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) processing via on-board digital signal processing (DSP) chips in a real-time format. Advanced engine health assessment is achieved by utilizing the vibration spectra to provide accurate sensor validation and enhanced engine vibration redlines. Discrete spectral signatures (such as synchronous) that are indicators of imminent failure can be assessed and utilized to mitigate catastrophic engine failures- a first in rocket engine health assessment. This paper is presented in viewgraph form.
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Final report on fiscal year 1992 activities for the environmental monitors line-loss study
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Kenoyer, J.L.
The work performed on this Environmental Monitors Line-Loss Study has been performed under Contract Numbers MLW-SVV-073750 and MFH-SVV-207554. Work on the task was initiated mid-December 1991, and this report documents and summarizes the work performed through January 18, 1993. The sections included in this report summarize the work performed on the Environmental Monitors Line-Loss Study. The sections included in this report are arranged to reflect individual sub-tasks and include: descriptions of measurement systems and procedures used to obtain cascade impactor samples and laser spectrometer measurements from multiple stacks and locations; information on data acquisition, analyses, assessment, and software; discussion ofmore » the analyses and measurement results from the cascade impactor and laser spectrometer systems and software used; discussion on the development of general test methods and procedures for line-loss determinations; an overall summary and specific conclusions that can be made with regard to efforts performed on this task during FY 1992 and FY 1993. Supporting information for these sections is included in this report as appendices.« less
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[The eye of technology and the well being of women and men in Icelandic work places].
Rafnsdóttir, Guobjörg Linda; Tómasson, Kristinn; Guomundsdóttir, Margrét Lilja
2005-11-01
The study assessed the association between working under surveillance and electronic performance monitoring and the well-being among women and men in six Icelandic workplaces. In the time period from February to April 2003, a questionnaire based on the General Nordic Questionnaire for Psychological and Social Factors at Work was delivered to 1369 employees in six companies where different methods of electronic performance monitoring (EPM) are used. The data was analyzed using odds ratio and logistical regression. The response rate was 72%, with close to equal participation of men and women. The employees who were working under EPM were more likely to have poor psychosocial work-environment, to have experienced significant stress recently, to be mentally exhausted at the end of the workday, to have significant sleep difficulties and to be dissatisfied in their job. The development of the information and communication technology that allows employers and managers to monitor and collect different electronic data about the work process and productivity of the workers makes it important to follow the health condition of those who work under electronic performance monitoring.
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Impact of a Pharmacy-Cardiology Collaborative Practice on Dofetilide Safety Monitoring.
Quffa, Lieth H; Panna, Mark; Kaufmann, Michael R; McKillop, Matthew; Dietrich, Nicole Maltese; Franck, Andrew J
2017-01-01
Limited studies have been published examining dofetilide's postmarketing use and its recommended monitoring. To evaluate the impact of a collaborative pharmacy-cardiology antiarrhythmic drug (AAD) monitoring program on dofetilide monitoring. This retrospective cohort study was performed to assess if a novel monitoring program improved compliance with dofetilide-specific monitoring parameters based on the Food and Drug Administration's Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy. A total of 30 patients were included in the analysis. The monitoring parameters evaluated included electrocardiogram, serum potassium, serum magnesium, and kidney function. The primary outcome evaluated was the composite of these dofetilide monitoring parameters obtained in each cohort. In the standard cohort, 245 of 352 (69.6%) monitoring parameters were completed versus 134 of 136 (98.5%) in the intervention group ( P < 0.05). A collaborative pharmacy-cardiology AAD monitoring program was associated with a significant improvement in dofetilide monitoring. This improvement could potentially translate into enhanced patient safety outcomes, such as prevention of adverse drug reactions and decreased hospitalizations.
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The Dams and Monitoring Systems and Case Study: Ataturk and Karakaya Dams
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Kalkan, Y.; Bilgi, S.; Gülnerman, A. G.
2017-12-01
Dams are among the most important engineering structures used for flood controls, agricultural purposes as well as drinking and hydroelectric power. Especially after the Second World War, developments on the construction technology, increase the construction of larger capacity dams. There are more than 150.000 dams in the world and almost 1000 dams in Turkey, according to international criteria. Although dams provide benefits to humans, they possess structural risks too. To determine the performance of dams on structural safety, assessing the spatial data is very important. These are movement, water pressure, seepage, reservoir and tail-water elevations, local seismic activities, total pressure, stress and strain, internal concrete temperature, ambient temperature and precipitation. These physical data are measured and monitored by the instruments and equipment. Dams and their surroundings have to be monitored by using essential methods at periodic time intervals in order to determine the possible changes that may occur over the time. Monitoring programs typically consist of; surveillance or visual observation. These programs on dams provide information for evaluating the dam's performance related to the design intent and expected changes that could affect the safety performance of the dam. Additionally, these programs are used for investigating and evaluating the abnormal or degrading performance where any remedial action is necessary. Geodetic and non-geodetic methods are used for monitoring. Monitoring the performance of the dams is critical for producing and maintaining the safe dams. This study provides some general information on dams and their different monitoring systems by taking into account two different dams and their structural specifications with the required information. The case study in this paper depends on a comparison of the monitoring surveys on Atatürk Dam and Karakaya Dam, which are constructed on Firat River with two different structural type in Turkey. In addition, brief information is given about these dams and the methods of geodetic and non-geodetic monitoring measurements applied by various disciplines. The last part of the study focuses on the inference of the geodetic monitoring methods, which depend on a seven years of geodetic monitoring.
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Automated Power Assessment for Helicopter Turboshaft Engines
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Simon, Donald L.; Litt, Jonathan S.
2008-01-01
An accurate indication of available power is required for helicopter mission planning purposes. Available power is currently estimated on U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopters by performing a Maximum Power Check (MPC), a manual procedure performed by maintenance pilots on a periodic basis. The MPC establishes Engine Torque Factor (ETF), an indication of available power. It is desirable to replace the current manual MPC procedure with an automated approach that will enable continuous real-time assessment of available power utilizing normal mission data. This report presents an automated power assessment approach which processes data currently collected within helicopter Health and Usage Monitoring System (HUMS) units. The overall approach consists of: 1) a steady-state data filter which identifies and extracts steady-state operating points within HUMS data sets; 2) engine performance curve trend monitoring and updating; and 3) automated ETF calculation. The algorithm is coded in MATLAB (The MathWorks, Inc.) and currently runs on a PC. Results from the application of this technique to HUMS mission data collected from UH-60L aircraft equipped with T700-GE-701C engines are presented and compared to manually calculated ETF values. Potential future enhancements are discussed.
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Han, Ma Ai Thanda; Saouaf, Rola; Ayoub, Walid; Todo, Tsuyoshi; Mena, Edward; Noureddin, Mazen
2017-04-01
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common cause of chronic liver disease and cirrhosis worldwide and the second most common cause of liver transplantation in major medical centers. Because liver steatosis and fibrosis severity are related to disease morbidity and mortality, the extent of disease, and disease progression, they need to be assessed and monitored. In addition, innovation with new drug developments requires disease staging and monitoring in both phase 2 and 3 clinical trials. Currently, disease assessment in both clinical practice and research is mostly performed by liver biopsy, an invasive, procedure with risks. Noninvasive, highly accurate tests are needed that could be used in clinical trials as surrogate endpoints and in clinical practice for monitoring patients. Area Covered: We discuss noninvasive tests, transient elastography (TE) with controlled attenuation parameter (CAP), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and MR elastography (MRE), summarize the available evidence of their usefulness for assessing steatosis and fibrosis. Therefore they could be used as clinical trials outcomes and in disease monitoring in clinical practice. Expert Commentary: TE with CAP, MRI and MRE are highly accurate noninvasive diagnostic tools for quantifying hepatic steatosis and fibrosis. Therefore they could be used as clinical trials outcomes and in disease monitoring in clinical practice.
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Colditz, Ian G.; Ferguson, Drewe M.; Collins, Teresa; Matthews, Lindsay; Hemsworth, Paul H.
2014-01-01
Simple Summary Benchmarking is a tool widely used in agricultural industries that harnesses the experience of farmers to generate knowledge of practices that lead to better on-farm productivity and performance. We propose, by analogy with production performance, a method for measuring the animal welfare performance of an enterprise and describe a tool for farmers to monitor and improve the animal welfare performance of their business. A general framework is outlined for assessing and monitoring risks to animal welfare based on measures of animals, the environment they are kept in and how they are managed. The tool would enable farmers to continually improve animal welfare. Abstract Schemes for the assessment of farm animal welfare and assurance of welfare standards have proliferated in recent years. An acknowledged short-coming has been the lack of impact of these schemes on the welfare standards achieved on farm due in part to sociological factors concerning their implementation. Here we propose the concept of welfare performance based on a broad set of performance attributes of an enterprise and describe a tool based on risk assessment and benchmarking methods for measuring and managing welfare performance. The tool termed the Unified Field Index is presented in a general form comprising three modules addressing animal, resource, and management factors. Domains within these modules accommodate the principle conceptual perspectives for welfare assessment: biological functioning; emotional states; and naturalness. Pan-enterprise analysis in any livestock sector could be used to benchmark welfare performance of individual enterprises and also provide statistics of welfare performance for the livestock sector. An advantage of this concept of welfare performance is its use of continuous scales of measurement rather than traditional pass/fail measures. Through the feedback provided via benchmarking, the tool should help farmers better engage in on-going improvement of farm practices that affect animal welfare. PMID:26480317
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Evaluating the Fraser Health Balanced Scorecard--a formative evaluation.
Barnardo, Catherine; Jivanni, Amin
2009-01-01
Fraser Health (FH), a large, Canadian, integrated health care network, adopted the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) approach to monitor organizational performance in 2006. This paper reports on the results of a formative evaluation, conducted in April, 2008, to assess the usefulness of the BSC as a performance-reporting system and a performance management tool. Results indicated that the BSC has proven to be useful for reporting performance but is not currently used for performance management in a substantial way.
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Learning to Write: Progress-Monitoring Tools for Beginning and at-Risk Writers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ritchey, Kristen D.
2006-01-01
Teachers now have a wide range of tools to help assess the beginning reading performance of kindergarten and first-grade children. However, validated procedures for assessing the beginning writing skills of kindergarten and first-grade children are less widely available. Learning to write, like learning to read, is a complex task. The ability to…
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Regional Drought Monitoring Based on Multi-Sensor Remote Sensing
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Rhee, Jinyoung; Im, Jungho; Park, Seonyoung
2014-05-01
Drought originates from the deficit of precipitation and impacts environment including agriculture and hydrological resources as it persists. The assessment and monitoring of drought has traditionally been performed using a variety of drought indices based on meteorological data, and recently the use of remote sensing data is gaining much attention due to its vast spatial coverage and cost-effectiveness. Drought information has been successfully derived from remotely sensed data related to some biophysical and meteorological variables and drought monitoring is advancing with the development of remote sensing-based indices such as the Vegetation Condition Index (VCI), Vegetation Health Index (VHI), and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) to name a few. The Scaled Drought Condition Index (SDCI) has also been proposed to be used for humid regions proving the performance of multi-sensor data for agricultural drought monitoring. In this study, remote sensing-based hydro-meteorological variables related to drought including precipitation, temperature, evapotranspiration, and soil moisture were examined and the SDCI was improved by providing multiple blends of the multi-sensor indices for different types of drought. Multiple indices were examined together since the coupling and feedback between variables are intertwined and it is not appropriate to investigate only limited variables to monitor each type of drought. The purpose of this study is to verify the significance of each variable to monitor each type of drought and to examine the combination of multi-sensor indices for more accurate and timely drought monitoring. The weights for the blends of multiple indicators were obtained from the importance of variables calculated by non-linear optimization using a Machine Learning technique called Random Forest. The case study was performed in the Republic of Korea, which has four distinct seasons over the course of the year and contains complex topography with a variety of land cover types. Remote sensing data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite (TRMM) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS (AMSR-E) sensors were obtained for the period from 2000 to 2012, and observation data from 99 weather stations, 441 streamflow gauges, as well as the gridded observation data from Asian Precipitation Highly-Resolved Observational Data Integration Towards Evaluation of the Water Resources (APHRODITE) were obtained for validation. The objective blends of multiple indicators helped better assessment of various types of drought, and can be useful for drought early warning system. Since the improved SDCI is based on remotely sensed data, it can be easily applied to regions with limited or no observation data for drought assessment and monitoring.
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Quality assessment of patients’ self-monitoring of blood glucose in community pharmacies
Kjome, Reidun L. S.; Granas, Anne G.; Nerhus, Kari; Sandberg, Sverre
2009-01-01
Objective To evaluate diabetes patients’ self-monitoring of blood glucose using a community pharmacy-based quality assurance procedure, to investigate whether the procedure improved the quality of the patient performance of self monitoring of blood glucose, and to examine the opinions of the patients taking part in the study. Methods The results of patient blood glucose measurements were compared to the results obtained with HemoCue Glucose 201+ by pharmacy employees in 16 Norwegian community pharmacies. Patient performance was monitored using an eight item checklist. Patients whose blood glucose measurements differed from pharmacy measurements by more than 20% were instructed in the correct use of their glucometer. The patients then re-measured their blood glucose. If the results were still outside the set limits, the control procedure was repeated with a new lot of glucometer strips, and then with a new glucometer. The patients returned for a follow-up visit after three months. Results During the first visit, 5% of the 338 patients had measurements that deviated from pharmacy blood glucose values by more than 20% and user errors were observed for 50% of the patients. At the second visit, there was no significant change in the analytical quality of patient measurements, but the percentage of patients who made user errors had decreased to 29% (p < 0.001). Eighty-five percent of the patients reported that they used their blood glucose results to adjust medication, exercise or meals. Fifty-one percent of the patients reported a greater trust in their measurements after the second visit. Eighty percent of patients wished to have their measurements assessed yearly. Of these patients, 83% preferred to have the assessment done at the community pharmacy. Conclusion A community pharmacy-based quality assessment procedure of patients’ self monitoring of blood glucose significantly reduced the number of user errors. The analytical quality of the patients’ measurements was good and did not improve further during the study. The high analytical quality might be explained by a selection bias of participating patients. Patients also reported increased confidence in their blood glucose measurements after their measurements had been assessed at the pharmacy. PMID:25152795
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An extended multivariate framework for drought monitoring in Mexico
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Real-Rangel, Roberto; Pedrozo-Acuña, Adrián; Breña-Naranjo, Agustín; Alcocer-Yamanaka, Víctor
2017-04-01
Around the world, monitoring natural hazards, such as droughts, represents a critical task in risk assessment and management plans. A reliable drought monitoring system allows to identify regions affected by these phenomena so that early response measures can be implemented. In Mexico, this activity is performed using Mexico's Drought Monitor, which is based on a similar methodology as the United States Drought Monitor and the North American Drought Monitor. The main feature of these monitoring systems is the combination of ground-based and remote sensing observations that is ultimately validated by local experts. However, in Mexico in situ records of variables such as precipitation and streamflow are often scarce, or even null, in many regions of the country. Another issue that adds uncertainty in drought monitoring is the arbitrary weight given to each analyzed variable. This study aims at providing an operational framework for drought monitoring in Mexico, based on univariate and multivariate nonparametric standardized indexes proposed in recent studies. Furthermore, the framework has been extended by taking into account the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) for the drought severity assessment. The analyzed variables used for computing the drought indexes are mainly derived from remote sensing (MODIS) and land surface models datasets (NASA MERRA-2). A qualitative evaluation of the results shows that the indexes used are capable of adequately describes the intensity and spatial distribution of past drought documented events.
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NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Wilson, Deborah M.
2015-01-01
This Operations, Maintenance, and Monitoring Report (OMMR) presents the findings, observations, and results from operation of the air sparging (AS) interim measure (IM) for Hot Spot (HS) Areas 1, 2, and 5 at the Converter Compressor Building (CCB) located at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida. The objective of the IM at CCB HS Areas 1, 2, and 5 is to decrease concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in groundwater in the treatment zones via AS to levels that will enable a transition to a monitored natural attenuation (MNA) phase. This OMMR presents system operations and maintenance (O&M) information and performance monitoring results since full-scale O&M began in June 2014 (2 months after initial system startup in April 2014), including quarterly performance monitoring events in July and October 2014 and January and May 2015. Based on the results to date, the AS system is operating as designed and is meeting the performance criteria and IM objective. The performance monitoring network is adequately constructed for assessment of IM performance at CCB HS Areas 1, 2, and 5. At the March 2014 KSC Remediation Team (KSCRT) Meeting, team consensus was reached for the design prepared for expansion of the system to treat the HS 4 area, and at the November 2014 KSCRT Meeting, team consensus was reached that HS 3 was adequately delineated horizontally and vertically and for selection of AS for the remedial approach for HS 3. At the July 2015 KSCRT meeting, team consensus was reached to continue IM operations in all zones until HSs 3 and 4 is operational, once HS 3 and 4 zones are operational discontinue operations in HS 1, 2, and 5 zones where concentrations are less than GCTLs to observe whether rebounding conditions occur. Team consensus was also reached to continue quarterly performance monitoring to determine whether operational zones achieve GCTLs and to continue annual IGWM of CCB-MW0012, CCBMW0013, and CCB-MW0056, located south of the treatment area. The next performance monitoring event is scheduled for July 2015.
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Zanderigo, Francesca; Sparacino, Giovanni; Kovatchev, Boris; Cobelli, Claudio
2007-09-01
The aim of this article was to use continuous glucose error-grid analysis (CG-EGA) to assess the accuracy of two time-series modeling methodologies recently developed to predict glucose levels ahead of time using continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) data. We considered subcutaneous time series of glucose concentration monitored every 3 minutes for 48 hours by the minimally invasive CGM sensor Glucoday® (Menarini Diagnostics, Florence, Italy) in 28 type 1 diabetic volunteers. Two prediction algorithms, based on first-order polynomial and autoregressive (AR) models, respectively, were considered with prediction horizons of 30 and 45 minutes and forgetting factors (ff) of 0.2, 0.5, and 0.8. CG-EGA was used on the predicted profiles to assess their point and dynamic accuracies using original CGM profiles as reference. Continuous glucose error-grid analysis showed that the accuracy of both prediction algorithms is overall very good and that their performance is similar from a clinical point of view. However, the AR model seems preferable for hypoglycemia prevention. CG-EGA also suggests that, irrespective of the time-series model, the use of ff = 0.8 yields the highest accurate readings in all glucose ranges. For the first time, CG-EGA is proposed as a tool to assess clinically relevant performance of a prediction method separately at hypoglycemia, euglycemia, and hyperglycemia. In particular, we have shown that CG-EGA can be helpful in comparing different prediction algorithms, as well as in optimizing their parameters.
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Recent advances to obtain real - Time displacements for engineering applications
Celebi, M.
2005-01-01
This paper presents recent developments and approaches (using GPS technology and real-time double-integration) to obtain displacements and, in turn, drift ratios, in real-time or near real-time to meet the needs of the engineering and user community in seismic monitoring and assessing the functionality and damage condition of structures. Drift ratios computed in near real-time allow technical assessment of the damage condition of a building. Relevant parameters, such as the type of connections and story structural characteristics (including geometry) are used in computing drifts corresponding to several pre-selected threshold stages of damage. Thus, drift ratios determined from real-time monitoring can be compared to pre-computed threshold drift ratios. The approaches described herein can be used for performance evaluation of structures and can be considered as building health-monitoring applications.
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Assessment of LTPP Friction Data
DOT National Transportation Integrated Search
1998-03-01
A major goal of the Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) study is the development of recommendations for improving the design and construction of new and rehabilitated pavements to make them longer lasting. As part of the condition monitoring of the...
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Gish, Ryan
2002-08-01
Strategic triggers and metrics help healthcare providers achieve financial success. Metrics help assess progress toward long-term goals. Triggers signal market changes requiring a change in strategy. All metrics may not move in concert. Organizations need to identify indicators, monitor performance.
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Chowdhury, Enhad A; Western, Max J; Nightingale, Thomas E; Peacock, Oliver J; Thompson, Dylan
2017-01-01
Wearable physical activity monitors are growing in popularity and provide the opportunity for large numbers of the public to self-monitor physical activity behaviours. The latest generation of these devices feature multiple sensors, ostensibly similar or even superior to advanced research instruments. However, little is known about the accuracy of their energy expenditure estimates. Here, we assessed their performance against criterion measurements in both controlled laboratory conditions (simulated activities of daily living and structured exercise) and over a 24 hour period in free-living conditions. Thirty men (n = 15) and women (n = 15) wore three multi-sensor consumer monitors (Microsoft Band, Apple Watch and Fitbit Charge HR), an accelerometry-only device as a comparison (Jawbone UP24) and validated research-grade multi-sensor devices (BodyMedia Core and individually calibrated Actiheart™). During discrete laboratory activities when compared against indirect calorimetry, the Apple Watch performed similarly to criterion measures. The Fitbit Charge HR was less consistent at measurement of discrete activities, but produced similar free-living estimates to the Apple Watch. Both these devices underestimated free-living energy expenditure (-394 kcal/d and -405 kcal/d, respectively; P<0.01). The multi-sensor Microsoft Band and accelerometry-only Jawbone UP24 devices underestimated most laboratory activities and substantially underestimated free-living expenditure (-1128 kcal/d and -998 kcal/d, respectively; P<0.01). None of the consumer devices were deemed equivalent to the reference method for daily energy expenditure. For all devices, there was a tendency for negative bias with greater daily energy expenditure. No consumer monitors performed as well as the research-grade devices although in some (but not all) cases, estimates were close to criterion measurements. Thus, whilst industry-led innovation has improved the accuracy of consumer monitors, these devices are not yet equivalent to the best research-grade devices or indeed equivalent to each other. We propose independent quality standards and/or accuracy ratings for consumer devices are required.
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Chowdhury, Enhad A.; Western, Max J.; Nightingale, Thomas E.; Peacock, Oliver J.; Thompson, Dylan
2017-01-01
Wearable physical activity monitors are growing in popularity and provide the opportunity for large numbers of the public to self-monitor physical activity behaviours. The latest generation of these devices feature multiple sensors, ostensibly similar or even superior to advanced research instruments. However, little is known about the accuracy of their energy expenditure estimates. Here, we assessed their performance against criterion measurements in both controlled laboratory conditions (simulated activities of daily living and structured exercise) and over a 24 hour period in free-living conditions. Thirty men (n = 15) and women (n = 15) wore three multi-sensor consumer monitors (Microsoft Band, Apple Watch and Fitbit Charge HR), an accelerometry-only device as a comparison (Jawbone UP24) and validated research-grade multi-sensor devices (BodyMedia Core and individually calibrated Actiheart™). During discrete laboratory activities when compared against indirect calorimetry, the Apple Watch performed similarly to criterion measures. The Fitbit Charge HR was less consistent at measurement of discrete activities, but produced similar free-living estimates to the Apple Watch. Both these devices underestimated free-living energy expenditure (-394 kcal/d and -405 kcal/d, respectively; P<0.01). The multi-sensor Microsoft Band and accelerometry-only Jawbone UP24 devices underestimated most laboratory activities and substantially underestimated free-living expenditure (-1128 kcal/d and -998 kcal/d, respectively; P<0.01). None of the consumer devices were deemed equivalent to the reference method for daily energy expenditure. For all devices, there was a tendency for negative bias with greater daily energy expenditure. No consumer monitors performed as well as the research-grade devices although in some (but not all) cases, estimates were close to criterion measurements. Thus, whilst industry-led innovation has improved the accuracy of consumer monitors, these devices are not yet equivalent to the best research-grade devices or indeed equivalent to each other. We propose independent quality standards and/or accuracy ratings for consumer devices are required. PMID:28234979
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Flight Crew Task Management in Non-Normal Situations
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Schutte, Paul C.; Trujillo, Anna C.
1996-01-01
Task management (TM) is always performed on the flight deck, although not always explicitly, consistently, or rigorously. Nowhere is TM as important as it is in dealing with non-normal situations. The objective of this study was to analyze pilot TM behavior for non-normal situations. Specifically, the study observed pilots performance in a full workload environment in order to discern their TM strategies. This study identified four different TM prioritization and allocation strategies: Aviate-Navigate-Communicate-Manage Systems; Perceived Severity; Procedure Based; and Event/Interrupt Driven. Subjects used these strategies to manage their personal workload and to schedule monitoring and assessment of the situation. The Perceived Severity strategy for personal workload management combined with the Aviate-Navigate-Communicate-Manage Systems strategy for monitoring and assessing appeared to be the most effective (fewest errors and fastest response times) in responding to the novel system failure used in this study.
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Hanford Site Groundwater Monitoring for Fiscal Year 2000
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Hartman, Mary J.; Morasch, Launa F.; Webber, William D.
2001-03-01
This report presents the results of groundwater and vadose zone monitoring and remediation for fiscal year 2000 on the U.S. Department of Energy's Hanford Site, Washington. The most extensive contaminant plumes are tritium, iodine-129, and nitrate, which all had multiple sources and are very mobile in groundwater. Carbon tetrachloride and associated organic constituents form a relatively large plume beneath the central part of the Site. Hexavalent chromium is present in smaller plumes beneath the reactor areas along the river and beneath the central part of the site. Strontium-90 exceeds standards beneath each of the reactor areas, and technetium-99 and uraniummore » are present in the 200 Areas. RCRA groundwater monitoring continued during fiscal year 2000. Vadose zone monitoring, characterization, remediation, and several technical demonstrations were conducted in fiscal year 2000. Soil gas monitoring at the 618-11 burial ground provided a preliminary indication of the location of tritium in the vadose zone and in groundwater. Groundwater modeling efforts focused on 1) identifying and characterizing major uncertainties in the current conceptual model and 2) performing a transient inverse calibration of the existing site-wide model. Specific model applications were conducted in support of the Hanford Site carbon tetrachloride Innovative Treatment Remediation Technology; to support the performance assessment of the Immobilized Low-Activity Waste Disposal Facility; and in development of the System Assessment Capability, which is intended to predict cumulative site-wide effects from all significant Hanford Site contaminants.« less
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Long-term performance monitoring of hardwood timber bridges in Pennsylvania
James P. Wacker; Carlito Calil; Lola E. Hislop; Paula D. Hilbrich Lee; James A. Kainz
2004-01-01
Several hardwood timber bridges were constructed in Pennsylvania during the early 1990s. This report summarizes the long-term field performance of seven stress-laminated deck bridges over a 4-year period beginning August 1997 and ending July 2001. Data collected include lumber moisture content, static load test deflection measurements, and bridge condition assessments...
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Dini, Valentina; Kirchhain, Arno; Janowska, Agata; Oranges, Teresa; Di Francesco, Fabio
2017-01-01
Wound assessment is usually performed in hospitals or specialized labs. However, since patients spend most of their time at home, a remote real time wound monitoring would help providing a better care and improving the healing rate. This review describes the advances in sensors and biosensors for monitoring the concentration of C-reactive protein (CRP), temperature and pH in wounds. These three parameters can be used as qualitative biomarkers to assess the wound status and the effectiveness of therapy. CRP biosensors can be classified in: (a) field effect transistors, (b) optical immunosensors based on surface plasmon resonance, total internal reflection, fluorescence and chemiluminescence, (c) electrochemical sensors based on potentiometry, amperometry, and electrochemical impedance, and (d) piezoresistive sensors, such as quartz crystal microbalances and microcantilevers. The last section reports the most recent developments for wearable non-invasive temperature and pH sensors suitable for wound monitoring. PMID:29257113
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Reevaluation of air surveillance station siting
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Abbott, K.; Jannik, T.
2016-07-06
DOE Technical Standard HDBK-1216-2015 (DOE 2015) recommends evaluating air-monitoring station placement using the analytical method developed by Waite. The technique utilizes wind rose and population distribution data in order to determine a weighting factor for each directional sector surrounding a nuclear facility. Based on the available resources (number of stations) and a scaling factor, this weighting factor is used to determine the number of stations recommended to be placed in each sector considered. An assessment utilizing this method was performed in 2003 to evaluate the effectiveness of the existing SRS air-monitoring program. The resulting recommended distribution of air-monitoring stations wasmore » then compared to that of the existing site perimeter surveillance program. The assessment demonstrated that the distribution of air-monitoring stations at the time generally agreed with the results obtained using the Waite method; however, at the time new stations were established in Barnwell and in Williston in order to meet requirements of DOE guidance document EH-0173T.« less
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Frazier, William; Baur, Gary
2015-11-03
The 1998 Interim Long-Term Surveillance Plan for the Cheney Disposal Site Near Grand Junction, Colorado, requires annual monitoring to assess the performance of the disposal cell. Monitoring wells 0731, 0732 and 0733 were sampled as specified in the plan. Sampling and analyses were conducted in accordance with Sampling and Analysis Plan for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management Sites.
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Cyber Security and Resilient Systems
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Robert S. Anderson
2009-07-01
The Department of Energy (DOE) Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has become a center of excellence for critical infrastructure protection, particularly in the field of cyber security. It is one of only a few national laboratories that have enhanced the nation’s cyber security posture by performing industrial control system (ICS) vendor assessments as well as user on-site assessments. Not only are vulnerabilities discovered, but described actions for enhancing security are suggested – both on a system-specific basis and from a general perspective of identifying common weaknesses and their corresponding corrective actions. These cyber security programs have performed over 40 assessments tomore » date which have led to more robust, secure, and resilient monitoring and control systems for the US electrical grid, oil and gas, chemical, transportation, and many other sectors. In addition to cyber assessments themselves, the INL has been engaged in outreach to the ICS community through vendor forums, technical conferences, vendor user groups, and other special engagements as requested. Training programs have been created to help educate all levels of management and worker alike with an emphasis towards real everyday cyber hacking methods and techniques including typical exploits that are used. The asset owner or end user has many products available for its use created from these programs. One outstanding product is the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cyber Security Procurement Language for Control Systems document that provides insight to the user when specifying a new monitoring and control system, particularly concerning security requirements. Employing some of the top cyber researchers in the nation, the INL can leverage this talent towards many applications other than critical infrastructure. Monitoring and control systems are used throughout the world to perform simple tasks such as cooking in a microwave to complex ones such as the monitoring and control of the next generation fighter jets or nuclear material safeguards systems in complex nuclear fuel cycle facilities. It is the intent of this paper to describe the cyber security programs that are currently in place, the experiences and successes achieved in industry including outreach and training, and suggestions about how other sectors and organizations can leverage this national expertise to help their monitoring and control systems become more secure.« less
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Assessment of recurrent laryngeal nerve function during thyroid surgery
Douglas, J; Smith, B; Dougherty, T; Ayshford, C
2014-01-01
Introduction There is disparity in the reported incidence of temporary and permanent recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) palsy following thyroidectomy. Much of the disparity is due to the method of assessing vocal cord function. We sought to identify the incidence and natural history of temporary and permanent vocal cord palsy following thyroid surgery. The authors wanted to establish whether intraoperative nerve monitoring and stimulation aids in prognosis when managing vocal cord palsy. Methods Prospective data on consecutive thyroid operations were collected. Intraoperative nerve monitoring and stimulation, using an endotracheal tube mounted device, was performed in all cases. Endoscopic examination of the larynx was performed on the first postoperative day and at three weeks. Results Data on 102 patients and 123 nerves were collated. Temporary and permanent RLN palsy rates were 6.1% and 1.7%. Most RLN palsies were identified on the first postoperative day with all recognised at the three-week review. No preoperative clinical risk factors were identified. Although dysphonia at the three-week follow-up visit was the only significant predictor of vocal cord palsy, only two-thirds of patients with cord palsies were dysphonic. Intraoperative nerve monitoring and stimulation did not predict outcome in terms of vocal cord function. Conclusions Temporary nerve palsy rates were consistent with other series where direct laryngoscopy is used to assess laryngeal function. Direct laryngoscopy is the only reliable measure of cord function, with intraoperative monitoring being neither a reliable predictor of cord function nor a predictor of eventual laryngeal function. The fact that all temporary palsies recovered within four months has implications for staged procedures. PMID:24780671
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Assessment of recurrent laryngeal nerve function during thyroid surgery.
Smith, J; Douglas, J; Smith, B; Dougherty, T; Ayshford, C
2014-03-01
There is disparity in the reported incidence of temporary and permanent recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) palsy following thyroidectomy. Much of the disparity is due to the method of assessing vocal cord function. We sought to identify the incidence and natural history of temporary and permanent vocal cord palsy following thyroid surgery. The authors wanted to establish whether intraoperative nerve monitoring and stimulation aids in prognosis when managing vocal cord palsy. Prospective data on consecutive thyroid operations were collected. Intraoperative nerve monitoring and stimulation, using an endotracheal tube mounted device, was performed in all cases. Endoscopic examination of the larynx was performed on the first postoperative day and at three weeks. Data on 102 patients and 123 nerves were collated. Temporary and permanent RLN palsy rates were 6.1% and 1.7%. Most RLN palsies were identified on the first postoperative day with all recognised at the three-week review. No preoperative clinical risk factors were identified. Although dysphonia at the three-week follow-up visit was the only significant predictor of vocal cord palsy, only two-thirds of patients with cord palsies were dysphonic. Intraoperative nerve monitoring and stimulation did not predict outcome in terms of vocal cord function. Temporary nerve palsy rates were consistent with other series where direct laryngoscopy is used to assess laryngeal function. Direct laryngoscopy is the only reliable measure of cord function, with intraoperative monitoring being neither a reliable predictor of cord function nor a predictor of eventual laryngeal function. The fact that all temporary palsies recovered within four months has implications for staged procedures.
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Assessment of SRS ambient air monitoring network
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Abbott, K.; Jannik, T.
Three methodologies have been used to assess the effectiveness of the existing ambient air monitoring system in place at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, SC. Effectiveness was measured using two metrics that have been utilized in previous quantification of air-monitoring network performance; frequency of detection (a measurement of how frequently a minimum number of samplers within the network detect an event), and network intensity (a measurement of how consistent each sampler within the network is at detecting events). In addition to determining the effectiveness of the current system, the objective of performing this assessment was to determine what, ifmore » any, changes could make the system more effective. Methodologies included 1) the Waite method of determining sampler distribution, 2) the CAP88- PC annual dose model, and 3) a puff/plume transport model used to predict air concentrations at sampler locations. Data collected from air samplers at SRS in 2015 compared with predicted data resulting from the methodologies determined that the frequency of detection for the current system is 79.2% with sampler efficiencies ranging from 5% to 45%, and a mean network intensity of 21.5%. One of the air monitoring stations had an efficiency of less than 10%, and detected releases during just one sampling period of the entire year, adding little to the overall network intensity. By moving or removing this sampler, the mean network intensity increased to about 23%. Further work in increasing the network intensity and simulating accident scenarios to further test the ambient air system at SRS is planned« less
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Bochicchio, M; Latronico, N; Zappa, S; Beindorf, A; Candiani, A
1996-10-01
To assess the results of a 5-year experience with bedside burr hole for intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring performed by intensive care physicians. Prospective, observational study in 120 patients. A general-neurologic Intensive Care Unit in a University Hospital. Patients admitted for acute neural lesion requiring ICP monitoring. A 2.71 mm burr hole was made with positioning of a subarachnoid screw, through which a miniaturized fiberoptic, tip transducer device (Camino) was advanced and inserted 2 mm in the frontal cortex. Over a 5-year period 120 patients, mainly with severe head trauma, underwent ICP monitoring. None of the planned patients was excluded because of technical difficulties. No life-threatening complications were reported, and the overall morbidity rate related to the ICP monitor was 3.3%. Complications were infectious in nature, with 2.5% wound infections and 0.8% meningitis. Although seven patients bled when opening the dura, no intracranial hematomas were recorded due to the ICP monitor. The fiberoptic device was left in place for 5 +/- 1.6 (SD) days (range 1-12 days). Five patients (4.1%) required catheter substitution due to breakage of the system components (fiberoptics). Bedside insertion of a ICP monitor performed by intensive care physicians is a safe procedure, with a complication rate comparable to other series published by neurosurgeons. The overall morbidity rate is comparable to, or even lower than, that caused by central vein catheterization.
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Berendes, Sima; Adeyemi, Olusegun; Oladele, Edward Adekola; Oresanya, Olusola Bukola; Okoh, Festus; Valadez, Joseph J
2012-01-01
Patent medicine vendors (PMV) provide antimalarial treatment and care throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, and can play an important role in the fight against malaria. Their close-to-client infrastructure could enable lifesaving artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) to reach patients in time. However, systematic assessments of drug sellers' performance quality are crucial if their role is to be managed within the health system. Lot quality assurance sampling (LQAS) could be an efficient method to monitor and evaluate PMV practice, but has so far never been used for this purpose. In support of the Nigeria Malaria Booster Program we assessed PMV practices in three Senatorial Districts (SDs) of Jigawa, Nigeria. A two-stage LQAS assessed whether at least 80% of PMV stores in SDs used national treatment guidelines. Acceptable sampling errors were set in consultation with government officials (alpha and beta <0.10). The hypergeometric formula determined sample sizes and cut-off values for SDs. A structured assessment tool identified high and low performing SDs for quality of care indicators. Drug vendors performed poorly in all SDs of Jigawa for all indicators. For example, all SDs failed for stocking and selling first-line antimalarials. PMV sold no longer recommended antimalarials, such as Chloroquine, Sulfadoxine-Pyrimethamine and oral Artesunate monotherapy. Most PMV were ignorant of and lacked training about new treatment guidelines that had endorsed ACTs as first-line treatment for uncomplicated malaria. There is urgent need to regularly monitor and improve the availability and quality of malaria treatment provided by medicine sellers in Nigeria; the irrational use of antimalarials in the ACT era revealed in this study bears a high risk of economic loss, death and development of drug resistance. LQAS has been shown to be a suitable method for monitoring malaria-related indicators among PMV, and should be applied in Nigeria and elsewhere to improve service delivery.
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Berendes, Sima; Adeyemi, Olusegun; Oladele, Edward Adekola; Oresanya, Olusola Bukola; Okoh, Festus; Valadez, Joseph J.
2012-01-01
Background Patent medicine vendors (PMV) provide antimalarial treatment and care throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, and can play an important role in the fight against malaria. Their close-to-client infrastructure could enable lifesaving artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) to reach patients in time. However, systematic assessments of drug sellers’ performance quality are crucial if their role is to be managed within the health system. Lot quality assurance sampling (LQAS) could be an efficient method to monitor and evaluate PMV practice, but has so far never been used for this purpose. Methods In support of the Nigeria Malaria Booster Program we assessed PMV practices in three Senatorial Districts (SDs) of Jigawa, Nigeria. A two-stage LQAS assessed whether at least 80% of PMV stores in SDs used national treatment guidelines. Acceptable sampling errors were set in consultation with government officials (alpha and beta <0.10). The hypergeometric formula determined sample sizes and cut-off values for SDs. A structured assessment tool identified high and low performing SDs for quality of care indicators. Findings Drug vendors performed poorly in all SDs of Jigawa for all indicators. For example, all SDs failed for stocking and selling first-line antimalarials. PMV sold no longer recommended antimalarials, such as Chloroquine, Sulfadoxine-Pyrimethamine and oral Artesunate monotherapy. Most PMV were ignorant of and lacked training about new treatment guidelines that had endorsed ACTs as first-line treatment for uncomplicated malaria. Conclusion There is urgent need to regularly monitor and improve the availability and quality of malaria treatment provided by medicine sellers in Nigeria; the irrational use of antimalarials in the ACT era revealed in this study bears a high risk of economic loss, death and development of drug resistance. LQAS has been shown to be a suitable method for monitoring malaria-related indicators among PMV, and should be applied in Nigeria and elsewhere to improve service delivery. PMID:22984555
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Johnson, Nicholas E.; Bonczak, Bartosz; Kontokosta, Constantine E.
2018-07-01
The increased availability and improved quality of new sensing technologies have catalyzed a growing body of research to evaluate and leverage these tools in order to quantify and describe urban environments. Air quality, in particular, has received greater attention because of the well-established links to serious respiratory illnesses and the unprecedented levels of air pollution in developed and developing countries and cities around the world. Though numerous laboratory and field evaluation studies have begun to explore the use and potential of low-cost air quality monitoring devices, the performance and stability of these tools has not been adequately evaluated in complex urban environments, and further research is needed. In this study, we present the design of a low-cost air quality monitoring platform based on the Shinyei PPD42 aerosol monitor and examine the suitability of the sensor for deployment in a dense heterogeneous urban environment. We assess the sensor's performance during a field calibration campaign from February 7th to March 25th 2017 with a reference instrument in New York City, and present a novel calibration approach using a machine learning method that incorporates publicly available meteorological data in order to improve overall sensor performance. We find that while the PPD42 performs well in relation to the reference instrument using linear regression (R2 = 0.36-0.51), a gradient boosting regression tree model can significantly improve device calibration (R2 = 0.68-0.76). We discuss the sensor's performance and reliability when deployed in a dense, heterogeneous urban environment during a period of significant variation in weather conditions, and important considerations when using machine learning techniques to improve the performance of low-cost air quality monitors.
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bock, H. Darrell
The hardware and software system used to create the National Opinion Research Center/Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (NORC/CRESST) item databases and test booklets for the 12th-grade science assessment are described. A general description of the capabilities of the system is given, with some specific information…
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Vermeul, Vince R.; Strickland, Chris E.; Thorne, Paul D.; ...
2014-12-31
The FutureGen 2.0 Project will design and build a first-of-its-kind, near-zero emissions coal-fueled power plant with carbon capture and storage (CCS). To assess storage site performance and meet the regulatory requirements of the Class VI Underground Injection Control (UIC) Program for CO2 Geologic Sequestration, the FutureGen 2.0 project will implement a suite of monitoring technologies designed to 1) evaluate CO2 mass balance and 2) detect any unforeseen loss in CO2 containment. The monitoring program will include direct monitoring of the injection stream and reservoir, and early-leak-detection monitoring directly above the primary confining zone. It will also implement an adaptive monitoringmore » strategy whereby monitoring results are continually evaluated and the monitoring network is modified as required, including the option to drill additional wells in out-years. Wells will be monitored for changes in CO2 concentration and formation pressure, and other geochemical/isotopic signatures that provide indication of CO2 or brine leakage. Indirect geophysical monitoring technologies that were selected for implementation include passive seismic, integrated surface deformation, time-lapse gravity, and pulsed neutron capture logging. Near-surface monitoring approaches that have been initiated include surficial aquifer and surface- water monitoring, soil-gas monitoring, atmospheric monitoring, and hyperspectral data acquisition for assessment of vegetation conditions. Initially, only the collection of baseline data sets is planned; the need for additional near- surface monitoring will be continually evaluated throughout the design and operational phases of the project, and selected approaches may be reinstituted if conditions warrant. Given the current conceptual understanding of the subsurface environment, early and appreciable impacts to near-surface environments are not expected.« less
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An inexpensive light-scattering particle monitor: field validation
Edwards, Rufus D.; Johnson, Michael; Shields, Kyra Naumoff; Allen, Tracy; Canuz, Eduardo; Smith, Kirk R.
2014-01-01
We have developed a small, light, passive, inexpensive, datalogging particle monitor called the “UCB” (University of California Berkeley particle monitor). Following previously published laboratory assessments, we present here results of tests of its performance in field settings at high particle concentrations. We demonstrate the mass sensitivity of the UCB in relation to gravimetric filter-based PM2.5 mass estimates as well as commercial light-scattering instruments co-located in field chamber tests and in kitchens of wood-burning households. The coefficient of variation of the unadjusted UCB mass response in relation to gravimetric estimates was 15%. Although requiring adjustment for differences in sensitivity, inter-monitor performance was consistently high (r2 > 0.99). Moreover, the UCB can consistently estimate PM2.5 mass concentrations in wood-burning kitchens (Pearson r2 = 0.89; N = 99), with good agreement between duplicate measures (Pearson r2 = 0.94; N = 88). In addition, with appropriate cleaning of the sensing chamber, UCB mass sensitivity does not decrease with time when used intensively in open woodfire kitchens, demonstrating the significant potential of this monitor. PMID:17909644
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Smart textile for respiratory monitoring and thoraco-abdominal motion pattern evaluation.
Massaroni, Carlo; Venanzi, Cecilia; Silvatti, Amanda P; Lo Presti, Daniela; Saccomandi, Paola; Formica, Domenico; Giurazza, Francesco; Caponero, Michele A; Schena, Emiliano
2018-05-01
The use of wearable systems for monitoring vital parameters has gained wide popularity in several medical fields. The focus of the present study is the experimental assessment of a smart textile based on 12 fiber Bragg grating sensors for breathing monitoring and thoraco-abdominal motion pattern analysis. The feasibility of the smart textile for monitoring several temporal respiratory parameters (ie, breath-by-breath respiratory period, breathing frequency, duration of inspiratory and expiratory phases), volume variations of the whole chest wall and of its compartments is performed on 8 healthy male volunteers. Values gathered by the textile are compared to the data obtained by a motion analysis system, used as the reference instrument. Good agreement between the 2 systems on both respiratory period (bias of 0.01 seconds), breathing frequency (bias of -0.02 breaths/min) and tidal volume (bias of 0.09 L) values is demonstrated. Smart textile shows good performance in the monitoring of thoraco-abdominal pattern and its variation, as well. © 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.
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Performance of a completely automated system for monitoring CMV DNA in plasma.
Mengelle, C; Sandres-Sauné, K; Mansuy, J-M; Haslé, C; Boineau, J; Izopet, J
2016-06-01
Completely automated systems for monitoring CMV-DNA in plasma samples are now available. Evaluate analytical and clinical performances of the VERIS™/MDx System CMV Assay(®). Analytical performance was assessed using quantified quality controls. Clinical performance was assessed by comparison with the COBAS(®) Ampliprep™/COBAS(®) Taqman CMV test using 169 plasma samples that had tested positive with the in-house technique in whole blood. The specificity of the VERIS™/MDx System CMV Assay(®) was 99% [CI 95%: 97.7-100]. Intra-assay reproducibilities were 0.03, 0.04, 0.05 and 0.04 log10IU/ml (means 2.78, 3.70, 4.64 and 5.60 log10IU/ml) for expected values of 2.70, 3.70, 4.70 and 5.70 log10IU/ml. The inter-assay reproducibilities were 0.12 and 0.08 (means 6.30 and 2.85 log10IU/ml) for expected values of 6.28 and 2.80 log10IU/ml. The lower limit of detection was 14.6IU/ml, and the assay was linear from 2.34 to 5.58 log10IU/ml. The results for the positive samples were concordant (r=0.71, p<0.0001; slope of Deming regression 0.79 [CI 95%: 0.56-1.57] and y-intercept 0.79 [CI 95%: 0.63-0.95]). The VERIS™/MDx System CMV Assay(®) detected 18 more positive samples than did the COBAS(®) Ampliprep™/COBAS(®) Taqman CMV test and the mean virus load were higher (0.41 log10IU/ml). Patient monitoring on 68 samples collected from 17 immunosuppressed patients showed similar trends between the two assays. As secondary question, virus loads detected by the VERIS™/MDx System CMV Assay(®) were compared to those of the in-house procedure on whole blood. The results were similar between the two assays (-0.09 log10IU/ml) as were the patient monitoring trends. The performances of the VERIS™/MDx System CMV Assay(®) facilitated its routine use in monitoring CMV-DNA loads in plasma samples. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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YUCSA: A CLIPS expert database system to monitor academic performance
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Toptsis, Anestis A.; Ho, Frankie; Leindekar, Milton; Foon, Debra Low; Carbonaro, Mike
1991-01-01
The York University CLIPS Student Administrator (YUCSA), an expert database system implemented in C Language Integrated Processing System (CLIPS), for monitoring the academic performance of undergraduate students at York University, is discussed. The expert system component in the system has already been implemented for two major departments, and it is under testing and enhancement for more departments. Also, more elaborate user interfaces are under development. We describe the design and implementation of the system, problems encountered, and immediate future plans. The system has excellent maintainability and it is very efficient, taking less than one minute to complete an assessment of one student.
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Umbrello, M; Salice, V; Spanu, P; Formenti, P; Barassi, A; Melzi d'Eril, G V; Iapichino, G
2014-10-01
The optimal level and modality of glucose control in critically ill patients is still debated. A protocolized approach and the use of nearly-continuous technologies are recommended to manage hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia and glycemic variability. We recently proposed a pato-physiology-based glucose control protocol which takes into account patient glucose/carbohydrate intake and insulin resistance. Aim of the present investigation was to assess the performance of our protocol with an automated intermittent plasma glucose monitoring device (OptiScanner™ 5000). OptiScanner™ was used in 6 septic patients, providing glucose measurement every 15' from a side-port of an indwelling central venous catheter. Target level of glucose was 80-150 mg/dL. Insulin infusion and kcal with nutritional support were also recorded. 6 septic patients were studied for 319 h (1277 measurements); 58 [45-65] hours for each patient (measurements/patient: 231 [172-265]). Blood glucose was at target for 93 [90-98]% of study time. Mean plasma glucose was 126 ± 11 mg/dL. Only 3 hypoglycemic episodes (78, 78, 69 mg/dL) were recorded. Glucose variability was limited: plasma glucose coefficient of variation was 11.7 ± 4.0% and plasma glucose standard deviation was 14.3 ± 5.5 mg/dL. The local glucose control protocol achieved satisfactory glucose control in septic patients along with a high degree of safeness. Automated intermittent plasma glucose monitoring seemed useful to assess the performance of the protocol. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd and European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. All rights reserved.
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Nazari, Siamak; Daley, Thomas M.
2013-02-07
This study was done to assess the repeatability and uncertainty of time-lapse VSP response to CO 2 injection in the Frio formation near Houston Texas. A work flow was built to assess the effect of time-lapse injected CO 2 into two Frio brine reservoir intervals, the ‘C’ sand (Frio1) and the ‘Blue sand’ (Frio2). The time-lapse seismic amplitude variations with sensor depth for both reservoirs Frio1 and Frio2 were computed by subtracting the seismic response of the base survey from each of the two monitor seismic surveys. Source site 1 has been considered as one of the best sites formore » evaluating the time-lapse response after injection. For site 1, the computed timelapse NRMS levels after processing had been compared to the estimated time-lapse NRMS level before processing for different control reflectors, and for brine aquifers Frio1, and Frio2 to quantify detectability of amplitude difference. As the main interest is to analyze the time-lapse amplitude variations, different scenarios have been considered. Three different survey scenarios were considered: the base survey which was performed before injection, monitor1 performed after the first injection operation, and monitor2 which was after the second injection. The first scenario was base-monitor1, the second was basemonitor2, and the third was monitor1-monitor2. We considered three ‘control’ reflections above the Frio to assist removal of overburden changes, and concluded that third control reflector (CR3) is the most favorable for the first scenario in terms of NRMS response, and first control reflector (CR1) is the most favorable for the second and third scenarios in terms of NRMS response. The NRMS parameter is shown to be a useful measure to assess the effect of processing on time-lapse data. The overall NRMS for the Frio VSP data set was found to be in the range of 30% to 80% following basic processing. This could be considered as an estimated baseline in assessing the utility of VSP for CO 2 monitoring. This study shows that the CO 2 injection in brine reservoir Frio1 (the ‘C’ sand unit) does induce a relative change in amplitude response, and for Frio2 (the ‘Blue’ sand unit) an amplitude change has been also detected, but in both cases the uncertainty, as measured by NRMS indicates the reservoir changes are, at best, only slightly above the noise level, and often below the noise level of the overall data set.« less
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Larson, Michael J; Clayson, Peter E; Primosch, Mark; Leyton, Marco; Steffensen, Scott C
2015-01-01
Studies using medications and psychiatric populations implicate dopamine in cognitive control and performance monitoring processes. However, side effects associated with medication or studying psychiatric groups may confound the relationship between dopamine and cognitive control. To circumvent such possibilities, we utilized a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subjects design wherein participants were administered a nutritionally-balanced amino acid mixture (BAL) and an amino acid mixture deficient in the dopamine precursors tyrosine (TYR) and phenylalanine (PHE) on two separate occasions. Order of sessions was randomly assigned. Cognitive control and performance monitoring were assessed using response times (RT), error rates, the N450, an event-related potential (ERP) index of conflict monitoring, the conflict slow potential (conflict SP), an ERP index of conflict resolution, and the error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe), ERPs associated with performance monitoring. Participants were twelve males who completed a Stroop color-word task while ERPs were collected four hours following acute PHE and TYR depletion (APTD) or balanced (BAL) mixture ingestion in two separate sessions. N450 and conflict SP ERP amplitudes significantly differentiated congruent from incongruent trials, but did not differ as a function of APTD or BAL mixture ingestion. Similarly, ERN and Pe amplitudes showed significant differences between error and correct trials that were not different between APTD and BAL conditions. Findings indicate that acute dopamine precursor depletion does not significantly alter cognitive control and performance monitoring ERPs. Current results do not preclude the role of dopamine in these processes, but suggest that multiple methods for dopamine-related hypothesis testing are needed.
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Al-Smadi, Marwan Saleh; Qblan, Yahya Mohammed
2015-01-01
It is vital that colleges and universities monitor the satisfaction levels of their employees to secure high levels of their performance. The current study aimed to identify the impact of some variables (gender, Teaching experience and college type) on assessing the level of job satisfaction among faculty of Najran University. A survey was…
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Welch, J. P.; Sims, N.; Ford-Carlton, P.; Moon, J. B.; West, K.; Honore, G.; Colquitt, N.
1991-01-01
The article describes a study conducted on general surgical and thoracic surgical floors of a 1000-bed hospital to assess the impact of a new network for portable patient care devices. This network was developed to address the needs of hospital patients who need constant, multi-parameter, vital signs surveillance, but do not require intensive nursing care. Bedside wall jacks were linked to UNIX-based workstations using standard digital network hardware, creating a flexible system (for general care floors of the hospital) that allowed the number of monitored locations to increase and decrease as patient census and acuity levels varied. It also allowed the general care floors to provide immediate, centralized vital signs monitoring for patients who unexpectedly became unstable, and permitted portable monitors to travel with patients as they were transferred between hospital departments. A disk-based log within the workstation automatically collected performance data, including patient demographics, monitor alarms, and network status for analysis. The log has allowed the developers to evaluate the use and performance of the system. PMID:1807720
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Testing an innovative framework for flood forecasting, monitoring and mapping in Europe
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Dottori, Francesco; Kalas, Milan; Lorini, Valerio; Wania, Annett; Pappenberger, Florian; Salamon, Peter; Ramos, Maria Helena; Cloke, Hannah; Castillo, Carlos
2017-04-01
Between May and June 2016, France was hit by severe floods, particularly in the Loire and Seine river basins. In this work, we use this case study to test an innovative framework for flood forecasting, mapping and monitoring. More in detail, the system integrates in real-time two components of the Copernicus Emergency mapping services, namely the European Flood Awareness System and the satellite-based Rapid Mapping, with new procedures for rapid risk assessment and social media and news monitoring. We explore in detail the performance of each component of the system, demonstrating the improvements in respect to stand-alone flood forecasting and monitoring systems. We show how the performances of the forecasting component can be refined using the real-time feedback from social media monitoring to identify which areas were flooded, to evaluate the flood intensity, and therefore to correct impact estimations. Moreover, we show how the integration with impact forecast and social media monitoring can improve the timeliness and efficiency of satellite based emergency mapping, and reduce the chances of missing areas where flooding is already happening. These results illustrate how the new integrated approach leads to a better and earlier decision making and a timely evaluation of impacts.
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NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Meyer, Donald; Uchenik, Igor
2007-01-01
The PPC750 Performance Monitor (Perfmon) is a computer program that helps the user to assess the performance characteristics of application programs running under the Wind River VxWorks real-time operating system on a PPC750 computer. Perfmon generates a user-friendly interface and collects performance data by use of performance registers provided by the PPC750 architecture. It processes and presents run-time statistics on a per-task basis over a repeating time interval (typically, several seconds or minutes) specified by the user. When the Perfmon software module is loaded with the user s software modules, it is available for use through Perfmon commands, without any modification of the user s code and at negligible performance penalty. Per-task run-time performance data made available by Perfmon include percentage time, number of instructions executed per unit time, dispatch ratio, stack high water mark, and level-1 instruction and data cache miss rates. The performance data are written to a file specified by the user or to the serial port of the computer
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Measuring Gait Quality in Parkinson’s Disease through Real-Time Gait Phase Recognition
Mileti, Ilaria; Germanotta, Marco; Di Sipio, Enrica; Imbimbo, Isabella; Pacilli, Alessandra; Erra, Carmen; Petracca, Martina; Del Prete, Zaccaria; Bentivoglio, Anna Rita; Padua, Luca
2018-01-01
Monitoring gait quality in daily activities through wearable sensors has the potential to improve medical assessment in Parkinson’s Disease (PD). In this study, four gait partitioning methods, two based on thresholds and two based on a machine learning approach, considering the four-phase model, were compared. The methods were tested on 26 PD patients, both in OFF and ON levodopa conditions, and 11 healthy subjects, during walking tasks. All subjects were equipped with inertial sensors placed on feet. Force resistive sensors were used to assess reference time sequence of gait phases. Goodness Index (G) was evaluated to assess accuracy in gait phases estimation. A novel synthetic index called Gait Phase Quality Index (GPQI) was proposed for gait quality assessment. Results revealed optimum performance (G < 0.25) for three tested methods and good performance (0.25 < G < 0.70) for one threshold method. The GPQI resulted significantly higher in PD patients than in healthy subjects, showing a moderate correlation with clinical scales score. Furthermore, in patients with severe gait impairment, GPQI was found higher in OFF than in ON state. Our results unveil the possibility of monitoring gait quality in PD through real-time gait partitioning based on wearable sensors. PMID:29558410
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Knafo, S Emmanuelle; Norton, Terry M; Mitchell, Mark; Stevenson, Dirk J; Hyslop, Natalie; Poppenga, Robert; Oliva, Marcie; Chen, Tai; Cray, Carolyn; Gibbs, Samantha E J; Durden, Lance; Stedman, Nancy; Divers, Stephen; Dierenfeld, Ellen
2016-12-01
Clinical pathology and nutritional parameters are useful in evaluating and monitoring threatened and endangered wildlife populations, but reference ranges for most snake species are lacking. From 2001 to 2005, health assessments were performed on 58 eastern indigo snakes (EIS) (Drymarchon couperi) captured in the wild in southeastern Georgia, United States. Health and nutritional assessments performed included hematology, serum biochemistry, fat-soluble vitamins, heavy metals, pesticide contaminants, parasitology, and surveys of other pathogens. Significant differences in total solids, packed cell volume, glucose, blood urea nitrogen, albumin : globulin ratio, amylase, triglycerides, and bile acids between males and females were observed. Additionally, there was a significant difference between liver and kidney concentrations for vitamins A and E. As previously noted in captive EIS, total Ca was elevated in comparison to concentrations reported in other snake species. Parasitism was a common finding in sampled EIS, but the overall health status of this free-ranging population appeared good. A winter-time dermatitis was found in most snakes, which resolved in the summer months. This study represents the first health and nutritional assessment of free-ranging EIS, and provides needed data to guide monitoring and conservation efforts.
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The role of physiology in the development of golf performance.
Smith, Mark F
2010-08-01
The attainment of consistent high performance in golf requires effective physical conditioning that is carefully designed and monitored in accordance with the on-course demands the player will encounter. Appreciating the role that physiology plays in the attainment of consistent performance, and how a player's physicality can inhibit performance progression, supports the notion that the application of physiology is fundamental for any player wishing to excel in golf. With cardiorespiratory, metabolic, hormonal, musculoskeletal and nutritional demands acting on the golfer within and between rounds, effective physical screening of a player will ensure physiological and anatomical deficiencies that may influence performance are highlighted. The application of appropriate golf-specific assessment methods will ensure that physical attributes that have a direct effect on golf performance can be measured reliably and accurately. With the physical development of golf performance being achieved through a process of conditioning with the purpose of inducing changes in structural and metabolic functions, training must focus on foundation whole-body fitness and golf-specific functional strength and flexibility activities. For long-term player improvement to be effective, comprehensive monitoring will ensure the player reaches an optimal physical state at predetermined times in the competitive season. Through continual assessment of a player's physical attributes, training effectiveness and suitability, and the associated adaptive responses, key physical factors that may impact most on performance success can be determined.
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Skempes, Dimitrios; Bickenbach, Jerome
2015-09-24
Rehabilitation care is fundamental to health and human dignity and a human right enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The provision of rehabilitation is important for reducing the need for formal support and enabling persons with disabilities to lead an independent life. Increasingly scholars and advocacy groups voice concerns over the significant barriers facing people with disabilities in accessing appropriate and quality rehabilitation. A growing body of research highlights a "respond-need" gap in the provision of rehabilitation and assistive technologies and underscore the lack of indicators for assessing performance of rehabilitation systems and monitoring States compliance with human rights standards in rehabilitation service planning and programming. While research on human rights and health monitoring has increased exponentially over the last decade far too little attention has been paid to rehabilitation services. The proposed research aims to reduce this knowledge gap by developing a human rights based monitoring framework with indicators to support human rights accountability and performance assessment in rehabilitation. Concept mapping, a stakeholder-driven approach will be used as the core method to identify rights based indicators and develop the rehabilitation services monitoring framework. Concept mapping requires participants from various stakeholders groups to generate a list of the potential indicators through on line brainstorming, sort the indicators for conceptual similarity into clusters and rate them against predefined criteria. Multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster data analysis will be performed to develop the monitoring framework while bridging analysis will provide useful insights about patterns of agreement or disagreement among participants views on indicators. This study has the potential to influence future practices on data collection and measurement of compliance with human rights standards in rehabilitation service delivery and organization. The development of a valid and universally applicable set of indicators will have a profound impact on the design and implementation of evidence informed disability policies and programs as it can support countries in strengthening performance measurement through documentation of comparative information on rehabilitation care systems. Most importantly, the resulting indicators can be used by disabled people's organizations as well as national and international institutions to define a minimal standard for monitoring and reporting progress on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the area of rehabilitation.
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Pereira, Telmo; Maldonado, João
2005-11-01
To evaluate the performance of the Colson MAM BP 3AA1-2 oscillometric automatic blood pressure monitor according to the validation protocol of the European Society of Hypertension, testing its suitability for self-measurement of blood pressure. The performance of the device was assessed in relation to various clinical variables, including age, gender, body mass index, arm circumference and arterial stiffness. 33 subjects (15 men and 18 women), with a mean age of 47 +/- 10 years, were studied according to the procedures laid down in the European Society of Hypertension validation protocol. Sequential same-arm blood pressure measurements were made, alternating between a mercury standard and the automatic device. The differences among the test-control measurements were assessed and divided into categorization zones of 5, 10 and 15 mmHg discrepancy. Aortic pulse wave velocity was assessed in all subjects with a Complior device (Colson, Paris). The Colson MAM BP 3AA1-2 passed all three phases of the protocol for both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The mean differences between the test and control measurements were -1.0 +/- 5.0 mmHg for systolic blood pressure and -1.1 +/- 4.1 mmHg for diastolic blood pressure. Both standard deviations are well below the 8 mmHg limit proposed by the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation. The predictive value of various clinical variables for the discrepancies was assessed by a regression model analysis, with no variable being found that independently undermined the performance of the monitor. In another regression analysis, we found a similar relation between test and control blood pressures and aortic pulse wave velocity, a widely recognized and validated index of target organ damage. These data show that the Colson MAM BP 3AA1-2 satisfies the quality requirements proposed by the European Society of Hypertension, demonstrating its suitability for inclusion in integrated programs of clinical surveillance based on self-measurement of blood pressure. The uniformity of its performance over a wide spectrum of clinical characteristics and the relation found with pulse wave velocity further reinforce its clinical validity.
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Fishbaugher, M. J.
1985-05-01
The decreasing cost of microcomputers along with improvements in power metering circuitry have changed the way in which electrical energy use is monitored. Although utilities still rely on kilowatt-hour (kWh) meters for billing purposes, a microcomputer-based monitoring system is used when greater temporal and end-use resolution is desired. Because these types of monitoring systems will be used increasingly in large-scale conservation and end-use studies, it is important that their performance be analyzed to determine their accuracy. A co-instrumentation test was devised in which two such microcomputer-based monitoring systems made simultaneous measurements of electrical end-uses in two commercial buildings. The analysismore » of the co-instrumentation data aids in the evaluation of microcomputer-based monitoring systems used for end-use measurements. Separate and independent data loggers were used to measure the same loads simultaneously. In addition to these two systems, a utility billing meter measured the total energy use in each building during the co-instrumentation test. The utility's meters provided a relatively accurate standard by which the performance of both loggers could be judged. The comparison between the SCL and PNL microcomputer-based loggers has shown that power measurement techniques directly affect system performance. The co-instrumentation test has shown that there are certain standards that a monitoring system must meet if it is to perform well. First, it is essential to calibrate a microcomputer-based logger against a known standard load before the system is installed. Second, a microcomputer-based system must have some way of accounting for power factors. Recent advances in power metering circuitry have made it relatively easy to apply these power factors automatically in real time.« less
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Kinespell: Kinesthetic Learning Activity and Assessment in a Digital Game-Based Learning Environment
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Cariaga, Ada Angeli; Salvador, Jay Andrae; Solamo, Ma. Rowena; Feria, Rommel
Various approaches in learning are commonly classified into visual, auditory and kinesthetic (VAK) learning styles. One way of addressing the VAK learning styles is through game-based learning which motivates learners pursue knowledge holistically. The paper presents Kinespell, an unconventional method of learning through digital game-based learning. Kinespell is geared towards enhancing not only the learner’s spelling abilities but also the motor skills through utilizing wireless controllers. It monitors player’s performance through integrated assessment scheme. Results show that Kinespell may accommodate the VAK learning styles and is a promising alternative to established methods in learning and assessing students’ performance in Spelling.
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Sleep Deprivation and Time-Based Prospective Memory.
Esposito, Maria José; Occhionero, Miranda; Cicogna, PierCarla
2015-11-01
To evaluate the effect of sleep deprivation on time-based prospective memory performance, that is, realizing delayed intentions at an appropriate time in the future (e.g., to take a medicine in 30 minutes). Between-subjects experimental design. The experimental group underwent 24 h of total sleep deprivation, and the control group had a regular sleep-wake cycle. Participants were tested at 08:00. Laboratory. Fifty healthy young adults (mean age 22 ± 2.1, 31 female). 24 h of total sleep deprivation. Participants were monitored by wrist actigraphy for 3 days before the experimental session. The following cognitive tasks were administered: one time-based prospective memory task and 3 reasoning tasks as ongoing activity. Objective and subjective vigilance was assessed by the psychomotor vigilance task and a visual analog scale, respectively. To measure the time-based prospective memory task we assessed compliance and clock checking behavior (time monitoring). Sleep deprivation negatively affected time-based prospective memory compliance (P < 0.001), objective vigilance (mean RT: P < 0.001; slowest 10% RT: P < 0.001; lapses: P < 0.005), and subjective vigilance (P < 0.0001). Performance on reasoning tasks and time monitoring behavior did not differ between groups. The results highlight the potential dangerous effects of total sleep deprivation on human behavior, particularly the ability to perform an intended action after a few minutes. Sleep deprivation strongly compromises time-based prospective memory compliance but does not affect time check frequency. Sleep deprivation may impair the mechanism that allows the integration of information related to time monitoring with the prospective intention. © 2015 Associated Professional Sleep Societies, LLC.
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Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR
2011-10-01
... information such as social security numbers, names, dates of birth, home addresses and mailing addresses... enable the Office to monitor State operations and assess program performance through the audit conducted...
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Clinical Assessment of Risk Management: an INtegrated Approach (CARMINA).
Tricarico, Pierfrancesco; Tardivo, Stefano; Sotgiu, Giovanni; Moretti, Francesca; Poletti, Piera; Fiore, Alberto; Monturano, Massimo; Mura, Ida; Privitera, Gaetano; Brusaferro, Silvio
2016-08-08
Purpose - The European Union recommendations for patient safety calls for shared clinical risk management (CRM) safety standards able to guide organizations in CRM implementation. The purpose of this paper is to develop a self-evaluation tool to measure healthcare organization performance on CRM and guide improvements over time. Design/methodology/approach - A multi-step approach was implemented including: a systematic literature review; consensus meetings with an expert panel from eight Italian leader organizations to get to an agreement on the first version; field testing to test instrument feasibility and flexibility; Delphi strategy with a second expert panel for content validation and balanced scoring system development. Findings - The self-assessment tool - Clinical Assessment of Risk Management: an INtegrated Approach includes seven areas (governance, communication, knowledge and skills, safe environment, care processes, adverse event management, learning from experience) and 52 standards. Each standard is evaluated according to four performance levels: minimum; monitoring; outcomes; and improvement actions, which resulted in a feasible, flexible and valid instrument to be used throughout different organizations. Practical implications - This tool allows practitioners to assess their CRM activities compared to minimum levels, monitor performance, benchmarking with other institutions and spreading results to different stakeholders. Originality/value - The multi-step approach allowed us to identify core minimum CRM levels in a field where no consensus has been reached. Most standards may be easily adopted in other countries.
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Zhang, Yuanzhi; Chen, Zhengyi; Zhu, Boqin; Luo, Xiuyue; Guan, Yanning; Guo, Shan; Nie, Yueping
2008-12-01
The objective of this study is to develop techniques for assessing and analysing land desertification in Yulin of Northwest China, as a typical monitoring region through the use of remotely sensed data and geographic information systems (GIS). The methodology included the use of Landsat TM data from 1987, 1996 and 2006, supplemented by aerial photos in 1960, topographic maps, field work and use of other existing data. From this, land cover, the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), farmland, woodland and grassland maps at 1:100,000 were prepared for land desertification monitoring in the area. In the study, all data was entered into a GIS using ILWIS software to perform land desertification monitoring. The results indicate that land desertification in the area has been developing rapidly during the past 40 years. Although land desertification has to some extent been controlled in the area by planting grasses and trees, the issue of land desertification is still serious. The study also demonstrates an example of why the integration of remote sensing with GIS is critical for the monitoring of environmental changes in arid and semi-arid regions, e.g. in land desertification monitoring in the Yulin pilot area. However, land desertification monitoring using remote sensing and GIS still needs to be continued and also refined for the purpose of long-term monitoring and the management of fragile ecosystems in the area.
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Human Research Program (HRP) Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) Standing Review Panel (SRP)
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Cintron, Nitza; Dutson, Eric; Friedl, Karl; Hyman, William; Jemison, Mae; Klonoff, David
2009-01-01
The SRP believes strongly that regularly performed in-flight crew assessments are needed in order to identify a change in health status before a medical condition becomes clinically apparent. It is this early recognition in change that constitutes the foundation of the "occupational health model" expounded in the HRP Requirements Document as a key component of the HRP risk mitigation strategy that will enable its objective of "prevention and mitigation of human health and performance risks". A regular crew status examination of physiological and clinical performance is needed. This can be accomplished through instrumented monitoring of routine embedded tasks. The SRP recommends addition of a new gap to address this action under Category 3.0 Mitigate the Risk. This new gap is closely associated with Task 4.19 which addresses the lack of adequate biomedical monitoring capabilities for performing periodic clinical status evaluations and contingency medical monitoring. A corollary to these gaps is the critical emphasis on preventive medicine, not only during pre- and post-flight phases of a mission as is the current practice, but continued into the in-flight phases of exploration class missions.
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NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Crucian, Brian; Stowe, Raymond; Mehta, Satish; Uchakin, Peter; Nehlsen-Cannarella, Sandra; Morukov, Boris; Pierson, Duane; Sams, Clarence
2007-01-01
There is ample evidence to suggest that space flight leads to immune system dysregulation. This may be a result of microgravity, confinement, physiological stress, radiation, environment or other mission-associated factors. The clinical risk from prolonged immune dysregulation during space flight are not yet determined, but may include increased incidence of infection, allergy, hypersensitivity, hematological malignancy or altered wound healing. Each of the clinical events resulting from immune dysfunction has the potential to impact mission critical objectives during exploration-class missions. To date, precious little in-flight immune data has been generated to assess this phenomenon. The majority of recent flight immune studies have been post-flight assessments, which may not accurately reflect the in-flight condition. There are no procedures currently in place to monitor immune function or its effect on crew health. The objective of this Supplemental Medical Objective (SMO) is to develop and validate an immune monitoring strategy consistent with operational flight requirements and constraints. This SMO will assess the clinical risks resulting from the adverse effects of space flight on the human immune system and will validate a flight-compatible immune monitoring strategy. Characterization of the clinical risk and the development of a monitoring strategy are necessary prerequisite activities prior to validating countermeasures. This study will determine, to the best level allowed by current technology, the in-flight status of crewmembers immune system. Pre-flight, in-flight and post-flight assessments of immune status, immune function, viral reactivation and physiological stress will be performed. The in-flight samples will allow a distinction between legitimate in-flight alterations and the physiological stresses of landing and readaptation which are believed to alter landing day assessments. The overall status of the immune system during flight (activation, deficiency, dysregulation) and the response of the immune system to specific latent virus reactivation (known to occur during space flight) will be thoroughly assessed. Following completion of the SMO the data will be evaluated to determine the optimal set of assays for routine monitoring of crewmember immune system function, should the clinical risk warrant such monitoring.
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THE DESIGN OF PERFORMANCE MONITORING SYSTEMS IN HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATIONS: A STAKEHOLDER PERSPECTIVE.
Rouhana, Rima E; Van Caillie, Didier
2016-01-01
Monitoring hospitals performance is evolving over time in search of more efficiency by integrating additional levels of care, reducing costs and keeping staff up-to-date. To fulfill these three potentially divergent aspects and to monitor performance, healthcare administrators are using dissimilar management control tools. To explain why, we suggest to go beyond traditional contingent factors to assess the role of the different stakeholders that are at the heart of any healthcare organization. We rely first on seminal studies to appraise the role of the main healthcare players and their influence on some organizational attributes. We then consider the managerial awareness and the perception of a suitable management system to promote a strategy-focused organization. Our methodology is based on a qualitative approach of twenty-two case studies, led in two heterogeneous environments (Belgium and Lebanon), comparing the managerial choice of a management system within three different healthcare organizational structures. Our findings allow us to illustrate, for each healthcare player, his positioning within the healthcare systems. Thus, we define how his role, perception and responsiveness manipulate the organization's internal climate and shape the design of the performance monitoring systems. In particular, we highlight the managerial role and influence on the choice of an adequate management system.
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An Assessment of Environmental Health Needs
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Macatangay, Ariel V.
2013-01-01
Environmental health fundamentally addresses the physical, chemical, and biological risks external to the human body that can impact the health of a person by assessing and controlling these risks in order to generate and maintain a health-supportive environment. In manned spacecraft, environmental health risks are mitigated by a multi-disciplinary effort, employing several measures including active and passive controls, by establishing environmental standards (SMACs, SWEGs, microbial and acoustics limits), and through environmental monitoring. Human Health and Performance (HHP) scientists and Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLS) engineers consider environmental monitoring a vital component to an environmental health management strategy for maintaining a healthy crew and achieving mission success. ECLS engineers use environmental monitoring data to monitor and confirm the health of ECLS systems, whereas HHP scientists use the data to manage the health of the human system. Because risks can vary between missions and change over time, environmental monitoring is critical. Crew health risks associated with the environment were reviewed by agency experts with the goal of determining risk-based environmental monitoring needs for future NASA manned missions. Once determined, gaps in environmental health knowledge and technology, required to address those risks, were identified for various types of exploration missions. This agency-wide assessment of environmental health needs will help guide the activities/hardware development efforts to close those gaps and advance the knowledge required to meet NASA manned space exploration objectives. Details of the roadmap development and findings are presented in this paper.
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An Evaluation of Performance Characteristics of Primary Display Devices.
Ekpo, Ernest U; McEntee, Mark F
2016-04-01
The aim of this study was to complete a full evaluation of the new EIZO RX850 liquid crystal display and compare it to two currently used medical displays in Australia (EIZO GS510 and Barco MDCG 5121). The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Task Group 18 Quality Control test pattern was used to assess the performance of three high-resolution primary medical displays: EIZO RX850, EIZO GS510, and Barco MDCG 5121. A Konica Minolta spectroradiometer (CS-2000) was used to assess luminance response, non-uniformity, veiling glare, and color uniformity. Qualitative evaluation of noise was also performed. Seven breast lesions were displayed on each monitor and photographed with a calibrated 5.5-MP Olympus E-1 digital SLR camera. ImageJ software was used to sample pixel information from each lesion and surrounding background to calculate their conspicuity index on each of the displays. All monitor fulfilled all AAPM acceptance criteria. The performance characteristics for EIZO RX850, Barco MDCG 5121, and EIZO GS510 respectively were as follows: maximum luminance (490, 500.5, and 413 cd/m(2)), minimum luminance (0.724, 1.170, and 0.92 cd/m(2)), contrast ratio (675:1, 428:1, 449:1), just-noticeable difference index (635, 622, 609), non-uniformity (20, 5.92, and 8.5 %), veiling glare (GR = 2465.6, 720.4, 1249.8), and color uniformity (Δu'v' = +0.003, +0.002, +0.002). All monitors demonstrated low noise levels. The conspicuity index (χ) of the lesions was slightly higher in the EIZO RX850 display. All medical displays fulfilled AAPM performance criteria, and performance characteristics of EIZO RX850 are equal to or better than those of the Barco MDCG 5121 and EIZO GS510 displays.
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Woltering, R; Hoffmann, G; Isermann, J; Heudorf, U
2016-11-01
Background and Objective: An assessment of cleaning and disinfection in hospitals by the use of objective surveillance and review of mandatory corrective measures was undertaken. Methods: A prospective examination of the cleaning and disinfection of surfaces scheduled for daily cleaning in 5 general care hospitals by use of an ultraviolet fluorescence targeting method (UVM) was performed, followed by structured educational and procedural interventions. The survey was conducted in hospital wards, operating theatres and intensive care units. Cleaning performance was measured by complete removal of UVM. Training courses and reinforced self-monitoring were implemented after the first evaluation. 6 months later, we repeated the assessment for confirmation of success. Results: The average cleaning performance was 34% (31/90) at base-line with significant differences between the 5 hospitals (11-67%). The best results were achieved in intensive care units (61%) and operating theatres (58%), the worst results in hospital wards (22%). The intervention significantly improved cleaning performance up to an average of 69% (65/94; +34.7%; 95% confidence interval (CI): 21.2-48.3; p<0.05), with differences between the hospitals (20-95%). The largest increase was achieved in hospital wards (+45%; CI 29.2-60.8; p<0.05). Improvements in operating theatres (+22.9%; CI 10.9-56.7) and intensive care units (+5.6%; CI 25.8-36.9) were statistically not significant. Conclusions: The monitoring of cleaning and disinfection of surfaces by fluorescence targeting is appropriate for evaluating hygiene regulations. An intervention can lead to a significant improvement of cleaning performance. As part of a strategy to improve infection control in hospitals, fluorescence targeting enables a simple inexpensive and effective surveillance of the cleaning performance and corrective measures. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.
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An intelligent control system for failure detection and controller reconfiguration
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Biswas, Saroj K.
1994-01-01
We present an architecture of an intelligent restructurable control system to automatically detect failure of system components, assess its impact on system performance and safety, and reconfigure the controller for performance recovery. Fault detection is based on neural network associative memories and pattern classifiers, and is implemented using a multilayer feedforward network. Details of the fault detection network along with simulation results on health monitoring of a dc motor have been presented. Conceptual developments for fault assessment using an expert system and controller reconfiguration using a neural network are outlined.
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Tang, An; Cloutier, Guy; Szeverenyi, Nikolaus M.; Sirlin, Claude B.
2016-01-01
OBJECTIVE The purpose of the article is to review the diagnostic performance of ultrasound and MR elastography techniques for detection and staging of liver fibrosis, the main current clinical applications of elastography in the abdomen. CONCLUSION Technical and instrument-related factors and biologic and patient-related factors may constitute potential confounders of stiffness measurements for assessment of liver fibrosis. Future developments may expand the scope of elastography for monitoring liver fibrosis and predict complications of chronic liver disease. PMID:25905762
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Besmer, Michael D.; Hammes, Frederik; Sigrist, Jürg A.; Ort, Christoph
2017-01-01
Monitoring of microbial drinking water quality is a key component for ensuring safety and understanding risk, but conventional monitoring strategies are typically based on low sampling frequencies (e.g., quarterly or monthly). This is of concern because many drinking water sources, such as karstic springs are often subject to changes in bacterial concentrations on much shorter time scales (e.g., hours to days), for example after precipitation events. Microbial contamination events are crucial from a risk assessment perspective and should therefore be targeted by monitoring strategies to establish both the frequency of their occurrence and the magnitude of bacterial peak concentrations. In this study we used monitoring data from two specific karstic springs. We assessed the performance of conventional monitoring based on historical records and tested a number of alternative strategies based on a high-resolution data set of bacterial concentrations in spring water collected with online flow cytometry (FCM). We quantified the effect of increasing sampling frequency and found that for the specific case studied, at least bi-weekly sampling would be needed to detect precipitation events with a probability of >90%. We then proposed an optimized monitoring strategy with three targeted samples per event, triggered by precipitation measurements. This approach is more effective and efficient than simply increasing overall sampling frequency. It would enable the water utility to (1) analyze any relevant event and (2) limit median underestimation of peak concentrations to approximately 10%. We conclude with a generalized perspective on sampling optimization and argue that the assessment of short-term dynamics causing microbial peak loads initially requires increased sampling/analysis efforts, but can be optimized subsequently to account for limited resources. This offers water utilities and public health authorities systematic ways to evaluate and optimize their current monitoring strategies. PMID:29213255
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Besmer, Michael D; Hammes, Frederik; Sigrist, Jürg A; Ort, Christoph
2017-01-01
Monitoring of microbial drinking water quality is a key component for ensuring safety and understanding risk, but conventional monitoring strategies are typically based on low sampling frequencies (e.g., quarterly or monthly). This is of concern because many drinking water sources, such as karstic springs are often subject to changes in bacterial concentrations on much shorter time scales (e.g., hours to days), for example after precipitation events. Microbial contamination events are crucial from a risk assessment perspective and should therefore be targeted by monitoring strategies to establish both the frequency of their occurrence and the magnitude of bacterial peak concentrations. In this study we used monitoring data from two specific karstic springs. We assessed the performance of conventional monitoring based on historical records and tested a number of alternative strategies based on a high-resolution data set of bacterial concentrations in spring water collected with online flow cytometry (FCM). We quantified the effect of increasing sampling frequency and found that for the specific case studied, at least bi-weekly sampling would be needed to detect precipitation events with a probability of >90%. We then proposed an optimized monitoring strategy with three targeted samples per event, triggered by precipitation measurements. This approach is more effective and efficient than simply increasing overall sampling frequency. It would enable the water utility to (1) analyze any relevant event and (2) limit median underestimation of peak concentrations to approximately 10%. We conclude with a generalized perspective on sampling optimization and argue that the assessment of short-term dynamics causing microbial peak loads initially requires increased sampling/analysis efforts, but can be optimized subsequently to account for limited resources. This offers water utilities and public health authorities systematic ways to evaluate and optimize their current monitoring strategies.
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Integrated risk and recovery monitoring of ecosystem restorations on contaminated sites
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.
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Lias, Courtney; Vigersky, Robert; Clarke, William; Parkes, Joan Lee; Sacks, David B.; Kirkman, M. Sue; Kovatchev, Boris
2014-01-01
Introduction: Currently used error grids for assessing clinical accuracy of blood glucose monitors are based on out-of-date medical practices. Error grids have not been widely embraced by regulatory agencies for clearance of monitors, but this type of tool could be useful for surveillance of the performance of cleared products. Diabetes Technology Society together with representatives from the Food and Drug Administration, the American Diabetes Association, the Endocrine Society, and the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation, and representatives of academia, industry, and government, have developed a new error grid, called the surveillance error grid (SEG) as a tool to assess the degree of clinical risk from inaccurate blood glucose (BG) monitors. Methods: A total of 206 diabetes clinicians were surveyed about the clinical risk of errors of measured BG levels by a monitor. The impact of such errors on 4 patient scenarios was surveyed. Each monitor/reference data pair was scored and color-coded on a graph per its average risk rating. Using modeled data representative of the accuracy of contemporary meters, the relationships between clinical risk and monitor error were calculated for the Clarke error grid (CEG), Parkes error grid (PEG), and SEG. Results: SEG action boundaries were consistent across scenarios, regardless of whether the patient was type 1 or type 2 or using insulin or not. No significant differences were noted between responses of adult/pediatric or 4 types of clinicians. Although small specific differences in risk boundaries between US and non-US clinicians were noted, the panel felt they did not justify separate grids for these 2 types of clinicians. The data points of the SEG were classified in 15 zones according to their assigned level of risk, which allowed for comparisons with the classic CEG and PEG. Modeled glucose monitor data with realistic self-monitoring of blood glucose errors derived from meter testing experiments plotted on the SEG when compared to the data plotted on the CEG and PEG produced risk estimates that were more granular and reflective of a continuously increasing risk scale. Discussion: The SEG is a modern metric for clinical risk assessments of BG monitor errors that assigns a unique risk score to each monitor data point when compared to a reference value. The SEG allows the clinical accuracy of a BG monitor to be portrayed in many ways, including as the percentages of data points falling into custom-defined risk zones. For modeled data the SEG, compared with the CEG and PEG, allows greater precision for quantifying risk, especially when the risks are low. This tool will be useful to allow regulators and manufacturers to monitor and evaluate glucose monitor performance in their surveillance programs. PMID:25562886
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Klonoff, David C; Lias, Courtney; Vigersky, Robert; Clarke, William; Parkes, Joan Lee; Sacks, David B; Kirkman, M Sue; Kovatchev, Boris
2014-07-01
Currently used error grids for assessing clinical accuracy of blood glucose monitors are based on out-of-date medical practices. Error grids have not been widely embraced by regulatory agencies for clearance of monitors, but this type of tool could be useful for surveillance of the performance of cleared products. Diabetes Technology Society together with representatives from the Food and Drug Administration, the American Diabetes Association, the Endocrine Society, and the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation, and representatives of academia, industry, and government, have developed a new error grid, called the surveillance error grid (SEG) as a tool to assess the degree of clinical risk from inaccurate blood glucose (BG) monitors. A total of 206 diabetes clinicians were surveyed about the clinical risk of errors of measured BG levels by a monitor. The impact of such errors on 4 patient scenarios was surveyed. Each monitor/reference data pair was scored and color-coded on a graph per its average risk rating. Using modeled data representative of the accuracy of contemporary meters, the relationships between clinical risk and monitor error were calculated for the Clarke error grid (CEG), Parkes error grid (PEG), and SEG. SEG action boundaries were consistent across scenarios, regardless of whether the patient was type 1 or type 2 or using insulin or not. No significant differences were noted between responses of adult/pediatric or 4 types of clinicians. Although small specific differences in risk boundaries between US and non-US clinicians were noted, the panel felt they did not justify separate grids for these 2 types of clinicians. The data points of the SEG were classified in 15 zones according to their assigned level of risk, which allowed for comparisons with the classic CEG and PEG. Modeled glucose monitor data with realistic self-monitoring of blood glucose errors derived from meter testing experiments plotted on the SEG when compared to the data plotted on the CEG and PEG produced risk estimates that were more granular and reflective of a continuously increasing risk scale. The SEG is a modern metric for clinical risk assessments of BG monitor errors that assigns a unique risk score to each monitor data point when compared to a reference value. The SEG allows the clinical accuracy of a BG monitor to be portrayed in many ways, including as the percentages of data points falling into custom-defined risk zones. For modeled data the SEG, compared with the CEG and PEG, allows greater precision for quantifying risk, especially when the risks are low. This tool will be useful to allow regulators and manufacturers to monitor and evaluate glucose monitor performance in their surveillance programs. © 2014 Diabetes Technology Society.
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Carinou, Eleftheria; Ferrari, Paolo; Bjelac, Olivera Ciraj; Gingaume, Merce; Merce, Marta Sans; O'Connor, Una
2015-09-01
A thorough literature review about the current situation on the implementation of eye lens monitoring has been performed in order to provide recommendations regarding dosemeter types, calibration procedures and practical aspects of eye lens monitoring for interventional radiology personnel. Most relevant data and recommendations from about 100 papers have been analysed and classified in the following topics: challenges of today in eye lens monitoring; conversion coefficients, phantoms and calibration procedures for eye lens dose evaluation; correction factors and dosemeters for eye lens dose measurements; dosemeter position and influence of protective devices. The major findings of the review can be summarised as follows: the recommended operational quantity for the eye lens monitoring is H p (3). At present, several dosemeters are available for eye lens monitoring and calibration procedures are being developed. However, in practice, very often, alternative methods are used to assess the dose to the eye lens. A summary of correction factors found in the literature for the assessment of the eye lens dose is provided. These factors can give an estimation of the eye lens dose when alternative methods, such as the use of a whole body dosemeter, are used. A wide range of values is found, thus indicating the large uncertainty associated with these simplified methods. Reduction factors from most common protective devices obtained experimentally and using Monte Carlo calculations are presented. The paper concludes that the use of a dosemeter placed at collar level outside the lead apron can provide a useful first estimate of the eye lens exposure. However, for workplaces with estimated annual equivalent dose to the eye lens close to the dose limit, specific eye lens monitoring should be performed. Finally, training of the involved medical staff on the risks of ionising radiation for the eye lens and on the correct use of protective systems is strongly recommended.
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Lieberman, Harris R; Falco, Christina M; Slade, Steven S
2002-07-01
The brain requires a continuous supply of glucose to function adequately. During aerobic exercise, peripheral glucose requirements increase and carbohydrate supplementation improves physical performance. The brain's utilization of glucose also increases during aerobic exercise. However, the effects of energy supplementation on cognitive function during sustained aerobic exercise are not well characterized. The effects of energy supplementation, as liquid carbohydrate, on cognitive function during sustained aerobic activity were examined. A double-blind, placebo-controlled, between-subjects design was used. Young, healthy men (n = 143) were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 treatment groups. The groups received either a 6% (by vol) carbohydrate (35.1 kJ/kg), 12% (by vol) carbohydrate (70.2 kJ/kg), or placebo beverage in 6 isovolumic doses, and all groups consumed 2 meals (3200 kJ). Over the 10-h study, the subjects performed physically demanding tasks, including a 19.3-km road march and two 4.8-km runs, interspersed with rest and other activities. Wrist-worn vigilance monitors, which emitted auditory stimuli (20/h) to which the subjects responded as rapidly as possible, and a standardized self-report mood questionnaire were used to assess cognitive function. Vigilance consistently improved with supplemental carbohydrates in a dose-related manner; the 12% carbohydrate group performed the best and the placebo group the worst (P < 0.001). Mood-questionnaire results corroborated the results from the monitors; the subjects who received carbohydrates reported less confusion (P = 0.040) and greater vigor (P = 0.025) than did those who received the placebo. Supplemental carbohydrate beverages enhance vigilance and mood during sustained physical activity and interspersed rest. In addition, ambulatory monitoring devices can continuously assess the effects of nutritional factors on cognition as individuals conduct their daily activities or participate in experiments.
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A strategic approach for Water Safety Plans implementation in Portugal.
Vieira, Jose M P
2011-03-01
Effective risk assessment and risk management approaches in public drinking water systems can benefit from a systematic process for hazards identification and effective management control based on the Water Safety Plan (WSP) concept. Good results from WSP development and implementation in a small number of Portuguese water utilities have shown that a more ambitious nationwide strategic approach to disseminate this methodology is needed. However, the establishment of strategic frameworks for systematic and organic scaling-up of WSP implementation at a national level requires major constraints to be overcome: lack of legislation and policies and the need for appropriate monitoring tools. This study presents a framework to inform future policy making by understanding the key constraints and needs related to institutional, organizational and research issues for WSP development and implementation in Portugal. This methodological contribution for WSP implementation can be replicated at a global scale. National health authorities and the Regulator may promote changes in legislation and policies. Independent global monitoring and benchmarking are adequate tools for measuring the progress over time and for comparing the performance of water utilities. Water utilities self-assessment must include performance improvement, operational monitoring and verification. Research and education and resources dissemination ensure knowledge acquisition and transfer.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Abou-Khousa, M. A.; Zoughi, R.
2007-03-01
Non-invasive monitoring of dielectric slab thickness is of great interest in various industrial applications. This paper focuses on estimating the thickness of dielectric slabs, and consequently monitoring their variations, utilizing wideband microwave signals and the MUtiple SIgnal Characterization (MUSIC) algorithm. The performance of the proposed approach is assessed by validating simulation results with laboratory experiments. The results clearly indicate the utility of this overall approach for accurate dielectric slab thickness evaluation.
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Single Common Powertrain Lubricant (SCPL) Development. Part 3
2015-02-01
completed to assess the condition of the piston skirts, ring faces, and cylinder liners . This provides quasi-real time monitoring of the oils performance in...was most likely attributed to further scuffing of cylinder 2R. During the teardown and ratings at the end of testing, liner 2R was found to be 90...monitored and compared. The evaluated parameters of the test included the piston ring wear, cylinder liner wear, lead bearing corrosion, along with lubricant
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Pawar, R.
2016-12-01
Risk assessment and risk management of engineered geologic CO2 storage systems is an area of active investigation. The potential geologic CO2 storage systems currently under consideration are inherently heterogeneous and have limited to no characterization data. Effective risk management decisions to ensure safe, long-term CO2 storage requires assessing and quantifying risks while taking into account the uncertainties in a storage site's characteristics. The key decisions are typically related to definition of area of review, effective monitoring strategy and monitoring duration, potential of leakage and associated impacts, etc. A quantitative methodology for predicting a sequestration site's long-term performance is critical for making key decisions necessary for successful deployment of commercial scale geologic storage projects where projects will require quantitative assessments of potential long-term liabilities. An integrated assessment modeling (IAM) paradigm which treats a geologic CO2 storage site as a system made up of various linked subsystems can be used to predict long-term performance. The subsystems include storage reservoir, seals, potential leakage pathways (such as wellbores, natural fractures/faults) and receptors (such as shallow groundwater aquifers). CO2 movement within each of the subsystems and resulting interactions are captured through reduced order models (ROMs). The ROMs capture the complex physical/chemical interactions resulting due to CO2 movement and interactions but are computationally extremely efficient. The computational efficiency allows for performing Monte Carlo simulations necessary for quantitative probabilistic risk assessment. We have used the IAM to predict long-term performance of geologic CO2 sequestration systems and to answer questions related to probability of leakage of CO2 through wellbores, impact of CO2/brine leakage into shallow aquifer, etc. Answers to such questions are critical in making key risk management decisions. A systematic uncertainty quantification approach can been used to understand how uncertain parameters associated with different subsystems (e.g., reservoir permeability, wellbore cement permeability, wellbore density, etc.) impact the overall site performance predictions.
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Assessing the performance of sewer rehabilitation on the reduction of infiltration and inflow.
Staufer, P; Scheidegger, A; Rieckermann, J
2012-10-15
Inflow and Infiltration (I/I) into sewer systems is generally unwanted, because, among other things, it decreases the performance of wastewater treatment plants and increases combined sewage overflows. As sewer rehabilitation to reduce I/I is very expensive, water managers not only need methods to accurately measure I/I, but also they need sound approaches to assess the actual performance of implemented rehabilitation measures. However, such performance assessment is rarely performed. On the one hand, it is challenging to adequately take into account the variability of influential factors, such as hydro-meteorological conditions. On the other hand, it is currently not clear how experimental data can indeed support robust evidence for reduced I/I. In this paper, we therefore statistically assess the performance of rehabilitation measures to reduce I/I. This is possible by using observations in a suitable reference catchment as a control group and assessing the significance of the observed effect by regression analysis, which is well established in other disciplines. We successfully demonstrate the usefulness of the approach in a case study, where rehabilitation reduced groundwater infiltration by 23.9%. A reduction of stormwater inflow of 35.7%, however, was not statistically significant. Investigations into the experimental design of monitoring campaigns confirmed that the variability of the data as well as the number of observations collected before the rehabilitation impact the detection limit of the effect. This implies that it is difficult to improve the data quality after the rehabilitation has been implemented. Therefore, future practical applications should consider a careful experimental design. Further developments could employ more sophisticated monitoring methods, such as stable environmental isotopes, to directly observe the individual infiltration components. In addition, water managers should develop strategies to effectively communicate statistically not significant I/I reduction ratios to decision makers. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Monitoring Million Trees LA: Tree performance during the early years and future benefits
E. Gregory McPherson
2014-01-01
Million Trees LA (MTLA) is one of several large-scale mayoral tree planting initiatives striving to create more livable cities through urban forestry. This study combined field sampling of tree survival and growth with numerical modeling of future benefits to assess performance of MTLA plantings. From 2006 to 2010 MTLA planted a diverse mix of 91,786 trees....
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The Role of Student Growth Percentiles in Monitoring Learning and Predicting Learning Outcomes
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Seo, Daeryong; McGrane, Joshua; Taherbhai, Husein
2015-01-01
Most formative assessments rely on the performance status of a student at a particular time point. However, such a method does not provide any information on the "propensity" of the student to achieve a predetermined target score or whether the student is performing as per the expectations from identical students with the same history of…
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Independent Assessment Plan: LAV-25
1989-06-27
Pages. Enter the total Block 7. Performing Organization Name(s) and number of pages. Address(es. Self -explanatory. Block 16. Price Code, Enter...organization Blocks 17. - 19. Security Classifications. performing the report. Self -explanatory. Enter U.S. Security Classification in accordance with U.S...Security Block 9. S oonsorina/Monitoring Acenc Regulations (i.e., UNCLASSIFIED). If form .Names(s) and Address(es). Self -explanatory. contains classified
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EMC system test performance on Spacelab
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Schwan, F.
1982-07-01
Electromagnetic compatibility testing of the Spacelab engineering model is discussed. Documentation, test procedures (including data monitoring and test configuration set up) and performance assessment approach are described. Equipment was assembled into selected representative flight configurations. The physical and functional interfaces between the subsystems were demonstrated within the integration and test sequence which culminated in the flyable configuration Long Module plus one Pallet.
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Ghafoor, Virginia L; Silus, Lauren S
2011-03-15
The development of a policy, evidence-based standard orders, and monitoring for palliative sedation therapy (PST) is described. Concerns regarding PST at the University of Minnesota Medical Center (UMMC) arose and needed to be addressed in a formal process. A multidisciplinary group consisting of palliative care physicians, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, and clinical pharmacy specialists reached consensus on the practice model and medications to be used for PST. Major elements of the plan included the development and implementation of an institutional policy for palliative sedation; standard orders for patient care, sedation, and monitoring; education for staff, patients, and patients' family members; and quality-assurance monitoring. A literature review was performed to identify research and guidelines defining the practice of PST. Policy content includes the use of a standard order set linking patient care, medication administration, the monitoring of sedation, and symptom management. Approval of the policy involved several UMMC committees. An evaluation matrix was used to determine critical areas for PST monitoring and to guide development of a form to monitor quality. A retrospective chart audit using the quality-assurance monitoring form assessed baseline sedation medication and patient outcomes. Assessment of compliance began in the fall of 2008, after the policy and standard orders were approved by the UMMC medical executive committee. In 2008, two cases of PST were monitored using the standardized form. PST cases will be continually monitored and analyzed. Development of policy, standard orders, and quality-assurance monitoring for PST required a formal multidisciplinary process. A process-improvement process is critical to defining institutional policy, educational goals, and outcome metrics for PST.
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Real-time monitoring through the use of technology to enhance performances throughout HIV cascades.
Avery, Matthew; Mills, Stephen J; Stephan, Eric
2017-09-01
Controlling the HIV epidemic requires strong linkages across a 'cascade' of prevention, testing, and treatment services. Information and communications technology (ICT) offers the potential to monitor and improve the performance of this HIV cascade in real time. We assessed recent (<18 months) peer-reviewed publications regarding uses of ICT to improve performance through expanded and targeted reach, improved clinical service delivery, and reduced loss to follow-up. Research on ICT has tended to focus on a specific 'silo' of the HIV cascade rather than on tracking individuals or program performance across the cascade. Numerous innovations have been described, including use of social media to expand reach and improve programmatic targeting; technology in healthcare settings to strengthen coordination, guide clinical decision-making and improve clinical interactions; and telephone-based follow-up to improve treatment retention and adherence. With exceptions, publications have tended to be descriptive rather than evaluative, and the evidence-base for the effectiveness of ICT-driven interventions remains mixed. There is widespread recognition of the potential for ICT to improve HIV cascade performance, but with significant challenges. Successful implementation of real-time cascade monitoring will depend upon stakeholder engagement, compatibility with existing workflows, appropriate resource allocation, and managing expectations.
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Fandakova, Yana; Selmeczy, Diana; Leckey, Sarah; Grimm, Kevin J; Wendelken, Carter; Bunge, Silvia A; Ghetti, Simona
2017-07-18
Metamemory monitoring, or the ability to introspect on the accuracy of one's memories, improves considerably during childhood, but the underlying neural changes and implications for intellectual development are largely unknown. The present study examined whether cortical changes in key brain areas hypothesized to support metacognition contribute to the development of metamemory monitoring from late childhood into early adolescence. Metamemory monitoring was assessed among 7- to 12-y-old children ( n = 145) and adults ( n = 31). Children returned for up to two additional assessments at 8 to 14 y of age ( n = 120) and at 9 to 15 y of age ( n = 107) ( n = 347 longitudinal scans). Results showed that metamemory monitoring continues to improve from childhood into adolescence. More pronounced cortical thinning in the anterior insula and a greater increase in the thickness of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex over the three assessment points predicted these improvements. Thus, performance benefits are linked to the unique patterns of regional cortical change during development. Metamemory monitoring at the first time point predicted intelligence at the third time point and vice versa, suggesting parallel development of these abilities and their reciprocal influence. Together, these results provide insights into the neuroanatomical correlates supporting the development of the capacity to self-reflect, and highlight the role of this capacity for general intellectual development.
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Selmeczy, Diana; Leckey, Sarah; Grimm, Kevin J.; Wendelken, Carter; Bunge, Silvia A.; Ghetti, Simona
2017-01-01
Metamemory monitoring, or the ability to introspect on the accuracy of one’s memories, improves considerably during childhood, but the underlying neural changes and implications for intellectual development are largely unknown. The present study examined whether cortical changes in key brain areas hypothesized to support metacognition contribute to the development of metamemory monitoring from late childhood into early adolescence. Metamemory monitoring was assessed among 7- to 12-y-old children (n = 145) and adults (n = 31). Children returned for up to two additional assessments at 8 to 14 y of age (n = 120) and at 9 to 15 y of age (n = 107) (n = 347 longitudinal scans). Results showed that metamemory monitoring continues to improve from childhood into adolescence. More pronounced cortical thinning in the anterior insula and a greater increase in the thickness of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex over the three assessment points predicted these improvements. Thus, performance benefits are linked to the unique patterns of regional cortical change during development. Metamemory monitoring at the first time point predicted intelligence at the third time point and vice versa, suggesting parallel development of these abilities and their reciprocal influence. Together, these results provide insights into the neuroanatomical correlates supporting the development of the capacity to self-reflect, and highlight the role of this capacity for general intellectual development. PMID:28673976
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Di, Qian; Rowland, Sebastian; Koutrakis, Petros; Schwartz, Joel
2017-01-01
Ground-level ozone is an important atmospheric oxidant, which exhibits considerable spatial and temporal variability in its concentration level. Existing modeling approaches for ground-level ozone include chemical transport models, land-use regression, Kriging, and data fusion of chemical transport models with monitoring data. Each of these methods has both strengths and weaknesses. Combining those complementary approaches could improve model performance. Meanwhile, satellite-based total column ozone, combined with ozone vertical profile, is another potential input. We propose a hybrid model that integrates the above variables to achieve spatially and temporally resolved exposure assessments for ground-level ozone. We used a neural network for its capacity to model interactions and nonlinearity. Convolutional layers, which use convolution kernels to aggregate nearby information, were added to the neural network to account for spatial and temporal autocorrelation. We trained the model with AQS 8-hour daily maximum ozone in the continental United States from 2000 to 2012 and tested it with left out monitoring sites. Cross-validated R2 on the left out monitoring sites ranged from 0.74 to 0.80 (mean 0.76) for predictions on 1 km×1 km grid cells, which indicates good model performance. Model performance remains good even at low ozone concentrations. The prediction results facilitate epidemiological studies to assess the health effect of ozone in the long term and the short term. PMID:27332675
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Ben, R.; Chalaturnyk, R.; Gardner, C.; Hawkes, C.; Johnson, J.; White, D.; Whittaker, S.
2008-12-01
In July 2000, a major research project was initiated to study the geological storage of CO2 as part of a 5000 tonnes/day EOR project planned for the Weyburn Field in Saskatchewan, Canada. Major objectives of the IEA GHG Weyburn CO2 monitoring and storage project included: assessing the integrity of the geosphere encompassing the Weyburn oil pool for effective long-term storage of CO2; monitoring the movement of the injected CO2, and assessing the risk of migration of CO2 from the injection zone (approximately 1500 metres depth) to the surface. Over the period 2000-2004, a diverse group of 80+ researchers worked on: geological, geophysical, and hydrogeological characterizations at both the regional (100 km beyond the field) and detailed scale (10 km around the field); conducted time-lapse geophysical surveys; carried out surface and subsurface geochemical surveys; and undertook numerical reservoir simulations. Results of the characterization were used for a performance assessment that concluded the risk of CO2 movement to the biosphere was very small. By September 2007, more than 14 Mtonnes of CO2 had been injected into the Weyburn reservoir, including approximately 3 Mtonnes recycled from oil production. A "Final Phase" research project was initiated (2007- 2011) to contribute to a "Best Practices" guide for long-term CO2 storage in EOR settings. Research objectives include: improving the geoscience characterization; further detailed analysis and data collection on the role of wellbores; additional geochemical and geophysical monitoring activities; and an emphasis on quantitative risk assessments using multiple analysis techniques. In this talk a review of results from Phase I will be presented followed by plans and initial results for the Final Phase.
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Distributed Attention Is Implemented through Theta-Rhythmic Gamma Modulation.
Landau, Ayelet Nina; Schreyer, Helene Marianne; van Pelt, Stan; Fries, Pascal
2015-08-31
When subjects monitor a single location, visual target detection depends on the pre-target phase of an ∼8 Hz brain rhythm. When multiple locations are monitored, performance decrements suggest a division of the 8 Hz rhythm over the number of locations, indicating that different locations are sequentially sampled. Indeed, when subjects monitor two locations, performance benefits alternate at a 4 Hz rhythm. These performance alternations were revealed after a reset of attention to one location. Although resets are common and important events for attention, it is unknown whether, in the absence of resets, ongoing attention samples stimuli in alternation. Here, we examined whether spatially specific attentional sampling can be revealed by ongoing pre-target brain rhythms. Visually induced gamma-band activity plays a role in spatial attention. Therefore, we hypothesized that performance on two simultaneously monitored stimuli can be predicted by a 4 Hz modulation of gamma-band activity. Brain rhythms were assessed with magnetoencephalography (MEG) while subjects monitored bilateral grating stimuli for a unilateral target event. The corresponding contralateral gamma-band responses were subtracted from each other to isolate spatially selective, target-related fluctuations. The resulting lateralized gamma-band activity (LGA) showed opposite pre-target 4 Hz phases for detected versus missed targets. The 4 Hz phase of pre-target LGA accounted for a 14.5% modulation in performance. These findings suggest that spatial attention is a theta-rhythmic sampling process that is continuously ongoing, with each sampling cycle being implemented through gamma-band synchrony. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Hypoglycemia incidence and risk factors assessment in hospitalized neonates.
Zhou, Wei; Yu, Jun; Wu, Yiqi; Zhang, Huawei
2015-03-01
To assess the incidence and risk factors of hypoglycemia in hospitalized neonates in China. Blood glucose level in hospitalized neonates was monitored routinely. Also, in high-risk newborns and neonates with abnormal blood glucose levels in initial detection, the blood sugar level was monitored daily until it was back to normal and stable. Hypoglycemia was detected in 113 out of 668 hospitalized neonates, and the incidence of hypoglycemia was 16.9%. The statistical analysis also showed that hypoglycemia always occurred within one week after birth, especially within three days after birth. Neonates with premature birth, low birth weight and perinatal asphyxia were susceptible to hypoglycemia. Active and continuous monitoring of blood glucose level should be performed in the early newborns, especially in high-risk children, and attention should be paid to timely feeding for the early diagnosis and treatment of neonatal hypoglycemia to reduce its impact on the newborns.
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NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Bickford, R. L.; Collamore, F. N.; Gage, M. L.; Morgan, D. B.; Thomas, E. R.
1992-01-01
The objectives of this task were to: (1) estimate the technology readiness of an integrated control and health monitoring (ICHM) system for the Aerojet 7500 lbF Orbit Transfer Vehicle engine preliminary design assuming space based operations; and (2) estimate the remaining cost to advance this technology to a NASA defined 'readiness level 6' by 1996 wherein the technology has been demonstrated with a system validation model in a simulated environment. The work was accomplished through the conduct of four subtasks. In subtask 1 the minimally required functions for the control and monitoring system was specified. The elements required to perform these functions were specified in Subtask 2. In Subtask 3, the technology readiness level of each element was assessed. Finally, in Subtask 4, the development cost and schedule requirements were estimated for bringing each element to 'readiness level 6'.
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Monitoring of Microbes in Drinking Water
Internationally there is a move towards managing the provision of safe drinking water by direct assessment of the performance of key pathogen barriers (critical control points), rather than end point testing (i.e. in drinking water). For fecal pathogens that breakthrough the vari...
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Assessing air quality impacts of managed lanes.
DOT National Transportation Integrated Search
2010-12-01
Impacts on transit bus performance and air quality were investigated for a case study high-occupancy / toll (HOT) lane project on a corridor of I-95 near Miami. Trends in air pollutant concentration monitoring data in the study area first were analyz...
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Assessing air quality impacts of managed lanes
DOT National Transportation Integrated Search
2010-12-01
Impacts on transit bus performance and air quality were investigated for a case study high-occupancy / : toll (HOT) lane project on a corridor of I-95 near Miami. Trends in air pollutant concentration : monitoring data in the study area first were an...
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DOT National Transportation Integrated Search
2015-03-01
An interactive and proactive process is desired to collect, monitor, : predict, and evaluate performance of existing Iowa highway : structures and roadway embankments during flood inundation, to : assist in proactively mitigating these events, and to...
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Anderson, Michael T.; Simonen, Fredric A.; Muscara, Joseph
2016-09-01
An assessment was performed to determine the effectiveness of existing inservice inspection (ISI) and leak monitoring techniques, and recommend improvements, as necessary, to the programs as currently performed for light water reactor (LWR) components. Information from nuclear power plant (NPP) aging studies and from the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Generic Aging Lessons Learned (GALL) report (NUREG-1801) was used to identify components that have already experienced, or are expected to experience, degradation. This report provides a discussion of the key aspects and parameters that constitute an effective ISI program and a discussion of the basis and background against which themore » effectiveness of the ISI and leak monitoring programs for timely detection of degradation was evaluated. Tables based on the GALL components were used to systematically guide the process, and table columns were included that contained the ISI requirements and effectiveness assessment. The information in the tables was analyzed using histograms to reduce the data and help identify any trends. The analysis shows that the overall effectiveness of the ISI programs is very similar for both boiling water reactors (BWRs) and pressurized water reactors (PWRs). The evaluations conducted as part of this research showed that many ISI programs are not effective at detecting degradation before its extent reached 75% of the component wall thickness. This work should be considered as an assessment of NDE practices at this time; however, industry and regulatory activities are currently underway that will impact future effectiveness assessments. A number of actions have been identified to improve the current ISI programs so that degradation can be more reliably detected.« less
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Literature Survey for Issues in Naval Decision Support: Phase 2
1999-01-01
human cognition, the specific goals of Soar ( Congdon & Laird, 1996, cited in Kalus et al., 1996) are to: • Work on a full range of tasks from routine...leadership, and communication (Weaver et al., 1995). 5.5.4.4 Team Performance Assessment Battery (TPAB) TP AB is a more generic scenario...permits multiple tasks, including monitoring tasks, to be imposed on teams to assess factors related to workload. Thus, TP AB is suitable for assessing
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Central arterial pressure assessment with intensity POF sensor
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Leitão, Cátia; Gonçalves, Steve; Antunes, Paulo; Bastos, José M.; Pinto, João. L.; André, Paulo
2015-09-01
The central pressure monitoring is considered a new key factor in hypertension assessment and cardiovascular prevention. In this work, it is presented the central arterial systolic pressure assessment with an intensity based POF sensor. The device was tested in four subjects, and stable pulse waves were obtained, allowing the calculation of the central pressure for all the subjects. The results shown that the sensor performs reliably, being a simple and low-cost solution to the intended application.
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van den Berg, Michael J; Kringos, Dionne S; Marks, Lisanne K; Klazinga, Niek S
2014-01-09
In 2006, the first edition of a monitoring tool for the performance of the Dutch health care system was released: the Dutch Health Care Performance Report (DHCPR). The Netherlands was among the first countries in the world developing such a comprehensive tool for reporting performance on quality, access, and affordability of health care. The tool contains 125 performance indicators; the choice for specific indicators resulted from a dialogue between researchers and policy makers. In the 'policy cycle', the DHCPR can rationally be placed between evaluation (accountability) and agenda-setting (for strategic decision making). In this paper, we reflect on important lessons learned after seven years of health care system performance assessment. These lessons entail the importance of a good conceptual framework for health system performance assessment, the importance of repeated measurement, the strength of combining multiple perspectives (e.g., patient, professional, objective, subjective) on the same issue, the importance of a central role for the patients' perspective in performance assessment, how to deal with the absence of data in relevant domains, the value of international benchmarking and the continuous exchange between researchers and policy makers.
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Wagner, Herbert P; Pepich, Barry V; Hautman, Daniel P; Munch, David J
2003-09-05
In 1998, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgated the maximum contaminant level (MCL) for bromate in drinking water at 10 microg/l, and the method for compliance monitoring of bromate in drinking water was established under Stage 1 of the Disinfectants/Disinfection By-Products Rule (D/DBP) as EPA Method 300.1. In January 2002, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulated the bromate concentration in bottled waters at 10 microg/l. EPA anticipates proposing additional methods, which have improved performance for bromate monitoring, in addition to EPA Method 300.1, in the Stage 2 DBP Rule. Until the Stage 2 Rule is promulgated, EPA Method 300.1 will continue to be the only method approved for compliance monitoring of bromate. This manuscript describes the work completed at EPA's Technical Support Center (TSC) to assess the performance of recently developed suppressor technologies toward improving the trace level performance of EPA Method 300.1, specifically for the analysis of trace levels of bromate in high ionic matrices. Three different types of Dionex suppressors were evaluated. The baseline noise, return to baseline after the water dip, detection limits, precision and accuracy, and advantages/disadvantages of each suppressor are discussed. Performance data for the three different suppressors indicates that chemical suppression of the eluent, using the AMMS III suppressor, is the most effective means to reduce baseline noise, resulting in the best resolution and the lowest bromate detection limits, even when a high ionic matrix is analyzed. Incorporation of the AMMS III suppressor improves the performance of EPA Method 300.1 at and below 5.0 microg/l and is a quick way for laboratories to improve their bromate compliance monitoring.
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Analytical and Clinical Performance of Blood Glucose Monitors
Boren, Suzanne Austin; Clarke, William L.
2010-01-01
Background The objective of this study was to understand the level of performance of blood glucose monitors as assessed in the published literature. Methods Medline from January 2000 to October 2009 and reference lists of included articles were searched to identify eligible studies. Key information was abstracted from eligible studies: blood glucose meters tested, blood sample, meter operators, setting, sample of people (number, diabetes type, age, sex, and race), duration of diabetes, years using a glucose meter, insulin use, recommendations followed, performance evaluation measures, and specific factors affecting the accuracy evaluation of blood glucose monitors. Results Thirty-one articles were included in this review. Articles were categorized as review articles of blood glucose accuracy (6 articles), original studies that reported the performance of blood glucose meters in laboratory settings (14 articles) or clinical settings (9 articles), and simulation studies (2 articles). A variety of performance evaluation measures were used in the studies. The authors did not identify any studies that demonstrated a difference in clinical outcomes. Examples of analytical tools used in the description of accuracy (e.g., correlation coefficient, linear regression equations, and International Organization for Standardization standards) and how these traditional measures can complicate the achievement of target blood glucose levels for the patient were presented. The benefits of using error grid analysis to quantify the clinical accuracy of patient-determined blood glucose values were discussed. Conclusions When examining blood glucose monitor performance in the real world, it is important to consider if an improvement in analytical accuracy would lead to improved clinical outcomes for patients. There are several examples of how analytical tools used in the description of self-monitoring of blood glucose accuracy could be irrelevant to treatment decisions. PMID:20167171
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Post-Surgical Clinical Monitoring of Soft Tissue Wound Healing in Periodontal and Implant Surgery
Pippi, Roberto
2017-01-01
Clinical features of surgical soft tissue wound healing in dentistry have been rarely discussed in the international literature. The aim of the present paper is to highlight both the main clinical findings of surgical wound healing, especially in periodontal and implant dentistry, and the wound healing monitoring procedures which should be followed. Wound inspection after careful food and plaque debridement is the essential part of wound healing monitoring. Periodontal and peri-implant probing should be performed only after tissue healing has been completed and not on a weekly basis in peri-implant tissue monitoring. Telephone follow-up and patient self-assessment scales can also be used the days following surgery to monitor the most common surgical complications such as pain, swelling, bleeding, and bruising. Wound healing monitoring is an important concern in all surgical procedures since it allows to identify signs or/and symptoms possibly related to surgical complications. PMID:28824306
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Post-Surgical Clinical Monitoring of Soft Tissue Wound Healing in Periodontal and Implant Surgery.
Pippi, Roberto
2017-01-01
Clinical features of surgical soft tissue wound healing in dentistry have been rarely discussed in the international literature. The aim of the present paper is to highlight both the main clinical findings of surgical wound healing, especially in periodontal and implant dentistry, and the wound healing monitoring procedures which should be followed. Wound inspection after careful food and plaque debridement is the essential part of wound healing monitoring. Periodontal and peri-implant probing should be performed only after tissue healing has been completed and not on a weekly basis in peri-implant tissue monitoring. Telephone follow-up and patient self-assessment scales can also be used the days following surgery to monitor the most common surgical complications such as pain, swelling, bleeding, and bruising. Wound healing monitoring is an important concern in all surgical procedures since it allows to identify signs or/and symptoms possibly related to surgical complications.
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WSN based indoor air quality monitoring in classrooms
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Wang, S. K.; Chew, S. P.; Jusoh, M. T.; Khairunissa, A.; Leong, K. Y.; Azid, A. A.
2017-03-01
Indoor air quality monitoring is essential as the human health is directly affected by indoor air quality. This paper presents the investigations of the impact of undergraduate students' concentration during lecture due to the indoor air quality in classroom. Three environmental parameters such as temperature, relative humidity and concentration of carbon dioxide are measured using wireless sensor network based air quality monitoring system. This simple yet reliable system is incorporated with DHT-11 and MG-811 sensors. Two classrooms were selected to install the monitoring system. The level of indoor air quality were measured and students' concentration was assessed using intelligent test during normal lecturing section. The test showed significant correlation between the collected environmental parameters and the students' level of performances in their study.
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Swanson, Priscilla; Soriano, Vincent; Devare, Sushil G.; Hackett, John
2001-01-01
The performance of the LCx HIV RNA Quantitative (LCx HIV), AMPLICOR HIV-1 MONITOR version 1.5 (MONITOR v1.5), and Quantiplex HIV-1 RNA version 3.0 (bDNA v3.0) viral load assays was evaluated with 39 viral isolates (3 A, 7 B, 6 C, 4 D, 8 E, 4 F, 1 G, 4 mosaic, and 2 group O). Quantitation across the assay dynamic ranges was assessed using serial fivefold dilutions of the viruses. In addition, sequences of gag-encoded p24 (gag p24), pol-encoded integrase, and env-encoded gp41 were analyzed to assign group and subtype and to assess nucleotide mismatches at primer and probe binding sites. For group M isolates, quantification was highly correlated among all three assays. In contrast, only the LCx HIV assay reliably quantified group O isolates. The bDNA v3.0 assay detected but consistently underquantified group O viruses, whereas the MONITOR v1.5 test failed to detect group O viruses. Analysis of target regions revealed fewer primer or probe mismatches in the LCx HIV assay than in the MONITOR v1.5 test. Consistent with the high level of nucleotide conservation is the ability of the LCx HIV assay to quantify efficiently human immunodeficiency virus type 1 group M and the genetically diverse group O. PMID:11230396
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NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Maidel, Veronica; Stanton, Jeffrey M.
2010-01-01
This document contains a literature review suggesting that research on industrial performance monitoring has limited value in assessing, understanding, and predicting team functioning in the context of space flight missions. The review indicates that a more relevant area of research explores the effectiveness of teams and how team effectiveness may be predicted through the elicitation of individual and team mental models. Note that the mental models referred to in this literature typically reflect a shared operational understanding of a mission setting such as the cockpit controls and navigational indicators on a flight deck. In principle, however, mental models also exist pertaining to the status of interpersonal relations on a team, collective beliefs about leadership, success in coordination, and other aspects of team behavior and cognition. Pursuing this idea, the second part of this document provides an overview of available off-the-shelf products that might assist in extraction of mental models and elicitation of emotions based on an analysis of communicative texts among mission personnel. The search for text analysis software or tools revealed no available tools to enable extraction of mental models automatically, relying only on collected communication text. Nonetheless, using existing software to analyze how a team is functioning may be relevant for selection or training, when human experts are immediately available to analyze and act on the findings. Alternatively, if output can be sent to the ground periodically and analyzed by experts on the ground, then these software packages might be employed during missions as well. A demonstration of two text analysis software applications is presented. Another possibility explored in this document is the option of collecting biometric and proxemic measures such as keystroke dynamics and interpersonal distance in order to expose various individual or dyadic states that may be indicators or predictors of certain elements of team functioning. This document summarizes interviews conducted with personnel currently involved in observing or monitoring astronauts or who are in charge of technology that allows communication and monitoring. The objective of these interviews was to elicit their perspectives on monitoring team performance during long-duration missions and the feasibility of potential automatic non-obtrusive monitoring systems. Finally, in the last section, the report describes several priority areas for research that can help transform team mental models, biometrics, and/or proxemics into workable systems for unobtrusive monitoring of space flight team effectiveness. Conclusions from this work suggest that unobtrusive monitoring of space flight personnel is likely to be a valuable future tool for assessing team functioning, but that several research gaps must be filled before prototype systems can be developed for this purpose.
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O'Donnell, T. K.; Galat, D.L.
2008-01-01
Objective setting, performance measures, and accountability are important components of an adaptive-management approach to river-enhancement programs. Few lessons learned by river-enhancement practitioners in the United States have been documented and disseminated relative to the number of projects implemented. We conducted scripted telephone surveys with river-enhancement project managers and practitioners within the Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB) to determine the extent of setting project success criteria, monitoring, evaluation of monitoring data, and data dissemination. Investigation of these elements enabled a determination of those that inhibited adaptive management. Seventy river enhancement projects were surveyed. Only 34% of projects surveyed incorporated a quantified measure of project success. Managers most often relied on geophysical attributes of rivers when setting project success criteria, followed by biological communities. Ninety-one percent of projects that performed monitoring included biologic variables, but the lack of data collection before and after project completion and lack of field-based reference or control sites will make future assessments of ecologic success difficult. Twenty percent of projects that performed monitoring evaluated ???1 variable but did not disseminate their evaluations outside their organization. Results suggest greater incentives may be required to advance the science of river enhancement. Future river-enhancement programs within the UMRB and elsewhere can increase knowledge gained from individual projects by offering better guidance on setting success criteria before project initiation and evaluation through established monitoring protocols. ?? 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.
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DeVries, Aaron; Talley, Pamela; Sweet, Kristin; Kline, Susan; Stinchfield, Patricia; Tosh, Pritish; Danila, Richard
2016-01-01
Background In October 2014, the United States began actively monitoring all persons who had traveled from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone in the previous 21 days. State public health departments were responsible for monitoring all travelers; Minnesota has the largest Liberian population in the United States. The MDH Ebola Clinical Team (ECT) was established to assess travelers with symptoms of concern for Ebola virus disease (EVD), coordinate access to healthcare at appropriate facilities including Ebola Assessment and Treatment Units (EATU), and provide guidance to clinicians. Methods Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) began receiving traveler information collected by U.S. Customs and Border Control and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff on October 21, 2014 via encrypted electronic communication. All travelers returning from Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea during 10/21/14–5/15/15 were monitored by MDH staff in the manner recommended by CDC based on the traveler’s risk categorization as “low (but not zero)”, “some” and “high” risk. When a traveler reported symptoms or a temperature ≥100.4° F at any time during their 21-day monitoring period, an ECT member would speak to the traveler and perform a clinical assessment by telephone or via video-chat. Based on the assessment the ECT member would recommend 1) continued clinical monitoring while at home with frequent telephone follow-up by the ECT member, 2) outpatient clinical evaluation at an outpatient site agreed upon by all parties, or 3) inpatient clinical evaluation at one of four Minnesota EATUs. ECT members assessed and approved testing for Ebola virus infection at MDH. Traveler data, calls to the ECT and clinical outcomes were logged on a secure server at MDH. Results During 10/21/14–5/15/15, a total of 783 travelers were monitored; 729 (93%) traveled from Liberia, 30 (4%) Sierra Leone, and 24 (3%) Guinea. The median number monitored per week was 59 (range 45–143). The median age was 35 years; 136 (17%) were aged <18 years. Thirteen of 256 women of reproductive age (5%) were pregnant. The country of passport issuance was known for 720 of the travelers. The majority of monitored travelers (478 [66%]) used a non-U.S. passport including 442 (61%) Liberian nationals. A total of 772 (99%) travelers were “low (but not zero)” risk; 11 (1%) were “some” risk. Among monitored travelers, 43 (5%) experienced illness symptoms; 29 (67%) had a symptom consistent with EVD. Two were tested for Ebola virus disease and had negative results. Most frequently reported symptoms were fever (20/43, 47%) and abdominal pain (12/43, 28%). During evaluation, 16 (37%) of 43 travelers reported their symptoms began prior to travel; chronic health conditions in 24 travelers including tumors/cancer, pregnancy, and orthopedic conditions were most common. Infectious causes in 19 travelers included upper respiratory infection, malaria, and gastrointestinal infections. Discussion Prior to 2014, no similar active monitoring program for travelers had been performed in Minnesota; assessment and management of symptomatic travelers was a new activity for MDH. Ensuring safe entrance into healthcare was particularly challenging for children, and pregnant women, as well as those without an established connection to healthcare. Unnecessary inpatient evaluations were successfully avoided by close clinical follow-up by phone. Before similar monitoring programs are considered in the future, careful thought must be given to necessary resources and the impact on affected populations, public health, and the healthcare system. PMID:27907013
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Mobile devices for community-based REDD+ monitoring: a case study for Central Vietnam.
Pratihast, Arun Kumar; Herold, Martin; Avitabile, Valerio; de Bruin, Sytze; Bartholomeus, Harm; Souza, Carlos M; Ribbe, Lars
2012-12-20
Monitoring tropical deforestation and forest degradation is one of the central elements for the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in developing countries (REDD+) scheme. Current arrangements for monitoring are based on remote sensing and field measurements. Since monitoring is the periodic process of assessing forest stands properties with respect to reference data, adopting the current REDD+ requirements for implementing monitoring at national levels is a challenging task. Recently, the advancement in Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) and mobile devices has enabled local communities to monitor their forest in a basic resource setting such as no or slow internet connection link, limited power supply, etc. Despite the potential, the use of mobile device system for community based monitoring (CBM) is still exceptional and faces implementation challenges. This paper presents an integrated data collection system based on mobile devices that streamlines the community-based forest monitoring data collection, transmission and visualization process. This paper also assesses the accuracy and reliability of CBM data and proposes a way to fit them into national REDD+ Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) scheme. The system performance is evaluated at Tra Bui commune, Quang Nam province, Central Vietnam, where forest carbon and change activities were tracked. The results show that the local community is able to provide data with accuracy comparable to expert measurements (index of agreement greater than 0.88), but against lower costs. Furthermore, the results confirm that communities are more effective to monitor small scale forest degradation due to subsistence fuel wood collection and selective logging, than high resolution remote sensing SPOT imagery.
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Mobile Devices for Community-Based REDD+ Monitoring: A Case Study for Central Vietnam
Pratihast, Arun Kumar; Herold, Martin; Avitabile, Valerio; de Bruin, Sytze; Bartholomeus, Harm; Souza, Carlos M.; Ribbe, Lars
2013-01-01
Monitoring tropical deforestation and forest degradation is one of the central elements for the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in developing countries (REDD+) scheme. Current arrangements for monitoring are based on remote sensing and field measurements. Since monitoring is the periodic process of assessing forest stands properties with respect to reference data, adopting the current REDD+ requirements for implementing monitoring at national levels is a challenging task. Recently, the advancement in Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) and mobile devices has enabled local communities to monitor their forest in a basic resource setting such as no or slow internet connection link, limited power supply, etc. Despite the potential, the use of mobile device system for community based monitoring (CBM) is still exceptional and faces implementation challenges. This paper presents an integrated data collection system based on mobile devices that streamlines the community-based forest monitoring data collection, transmission and visualization process. This paper also assesses the accuracy and reliability of CBM data and proposes a way to fit them into national REDD+ Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) scheme. The system performance is evaluated at Tra Bui commune, Quang Nam province, Central Vietnam, where forest carbon and change activities were tracked. The results show that the local community is able to provide data with accuracy comparable to expert measurements (index of agreement greater than 0.88), but against lower costs. Furthermore, the results confirm that communities are more effective to monitor small scale forest degradation due to subsistence fuel wood collection and selective logging, than high resolution remote sensing SPOT imagery. PMID:23344371
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Operation and performance of the Ciba-Corning 512 coagulation monitor during parabolic flight
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Gocke, Robyn; Lloyd, Charles W.; Greenthaner, Nancy K.
1991-01-01
The goal was to assess the functionality and evaluate the procedures and operations required to operate the Ciba-Corning 512 Coagulation Monitor during parabolic flight. This monitor determines the clotting characteristics of blood. The analyzer operates by laser detection of the cessation of blood flow in a capillary channel within a test cartridge. Test simulator results were excellent for both pre-and post-flight. In-flight results were not obtained due to the warm-up time required for the simulator. Since this is an electronic function only, the expected results on the simulator would be the same in zero-g.
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Summary of compact, roof version of a Village Green Project station installed on a secondary school rooftop in Hong Kong. Preliminary comparison of the station's data against nearby regulatory monitors are summarized.
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Human Exposures to PAHs: an Eastern United States Pilot Study
Personal exposure monitoring for select polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was performed as part of the National Human Exposure Assessment Survey (NHEXAS) Pilot Study in Baltimore, MD and in four surrounding counties (NHEXAS-Maryland). An objective of this effort was to esta...
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Strategic assessment of the Highway Performance Monitoring System
DOT National Transportation Integrated Search
1995-02-01
The appendix contains a series of border crossing profiles covering the major, and in some cases, minor crossings in the border frontier. The frontier itself is a definition created for the 6015 Study to aid in the analysis of trade and traffic flows...
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Impact of government regulation on health care technology
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Berkowitz, Robert D.
1994-12-01
Increased government regulation of the medical device industry produces higher expenses, a longer time to return investment capital, and greater uncertainty. As a result there are fewer new ventures and reduced efforts to develop new technology in established companies. The current federal regulatory framework has shifted from monitoring the product to monitoring the process. The inability to reach perfect performance in such a regulated environment subject to continuous and fluid interpretation guarantees non-compliance and growing ethical tension. Without new medical technology, we may be unable to maintain quality medical coverage in the face of rising demand. The author proposes risk assessment to set regulatory priorities; the conversion of a national weapons lab to a national device testing lab; the establishment of device standards and the monitoring of in-use performance against these standards; and the education of patients and users as to the results of these examinations.
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The utility of conductive plastic electrodes in prolonged ICU EEG monitoring.
Das, Rohit R; Lucey, Brendan P; Chou, Sherry H-Y; Espinosa, Patricio S; Zamani, Amir A; Dworetzky, Barbara A; Bromfield, Edward B; Lee, Jong Woo
2009-01-01
We investigated the feasibility and utilization of conductive plastic electrodes (CPEs) in patients undergoing continuous video-electroencephalographic (EEG) monitoring in the intensive care unit (ICU), and assessed the quality of brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) images obtained during this period. A total of 54 patients were monitored. Seizures were recorded in 16 patients. Twenty-five patients had neuroimaging performed with electrodes in place; 15 MRI and 23 CT scans were performed. All patients had excellent quality anatomical images without clinically significant artifacts, and without any signs or symptoms that raised safety concerns. Recording quality of the EEG was indistinguishable to that achieved with standard gold electrodes. The use of CPEs allowed for uninterrupted EEG recording of patients who required urgent neuroimaging, and decreased the amount of time spent by the technologists required to remove and reattach leads.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Bednarski, Ł.; Sieńko, R.; Howiacki, T.
2017-10-01
This article presents the possibility of using structural health monitoring system data for the analysis of structure’s operation during its life cycle. Within the specific case study it was proved, that continuous, automatic and long term monitoring of selected physical quantities such as strains and temperatures, can significantly improve the assessment of technical condition by identifying hazardous phenomena. In this work the analysis of structural behaviour of post-tensioned girders within the roofing of sport halls in Cracow, Poland, was performed based on measurement results and verified by numerical model carried out in SOFiSTiK software. Thanks to the possibility of performing calculations in real time and informing the manager of the object about abnormalities it is possible to manage the structure in effective way by, inter alia, planning the renovations or supporting decisions about snow removal.
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Blast optimization for improved dragline productivity
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Humphreys, M.; Baldwin, G.
1994-12-31
A project aimed at blast optimization for large open pit coal mines is utilizing blast monitoring and analysis techniques, advanced dragline monitoring equipment, and blast simulation software, to assess the major controlling factors affecting both blast performance and subsequent dragline productivity. This has involved collaborative work between the explosives supplier, mine operator, monitoring equipment manufacturer, and a mining research organization. The results from trial blasts and subsequently monitored dragline production have yielded promising results and continuing studies are being conducted as part of a blast optimization program. It should be stressed that the optimization of blasting practices for improved draglinemore » productivity is a site specific task, achieved through controlled and closely monitored procedures. The benefits achieved at one location can not be simply transferred to another minesite unless similar improvement strategies are first implemented.« less
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Representativeness of shorter measurement sessions in long-term indoor air monitoring.
Maciejewska, M; Szczurek, A
2015-02-01
Indoor air quality (IAQ) considerably influences health, comfort and the overall performance of people who spend most of their lives in confined spaces. For this reason, there is a strong need to develop methods for IAQ assessment. The fundamental issue in the quantitative determination of IAQ is the duration of measurements. Its inadequate choice may result in providing incorrect information and this potentially leads to wrong conclusions. The most complete information may be acquired through long-term monitoring. However it is typically perceived as impractical due to time and cost load. The aim of this study was to determine whether long-term monitoring can be adequately represented by a shorter measurement session. There were considered three measurable quantities: temperature, relative humidity and carbon dioxide concentration. They are commonly recognized as indicatives for IAQ and may be readily monitored. Scaled Kullback-Leibler divergence, also called relative entropy, was applied as a measure of data representativeness. We considered long-term monitoring in a range from 1 to 9 months. Based on our work, the representative data on CO2 concentration may be acquired while performing measurements during 20% of time dedicated to long-term monitoring. In the case of temperature and relative humidity the respective time demand was 50% of long-term monitoring. From our results, in indoor air monitoring strategies, there could be considered shorter measurement sessions, while still collecting data which are representative for long-term monitoring.
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Four years of Landsat-7 on-orbit geometric calibration and performance
Lee, D.S.; Storey, James C.; Choate, M.J.; Hayes, R.W.
2004-01-01
Unlike its predecessors, Landsat-7 has undergone regular geometric and radiometric performance monitoring and calibration since launch in April 1999. This ongoing activity, which includes issuing quarterly updates to calibration parameters, has generated a wealth of geometric performance data over the four-year on-orbit period of operations. A suite of geometric characterization (measurement and evaluation procedures) and calibration (procedures to derive improved estimates of instrument parameters) methods are employed by the Landsat-7 Image Assessment System to maintain the geometric calibration and to track specific aspects of geometric performance. These include geodetic accuracy, band-to-band registration accuracy, and image-to-image registration accuracy. These characterization and calibration activities maintain image product geometric accuracy at a high level - by monitoring performance to determine when calibration is necessary, generating new calibration parameters, and verifying that new parameters achieve desired improvements in accuracy. Landsat-7 continues to meet and exceed all geometric accuracy requirements, although aging components have begun to affect performance.
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Investigation of Data Fusion Applied to Health Monitoring of Wind Turbine Drive train Components
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Dempsey, Paula J.; Sheng, Shuangwen
2011-01-01
The research described was performed on diagnostic tools used to detect damage to dynamic mechanical components in a wind turbine gearbox. Different monitoring technologies were evaluated by collecting vibration and oil debris data from tests performed on a "healthy" gearbox and a damaged gearbox in a dynamometer test stand located at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The damaged gearbox tested was removed from the field after experiencing component damage due to two losses of oil events and was retested under controlled conditions in the dynamometer test stand. Preliminary results indicate oil debris and vibration can be integrated to assess the health of the wind turbine gearbox.
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A study to assess the long-term stability of the ionization chamber reference system in the LNMRI
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Trindade Filho, O. L.; Conceição, D. A.; da Silva, C. J.; Delgado, J. U.; de Oliveira, A. E.; Iwahara, A.; Tauhata, L.
2018-03-01
Ionization chambers are used as secondary standard in order to maintain the calibration factors of radionuclides in the activity measurements in metrology laboratories. Used as radionuclide calibrator in nuclear medicine clinics to control dose in patients, its long-term performance is not evaluated systematically. A methodology for long-term evaluation for its stability is monitored and checked. Historical data produced monthly of 2012 until 2017, by an ionization chamber, electrometer and 226Ra, were analyzed via control chart, aiming to follow the long-term performance. Monitoring systematic errors were consistent within the limits of control, demonstrating the quality of measurements in compliance with ISO17025.
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Performance assessment of a closed-loop system for diabetes management.
Martinez-Millana, A; Fico, G; Fernández-Llatas, C; Traver, V
2015-12-01
Telemedicine systems can play an important role in the management of diabetes, a chronic condition that is increasing worldwide. Evaluations on the consistency of information across these systems and on their performance in a real situation are still missing. This paper presents a remote monitoring system for diabetes management based on physiological sensors, mobile technologies and patient/doctor applications over a service-oriented architecture that has been evaluated in an international trial (83,905 operation records). The proposed system integrates three types of running environments and data engines in a single service-oriented architecture. This feature is used to assess key performance indicators comparing them with other type of architectures. Data sustainability across the applications has been evaluated showing better outcomes for full integrated sensors. At the same time, runtime performance of clients has been assessed spotting no differences regarding the operative environment.
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Obermaier, Karin; Schmelzeisen-Redeker, Günther; Schoemaker, Michael; Klötzer, Hans-Martin; Kirchsteiger, Harald; Eikmeier, Heino; del Re, Luigi
2013-07-01
Even though a Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute proposal exists on the design of studies and performance criteria for continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems, it has not yet led to a consistent evaluation of different systems, as no consensus has been reached on the reference method to evaluate them or on acceptance levels. As a consequence, performance assessment of CGM systems tends to be inconclusive, and a comparison of the outcome of different studies is difficult. Published information and available data (as presented in this issue of Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology by Freckmann and coauthors) are used to assess the suitability of several frequently used methods [International Organization for Standardization, continuous glucose error grid analysis, mean absolute relative deviation (MARD), precision absolute relative deviation (PARD)] when assessing performance of CGM systems in terms of accuracy and precision. The combined use of MARD and PARD seems to allow for better characterization of sensor performance. The use of different quantities for calibration and evaluation, e.g., capillary blood using a blood glucose (BG) meter versus venous blood using a laboratory measurement, introduces an additional error source. Using BG values measured in more or less large intervals as the only reference leads to a significant loss of information in comparison with the continuous sensor signal and possibly to an erroneous estimation of sensor performance during swings. Both can be improved using data from two identical CGM sensors worn by the same patient in parallel. Evaluation of CGM performance studies should follow an identical study design, including sufficient swings in glycemia. At least a part of the study participants should wear two identical CGM sensors in parallel. All data available should be used for evaluation, both by MARD and PARD, a good PARD value being a precondition to trust a good MARD value. Results should be analyzed and presented separately for clinically different categories, e.g., hypoglycemia, exercise, or night and day. © 2013 Diabetes Technology Society.
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Employee Performance in the Context of the Problems of Measurement and Evaluation in Practice
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Szabó, Peter; Mĺkva, Miroslava; Vaňová, Jaromíra; Marková, Petra
2017-09-01
Employee performance is a condition and an assumption for the performance and success of a company on the market. In order to ensure competitive ability, the quality of human resources, their management, and related measurement and performance assessment are at the forefront of company interest. Employee assessment affects the performance, development and motivation of people and also provides the necessary information about the employees. It allows the organization to monitor employee performance and compare their work with other collaborators. Many companies have the problem of setting up evaluation system so that it carried itself elements of responsibility and objectivity. The result of conceptual work in this area is the ultimate use of tools whose deployment, if possible, motivates employees to perform better. The aim of the paper is to refer to problems that arise in companies in evaluating the performance of employees.
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Assessing the Strategic Utility of the High North: The Colder War
2016-12-01
FUNDING NUMBERS 6. AUTHOR(S) Brandon J. Daigle and Brian W. James 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) Naval Postgraduate School...Monterey, CA 93943-5000 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER 9. SPONSORING /MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) N/A 10. SPONSORING...European Command GDP Gross domestic product ISR Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization NSR Northern
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Radon Assessment of Occupational Facilities, Grissom ARB, IN
2012-11-28
4) EPA 402-R-92-014, Radon Measurements in Schools , July 1993 b. Measurement Device Protocols: The following protocols were used when placing...Performance Tests : A biennial performance test from commercial vendors evaluates the proficiency of USAFSAM’s radon analysis. A proficiency test ...listing of duplicates and analysis. (4) Calibration Tests : Please see Attachment 4 for calibration certificates. 3. RESULTS: In total, 106 radon monitors
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Monitoring guidance for patients with hypophosphatasia treated with asfotase alfa.
Kishnani, Priya S; Rush, Eric T; Arundel, Paul; Bishop, Nick; Dahir, Kathryn; Fraser, William; Harmatz, Paul; Linglart, Agnès; Munns, Craig F; Nunes, Mark E; Saal, Howard M; Seefried, Lothar; Ozono, Keiichi
2017-09-01
Hypophosphatasia (HPP) is a rare, inherited, systemic, metabolic disorder caused by autosomal recessive mutations or a single dominant-negative mutation in the gene encoding tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase (TNSALP). The disease is associated with a broad range of signs, symptoms, and complications, including impaired skeletal mineralization, altered calcium and phosphate metabolism, recurrent fractures, pain, respiratory problems, impaired growth and mobility, premature tooth loss, developmental delay, and seizures. Asfotase alfa is a human, recombinant enzyme replacement therapy that is approved in many countries for the treatment of patients with HPP. To address the unmet need for guidance in the monitoring of patients receiving asfotase alfa, an international panel of physicians with experience in diagnosing and managing HPP convened in May 2016 to discuss treatment monitoring parameters. The panel discussions focused on recommendations for assessing and monitoring patients after the decision to treat with asfotase alfa had been made and did not include recommendations for whom to treat. Based on the consensus of panel members, this review provides guidance on the monitoring of patients with HPP during treatment with asfotase alfa, including recommendations for laboratory, efficacy, and safety assessments and the frequency with which these should be performed during the course of treatment. Recommended assessments are based on patient age and include regular monitoring of biochemistry, skeletal radiographs, respiratory function, growth, pain, mobility and motor function, and quality of life. Because of the systemic presentation of HPP, a coordinated, multidisciplinary, team-based, patient-focused approach is recommended in the management of patients receiving asfotase alfa. Monitoring of efficacy and safety outcomes must be tailored to the individual patient, depending on medical history, clinical manifestations, availability of resources in the clinical setting, and the clinician's professional judgment. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Internal cycle modeling and environmental assessment of multiple cycle consumer products
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Tsiliyannis, C.A., E-mail: anion@otenet.gr
2012-01-15
Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Dynamic flow models are presented for remanufactured, reused or recycled products. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Early loss and stochastic return are included for fast and slow cycling products. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The reuse-to-input flow ratio (Internal Cycle Factor, ICF) is determined. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The cycle rate, which is increasing with the ICF, monitors eco-performance. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Early internal cycle losses diminish the ICF, the cycle rate and performance. - Abstract: Dynamic annual flow models incorporating consumer discard and usage loss and featuring deterministic and stochastic end-of-cycle (EOC) return by the consumer are developed for reused or remanufactured products (multiple cycle products, MCPs), including fast andmore » slow cycling, short and long-lived products. It is shown that internal flows (reuse and overall consumption) increase proportionally to the dimensionless internal cycle factor (ICF) which is related to environmental impact reduction factors. The combined reuse/recycle (or cycle) rate is shown capable for shortcut, albeit effective, monitoring of environmental performance in terms of waste production, virgin material extraction and manufacturing impacts of all MCPs, a task, which physical variables (lifetime, cycling frequency, mean or total number of return trips) and conventional rates, via which environmental policy has been officially implemented (e.g. recycling rate) cannot accomplish. The cycle rate is shown to be an increasing (hyperbolic) function of ICF. The impact of the stochastic EOC return characteristics on total reuse and consumption flows, as well as on eco-performance, is assessed: symmetric EOC return has a small, positive effect on performance compared to deterministic, while early shifted EOC return is more beneficial. In order to be efficient, environmental policy should set higher minimum reuse targets for higher trippage MCPs. The results may serve for monitoring, flow accounting and comparative eco-assessment of MCPs. They may be useful in identifying reachable and efficient reuse/recycle targets for consumer products and in planning return via appropriate labelling and digital coding for enhancing environmental performance, while satisfying consumer demand.« less
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2013-05-01
PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) 5d. PROJECT NUMBER 5e. TASK NUMBER 5f. WORK UNIT NUMBER 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) AMEC...Environment & Infrastructure, Inc,404 SW 140th Terrace,Newberry,FL,32669 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER 9. SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY... perform a coastal zone consistency evaluation. The State of Florida determined that the Proposed Action is consistent with the Florida CMP. FINDING
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Zhang, Xuejun; Tang, Qiuhong; Liu, Xingcai
Real-time monitoring and predicting drought development with several months in advance is of critical importance for drought risk adaptation and mitigation. In this paper, we present a drought monitoring and seasonal forecasting framework based on the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) hydrologic model over Southwest China (SW). The satellite precipitation data are used to force VIC model for near real-time estimate of land surface hydrologic conditions. As initialized with satellite-aided monitoring, the climate model-based forecast (CFSv2_VIC) and ensemble streamflow prediction (ESP)-based forecast (ESP_VIC) are both performed and evaluated through their ability in reproducing the evolution of the 2009/2010 severe drought overmore » SW. The results show that the satellite-aided monitoring is able to provide reasonable estimate of forecast initial conditions (ICs) in a real-time manner. Both of CFSv2_VIC and ESP_VIC exhibit comparable performance against the observation-based estimates for the first month, whereas the predictive skill largely drops beyond 1-month. Compared to ESP_VIC, CFSv2_VIC shows better performance as indicated by the smaller ensemble range. This study highlights the value of this operational framework in generating near real-time ICs and giving a reliable prediction with 1-month ahead, which has great implications for drought risk assessment, preparation and relief.« less
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Remote Physical Activity Monitoring in Neurological Disease: A Systematic Review.
Block, Valerie A J; Pitsch, Erica; Tahir, Peggy; Cree, Bruce A C; Allen, Diane D; Gelfand, Jeffrey M
2016-01-01
To perform a systematic review of studies using remote physical activity monitoring in neurological diseases, highlighting advances and determining gaps. Studies were systematically identified in PubMed/MEDLINE, CINAHL and SCOPUS from January 2004 to December 2014 that monitored physical activity for ≥24 hours in adults with neurological diseases. Studies that measured only involuntary motor activity (tremor, seizures), energy expenditure or sleep were excluded. Feasibility, findings, and protocols were examined. 137 studies met inclusion criteria in multiple sclerosis (MS) (61 studies); stroke (41); Parkinson's Disease (PD) (20); dementia (11); traumatic brain injury (2) and ataxia (1). Physical activity levels measured by remote monitoring are consistently low in people with MS, stroke and dementia, and patterns of physical activity are altered in PD. In MS, decreased ambulatory activity assessed via remote monitoring is associated with greater disability and lower quality of life. In stroke, remote measures of upper limb function and ambulation are associated with functional recovery following rehabilitation and goal-directed interventions. In PD, remote monitoring may help to predict falls. In dementia, remote physical activity measures correlate with disease severity and can detect wandering. These studies show that remote physical activity monitoring is feasible in neurological diseases, including in people with moderate to severe neurological disability. Remote monitoring can be a psychometrically sound and responsive way to assess physical activity in neurological disease. Further research is needed to ensure these tools provide meaningful information in the context of specific neurological disorders and patterns of neurological disability.
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Favaloro, Emmanuel J; Bonar, Roslyn; Sioufi, John; Wheeler, Michael; Low, Joyce; Aboud, Margaret; Lloyd, John; Street, Alison; Marsden, Katherine
2005-06-01
We conducted a survey of laboratory practice for assessment of heparin anticoagulant therapy by participants of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia Quality Assurance Program (RCPA QAP). A questionnaire was sent to 646 laboratories enrolled in the Haematology component of the QAP, requesting details of tests used for monitoring heparin therapy. Seventy laboratories (10.8%) returned results that indicated that they performed laboratory monitoring of heparin therapy. Most laboratories (69/70 = 98.6%) use the activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) to monitor unfractionated heparin, with eight (11.4%) also using the APTT for monitoring low molecular weight (LMW) heparin. Five (7.1%) laboratories use the thrombin time (TT) test to help monitor heparin therapy and 37 (52.9%) laboratories use an anti-Xa assay to monitor heparin (either LMW or unfractionated). Normal reference ranges (NRR) for APTT differed considerably between laboratories, even those using the same reagent. Therapeutic ranges (TR) also differed considerably between laboratories, for both APTT and the anti-Xa assay. Laboratory differences in NRR and TR using the same reagents could only be partly explained by the use of different instrumentation. There is a large variation in current laboratory practice relating to monitoring of heparin anticoagulant therapy. This finding is similar to that of a similar survey conducted by the RCPA QAP almost a decade ago. This study suggests that better standardisation is still required for laboratory monitoring of heparin therapy.
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Guaranteeing robustness of structural condition monitoring to environmental variability
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Van Buren, Kendra; Reilly, Jack; Neal, Kyle; Edwards, Harry; Hemez, François
2017-01-01
Advances in sensor deployment and computational modeling have allowed significant strides to be recently made in the field of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM). One widely used SHM strategy is to perform a vibration analysis where a model of the structure's pristine (undamaged) condition is compared with vibration response data collected from the physical structure. Discrepancies between model predictions and monitoring data can be interpreted as structural damage. Unfortunately, multiple sources of uncertainty must also be considered in the analysis, including environmental variability, unknown model functional forms, and unknown values of model parameters. Not accounting for these sources of uncertainty can lead to false-positives or false-negatives in the structural condition assessment. To manage the uncertainty, we propose a robust SHM methodology that combines three technologies. A time series algorithm is trained using "baseline" data to predict the vibration response, compare predictions to actual measurements collected on a potentially damaged structure, and calculate a user-defined damage indicator. The second technology handles the uncertainty present in the problem. An analysis of robustness is performed to propagate this uncertainty through the time series algorithm and obtain the corresponding bounds of variation of the damage indicator. The uncertainty description and robustness analysis are both inspired by the theory of info-gap decision-making. Lastly, an appropriate "size" of the uncertainty space is determined through physical experiments performed in laboratory conditions. Our hypothesis is that examining how the uncertainty space changes throughout time might lead to superior diagnostics of structural damage as compared to only monitoring the damage indicator. This methodology is applied to a portal frame structure to assess if the strategy holds promise for robust SHM. (Publication approved for unlimited, public release on October-28-2015, LA-UR-15-28442, unclassified.)
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The countermovement jump to monitor neuromuscular status: A meta-analysis.
Claudino, João Gustavo; Cronin, John; Mezêncio, Bruno; McMaster, Daniel Travis; McGuigan, Michael; Tricoli, Valmor; Amadio, Alberto Carlos; Serrão, Julio Cerca
2017-04-01
The primary objective of this meta-analysis was to compare countermovement jump (CMJ) performance in studies that reported the highest value as opposed to average value for the purposes of monitoring neuromuscular status (i.e., fatigue and supercompensation). The secondary aim was to determine the sensitivity of the dependent variables. Systematic review with meta-analysis. The meta-analysis was conducted on the highest or average of a number of CMJ variables. Multiple literature searches were undertaken in Pubmed, Scopus, and Web of Science to identify articles utilizing CMJ to monitor training status. Effect sizes (ES) with 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were calculated using the mean and standard deviation of the pre- and post-testing data. The coefficient of variation (CV) with 95% CI was also calculated to assess the level of instability of each variable. Heterogeneity was assessed using a random-effects model. 151 articles were included providing a total of 531 ESs for the meta-analyses; 85.4% of articles used highest CMJ height, 13.2% used average and 1.3% used both when reporting changes in CMJ performance. Based on the meta-analysis, average CMJ height was more sensitive than highest CMJ height in detecting CMJ fatigue and supercompensation. Furthermore, other CMJ variables such as peak power, mean power, peak velocity, peak force, mean impulse, and power were sensitive in tracking the supercompensation effects of training. The average CMJ height was more sensitive than highest CMJ height in monitoring neuromuscular status; however, further investigation is needed to determine the sensitivity of other CMJ performance variables. Copyright © 2016 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Schneider, Christoph; Hanakam, Florian; Wiewelhove, Thimo; Döweling, Alexander; Kellmann, Michael; Meyer, Tim; Pfeiffer, Mark; Ferrauti, Alexander
2018-01-01
A comprehensive monitoring of fitness, fatigue, and performance is crucial for understanding an athlete's individual responses to training to optimize the scheduling of training and recovery strategies. Resting and exercise-related heart rate measures have received growing interest in recent decades and are considered potentially useful within multivariate response monitoring, as they provide non-invasive and time-efficient insights into the status of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and aerobic fitness. In team sports, the practical implementation of athlete monitoring systems poses a particular challenge due to the complex and multidimensional structure of game demands and player and team performance, as well as logistic reasons, such as the typically large number of players and busy training and competition schedules. In this regard, exercise-related heart rate measures are likely the most applicable markers, as they can be routinely assessed during warm-ups using short (3-5 min) submaximal exercise protocols for an entire squad with common chest strap-based team monitoring devices. However, a comprehensive and meaningful monitoring of the training process requires the accurate separation of various types of responses, such as strain, recovery, and adaptation, which may all affect heart rate measures. Therefore, additional information on the training context (such as the training phase, training load, and intensity distribution) combined with multivariate analysis, which includes markers of (perceived) wellness and fatigue, should be considered when interpreting changes in heart rate indices. The aim of this article is to outline current limitations of heart rate monitoring, discuss methodological considerations of univariate and multivariate approaches, illustrate the influence of different analytical concepts on assessing meaningful changes in heart rate responses, and provide case examples for contextualizing heart rate measures using simple heuristics. To overcome current knowledge deficits and methodological inconsistencies, future investigations should systematically evaluate the validity and usefulness of the various approaches available to guide and improve the implementation of decision-support systems in (team) sports practice.
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Schneider, Christoph; Hanakam, Florian; Wiewelhove, Thimo; Döweling, Alexander; Kellmann, Michael; Meyer, Tim; Pfeiffer, Mark; Ferrauti, Alexander
2018-01-01
A comprehensive monitoring of fitness, fatigue, and performance is crucial for understanding an athlete's individual responses to training to optimize the scheduling of training and recovery strategies. Resting and exercise-related heart rate measures have received growing interest in recent decades and are considered potentially useful within multivariate response monitoring, as they provide non-invasive and time-efficient insights into the status of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and aerobic fitness. In team sports, the practical implementation of athlete monitoring systems poses a particular challenge due to the complex and multidimensional structure of game demands and player and team performance, as well as logistic reasons, such as the typically large number of players and busy training and competition schedules. In this regard, exercise-related heart rate measures are likely the most applicable markers, as they can be routinely assessed during warm-ups using short (3–5 min) submaximal exercise protocols for an entire squad with common chest strap-based team monitoring devices. However, a comprehensive and meaningful monitoring of the training process requires the accurate separation of various types of responses, such as strain, recovery, and adaptation, which may all affect heart rate measures. Therefore, additional information on the training context (such as the training phase, training load, and intensity distribution) combined with multivariate analysis, which includes markers of (perceived) wellness and fatigue, should be considered when interpreting changes in heart rate indices. The aim of this article is to outline current limitations of heart rate monitoring, discuss methodological considerations of univariate and multivariate approaches, illustrate the influence of different analytical concepts on assessing meaningful changes in heart rate responses, and provide case examples for contextualizing heart rate measures using simple heuristics. To overcome current knowledge deficits and methodological inconsistencies, future investigations should systematically evaluate the validity and usefulness of the various approaches available to guide and improve the implementation of decision-support systems in (team) sports practice. PMID:29904351
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New Criteria for Assessing the Accuracy of Blood Glucose Monitors Meeting, October 28, 2011
Walsh, John; Roberts, Ruth; Vigersky, Robert A.; Schwartz, Frank
2012-01-01
Glucose meters (GMs) are routinely used for self-monitoring of blood glucose by patients and for point-of-care glucose monitoring by health care providers in outpatient and inpatient settings. Although widely assumed to be accurate, numerous reports of inaccuracies with resulting morbidity and mortality have been noted. Insulin dosing errors based on inaccurate GMs are most critical. On October 28, 2011, the Diabetes Technology Society invited 45 diabetes technology clinicians who were attending the 2011 Diabetes Technology Meeting to participate in a closed-door meeting entitled New Criteria for Assessing the Accuracy of Blood Glucose Monitors. This report reflects the opinions of most of the attendees of that meeting. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the public, and several medical societies are currently in dialogue to establish a new standard for GM accuracy. This update to the FDA standard is driven by improved meter accuracy, technological advances (pumps, bolus calculators, continuous glucose monitors, and insulin pens), reports of hospital and outpatient deaths, consumer complaints about inaccuracy, and research studies showing that several approved GMs failed to meet FDA or International Organization for Standardization standards in post-approval testing. These circumstances mandate a set of new GM standards that appropriately match the GMs’ analytical accuracy to the clinical accuracy required for their intended use, as well as ensuring their ongoing accuracy following approval. The attendees of the New Criteria for Assessing the Accuracy of Blood Glucose Monitors meeting proposed a graduated standard and other methods to improve GM performance, which are discussed in this meeting report. PMID:22538160
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New Criteria for Assessing the Accuracy of Blood Glucose Monitors meeting, October 28, 2011.
Walsh, John; Roberts, Ruth; Vigersky, Robert A; Schwartz, Frank
2012-03-01
Glucose meters (GMs) are routinely used for self-monitoring of blood glucose by patients and for point-of-care glucose monitoring by health care providers in outpatient and inpatient settings. Although widely assumed to be accurate, numerous reports of inaccuracies with resulting morbidity and mortality have been noted. Insulin dosing errors based on inaccurate GMs are most critical. On October 28, 2011, the Diabetes Technology Society invited 45 diabetes technology clinicians who were attending the 2011 Diabetes Technology Meeting to participate in a closed-door meeting entitled New Criteria for Assessing the Accuracy of Blood Glucose Monitors. This report reflects the opinions of most of the attendees of that meeting. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the public, and several medical societies are currently in dialogue to establish a new standard for GM accuracy. This update to the FDA standard is driven by improved meter accuracy, technological advances (pumps, bolus calculators, continuous glucose monitors, and insulin pens), reports of hospital and outpatient deaths, consumer complaints about inaccuracy, and research studies showing that several approved GMs failed to meet FDA or International Organization for Standardization standards in postapproval testing. These circumstances mandate a set of new GM standards that appropriately match the GMs' analytical accuracy to the clinical accuracy required for their intended use, as well as ensuring their ongoing accuracy following approval. The attendees of the New Criteria for Assessing the Accuracy of Blood Glucose Monitors meeting proposed a graduated standard and other methods to improve GM performance, which are discussed in this meeting report. © 2012 Diabetes Technology Society.
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Application of Multiplexed FBG and PZT Impedance Sensors for Health Monitoring of Rocks
Yang, Yaowen; Annamdas, Venu Gopal Madhav; Wang, Chao; Zhou, Yingxin
2008-01-01
Reliable structural health monitoring (SHM) including nondestructive evaluation (NDE) is essential for safe operation of infrastructure systems. Effective monitoring of the rock components of civil infrastructures such as tunnels and caverns remains challenging. The feasibility of employing smart optical fibre sensor (OFS) and piezoelectric impedance sensor made up of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) for comprehensive health monitoring of rocks, covering load history monitoring/retrieval as well as damage assessment is presented in this paper. The rock specimens are subjected to cyclic loading and their conditions are continuously monitored using OFS and PZT sensors. OFS based multiplexed fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensors are surface bonded on the rock specimens. Their strain sensing performance is compared with the conventional electric strain gauges (ESGs). In addition, PZT patches are also bonded on the specimens to study the damage pattern during different loading cycles. Unlike the FBGs or ESGs, PZT patches are used as bi-functional sensors and actuators, enabling them to be efficient detectors of incipient damages using the principle of electromechanical impedance. The experimental study demonstrated superior performance of these smart FBG and PZT impedance sensors. This work is expected to be useful for SHM based NDE application of rock structures such as caverns and tunnels. PMID:27879708
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Innovative assessment paradigm to enhance student learning in engineering education
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
El-Maaddawy, Tamer
2017-11-01
Incorporation of student self-assessment (SSA) in engineering education offers opportunities to support and encourage learner-led-learning. This paper presents an innovative assessment paradigm that integrates formative, summative, and SSA to enhance student learning. The assessment innovation was implemented in a senior-level civil engineering design course. Direct evidence of the impact of employing this innovation on student learning and achievement was derived by monitoring student academic performance in direct assessment tasks throughout the semester. Students' feedback demonstrated the effectiveness of this innovation to improve their understanding of course topics build their autonomy, independent judgement, and self-regulated learning skills.
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Development of an Intelligent Monitoring System for Geological Carbon Sequestration (GCS) Systems
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Sun, A. Y.; Jeong, H.; Xu, W.; Hovorka, S. D.; Zhu, T.; Templeton, T.; Arctur, D. K.
2016-12-01
To provide stakeholders timely evidence that GCS repositories are operating safely and efficiently requires integrated monitoring to assess the performance of the storage reservoir as the CO2 plume moves within it. As a result, GCS projects can be data intensive, as a result of proliferation of digital instrumentation and smart-sensing technologies. GCS projects are also resource intensive, often requiring multidisciplinary teams performing different monitoring, verification, and accounting (MVA) tasks throughout the lifecycle of a project to ensure secure containment of injected CO2. How to correlate anomaly detected by a certain sensor to events observed by other devices to verify leakage incidents? How to optimally allocate resources for task-oriented monitoring if reservoir integrity is in question? These are issues that warrant further investigation before real integration can take place. In this work, we are building a web-based, data integration, assimilation, and learning framework for geologic carbon sequestration projects (DIAL-GCS). DIAL-GCS will be an intelligent monitoring system (IMS) for automating GCS closed-loop management by leveraging recent developments in high-throughput database, complex event processing, data assimilation, and machine learning technologies. Results will be demonstrated using realistic data and model derived from a GCS site.
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Tapered Roller Bearing Damage Detection Using Decision Fusion Analysis
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Dempsey, Paula J.; Kreider, Gary; Fichter, Thomas
2006-01-01
A diagnostic tool was developed for detecting fatigue damage of tapered roller bearings. Tapered roller bearings are used in helicopter transmissions and have potential for use in high bypass advanced gas turbine aircraft engines. A diagnostic tool was developed and evaluated experimentally by collecting oil debris data from failure progression tests conducted using health monitoring hardware. Failure progression tests were performed with tapered roller bearings under simulated engine load conditions. Tests were performed on one healthy bearing and three pre-damaged bearings. During each test, data from an on-line, in-line, inductance type oil debris sensor and three accelerometers were monitored and recorded for the occurrence of bearing failure. The bearing was removed and inspected periodically for damage progression throughout testing. Using data fusion techniques, two different monitoring technologies, oil debris analysis and vibration, were integrated into a health monitoring system for detecting bearing surface fatigue pitting damage. The data fusion diagnostic tool was evaluated during bearing failure progression tests under simulated engine load conditions. This integrated system showed improved detection of fatigue damage and health assessment of the tapered roller bearings as compared to using individual health monitoring technologies.
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Application of Multiplexed FBG and PZT Impedance Sensors for Health Monitoring of Rocks.
Yang, Yaowen; Annamdas, Venu Gopal Madhav; Wang, Chao; Zhou, Yingxin
2008-01-21
Reliable structural health monitoring (SHM) including nondestructiveevaluation (NDE) is essential for safe operation of infrastructure systems. Effectivemonitoring of the rock components of civil infrastructures such as tunnels and cavernsremains challenging. The feasibility of employing smart optical fibre sensor (OFS) andpiezoelectric impedance sensor made up of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) forcomprehensive health monitoring of rocks, covering load history monitoring/retrieval aswell as damage assessment is presented in this paper. The rock specimens are subjected tocyclic loading and their conditions are continuously monitored using OFS and PZTsensors. OFS based multiplexed fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensors are surface bonded onthe rock specimens. Their strain sensing performance is compared with the conventionalelectric strain gauges (ESGs). In addition, PZT patches are also bonded on the specimensto study the damage pattern during different loading cycles. Unlike the FBGs or ESGs,PZT patches are used as bi-functional sensors and actuators, enabling them to be efficientdetectors of incipient damages using the principle of electromechanical impedance. Theexperimental study demonstrated superior performance of these smart FBG and PZTimpedance sensors. This work is expected to be useful for SHM based NDE application ofrock structures such as caverns and tunnels.
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A Total Quality-Control Plan with Right-Sized Statistical Quality-Control.
Westgard, James O
2017-03-01
A new Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments option for risk-based quality-control (QC) plans became effective in January, 2016. Called an Individualized QC Plan, this option requires the laboratory to perform a risk assessment, develop a QC plan, and implement a QC program to monitor ongoing performance of the QC plan. Difficulties in performing a risk assessment may limit validity of an Individualized QC Plan. A better alternative is to develop a Total QC Plan including a right-sized statistical QC procedure to detect medically important errors. Westgard Sigma Rules provides a simple way to select the right control rules and the right number of control measurements. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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2014-01-01
Background Performance measures are often neglected during the transition period of national health insurance scheme implementation in many low and middle income countries. These measurements evaluate the extent to which various aspects of the schemes meet their key objectives. This study assesses the implementation of a health insurance scheme using optimal resource use domains and examines possible factors that influence each domain, according to providers’ perspectives. Methods A retrospective, cross-sectional survey was done between August and December 2010 in Kaduna state, and 466 health care provider personnel were interviewed. Optimal-resource-use was defined in four domains: provider payment mechanism (capitation and fee-for-service payment methods), benefit package, administrative efficiency, and active monitoring mechanism. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify provider factors that may influence each domain. Results In the provider payment mechanism domain, capitation payment method (95%) performed better than fee-for-service payment method (62%). Benefit package domain performed strongly (97%), while active monitoring mechanism performed weakly (37%). In the administrative efficiency domain, both promptness of referral system (80%) and prompt arrival of funds (93%) performed well. At the individual level, providers with fewer enrolees encountered difficulties with reimbursement. Other factors significantly influenced each of the optimal-resource-use domains. Conclusions Fee-for-service payment method and claims review, in the provider payment and active monitoring mechanisms, respectively, performed weakly according to the providers’ (at individual-level) perspectives. A short-fall on the supply-side of health insurance could lead to a direct or indirect adverse effect on the demand-side of the scheme. Capitation payment per enrolees should be revised to conform to economic circumstances. Performance indicators and providers’ characteristics and experiences associated with resource use can assist policy makers to monitor and evaluate health insurance implementation. PMID:24628889
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Vugteveen, Pim; van Katwijk, Marieke M.; Rouwette, Etiënne; Hanssen, Lucien
2014-02-01
Integrated Coastal Management cannot operate effectively without reliable information and knowledge on changes in the environment and on the causes of those changes. Monitoring is essential to provide data needed for a real understanding of socio-economic and ecological functioning in multi-user nature areas. We present a web-based and comprehensive assessment methodology to articulate, structure and prioritize information needs and ensuing monitoring needs. We applied this methodology in the Dutch Wadden Sea Region, which includes a designated UNESCO World Heritage nature reserve. The methodology consists of the following steps: i) exploring social-ecological issues of concern and defining the monitoring scope; ii) articulating information needs expressed as tractable questions; iii) elaborating monitoring needs; iv) grounding in scientific models and current monitoring; v) synthesizing assessment findings into target entities, i.e. analysis variables for monitoring. In this paper we focus on the first three steps. As part of our methodology we performed two online surveys amongst a broad range of stakeholders and amongst monitoring professionals. In the case of the Dutch Wadden Sea Region, main monitoring questions were related to biodiversity and food web relations; effects of fisheries and its pressures on the ecosystem; channel and port dredging; spatial planning and multifunctional use; sustainable energy production; and effects of changing storm regimes due to climate change. Subsequently we elaborated these general issues into analysis variables within five themes. The presented methodology enables large scale and unbiased involvement of stakeholders in articulating information needs in a multi-user nature reserve like the Wadden Sea. In addition the methodology facilitates the input and feedback of monitoring professionals by providing a detailed elaboration of monitoring needs.
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Military Performance and Health Monitoring in Extreme Environments
2009-10-01
radiation and wind to give a true temperature reading . At high ambient temperatures, in particular in combination with solar radiation, objects may...Equivital multi-sensor unit enabling the real-time, parallel and continuous assessment of EKG (and heart rate), respiration (and respiration rate), skin
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LABORATORY CAPACITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF DRINKING WATER UTILITIES: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
Fully-functioning analytical laboratories capable of producing quality data are essential components of well-run drinking water utilities. In Europe and the US, drinking water laboratory performance is closely monitored and regulated; this is not always the case in the less indu...
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Reliability of Speech Diadochokinetic Test Measurement
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gadesmann, Miriam; Miller, Nick
2008-01-01
Background: Measures of articulatory diadochokinesis (DDK) are widely used in the assessment of motor speech disorders and they play a role in detecting abnormality, monitoring speech performance changes and classifying syndromes. Although in clinical practice DDK is generally measured perceptually, without support from instrumental methods that…
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Assessing Metacognitive Deficiencies and Effectively Instructing Metacognitive Skills
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Veenman, Marcel V. J.
2017-01-01
Metacognitive skills refers to individual abilities for regulating and controlling learning behavior. Orientation, goal setting, planning, monitoring, and evaluation are manifestations of those skills. Given that metacognitive skills directly affect learning behavior, they are a strong predictor of learning performance. Students display a huge…
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Godfrey, A; Culhane, K M; Lyons, G M
2007-10-01
The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of the 'activPAL Professional' physical activity logger by comparing its output to that of a proven discrete accelerometer-based activity monitor during extended measurements on healthy subjects while performing activities of daily living (ADL). Ten healthy adults, with unrestricted mobility, wore both the activPAL and the discrete dual accelerometer (Analog Devices ADXL202)-based activity monitor that recorded in synchronization with each other. The accelerometer derived data were then compared to that generated by the activPAL and a complete statistical and error analysis was performed using a Matlab program. This program determined trunk and thigh inclination angles to distinguish between sitting/lying, standing and stepping for the discrete accelerometer device and amount of time spent on each activity. Analysis was performed on a second-by-second basis and then categorized at 15s intervals in direct comparison with the activPAL generated data. Of the total time monitored (approximately 60 h) the detection accuracies for static and dynamic activities were approximately 98%. In a population of healthy adults, the data obtained from the activPAL Professional physical activity logger for both static and dynamic activities showed a close match to a proven discrete accelerometer data with an offset of approximately 2% between the two systems.
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Etienne, Gabriel; Huguet, Francoise; Guerci-Bresler, Agnès; Nicolini, Franck E; Maloisel, Frédéric; Coiteux, Valérie; Dauriac, Charles; Carpentier, Nathalie; Bourdeix, Isabelle; Tulliez, Michel; Cony-Makhoul, Pascale
2016-07-01
The availability of tyrosine kinase inhibitors has extended therapeutic options for chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) patients. Monitoring recommendations and clinical response goals have recently been updated. The objective of this study was to describe the profile of CML patients in chronic phase currently receiving first-line therapy, including treatment, monitoring and response kinetics. A multicentre, cross-sectional, epidemiological survey in unselected chronic phase CML patients in France attending consultations during a one-month period was performed. 438 of 697 (62·8%) reported patients were currently receiving first-line treatment and were analysed. Imatinib was the most frequently received treatment (72·4% of patients). Retrospective cytogenetic and molecular assessments at 3, 6, 12 or 18 months were available in 88·4% of patients. At the 12-month assessment, 32·2% were not in major molecular response (MMR). At last assessment, among 355 patients with duration of treatment ≥ 12 months, 91·5% had achieved MMR and 66·5% were in deep molecular response. This study, performed in everyday practice population of CML patients, suggests that monitoring of molecular responses in real-life practice is aligned with European LeukaemiaNet recommendations. The majority of patients still receiving first-line treatment are in optimal response, with a few being classified as in the warning area or responding to failure. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Schertzer, D. J. M.; Charbonnier, L.; Versini, P. A.; Tchiguirinskaia, I.
2017-12-01
Noisy-Champs is a train station located in Noisy-le-Grand and Champs-sur-Marne, in the Paris urban area (France). Integrated into the Grand Paris Express project (huge development project to modernise the transport network around Paris), this station is going to be radically transformed and become a major hub. Designed by the architectural office Duthilleul, the new Noisy-Champs station aspires to be an example of an innovative and sustainable infrastructure. Its architectural precepts are indeed meant to improve its environmental performances, especially those related to storm water management, water consumption and users' thermal and hygrometric comfort. In order to assess and monitor these performances, objectives and associated indicators have been developed. They aim to be adapted for a specific infrastructure such as a public transport station. Analyses of pre-existing comfort simulations, blueprints and regulatory documents have led to identify the main issues for the Noisy-Champs station, focusing on its resilience to extreme events like droughts, heatwaves and heaxvy rainfalls. Both objectives and indicators have been proposed by studying the space-time variabilities of physical fluxes (heat, pollutants, radiation, wind and water) and passenger flows, and their interactions. Each indicator is linked to an environmental performance and has been determined after consultation of the different stakeholders involved in the rebuilding of the station. It results a monitoring program to assess the environmental performances of the station composed by both the indicators grid and their related objectives, and a measurement program detailing the nature and location of sensors, and the frequency of measurements.
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Prince, John; Arora, Siddharth; de Vos, Maarten
2018-04-26
To better understand the longitudinal characteristics of Parkinson's disease (PD) through the analysis of finger tapping and memory tests collected remotely using smartphones. Using a large cohort (312 PD subjects and 236 controls) of participants in the mPower study, we extract clinically validated features from a finger tapping and memory test to monitor the longitudinal behaviour of study participants. We investigate any discrepancy in learning rates associated with motor and non-motor tasks between PD subjects and healthy controls. The ability of these features to predict self-assigned severity measures is assessed whilst simultaneously inspecting the severity scoring system for floor-ceiling effects. Finally, we study the relationship between motor and non-motor longitudinal behaviour to determine if separate aspects of the disease are dependent on one another. We find that the test performances of the most severe subjects show significant correlations with self-assigned severity measures. Interestingly, less severe subjects do not show significant correlations, which is shown to be a consequence of floor-ceiling effects within the mPower self-reporting severity system. We find that motor performance after practise is a better predictor of severity than baseline performance suggesting that starting performance at a new motor task is less representative of disease severity than the performance after the test has been learnt. We find PD subjects show significant impairments in motor ability as assessed through the alternating finger tapping (AFT) test in both the short- and long-term analyses. In the AFT and memory tests we demonstrate that PD subjects show a larger degree of longitudinal performance variability in addition to requiring more instances of a test to reach a steady state performance than healthy subjects. Our findings pave the way forward for objective assessment and quantification of longitudinal learning rates in PD. This can be particularly useful for symptom monitoring and assessing medication response. This study tries to tackle some of the major challenges associated with self-assessed severity labels by designing and validating features extracted from big datasets in PD, which could help identify digital biomarkers capable of providing measures of disease severity outside of a clinical environment.
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Houtman, Corine J; Kroesbergen, Jan; Lekkerkerker-Teunissen, Karin; van der Hoek, Jan Peter
2014-10-15
The presence of pharmaceuticals in drinking water is a topic of concern. Previous risk assessments indicate that their low concentrations are very unlikely to pose risks to human health, however often conclusions had to be based on small datasets and mixture effects were not included. The objectives of this study were to a) investigate if pharmaceuticals in surface and polder water penetrate in drinking water, b) assess the lifelong exposure of consumers to pharmaceuticals via drinking water and c) assess the possible individual and mixture health risks associated with this exposure. To fulfill these aims, a 2-year set of 4-weekly monitoring data of pharmaceuticals was used from three drinking water production plants. The 42 pharmaceuticals that were monitored were selected according to their consumption volume, earlier detection, toxicity and representation of the most relevant therapeutic classes. Lifelong exposures were calculated from concentrations and compared with therapeutic doses. Health risks were assessed by benchmarking concentrations with provisional guideline values. Combined risks of mixtures of pharmaceuticals were estimated using the concept of Concentration Addition. The lifelong exposure to pharmaceuticals via drinking water was calculated to be extremely low, i.e. a few mg, in total corresponding to <10% of the dose a patient is administered on one day. The risk of adverse health effects appeared to be negligibly low. Application of Concentration Addition confirmed this for the mixture of pharmaceuticals simultaneously present. The investigated treatment plants appeared to reduce the (already negligible) risk up to 80%. The large available monitoring dataset enabled the performance of a realistic risk assessment. It showed that working with maximum instead of average concentrations may overestimate the risk considerably. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Manufacturing of Wearable Sensors for Human Health and Performance Monitoring
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Alizadeh, Azar
2015-03-01
Continuous monitoring of physiological and biological parameters is expected to improve performance and medical outcomes by assessing overall health status and alerting for life-saving interventions. Continuous monitoring of these parameters requires wearable devices with an appropriate form factor (lightweight, comfortable, low energy consuming and even single-use) to avoid disrupting daily activities thus ensuring operation relevance and user acceptance. Many previous efforts to implement remote and wearable sensors have suffered from high cost and poor performance, as well as low clinical and end-use acceptance. New manufacturing and system level design approaches are needed to make the performance and clinical benefits of these sensors possible while satisfying challenging economic, regulatory, clinical, and user-acceptance criteria. In this talk we will review several recent design and manufacturing efforts aimed at designing and building prototype wearable sensors. We will discuss unique opportunities and challenges provided by additive manufacturing, including 3D printing, to drive innovation through new designs, faster prototyping and manufacturing, distributed networks, and new ecosystems. We will also show alternative hybrid self-assembly based integration techniques for low cost large scale manufacturing of single use wearable devices. Coauthors: Prabhjot Singh and Jeffrey Ashe.
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Cobbledick, Jeffrey; Nguyen, Alexander; Latulippe, David R
2014-07-01
The current challenges associated with the design and operation of net-energy positive wastewater treatment plants demand sophisticated approaches for the monitoring of polymer-induced flocculation. In anaerobic digestion (AD) processes, the dewaterability of the sludge is typically assessed from off-line lab-bench tests - the capillary suction time (CST) test is one of the most common. Focused beam reflectance measurement (FBRM) is a promising technique for real-time monitoring of critical performance attributes in large scale processes and is ideally suited for dewatering applications. The flocculation performance of twenty-four cationic polymers, that spanned a range of polymer size and charge properties, was measured using both the FBRM and CST tests. Analysis of the data revealed a decreasing monotonic trend; the samples that had the highest percent removal of particles less than 50 microns in size as determined by FBRM had the lowest CST values. A subset of the best performing polymers was used to evaluate the effects of dosage amount and digestate sources on dewatering performance. The results from this work show that FBRM is a powerful tool that can be used for optimization and on-line monitoring of dewatering processes. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Hod, Moshe; Kerner, Ram
2003-01-01
Antepartum fetal surveillance is routinely used to assess the risk of fetal death in high-risk pregnancies. Traditionally, testing is performed in the hospital or outpatient clinic by trained medical staff. New equipment is now available that is easy to operate and can be used for self-monitoring of the fetal heart rate (FHR) in the home setting. The tracings are transmitted by modem to a referral center for immediate interpretation by a health provider. The aim of this review was to assess the current data on the application of this new technology with regard to feasibility, access to care, maternal and neonatal outcome, patient and physician satisfaction, and cost-effectiveness.
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Xu, Yan; Ru, Tong; Zhu, Lijing; Liu, Baorui; Wang, Huanhuan; Zhu, Li; He, Jian; Liu, Song; Zhou, Zhengyang; Yang, Xiaofeng
To monitor early response for locally advanced cervical cancers undergoing concurrent chemo-radiotherapy (CCRT) by ultrasonic histogram. B-mode ultrasound examinations were performed at 4 time points in thirty-four patients during CCRT. Six ultrasonic histogram parameters were used to assess the echogenicity, homogeneity and heterogeneity of tumors. I peak increased rapidly since the first week after therapy initiation, whereas W low , W high and A high changed significantly at the second week. The average ultrasonic histogram progressively moved toward the right and converted into more symmetrical shape. Ultrasonic histogram could be served as a potential marker to monitor early response during CCRT. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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[Monitoring of the chemical composition of snow cover pollution in the Moscow region].
Ermakov, A A; Karpova, E A; Malysheva, A G; Mikhaylova, R I; Ryzhova, I N
2014-01-01
Monitoring of snow cover pollution as an indicator of ambient air pollution in 20 districts in the Moscow region during 2009-2013 was performed. The identification with a quantitative assessment of a wide array of organic compounds and the control of the main physical and chemical and inorganic indices of snow water pollution were carried out. More than 60 organic substances for most of which there are no the hygienic standards were established. The assessment of pollution levels of basic inorganic indices was given by means of the comparing them with the average values in the snow cover in the European territory of Russia and natural content in areas not been exposed to human impact.
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Marquardt, Lynn; Eichele, Heike; Lundervold, Astri J.; Haavik, Jan; Eichele, Tom
2018-01-01
Introduction: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most frequent neurodevelopmental disorders in children and tends to persist into adulthood. Evidence from neuropsychological, neuroimaging, and electrophysiological studies indicates that alterations of error processing are core symptoms in children and adolescents with ADHD. To test whether adults with ADHD show persisting deficits and compensatory processes, we investigated performance monitoring during stimulus-evaluation and response-selection, with a focus on errors, as well as within-group correlations with symptom scores. Methods: Fifty-five participants (27 ADHD and 28 controls) aged 19–55 years performed a modified flanker task during EEG recording with 64 electrodes, and the ADHD and control groups were compared on measures of behavioral task performance, event-related potentials of performance monitoring (N2, P3), and error processing (ERN, Pe). Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) was used to assess ADHD symptom load. Results: Adults with ADHD showed higher error rates in incompatible trials, and these error rates correlated positively with the ASRS scores. Also, we observed lower P3 amplitudes in incompatible trials, which were inversely correlated with symptom load in the ADHD group. Adults with ADHD also displayed reduced error-related ERN and Pe amplitudes. There were no significant differences in reaction time (RT) and RT variability between the two groups. Conclusion: Our findings show deviations of electrophysiological measures, suggesting reduced effortful engagement of attentional and error-monitoring processes in adults with ADHD. Associations between ADHD symptom scores, event-related potential amplitudes, and poorer task performance in the ADHD group further support this notion. PMID:29706908
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Sirvent, Mariola; Victoria Calvo, María; Sagalés, María; Rodríguez-Penin, Isaura; Cervera, Mercedes; Piñeiro, Guadalupe; García-Rodicio, Sonsoles; Gomis, Pilar; Caba, Isabel; Vazquez, Amparo; Gomez, María E; Pedraza, Luis
2013-01-01
To identify and develop monitoring indicators of the process of specialized nutritional support that will allow measuring the level of adherence to the established practice standards. Those practice standards considered to be key elements of the process were selected to develop performance indicators. The construction of these indicators combined the scientific evidence with expert opinion. Key goals were identified within each standard provided that its consecution would allow increasing the achievement of the standard. Particular improvement initiatives associated to each key goal were generated. Lastly, monitoring indicators were defined allowing undertaking a follow-up of the implementation of the improvement initiatives or either to assess the level of achievement of the key goals identified. Nineteen practice standards were selected representative of the critical points of the process. The strategic map for each standard has been defined, with the identification of 43 key goals. In order to achieve these key goals, a portfolio of improvements has been generated comprising 56 actions. Finally, 44 monitoring indicators have been defined grouped into three categories: 1. Numeric: they assess the level of goal achievement; 2. Dichotomic (yes/no): they inform on the execution of the improvement actions; 3. Results of the practice audits. We have made available monitoring indicators that allow assessing the level of adherence to the practice standards of the process of specialized nutritional support and the impact of the implementation of improvement actions within this process. Copyright © 2013 SEFH. Published by AULA MEDICA. All rights reserved.
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Advanced hemodynamic monitoring in intensive care medicine : A German web-based survey study.
Saugel, B; Reese, P C; Wagner, J Y; Buerke, M; Huber, W; Kluge, S; Prondzinsky, R
2018-04-01
Advanced hemodynamic monitoring is recommended in patients with complex circulatory shock. To evaluate the current attitudes and beliefs among German intensivists, regarding advanced hemodynamic monitoring, the actual hemodynamic management in clinical practice, and the barriers to using it. Web-based survey among members of the German Society of Medical Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine. Of 284 respondents, 249 (87%) agreed that further hemodynamic assessment is needed to determine the type of circulatory shock if no clear clinical diagnosis can be made. In all, 281 (99%) agreed that echocardiography is helpful for this purpose (transpulmonary thermodilution: 225 [79%]; pulmonary artery catheterization: 126 [45%]). More than 70% of respondents agreed that blood flow variables (cardiac output, stroke volume) should be measured in patients with hemodynamic instability. The parameters most respondents agreed should be assessed in a patient with hemodynamic instability were mean arterial pressure, cardiac output, and serum lactate. Echocardiography is available in 99% of ICUs (transpulmonary thermodilution: 91%; pulmonary artery catheter: 63%). The respondents stated that, in clinical practice, invasive arterial pressure measurements and serum lactate measurements are performed in more than 90% of patients with hemodynamic instability (cardiac output monitoring in about 50%; transpulmonary thermodilution in about 40%). The respondents did not feel strong barriers to the use of advanced hemodynamic monitoring in clinical practice. This survey study shows that German intensivists deem advanced hemodynamic assessment necessary for the differential diagnosis of circulatory shock and to guide therapy with fluids, vasopressors, and inotropes in ICU patients.
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French, Judith C; Colbert, Colleen Y; Pien, Lily C; Dannefer, Elaine F; Taylor, Christine A
2015-01-01
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education's Milestones Project focuses trainee education on the formation of valued behaviors and skills believed to be necessary for trainees to become independent practitioners. The development and refinement of behaviors and skills outlined within the milestones will require learners to monitor, reflect, and assess their own performance over time. External feedback provides an opportunity for learners to recalibrate their self-assessments, thereby enabling them to develop better self-monitoring and self-assessment skills. Yet, feedback to trainees is frequently generic, such as "great job," "nice work," or "you need to read more." In this article, we describe a feedback model that faculty can use to provide specific feedback, while increasing accountability for learners. We offer practical examples of its use in a variety of settings in the milestone era. The Ask-Tell-Ask (ATA) patient communication skills strategy, which was adapted for use as a trainee feedback model 10 years ago at our institution, is a learner-centered approach for reinforcing and modifying behaviors. The model is efficient, promotes learner accountability, and helps trainees develop reflection and self-assessment skills. A feedback agreement further enhances ATA by establishing a shared understanding of goals for the educational encounter. The ATA feedback model, combined with a feedback agreement, encourages learners to self-identify strengths and areas for improvement, before receiving feedback. Personal monitoring, reflection, self-assessment, and increased accountability make ATA an ideal learner-centered feedback model for the milestones era, which focuses on performance improvement over time. We believe the introduction of the ATA feedback model in surgical training programs is a step in the right direction towards meaningful programmatic culture change. Copyright © 2015 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Using RT-PCR and bDNA assays to measure non-clade B HIV-1 subtype RNA.
Pasquier, C; Sandres, K; Salama, G; Puel, J; Izopet, J
1999-08-01
The performance of the new version of RT-PCR assay (Amplicor HIV-1 Monitor v1.5) was assessed. The quantification of non-B subtype HIV-1 plasma RNA (30A, 1C, 1D, 3E, 2F, 3G) obtained using Monitor v1.5 was compared to the former version of this assay (Monitor v1.0) and to the Quantiplex v2.0 bDNA assay. The new primers used in Monitor v1.5 were similar to the former version in both specificity and sensitivity. The new primers corrected the detection and quantification defect observed previously for HIV-1 non-B subtypes and gave slightly higher RNA concentrations than those measured using the bDNA assay (+0.39 log copies/ml).
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Zimmermann, Katja; Holzinger, Iris Bachmann; Ganassi, Lorena; Esslinger, Peter; Pilgrim, Sina; Allen, Meredith; Burmester, Margarita; Stocker, Martin
2015-10-29
Inter-professional teamwork is key for patient safety and team training is an effective strategy to improve patient outcome. In-situ simulation is a relatively new strategy with emerging efficacy, but best practices for the design, delivery and implementation have yet to be evaluated. Our aim is to describe and evaluate the implementation of an inter-professional in-situ simulated team and resuscitation training in a teaching hospital with a programmatic approach. We designed and implemented a team and resuscitation training program according to Kern's six steps approach for curriculum development. General and specific needs assessments were conducted as independent cross-sectional surveys. Teamwork, technical skills and detection of latent safety threats were defined as specific objectives. Inter-professional in-situ simulation was used as educational strategy. The training was embedded within the workdays of participants and implemented in our highest acuity wards (emergency department, intensive care unit, intermediate care unit). Self-perceived impact and self-efficacy were sampled with an anonymous evaluation questionnaire after every simulated training session. Assessment of team performance was done with the team-based self-assessment tool TeamMonitor applying Van der Vleuten's conceptual framework of longitudinal evaluation after experienced real events. Latent safety threats were reported during training sessions and after experienced real events. The general and specific needs assessments clearly identified the problems, revealed specific training needs and assisted with stakeholder engagement. Ninety-five interdisciplinary staff members of the Children's Hospital participated in 20 in-situ simulated training sessions within 2 years. Participant feedback showed a high effect and acceptance of training with reference to self-perceived impact and self-efficacy. Thirty-five team members experiencing 8 real critical events assessed team performance with TeamMonitor. Team performance assessment with TeamMonitor was feasible and identified specific areas to target future team training sessions. Training sessions as well as experienced real events revealed important latent safety threats that directed system changes. The programmatic approach of Kern's six steps for curriculum development helped to overcome barriers of design, implementation and assessment of an in-situ team and resuscitation training program. This approach may help improve effectiveness and impact of an in-situ simulated training program.
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Issues in implementing a knowledge-based ECG analyzer for personal mobile health monitoring.
Goh, K W; Kim, E; Lavanya, J; Kim, Y; Soh, C B
2006-01-01
Advances in sensor technology, personal mobile devices, and wireless broadband communications are enabling the development of an integrated personal mobile health monitoring system that can provide patients with a useful tool to assess their own health and manage their personal health information anytime and anywhere. Personal mobile devices, such as PDAs and mobile phones, are becoming more powerful integrated information management tools and play a major role in many people's lives. We focus on designing a health-monitoring system for people who suffer from cardiac arrhythmias. We have developed computer simulation models to evaluate the performance of appropriate electrocardiogram (ECG) analysis techniques that can be implemented on personal mobile devices. This paper describes an ECG analyzer to perform ECG beat and episode detection and classification. We have obtained promising preliminary results from our study. Also, we discuss several key considerations when implementing a mobile health monitoring solution. The mobile ECG analyzer would become a front-end patient health data acquisition module, which is connected to the Personal Health Information Management System (PHIMS) for data repository.
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Wearable carbon nanotube-based fabric sensors for monitoring human physiological performance
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Wang, Long; Loh, Kenneth J.
2017-05-01
A target application of wearable sensors is to detect human motion and to monitor physical activity for improving athletic performance and for delivering better physical therapy. In addition, measuring human vital signals (e.g., respiration rate and body temperature) provides rich information that can be used to assess a subject’s physiological or psychological condition. This study aims to design a multifunctional, wearable, fabric-based sensing system. First, carbon nanotube (CNT)-based thin films were fabricated by spraying. Second, the thin films were integrated with stretchable fabrics to form the fabric sensors. Third, the strain and temperature sensing properties of sensors fabricated using different CNT concentrations were characterized. Furthermore, the sensors were demonstrated to detect human finger bending motions, so as to validate their practical strain sensing performance. Finally, to monitor human respiration, the fabric sensors were integrated with a chest band, which was directly worn by a human subject. Quantification of respiration rates were successfully achieved. Overall, the fabric sensors were characterized by advantages such as flexibility, ease of fabrication, lightweight, low-cost, noninvasiveness, and user comfort.
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Banks, Sarah; Weintraub, Sandra
2008-01-01
Lack of insight is a core diagnostic criterion for behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), and is believed to be intact in the early stages of primary progressive aphasia (PPA). In other neurological conditions, symptom-specific insight has been noted, with behavioral symptoms appearing especially vulnerable to reduced insight. Different components of insight, self-awareness and self-monitoring, are also often considered separate phenomena. The current study compared insight in patients with PPA, bvFTD, and probable Alzheimer’s disease (PrAD) and a group of cognitively intact control subjects. Additionally, differences in insight for the domains primarily affected by the three types of dementia, namely, Behavior, Naming, and Memory, were assessed, and self-awareness and self-monitoring were compared. A total of 55 participants were enrolled. Participants were asked to complete self-estimate scales demonstrating their perceived ability immediately prior to, and immediately following a test in each domain of interest. Results indicated that PPA and normal control groups performed very similarly on control (Weight and Eyesight) and cognitive domains, whereas bvFTD and PrAD patients were unable to accurately assess Memory. All three diagnostic groups failed to accurately assess their behavioral symptoms, suggesting that this domain is vulnerable to loss of insight across diagnoses. Naming ability, in contrast, was either accurately assessed or underestimated in all groups. Finally, there were no notable differences between self-awareness and self-monitoring, potential explanations for this are examined. PMID:18194832
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Bergese, Sergio D; Puente, Erika G; Marcus, R-Jay L; Krohn, Randall J; Docsa, Steven; Soto, Roy G; Candiotti, Keith A
2017-01-01
Background Traditionally, anesthesiologists have relied on nonspecific subjective and objective physical signs to assess patients’ comfort level and depth of anesthesia. Commercial development of electrical monitors, which use low- and high-frequency electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, have been developed to enhance the assessment of patients’ level of consciousness. Multiple studies have shown that monitoring patients’ consciousness levels can help in reducing drug consumption, anesthesia-related adverse events, and recovery time. This clinical study will provide information by simultaneously comparing the performance of the SNAP II (a single-channel EEG device) and the bispectral index (BIS) VISTA (a dual-channel EEG device) by assessing their efficacy in monitoring different anesthetic states in patients undergoing general anesthesia. Objective The primary objective of this study is to establish the range of index values for the SNAP II corresponding to each anesthetic state (preinduction, loss of response, maintenance, first purposeful response, and extubation). The secondary objectives will assess the range of index values for BIS VISTA corresponding to each anesthetic state compared to published BIS VISTA range information, and estimate the area under the curve, sensitivity, and specificity for both devices. Methods This is a multicenter, prospective, double-arm, parallel assignment, single-blind study involving patients undergoing elective surgery that requires general anesthesia. The study will include 40 patients and will be conducted at the following sites: The Ohio State University Medical Center (Columbus, OH); Northwestern University Prentice Women's Hospital (Chicago, IL); and University of Miami Jackson Memorial Hospital (Miami, FL). The study will assess the predictive value of SNAP II versus BIS VISTA indices at various anesthetic states in patients undergoing general anesthesia (preinduction, loss of response, maintenance, first purposeful response, and extubation). The SNAP II and BIS VISTA electrode arrays will be placed on the patient’s forehead on opposite sides. The hemisphere location for both devices’ electrodes will be equally alternated among the patient population. The index values for both devices will be recorded and correlated with the scorings received by performing the Modified Observer’s Assessment of Alertness and Sedation and the American Society of Anesthesiologists Continuum of Depth of Sedation, at different stages of anesthesia. Results Enrollment for this study has been completed and statistical data analyses are currently underway. Conclusions The results of this trial will provide information that will simultaneously compare the performance of SNAP II and BIS VISTA devices, with regards to monitoring different anesthesia states among patients. ClinicalTrial Clinicaltrials.gov NCT00829803; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00829803 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6nmyi8YKO) PMID:28159731
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Development of the Diabetes Technology Society Blood Glucose Monitor System Surveillance Protocol
Klonoff, David C.; Lias, Courtney; Beck, Stayce; Parkes, Joan Lee; Kovatchev, Boris; Vigersky, Robert A.; Arreaza-Rubin, Guillermo; Burk, Robert D.; Kowalski, Aaron; Little, Randie; Nichols, James; Petersen, Matt; Rawlings, Kelly; Sacks, David B.; Sampson, Eric; Scott, Steve; Seley, Jane Jeffrie; Slingerland, Robbert; Vesper, Hubert W.
2015-01-01
Background: Inaccurate blood glucsoe monitoring systems (BGMSs) can lead to adverse health effects. The Diabetes Technology Society (DTS) Surveillance Program for cleared BGMSs is intended to protect people with diabetes from inaccurate, unreliable BGMS products that are currently on the market in the United States. The Surveillance Program will provide an independent assessment of the analytical performance of cleared BGMSs. Methods: The DTS BGMS Surveillance Program Steering Committee included experts in glucose monitoring, surveillance testing, and regulatory science. Over one year, the committee engaged in meetings and teleconferences aiming to describe how to conduct BGMS surveillance studies in a scientifically sound manner that is in compliance with good clinical practice and all relevant regulations. Results: A clinical surveillance protocol was created that contains performance targets and analytical accuracy-testing studies with marketed BGMS products conducted by qualified clinical and laboratory sites. This protocol entitled “Protocol for the Diabetes Technology Society Blood Glucose Monitor System Surveillance Program” is attached as supplementary material. Conclusion: This program is needed because currently once a BGMS product has been cleared for use by the FDA, no systematic postmarket Surveillance Program exists that can monitor analytical performance and detect potential problems. This protocol will allow identification of inaccurate and unreliable BGMSs currently available on the US market. The DTS Surveillance Program will provide BGMS manufacturers a benchmark to understand the postmarket analytical performance of their products. Furthermore, patients, health care professionals, payers, and regulatory agencies will be able to use the results of the study to make informed decisions to, respectively, select, prescribe, finance, and regulate BGMSs on the market. PMID:26481642
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Development of the Diabetes Technology Society Blood Glucose Monitor System Surveillance Protocol.
Klonoff, David C; Lias, Courtney; Beck, Stayce; Parkes, Joan Lee; Kovatchev, Boris; Vigersky, Robert A; Arreaza-Rubin, Guillermo; Burk, Robert D; Kowalski, Aaron; Little, Randie; Nichols, James; Petersen, Matt; Rawlings, Kelly; Sacks, David B; Sampson, Eric; Scott, Steve; Seley, Jane Jeffrie; Slingerland, Robbert; Vesper, Hubert W
2016-05-01
Inaccurate blood glucsoe monitoring systems (BGMSs) can lead to adverse health effects. The Diabetes Technology Society (DTS) Surveillance Program for cleared BGMSs is intended to protect people with diabetes from inaccurate, unreliable BGMS products that are currently on the market in the United States. The Surveillance Program will provide an independent assessment of the analytical performance of cleared BGMSs. The DTS BGMS Surveillance Program Steering Committee included experts in glucose monitoring, surveillance testing, and regulatory science. Over one year, the committee engaged in meetings and teleconferences aiming to describe how to conduct BGMS surveillance studies in a scientifically sound manner that is in compliance with good clinical practice and all relevant regulations. A clinical surveillance protocol was created that contains performance targets and analytical accuracy-testing studies with marketed BGMS products conducted by qualified clinical and laboratory sites. This protocol entitled "Protocol for the Diabetes Technology Society Blood Glucose Monitor System Surveillance Program" is attached as supplementary material. This program is needed because currently once a BGMS product has been cleared for use by the FDA, no systematic postmarket Surveillance Program exists that can monitor analytical performance and detect potential problems. This protocol will allow identification of inaccurate and unreliable BGMSs currently available on the US market. The DTS Surveillance Program will provide BGMS manufacturers a benchmark to understand the postmarket analytical performance of their products. Furthermore, patients, health care professionals, payers, and regulatory agencies will be able to use the results of the study to make informed decisions to, respectively, select, prescribe, finance, and regulate BGMSs on the market. © 2015 Diabetes Technology Society.
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Age-Related Differences in Listening Effort During Degraded Speech Recognition.
Ward, Kristina M; Shen, Jing; Souza, Pamela E; Grieco-Calub, Tina M
The purpose of the present study was to quantify age-related differences in executive control as it relates to dual-task performance, which is thought to represent listening effort, during degraded speech recognition. Twenty-five younger adults (YA; 18-24 years) and 21 older adults (OA; 56-82 years) completed a dual-task paradigm that consisted of a primary speech recognition task and a secondary visual monitoring task. Sentence material in the primary task was either unprocessed or spectrally degraded into 8, 6, or 4 spectral channels using noise-band vocoding. Performance on the visual monitoring task was assessed by the accuracy and reaction time of participants' responses. Performance on the primary and secondary task was quantified in isolation (i.e., single task) and during the dual-task paradigm. Participants also completed a standardized psychometric measure of executive control, including attention and inhibition. Statistical analyses were implemented to evaluate changes in listeners' performance on the primary and secondary tasks (1) per condition (unprocessed vs. vocoded conditions); (2) per task (single task vs. dual task); and (3) per group (YA vs. OA). Speech recognition declined with increasing spectral degradation for both YA and OA when they performed the task in isolation or concurrently with the visual monitoring task. OA were slower and less accurate than YA on the visual monitoring task when performed in isolation, which paralleled age-related differences in standardized scores of executive control. When compared with single-task performance, OA experienced greater declines in secondary-task accuracy, but not reaction time, than YA. Furthermore, results revealed that age-related differences in executive control significantly contributed to age-related differences on the visual monitoring task during the dual-task paradigm. OA experienced significantly greater declines in secondary-task accuracy during degraded speech recognition than YA. These findings are interpreted as suggesting that OA expended greater listening effort than YA, which may be partially attributed to age-related differences in executive control.
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Measures of rowing performance.
Smith, T Brett; Hopkins, Will G
2012-04-01
Accurate measures of performance are important for assessing competitive athletes in practi~al and research settings. We present here a review of rowing performance measures, focusing on the errors in these measures and the implications for testing rowers. The yardstick for assessing error in a performance measure is the random variation (typical or standard error of measurement) in an elite athlete's competitive performance from race to race: ∼1.0% for time in 2000 m rowing events. There has been little research interest in on-water time trials for assessing rowing performance, owing to logistic difficulties and environmental perturbations in performance time with such tests. Mobile ergometry via instrumented oars or rowlocks should reduce these problems, but the associated errors have not yet been reported. Measurement of boat speed to monitor on-water training performance is common; one device based on global positioning system (GPS) technology contributes negligible extra random error (0.2%) in speed measured over 2000 m, but extra error is substantial (1-10%) with other GPS devices or with an impeller, especially over shorter distances. The problems with on-water testing have led to widespread use of the Concept II rowing ergometer. The standard error of the estimate of on-water 2000 m time predicted by 2000 m ergometer performance was 2.6% and 7.2% in two studies, reflecting different effects of skill, body mass and environment in on-water versus ergometer performance. However, well trained rowers have a typical error in performance time of only ∼0.5% between repeated 2000 m time trials on this ergometer, so such trials are suitable for tracking changes in physiological performance and factors affecting it. Many researchers have used the 2000 m ergometer performance time as a criterion to identify other predictors of rowing performance. Standard errors of the estimate vary widely between studies even for the same predictor, but the lowest errors (~1-2%) have been observed for peak power output in an incremental test, some measures of lactate threshold and measures of 30-second all-out power. Some of these measures also have typical error between repeated tests suitably low for tracking changes. Combining measures via multiple linear regression needs further investigation. In summary, measurement of boat speed, especially with a good GPS device, has adequate precision for monitoring training performance, but adjustment for environmental effects needs to be investigated. Time trials on the Concept II ergometer provide accurate estimates of a rower's physiological ability to output power, and some submaximal and brief maximal ergometer performance measures can be used frequently to monitor changes in this ability. On-water performance measured via instrumented skiffs that determine individual power output may eventually surpass measures derived from the Concept II.
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Carpinteri, Alberto; Lacidogna, Giuseppe; Invernizzi, Stefano; Accornero, Federico
2013-01-01
We examine an application of Acoustic Emission (AE) technique for a probabilistic analysis in time and space of earthquakes, in order to preserve the valuable Italian Renaissance Architectural Complex named "The Sacred Mountain of Varallo." Among the forty-five chapels of the Renaissance Complex, the structure of the Chapel XVII is of particular concern due to its uncertain structural condition and due to the level of stress caused by the regional seismicity. Therefore, lifetime assessment, taking into account the evolution of damage phenomena, is necessary to preserve the reliability and safety of this masterpiece of cultural heritage. A continuous AE monitoring was performed to assess the structural behavior of the Chapel. During the monitoring period, a correlation between peaks of AE activity in the masonry of the "Sacred Mountain of Varallo" and regional seismicity was found. Although the two phenomena take place on very different scales, the AE in materials and the earthquakes in Earth's crust, belong to the same class of invariance. In addition, an accurate finite element model, performed with DIANA finite element code, is presented to describe the dynamic behavior of Chapel XVII structure, confirming visual and instrumental inspections of regional seismic effects.
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Ciocchetti, Marco; Massaroni, Carlo; Saccomandi, Paola; Caponero, Michele A.; Polimadei, Andrea; Formica, Domenico; Schena, Emiliano
2015-01-01
Continuous respiratory monitoring is important to assess adequate ventilation. We present a fiber optic-based smart textile for respiratory monitoring able to work during Magnetic Resonance (MR) examinations. The system is based on the conversion of chest wall movements into strain of two fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors, placed on the upper thorax (UT). FBGs are glued on the textile by an adhesive silicon rubber. To increase the system sensitivity, the FBGs positioning was led by preliminary experiments performed using an optoelectronic system: FBGs placed on the chest surface experienced the largest strain during breathing. System performances, in terms of respiratory period (TR), duration of inspiratory (TI) and expiratory (TE) phases, as well as left and right UT volumes, were assessed on four healthy volunteers. The comparison of results obtained by the proposed system and an optoelectronic plethysmography highlights the high accuracy in the estimation of TR, TI, and TE: Bland-Altman analysis shows mean of difference values lower than 0.045 s, 0.33 s, and 0.35 s for TR, TI, and TE, respectively. The mean difference of UT volumes between the two systems is about 8.3%. The promising results foster further development of the system to allow routine use during MR examinations. PMID:26389961
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Value of self-monitoring blood glucose pattern analysis in improving diabetes outcomes.
Parkin, Christopher G; Davidson, Jaime A
2009-05-01
Self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) is an important adjunct to hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) testing. This action can distinguish between fasting, preprandial, and postprandial hyperglycemia; detect glycemic excursions; identify and monitor resolution of hypoglycemia; and provide immediate feedback to patients about the effect of food choices, activity, and medication on glycemic control. Pattern analysis is a systematic approach to identifying glycemic patterns within SMBG data and then taking appropriate action based upon those results. The use of pattern analysis involves: (1) establishing pre- and postprandial glucose targets; (2) obtaining data on glucose levels, carbohydrate intake, medication administration (type, dosages, timing), activity levels and physical/emotional stress; (3) analyzing data to identify patterns of glycemic excursions, assessing any influential factors, and implementing appropriate action(s); and (4) performing ongoing SMBG to assess the impact of any therapeutic changes made. Computer-based and paper-based data collection and management tools can be developed to perform pattern analysis for identifying patterns in SMBG data. This approach to interpreting SMBG data facilitates rational therapeutic adjustments in response to this information. Pattern analysis of SMBG data can be of equal or greater value than measurement of HbA1c levels. 2009 Diabetes Technology Society.
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Effect of occupational safety measures on micronucleus frequency in semiconductor workers.
Winker, Robert; Roos, Gerhard; Pilger, Alexander; Rüdiger, Hugo W
2008-02-01
To examine whether semiconductor workers exposed to complex mixtures of chemical waste show an increase in genotoxic effects, and, if so, whether occupational safety measures protect these workers. To assess chemical exposure in the workplace, air monitoring of boron trifluoride and boron trichloride was performed and urinary concentrations of fluoride were measured. The cytokinesis-block micronucleus test on isolated lymphocytes was used for the detection of genotoxic effects. Two series of monitoring have been performed in order to assess the effect of implemented protection measures. We found a significantly higher mean frequency of micronuclei in exposed workers than in controls, whereas air monitoring and measurement of urinary fluoride failed to detect chemical exposure of these workers. Twelve years after implementation of protective measures, the mean level of micronuclei in exposed individuals was found to be as low as those from controls. These findings indicate that exposed workers in the semiconductor industry may have an increased risk of genotoxic effects from complex mixtures of chemical waste products. The decline of the mean level of micronuclei in exposed workers down to the base level of controls after implementation of protective measures points to the significance of adequate safety standards to protect against chromosomal damage in semiconductor personnel.
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High Stakes Assessment: A Local District Perspective.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Oldham, Ben R.
The Kentucky Education Reform Act legislated by the 1990 General Assembly created a high-stakes school performance accountability system to monitor the progress of implementation. One major component of the accountability system is a schedule of consequences designed to reward those schools making sufficient progress in improving student…
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Miscanthus productivity and nutrient export on 22 producer fields
USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database
On-farm assessments of Miscanthus × giganteus growth and nutrition across a wide range of management and environmental conditions are needed to determine and model how this crop performs and where it should be placed on the landscape. Therefore, Miscanthus growth and nutrition were monitored during ...
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Feedback Effectiveness in Professional Learning Contexts
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Johnson, Martin
2016-01-01
Assessment organisations that operate at a national level in the UK employ hierarchic assessor monitoring arrangements, where the most senior assessors (known as team leaders) feedback to assessors in their teams on their marking performance. According to a sociocultural viewpoint, this feedback possesses learning potential as it allows assessors…
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40 CFR 35.3570 - Reports and audits.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR
2011-07-01
... on-site visits as deemed necessary to perform the annual review. (d) Information management system—(1) Purpose. The purpose of the information management system is to assess the DWSRF programs, to monitor.... Information provided in the Biennial Report on other EPA programs eligible for assistance from the DWSRF...
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40 CFR 35.3570 - Reports and audits.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR
2012-07-01
... on-site visits as deemed necessary to perform the annual review. (d) Information management system—(1) Purpose. The purpose of the information management system is to assess the DWSRF programs, to monitor.... Information provided in the Biennial Report on other EPA programs eligible for assistance from the DWSRF...
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40 CFR 35.3570 - Reports and audits.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-07-01
... on-site visits as deemed necessary to perform the annual review. (d) Information management system—(1) Purpose. The purpose of the information management system is to assess the DWSRF programs, to monitor.... Information provided in the Biennial Report on other EPA programs eligible for assistance from the DWSRF...
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40 CFR 35.3570 - Reports and audits.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR
2014-07-01
... on-site visits as deemed necessary to perform the annual review. (d) Information management system—(1) Purpose. The purpose of the information management system is to assess the DWSRF programs, to monitor.... Information provided in the Biennial Report on other EPA programs eligible for assistance from the DWSRF...
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40 CFR 35.3570 - Reports and audits.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR
2013-07-01
... on-site visits as deemed necessary to perform the annual review. (d) Information management system—(1) Purpose. The purpose of the information management system is to assess the DWSRF programs, to monitor.... Information provided in the Biennial Report on other EPA programs eligible for assistance from the DWSRF...
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Longitudinal monitoring of whole body counter NaI(TI) detector efficiency
USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database
Assessing accuracy of radiation counting systems over time is critical. We examined long-term WBC performance in detail. Efficiency factors for 54 detectors were updated annually over several years. Newer efficiency values were compared with baseline and with annual values. Overall system efficiency...
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Hazardous waste site remediation workers or neighboring residents may be exposed to particulates during the remediation of lead contaminated soil sites. An industrial hygiene survey and air monitoring program for both lead and dust were performed during initial soil sampling acti...
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Combined effects of hydrazine exposure and endurance testing on solenoid-actuated valve performance
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Hagler, R., Jr.
1974-01-01
Results are presented from a test program which was conducted to assess the capability of various solenoid-actuated valve design concepts to provide performance characteristics commensurate with long-duration (ten-year) missions to explore the outer planets. The valves were installed in a hydrazine flow test setup and periodically cycled during a nine-month test period under test conditions comparable to anticipated mission operating conditions. In situ valve performance was periodically determined, and leakage was continuously monitored.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Ángel López Comino, José; Cesca, Simone; Kriegerowski, Marius; Heimann, Sebastian; Dahm, Torsten; Mirek, Janusz; Lasocky, Stanislaw
2017-04-01
Previous analysis to assess the monitoring performance of a dedicated seismic network are always useful to determine its capability of detecting, locating and characterizing target seismicity. This work focuses on a hydrofracking experiment in Poland, which is monitored in the framework of the SHEER (SHale gas Exploration and Exploitation induced Risks) EU project. The seismic installation is located near Wysin (Poland), in the central-western part of the Peribaltic synclise at Pomerania. The network setup includes a distributed network of six broadband stations, three shallow borehole stations and three small-scale arrays. We assess the monitoring performance prior operations, using synthetic seismograms. Realistic full waveform are generated and combined with real noise before fracking operations, to produce either event based or continuous synthetic waveforms. Background seismicity is modelled by double couple (DC) focal mechanisms. Non-DC sources resemble induced tensile fractures opening in the direction of the minimal compressive stress and closing in the same direction after the injection. Microseismic sources are combined with a realistic crustal model, distribution of hypocenters, magnitudes and source durations. The network detection performance is then assessed in terms of Magnitude of Completeness (Mc) through two different techniques: i) using an amplitude threshold approach, taking into account a station dependent noise level and different values of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and ii) through the application of an automatic detection algorithm to the continuous synthetic dataset. In the first case, we compare the maximal amplitude of noise free synthetic waveforms with the different noise levels. Imposing the simultaneous detection at e.g. 4 stations for a robust detection, the Mc is assessed and can be adjusted by empirical relationships for different SNR values. We find that different source mechanisms have different detection threshold. The background seismicity (DC sources) is better detectable than induced earthquakes (tensile cracks mechanisms). Assuming a SNR of 2, we estimate a Mc 0.55 around the fracking wells, with an increase of 0.05 during day hours. The value of Mc can be decreased to 0.45 around the fracking region, taking advantage by the array installations. The second approach applies a full waveform detection and location algorithm based on the stacking of smooth characteristic function and the identification of high coherence in the signals recorded at different stations. In this case the detection can be increased at the cost of increasing also false detections, with an acceptable compromise found for Mc 0.1.
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1987-07-01
report describes work performed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), Environmental Research Laboratory, Narragansett, R. I. (ERLN), as...of the use 2 such commercial prodluc!s TheP 0-series of reports includes Qubiicatiors Environmental Effects of Dredclng Proqramrs Dredg:ng Operations...public release; distribution 2b DECLASSIFICATION /DOWNGRADING SCHEDULE unlimited. 4 PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER(S) S MONITORING
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Walk Test Used to Monitor the Performance in the Health-Directed Nordic Walking
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kamien, Dorota
2008-01-01
Study aim: To assess the performance of subjects engaged in health-directed Nordic Walking training (with poles) and subjected to 2-km walk test (no poles). Material and methods: A total of 72 subjects, including 8 men and 32 women aged 23-73 years and 32 female students aged 19-25 years participated in the study. They were subjected twice to 2-km…
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Task Force Fury - 4/82 ABN. Operation Enduring Freedom X, Aug 09-Sep 10
2012-06-01
UNIT NUMBER 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) Office Secretary of Defense,Joint Advanced Warfighting Program - Analytical Projects...Office,Washington,DC,20301 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER 9. SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 10. SPONSOR/MONITOR’S...assess our Operational Environments (OE), Afghan partners and ourselves - Remain an agile, adaptive and learning organization (get better every day) ANSF
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Vanneste, Sandrine; Baudouin, Alexia; Bouazzaoui, Badiâa; Taconnat, Laurence
2016-07-01
Time-based prospective memory (TBPM) is required when it is necessary to remember to perform an action at a specific future point in time. This type of memory has been found to be particularly sensitive to ageing, probably because it requires a self-initiated response at a specific time. In this study, we sought to examine the involvement of temporal processes in the time monitoring strategy, which has been demonstrated to be a decisive factor in TBPM efficiency. We compared the performance of young and older adults in a TBPM task in which they had to press a response button every minute while categorising words. The design allowed participants to monitor time by checking a clock whenever they decided. Participants also completed a classic time-production task and several executive tasks assessing inhibition, updating and shifting processes. Our results confirm an age-related lack of accuracy in prospective memory performance, which seems to be related to a deficient strategic use of time monitoring. This could in turn be partially explained by age-related temporal deficits, as evidenced in the duration production task. These findings suggest that studies designed to investigate the age effect in TBPM tasks should consider the contribution of temporal mechanisms.
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Place, Jérôme; Robert, Antoine; Brahim, Najib Ben; Patrick, Keith-Hynes; Farret, Anne; Marie-Josée, Pelletier; Buckingham, Bruce; Breton, Marc; Kovatchev, Boris; Renard, Eric
2013-01-01
Background Developments in an artificial pancreas (AP) for patients with type 1 diabetes have allowed a move toward performing outpatient clinical trials. “Home-like” environment implies specific protocol and system adaptations among which the introduction of remote monitoring is meaningful. We present a novel tool allowing multiple patients to monitor AP use in home-like settings. Methods We investigated existing systems, performed interviews of experienced clinical teams, listed required features, and drew several mockups of the user interface. The resulting application was tested on the bench before it was used in three outpatient studies representing 3480 h of remote monitoring. Results Our tool, called DiAs Web Monitoring (DWM), is a web-based application that ensures reception, storage, and display of data sent by AP systems. Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and insulin delivery data are presented in a colored chart to facilitate reading and interpretation. Several subjects can be monitored simultaneously on the same screen, and alerts are triggered to help detect events such as hypoglycemia or CGM failures. In the third trial, DWM received approximately 460 data per subject per hour: 77% for log messages, 5% for CGM data. More than 97% of transmissions were achieved in less than 5 min. Conclusions Transition from a hospital setting to home-like conditions requires specific AP supervision to which remote monitoring systems can contribute valuably. DiAs Web Monitoring worked properly when tested in our outpatient studies. It could facilitate subject monitoring and even accelerate medical and technical assessment of the AP. It should now be adapted for long-term studies with an enhanced notification feature. J Diabetes Sci Technol 2013;7(6):1427–1435 PMID:24351169
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Place, Jérôme; Robert, Antoine; Ben Brahim, Najib; Keith-Hynes, Patrick; Farret, Anne; Pelletier, Marie-Josée; Buckingham, Bruce; Breton, Marc; Kovatchev, Boris; Renard, Eric
2013-11-01
Developments in an artificial pancreas (AP) for patients with type 1 diabetes have allowed a move toward performing outpatient clinical trials. "Home-like" environment implies specific protocol and system adaptations among which the introduction of remote monitoring is meaningful. We present a novel tool allowing multiple patients to monitor AP use in home-like settings. We investigated existing systems, performed interviews of experienced clinical teams, listed required features, and drew several mockups of the user interface. The resulting application was tested on the bench before it was used in three outpatient studies representing 3480 h of remote monitoring. Our tool, called DiAs Web Monitoring (DWM), is a web-based application that ensures reception, storage, and display of data sent by AP systems. Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and insulin delivery data are presented in a colored chart to facilitate reading and interpretation. Several subjects can be monitored simultaneously on the same screen, and alerts are triggered to help detect events such as hypoglycemia or CGM failures. In the third trial, DWM received approximately 460 data per subject per hour: 77% for log messages, 5% for CGM data. More than 97% of transmissions were achieved in less than 5 min. Transition from a hospital setting to home-like conditions requires specific AP supervision to which remote monitoring systems can contribute valuably. DiAs Web Monitoring worked properly when tested in our outpatient studies. It could facilitate subject monitoring and even accelerate medical and technical assessment of the AP. It should now be adapted for long-term studies with an enhanced notification feature. © 2013 Diabetes Technology Society.
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Palchaudhuri, Sonali; Tweya, Hannock; Hosseinipour, Mina
2014-06-01
The 2011 Malawi HIV guidelines promote CD4 monitoring for pre-ART assessment and considering HIVRNA monitoring for ART response assessment, while some clinics used CD4 for both. We assessed clinical ordering practices as compared to guidelines, and determined whether the samples were successfully and promptly processed. We conducted a retrospective review of all patients seen in from August 2010 through July 2011,, in two urban HIV-care clinics that utilized 6-monthly CD4 monitoring regardless of ART status. We calculated the percentage of patients on whom clinicians ordered CD4 or HIVRNA analysis. For all samples sent, we determined rates of successful lab-processing, and mean time to returned results. Of 20581 patients seen, 8029 (39%) had at least one blood draw for CD4 count. Among pre-ART patients, 2668/2844 (93.8%) had CD4 counts performed for eligibility. Of all CD4 samples sent, 8082/9207 (89%) samples were successfully processed. Of those, mean time to processing was 1.6 days (s.d 1.5) but mean time to results being available to clinician was 9.3 days (s.d. 3.7). Regarding HIVRNA, 172 patients of 17737 on ART had a blood draw and only 118/213 (55%) samples were successfully processed. Mean processing time was 39.5 days (s.d. 21.7); mean time to results being available to clinician was 43.1 days (s.d. 25.1). During the one-year evaluated, there were multiple lapses in processing HIVRNA samples for up to 2 months. Clinicians underutilize CD4 and HIVRNA as monitoring tools in HIV care. Laboratory processing failures and turnaround times are unacceptably high for viral load analysis. Alternative strategies need to be considered in order to meet laboratory monitoring needs.
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Reif, Molly K; Theel, Heather J
2017-07-01
Restoration monitoring is generally perceived as costly and time consuming, given the assumptions of successfully restoring ecological functions and services of a particular ecosystem or habitat. Opportunities exist for remote sensing to bolster the restoration science associated with a wide variety of injured resources, including resources affected by fire, hydropower operations, chemical releases, and oil spills, among others. In the last decade, the role of remote sensing to support restoration monitoring has increased, in part due to the advent of high-resolution satellite sensors as well as other sensor technology, such as lidar. Restoration practitioners in federal agencies require monitoring standards to assess restoration performance of injured resources. This review attempts to address a technical need and provides an introductory overview of spatial data and restoration metric considerations, as well as an in-depth review of optical (e.g., spaceborne, airborne, unmanned aerial vehicles) and active (e.g., radar, lidar) sensors and examples of restoration metrics that can be measured with remotely sensed data (e.g., land cover, species or habitat type, change detection, quality, degradation, diversity, and pressures or threats). To that end, the present article helps restoration practitioners assemble information not only about essential restoration metrics but also about the evolving technological approaches that can be used to best assess them. Given the need for monitoring standards to assess restoration success of injured resources, a universal monitoring framework should include a range of remote sensing options with which to measure common restoration metrics. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2017;13:614-630. Published 2016. This article is a US Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. Published 2016. This article is a US Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Adamczyk, Joanna; Osberger, Antonia
2015-05-01
Here we propose an approach to enhance the detection and assessment of forest disturbances in mountain areas based on red-edge reflectance. The research addresses the need for improved monitoring of areas included in the European Natura 2000 network. Thirty-eight vegetation indices (VI) are assessed for sensitivity to topographic variations. A separability analysis is performed for the resulting set of ten VI whereby two VI (PSSRc2, SR 800/550) are found most suitable for threshold-based OBIA classification. With a correlation analysis (SRCC) between VI and the training samples we identify Datt4 as suitable to represent the magnitude of forest disturbance. The provided information layers illustrate two combined phenomena that were derived by (1) an OBIA delineation and (2) continuous representation of the magnitude of forest disturbance. The satisfactory accuracy assessment results confirm that the approach is useful for operational tasks in the long-term monitoring of Norway spruce dominated forests in mountainous areas, with regard to forest disturbance.
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Developing Urban Environment Indicators for Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment in Tripoli-Libya
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Elgadi, Ahmed. A.; Hakim Ismail, Lokman; Abass, Fatma; Ali, Abdelmuniem
2016-11-01
Sustainability assessment frameworks are becoming increasingly important to assist in the transition towards a sustainable urban environment. The urban environment is an effective system and requires regular monitoring and evaluation through a set of relevant indicators. The indicator provides information about the state of the environment through the production value of quantity. The indicator creates sustainability assessment requests to be considered on all spatial scales to specify efficient information of urban environment sustainability in Tripoli-Libya. Detailed data is necessary to assess environmental modification in the urban environment on a local scale and ease the transfer of this information to national and global stages. This paper proposes a set of key indicators to monitor urban environmental sustainability developments of Libyan residential neighborhoods. The proposed environmental indicator framework measures the sustainability performance of an urban environment through 13 sub-categories consisting of 21 indicators. This paper also explains the theoretical foundations for the selection of all indicators with reference to previous studies.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Na, Jeong K.; Kuhr, Samuel J.; Jata, Kumar V.
2008-03-01
Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) can be subjected to impact damage during flight and/or during ground maintenance and/or repair. AFRL/RXLP is developing a reliable and robust on-board sensing/monitoring capability for next generation thermal protection systems to detect and assess impact damage. This study was focused on two classes of metallic thermal protection tiles to determine threshold for impact damage and develop sensing capability of the impacts. Sensors made of PVDF piezoelectric film were employed and tested to evaluate the detectability of impact signals and assess the onset or threshold of impact damage. Testing was performed over a range of impact energy levels, where the sensors were adhered to the back of the specimens. The PVDF signal levels were analyzed and compared to assess damage, where digital microscopy, visual inspection, and white light interferometry were used for damage verification. Based on the impact test results, an assessment of the impact damage thresholds for each type of metallic TPS system was made.
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Supplier Selection based on the Performance by using PROMETHEE Method
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Sinaga, T. S.; Siregar, K.
2017-03-01
Generally, companies faced problem to identify vendors that can provide excellent service in availability raw material and on time delivery. The performance of suppliers in a company have to be monitored to ensure the availability to fulfill the company needs. This research is intended to explain how to assess suppliers to improve manufacturing performance. The criteria that considered in evaluating suppliers is criteria of Dickson. There are four main criteria which further split into seven sub-criteria, namely compliance with accuracy, consistency, on-time delivery, right quantity order, flexibility and negotiation, timely of order confirmation, and responsiveness. This research uses PROMETHEE methodology in assessing the supplier performances and obtaining a selected supplier as the best one that shown from the degree of alternative comparison preference between suppliers.
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Image Navigation and Registration Performance Assessment Evaluation Tools for GOES-R ABI and GLM
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Houchin, Scott; Porter, Brian; Graybill, Justin; Slingerland, Philip
2017-01-01
The GOES-R Flight Project has developed an Image Navigation and Registration (INR) Performance Assessment Tool Set (IPATS) for measuring Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) and Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) INR performance metrics in the post-launch period for performance evaluation and long term monitoring. IPATS utilizes a modular algorithmic design to allow user selection of data processing sequences optimized for generation of each INR metric. This novel modular approach minimizes duplication of common processing elements, thereby maximizing code efficiency and speed. Fast processing is essential given the large number of sub-image registrations required to generate INR metrics for the many images produced over a 24 hour evaluation period. This paper describes the software design and implementation of IPATS and provides preliminary test results.