Implementing AORN recommended practices for prevention of deep vein thrombosis.

PubMed

Van Wicklin, Sharon A

2011-11-01

One to two people per 1,000 are affected by deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism in the United States each year. AORN published its new "Recommended practices for prevention of deep vein thrombosis" to guide perioperative RNs in establishing organization-wide protocols for DVT prevention. Strategies for successful implementation of the recommended practices include taking a multidisciplinary approach to protocol development, providing education and guidance for performing preoperative patient assessments and administering DVT prophylaxis, and having appropriate resources and the facility's policy and procedure for DVT prevention readily available in the practice setting. Hospital and ambulatory patient scenarios have been included as examples of appropriate execution of the recommended practices. Copyright © 2011 AORN, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Intersystem - Internetworking for space systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Landauer, C.

This paper is a description of the Intersystem, which is a mechanism for internetworking among existing and planned military satellite communication systems. The communication systems interconnected with this mechanism are called member systems, and the interconnected set of communication systems is called the Intersystem. The Intersystem is implemented with higher layer protocols that impose a common organization on the different signaling conventions, so that end users of different systems can communicate with each other. The Intersystem provides its coordination of member system access and resource requests with Intersystem Resource Controllers (IRCs), which are processors that implement the Intersystem protocols and have interfaces to the member systems' own access and resource control mechanisms. The IRCs are connected to each other to form the IRC Subnetwork. Terminals request services from the IRC Subnetwork using the Intersystem Access Control Protocols, and the IRC Subnetwork responses to the requests are coordinated using the RCRC (Resource Controller to Resource Controller) Protocols.

106-17 Telemetry Management Resources Chapter 25

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-07-01

aspects of the TmNS system . There are two primary protocols for accessing the management resources: Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and... management resources as well as a basic HTTP clients and servers for a more RESTful approach to system management . Both tools are available from the...Telemetry Standards, RCC Standard 106-17 Chapter 25, July 2017 i CHAPTER 25 Management Resources Acronyms

Can legality verification enhace local rights to forest resources? Piloting the policy learning protocol in the Peruvian forest context

Treesearch

B. Cashore; I. Visseren-Hamakers; P. Caro Torres; W. de Jong; A. Denvir; D. Humphreys; Kathleen McGinley; G. Auld; S. Lupberger; C. McDermott; S. Sax; D. Yin

2016-01-01

This report, “Can Legality Verification Enhance Local Rights to Forest Resources? Piloting the policy learning protocol in the Peruvian forest context,” reports on the testing of the application of the 11-step Policy Learning Protocol in Peru in 2015-16. The Protocol (Cashore et al. 2014) enables actors to draw from international policy initiatives in order to improve...

A Brokering Protocol for Agent-Based Grid Resource Discovery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kang, Jaeyong; Sim, Kwang Mong

Resource discovery is one of the basic and key aspects in grid resource management, which aims at searching for the suitable resources for satisfying the requirement of users' applications. This paper introduces an agent-based brokering protocol which connects users and providers in grid environments. In particular, it focuses on addressing the problem of connecting users and providers. A connection algorithm that matches advertisements of users and requests from providers based on pre-specified multiple criteria is devised and implemented. The connection algorithm mainly consists of four stages: selection, evaluation, filtering, and recommendation. A series of experiments that were carried out in executing the protocol, and favorable results were obtained.

[An update of the obstetrics hemorrhage treatment protocol].

PubMed

Morillas-Ramírez, F; Ortiz-Gómez, J R; Palacio-Abizanda, F J; Fornet-Ruiz, I; Pérez-Lucas, R; Bermejo-Albares, L

2014-04-01

Obstetric hemorrhage is still a major cause of maternal and fetal morbimortality in developed countries. This is an underestimated problem, which usually appears unpredictably. A high proportion of the morbidity of obstetric hemorrhage is considered to be preventable if adequately managed. The major international clinical guidelines recommend producing consensus management protocols, adapted to local characteristics and keep them updated in the light of experience and new scientific publications. We present a protocol updated, according to the latest recommendations, and our own experience, in order to be used as a basis for those anesthesiologists who wish to use and adapt it locally to their daily work. This last aspect is very important to be effective, and is a task to be performed at each center, according to the availability of resources, personnel and architectural features. Copyright © 2013 Sociedad Española de Anestesiología, Reanimación y Terapéutica del Dolor. Published by Elsevier España. All rights reserved.

Interlibrary Loan, the Key to Resource Sharing: A Manual of Procedures and Protocols.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alaska State Dept. of Education, Juneau. Div. of State Libraries.

Intended for use by librarians in Alaska, this manual provides general guidelines for the maximum utilization of library resources through interlibrary loan service. The first of four major sections describes the Alaska Library Network (ALN), which provides protocols and procedures to libraries for resource sharing; points out that new protocols…

Classification of CO2 Geologic Storage: Resource and Capacity

USGS Publications Warehouse

Frailey, S.M.; Finley, R.J.

2009-01-01

The use of the term capacity to describe possible geologic storage implies a realistic or likely volume of CO2 to be sequestered. Poor data quantity and quality may lead to very high uncertainty in the storage estimate. Use of the term "storage resource" alleviates the implied certainty of the term "storage capacity". This is especially important to non- scientists (e.g. policy makers) because "capacity" is commonly used to describe the very specific and more certain quantities such as volume of a gas tank or a hotel's overnight guest limit. Resource is a term used in the classification of oil and gas accumulations to infer lesser certainty in the commercial production of oil and gas. Likewise for CO2 sequestration, a suspected porous and permeable zone can be classified as a resource, but capacity can only be estimated after a well is drilled into the formation and a relatively higher degree of economic and regulatory certainty is established. Storage capacity estimates are lower risk or higher certainty compared to storage resource estimates. In the oil and gas industry, prospective resource and contingent resource are used for estimates with less data and certainty. Oil and gas reserves are classified as Proved and Unproved, and by analogy, capacity can be classified similarly. The highest degree of certainty for an oil or gas accumulation is Proved, Developed Producing (PDP) Reserves. For CO2 sequestration this could be Proved Developed Injecting (PDI) Capacity. A geologic sequestration storage classification system is developed by analogy to that used by the oil and gas industry. When a CO2 sequestration industry emerges, storage resource and capacity estimates will be considered a company asset and consequently regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Additionally, storage accounting and auditing protocols will be required to confirm projected storage estimates and assignment of credits from actual injection. An example illustrates the use of these terms and how storage classification changes as new data become available. ?? 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Minimizing variance in Care of Pediatric Blunt Solid Organ Injury through Utilization of a hemodynamic-driven protocol: a multi-institution study.

PubMed

Cunningham, Aaron J; Lofberg, Katrine M; Krishnaswami, Sanjay; Butler, Marilyn W; Azarow, Kenneth S; Hamilton, Nicholas A; Fialkowski, Elizabeth A; Bilyeu, Pamela; Ohm, Erika; Burns, Erin C; Hendrickson, Margo; Krishnan, Preetha; Gingalewski, Cynthia; Jafri, Mubeen A

2017-12-01

An expedited recovery protocol for management of pediatric blunt solid organ injury (spleen, liver, and kidney) was instituted across two Level 1 Trauma Centers, managed by nine pediatric surgeons within three hospital systems. Data were collected for 18months on consecutive patients after protocol implementation. Patient demographics (including grade of injury), surgeon compliance, National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) complications, direct hospital cost, length of stay, time in the ICU, phlebotomy, and re-admission were compared to an 18-month control period immediately preceding study initiation. A total of 106 patients were treated (control=55, protocol=51). Demographics were similar among groups, and compliance was 78%. Hospital stay (4.6 vs. 3.5days, p=0.04), ICU stay (1.9 vs. 1.0days, p=0.02), and total phlebotomy (7.7 vs. 5.3 draws, p=0.007) were significantly less in the protocol group. A decrease in direct hospital costs was also observed ($11,965 vs. $8795, p=0.09). Complication rates (1.8% vs. 3.9%, p=0.86, no deaths) were similar. An expedited, hemodynamic-driven, pediatric solid organ injury protocol is achievable across hospital systems and surgeons. Through implementation we maintained quality while impacting length of stay, ICU utilization, phlebotomy, and cost. Future protocols should work to further limit resource utilization. Retrospective cohort study. Level II. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Sharing Service Resource Information for Application Integration in a Virtual Enterprise - Modeling the Communication Protocol for Exchanging Service Resource Information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yamada, Hiroshi; Kawaguchi, Akira

Grid computing and web service technologies enable us to use networked resources in a coordinated manner. An integrated service is made of individual services running on coordinated resources. In order to achieve such coordinated services autonomously, the initiator of a coordinated service needs to know detailed service resource information. This information ranges from static attributes like the IP address of the application server to highly dynamic ones like the CPU load. The most famous wide-area service discovery mechanism based on names is DNS. Its hierarchical tree organization and caching methods take advantage of the static information managed. However, in order to integrate business applications in a virtual enterprise, we need a discovery mechanism to search for the optimal resources based on the given a set of criteria (search keys). In this paper, we propose a communication protocol for exchanging service resource information among wide-area systems. We introduce the concept of the service domain that consists of service providers managed under the same management policy. This concept of the service domain is similar to that for autonomous systems (ASs). In each service domain, the service information provider manages the service resource information of service providers that exist in this service domain. The service resource information provider exchanges this information with other service resource information providers that belong to the different service domains. We also verified the protocol's behavior and effectiveness using a simulation model developed for proposed protocol.

Bell nonlocality: a resource for device-independent quantum information protocols

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Acin, Antonio

2015-05-01

Bell nonlocality is not only one of the most fundamental properties of quantum physics, but has also recently acquired the status of an information resource for device-independent quantum information protocols. In the device-independent approach, protocols are designed so that their performance is independent of the internal working of the devices used in the implementation. We discuss all these ideas and argue that device-independent protocols are especially relevant or cryptographic applications, as they are insensitive to hacking attacks exploiting imperfections on the modelling of the devices.

Genome-wide comparison of ultraviolet and ethyl methanesulphonate mutagenesis methods for the brown alga Ectocarpus.

PubMed

Godfroy, Olivier; Peters, Akira F; Coelho, Susana M; Cock, J Mark

2015-12-01

Ectocarpus has emerged as a model organism for the brown algae and a broad range of genetic and genomic resources are being generated for this species. The aim of the work presented here was to evaluate two mutagenesis protocols based on ultraviolet irradiation and ethyl methanesulphonate treatment using genome resequencing to measure the number, type and distribution of mutations generated by the two methods. Ultraviolet irradiation generated a greater number of genetic lesions than ethyl methanesulphonate treatment, with more than 400 mutations being detected in the genome of the mutagenised individual. This study therefore confirms that the ultraviolet mutagenesis protocol is suitable for approaches that require a high density of mutations, such as saturation mutagenesis or Targeting Induced Local Lesions in Genomes (TILLING). Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Generalized Teleportation and Entanglement Recycling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Strelchuk, Sergii; Horodecki, Michał; Oppenheim, Jonathan

2013-01-01

We introduce new teleportation protocols which are generalizations of the original teleportation protocols that use the Pauli group and the port-based teleportation protocols, introduced by Hiroshima and Ishizaka, that use the symmetric permutation group. We derive sufficient conditions for a set of operations, which in general need not form a group, to give rise to a teleportation protocol and provide examples of such schemes. This generalization leads to protocols with novel properties and is needed to push forward new schemes of computation based on them. Port-based teleportation protocols and our generalizations use a large resource state consisting of N singlets to teleport only a single qubit state reliably. We provide two distinct protocols which recycle the resource state to teleport multiple states with error linearly increasing with their number. The first protocol consists of sequentially teleporting qubit states, and the second teleports them in a bulk.

Generalized teleportation and entanglement recycling.

PubMed

Strelchuk, Sergii; Horodecki, Michał; Oppenheim, Jonathan

2013-01-04

We introduce new teleportation protocols which are generalizations of the original teleportation protocols that use the Pauli group and the port-based teleportation protocols, introduced by Hiroshima and Ishizaka, that use the symmetric permutation group. We derive sufficient conditions for a set of operations, which in general need not form a group, to give rise to a teleportation protocol and provide examples of such schemes. This generalization leads to protocols with novel properties and is needed to push forward new schemes of computation based on them. Port-based teleportation protocols and our generalizations use a large resource state consisting of N singlets to teleport only a single qubit state reliably. We provide two distinct protocols which recycle the resource state to teleport multiple states with error linearly increasing with their number. The first protocol consists of sequentially teleporting qubit states, and the second teleports them in a bulk.

Automated generation of patient-tailored electronic care pathways by translating computer-interpretable guidelines into hierarchical task networks.

PubMed

González-Ferrer, Arturo; ten Teije, Annette; Fdez-Olivares, Juan; Milian, Krystyna

2013-02-01

This paper describes a methodology which enables computer-aided support for the planning, visualization and execution of personalized patient treatments in a specific healthcare process, taking into account complex temporal constraints and the allocation of institutional resources. To this end, a translation from a time-annotated computer-interpretable guideline (CIG) model of a clinical protocol into a temporal hierarchical task network (HTN) planning domain is presented. The proposed method uses a knowledge-driven reasoning process to translate knowledge previously described in a CIG into a corresponding HTN Planning and Scheduling domain, taking advantage of HTNs known ability to (i) dynamically cope with temporal and resource constraints, and (ii) automatically generate customized plans. The proposed method, focusing on the representation of temporal knowledge and based on the identification of workflow and temporal patterns in a CIG, makes it possible to automatically generate time-annotated and resource-based care pathways tailored to the needs of any possible patient profile. The proposed translation is illustrated through a case study based on a 70 pages long clinical protocol to manage Hodgkin's disease, developed by the Spanish Society of Pediatric Oncology. We show that an HTN planning domain can be generated from the corresponding specification of the protocol in the Asbru language, providing a running example of this translation. Furthermore, the correctness of the translation is checked and also the management of ten different types of temporal patterns represented in the protocol. By interpreting the automatically generated domain with a state-of-art HTN planner, a time-annotated care pathway is automatically obtained, customized for the patient's and institutional needs. The generated care pathway can then be used by clinicians to plan and manage the patients long-term care. The described methodology makes it possible to automatically generate patient-tailored care pathways, leveraging an incremental knowledge-driven engineering process that starts from the expert knowledge of medical professionals. The presented approach makes the most of the strengths inherent in both CIG languages and HTN planning and scheduling techniques: for the former, knowledge acquisition and representation of the original clinical protocol, and for the latter, knowledge reasoning capabilities and an ability to deal with complex temporal and resource constraints. Moreover, the proposed approach provides immediate access to technologies such as business process management (BPM) tools, which are increasingly being used to support healthcare processes. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Methods for Monitoring Fish Communities of Buffalo National River and Ozark National Scenic Riverways in the Ozark Plateaus of Arkansas and Missouri: Version 1.0

USGS Publications Warehouse

Petersen, James C.; Justus, B.G.; Dodd, H.R.; Bowles, D.E.; Morrison, L.W.; Williams, M.H.; Rowell, G.A.

2008-01-01

Buffalo National River located in north-central Arkansas, and Ozark National Scenic Riverways, located in southeastern Missouri, are the two largest units of the National Park Service in the Ozark Plateaus physiographic province. The purpose of this report is to provide a protocol that will be used by the National Park Service to sample fish communities and collect related water-quality, habitat, and stream discharge data of Buffalo National River and Ozark National Scenic Riverways to meet inventory and long-term monitoring objectives. The protocol includes (1) a protocol narrative, (2) several standard operating procedures, and (3) supplemental information helpful for implementation of the protocol. The protocol narrative provides background information about the protocol such as the rationale of why a particular resource or resource issue was selected for monitoring, information concerning the resource or resource issue of interest, a description of how monitoring results will inform management decisions, and a discussion of the linkages between this and other monitoring projects. The standard operating procedures cover preparation, training, reach selection, water-quality sampling, fish community sampling, physical habitat collection, measuring stream discharge, equipment maintenance and storage, data management and analysis, reporting, and protocol revision procedures. Much of the information in the standard operating procedures was gathered from existing protocols of the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Assessment program or other sources. Supplemental information that would be helpful for implementing the protocol is included. This information includes information on fish species known or suspected to occur in the parks, sample sites, sample design, fish species traits, index of biotic integrity metrics, sampling equipment, and field forms.

A Web Resource for Standardized Benchmark Datasets, Metrics, and Rosetta Protocols for Macromolecular Modeling and Design.

PubMed

Ó Conchúir, Shane; Barlow, Kyle A; Pache, Roland A; Ollikainen, Noah; Kundert, Kale; O'Meara, Matthew J; Smith, Colin A; Kortemme, Tanja

2015-01-01

The development and validation of computational macromolecular modeling and design methods depend on suitable benchmark datasets and informative metrics for comparing protocols. In addition, if a method is intended to be adopted broadly in diverse biological applications, there needs to be information on appropriate parameters for each protocol, as well as metrics describing the expected accuracy compared to experimental data. In certain disciplines, there exist established benchmarks and public resources where experts in a particular methodology are encouraged to supply their most efficient implementation of each particular benchmark. We aim to provide such a resource for protocols in macromolecular modeling and design. We present a freely accessible web resource (https://kortemmelab.ucsf.edu/benchmarks) to guide the development of protocols for protein modeling and design. The site provides benchmark datasets and metrics to compare the performance of a variety of modeling protocols using different computational sampling methods and energy functions, providing a "best practice" set of parameters for each method. Each benchmark has an associated downloadable benchmark capture archive containing the input files, analysis scripts, and tutorials for running the benchmark. The captures may be run with any suitable modeling method; we supply command lines for running the benchmarks using the Rosetta software suite. We have compiled initial benchmarks for the resource spanning three key areas: prediction of energetic effects of mutations, protein design, and protein structure prediction, each with associated state-of-the-art modeling protocols. With the help of the wider macromolecular modeling community, we hope to expand the variety of benchmarks included on the website and continue to evaluate new iterations of current methods as they become available.

Use of health-care services during chemotherapy for breast cancer.

PubMed

Baena-Cañada, José M; Estalella-Mendoza, Sara; Rosado-Varela, Petra; Expósito-Álvarez, Inmaculada; González-Guerrero, Macarena; Díaz-Blanco, María C; Cortés-Carmona, Cristina; Ramírez-Daffós, Patricia; Arriola-Arellano, Esperanza; Rueda-Ramos, Antonio; Solana-Grimaldi, Lourdes; Benítez-Rodríguez, Encarnación

2012-12-01

The authors analyse the effect of chemotherapy on the use of additional health-care resources and report the clinical and demographic factors associated with such use. In women with breast cancer, eligible to receive first-line (neo)-adjuvant or palliative chemotherapy, consultations with health-care practitioners (general practitioners [GPs] and specialists) and admissions to emergency department and to hospital were prospectively recorded. Differences were studied according to these clinical and demographic variables: age, tumour stage, performance status, weight, height, body mass index, surgery type, chemotherapy type, number of courses, comorbidity, marital status, educational level, social status and occupational status. Among 268 patients, 124 (42.2%) required one or more non-protocol health-care encounters. 180 visits were generated (GP 23.3%, specialist 35.5%, emergency department admission 21.1%, hospital admission 8.3%, others 3.3% and more than one resource 8.3%). Of total consultations 150 (83.3%) were chemotherapy-related. The number of visits was higher in the first courses. Fever and infection were the most frequent reasons for consultation in all resources. The dependent variable: 'need for non-protocol health-care encounter in any course' was statistically associated with age (p=0.002) and marital status (p=0.021); no association was found with other variables. In multivariate analysis, age (p=0.001) and marital status (p=0.009) remained statistically significant. Younger and married patients consumed less extra health resources. Many patients receiving chemotherapy consume health-care resources in addition to their routine visits, usually treatment-related. Patients consult less in the later courses. Older and unmarried women in particular need extra care during chemotherapy. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Initiatives and resources to promote antimicrobial stewardship.

PubMed

Paño-Pardo, José Ramón; Campos, José; Natera Kindelán, Clara; Ramos, Antonio

2013-09-01

The development of an antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) requires institutional support. However, obtaining sufficient institutional support is often a complex task that requires convincing the hospital's managers of the benefits of these programs. Additionally, in the design and implementation of an ASP, antimicrobial stewardship (AS) leaders need tools for diverse purposes, such as measuring antimicrobial consumption, education and training and designing protocols. In this review we provide useful information for AS promoters to facilitate the task of designing and implementing an ASP. First, we summarize information about various institutions that promote AS and include evidence that supports the need for and benefits of these programs. Then, several campaigns promoting AS are described. Finally, online resources for professionals dealing with AS are briefly summarized. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier España, S.L. All rights reserved.

Gigabit Ethernet: A Technical Assessment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Axner, David

1997-01-01

Describes gigabit ethernet for LAN (local area network) technology that will expand ethernet bandwidth. Technical details are discussed, including protocol stacks, optical fiber, deployment strategy for performance improvement, ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode), real-time protocol, reserve reservation protocol, and standards. (LRW)

Quantum cryptography with finite resources: unconditional security bound for discrete-variable protocols with one-way postprocessing.

PubMed

Scarani, Valerio; Renner, Renato

2008-05-23

We derive a bound for the security of quantum key distribution with finite resources under one-way postprocessing, based on a definition of security that is composable and has an operational meaning. While our proof relies on the assumption of collective attacks, unconditional security follows immediately for standard protocols such as Bennett-Brassard 1984 and six-states protocol. For single-qubit implementations of such protocols, we find that the secret key rate becomes positive when at least N approximately 10(5) signals are exchanged and processed. For any other discrete-variable protocol, unconditional security can be obtained using the exponential de Finetti theorem, but the additional overhead leads to very pessimistic estimates.

Impacts on health outcomes and on resource utilisation of home-based parenteral chemotherapy administration: a systematic review protocol.

PubMed

Mittaine-Marzac, Benedicte; De Stampa, Matthieu; Bagaragaza, Emmanuel; Ankri, Joël; Aegerter, Philippe

2018-05-09

Despite the demonstrated feasibility and policies to enable more to receive chemotherapy at home, in a few countries, parenteral chemotherapy administration at home remains currently marginal. Of note, findings of different studies on health outcomes and resources utilisation vary, leading to conflicting results. This protocol outlines a systematic review that seeks to synthesise and critically appraise the current state of evidence on the comparison between home setting and hospital setting for parenteral chemotherapy administration within the same high standards of clinical care. This protocol has been prepared following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocols approach. Electronic searches will be conducted on bibliographic databases selected from the earliest available data through 15 November 2017 published in French and English languages. Additional potential papers in the selected studies and grey literature will be also included in the review. The review will include all types of studies exploring patients receiving anticancer drugs for injection at home compared with patients receiving the drugs in a hospital setting, and will assess at least one of the following criteria: patients' health outcomes, patients' or caregivers' satisfaction, resource utilisation with cost savings, and incentives and/or barriers of each admission setting according to patients' and relatives' points of view. Two reviewers will independently screen studies and extract relevant data from the included studies. Methodological quality of studies will be assessed using the 'Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies' developed by the Effective Public Health Practice Project tool, in addition to the Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards statement for economic studies. As the review is focused on the analysis of secondary data, it does not require ethics approval. The results of the study will be disseminated through articles in peer-reviewed journals and trade publications, as well as presentations at relevant conferences. CRD42017068164. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Deployment of the Space Internet on a Spacecraft: Hosting CFDP and/or DTN Protocol Engines and the Resulting Resource Utilization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Foswell, Stuart D.; McLaren, David; Paramanatham, Daran; Taylor, Chris; Stanton, Dai; Farrell, Stephen

2012-08-01

This paper describes the outcome of analysis and simulation of how to deploy CFDP and DTN protocol engines onboard a spacecraft, so as to support the Space Internet, and the resulting spacecraft resource utilisation, under an ESA TRP contract [1].

Bayesian adaptive survey protocols for resource management

USGS Publications Warehouse

Halstead, Brian J.; Wylie, Glenn D.; Coates, Peter S.; Casazza, Michael L.

2011-01-01

Transparency in resource management decisions requires a proper accounting of uncertainty at multiple stages of the decision-making process. As information becomes available, periodic review and updating of resource management protocols reduces uncertainty and improves management decisions. One of the most basic steps to mitigating anthropogenic effects on populations is determining if a population of a species occurs in an area that will be affected by human activity. Species are rarely detected with certainty, however, and falsely declaring a species absent can cause improper conservation decisions or even extirpation of populations. We propose a method to design survey protocols for imperfectly detected species that accounts for multiple sources of uncertainty in the detection process, is capable of quantitatively incorporating expert opinion into the decision-making process, allows periodic updates to the protocol, and permits resource managers to weigh the severity of consequences if the species is falsely declared absent. We developed our method using the giant gartersnake (Thamnophis gigas), a threatened species precinctive to the Central Valley of California, as a case study. Survey date was negatively related to the probability of detecting the giant gartersnake, and water temperature was positively related to the probability of detecting the giant gartersnake at a sampled location. Reporting sampling effort, timing and duration of surveys, and water temperatures would allow resource managers to evaluate the probability that the giant gartersnake occurs at sampled sites where it is not detected. This information would also allow periodic updates and quantitative evaluation of changes to the giant gartersnake survey protocol. Because it naturally allows multiple sources of information and is predicated upon the idea of updating information, Bayesian analysis is well-suited to solving the problem of developing efficient sampling protocols for species of conservation concern.

Eliciting improved quantitative judgements using the IDEA protocol: A case study in natural resource management.

PubMed

Hemming, Victoria; Walshe, Terry V; Hanea, Anca M; Fidler, Fiona; Burgman, Mark A

2018-01-01

Natural resource management uses expert judgement to estimate facts that inform important decisions. Unfortunately, expert judgement is often derived by informal and largely untested protocols, despite evidence that the quality of judgements can be improved with structured approaches. We attribute the lack of uptake of structured protocols to the dearth of illustrative examples that demonstrate how they can be applied within pressing time and resource constraints, while also improving judgements. In this paper, we demonstrate how the IDEA protocol for structured expert elicitation may be deployed to overcome operational challenges while improving the quality of judgements. The protocol was applied to the estimation of 14 future abiotic and biotic events on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Seventy-six participants with varying levels of expertise related to the Great Barrier Reef were recruited and allocated randomly to eight groups. Each participant provided their judgements using the four-step question format of the IDEA protocol ('Investigate', 'Discuss', 'Estimate', 'Aggregate') through remote elicitation. When the events were realised, the participant judgements were scored in terms of accuracy, calibration and informativeness. The results demonstrate that the IDEA protocol provides a practical, cost-effective, and repeatable approach to the elicitation of quantitative estimates and uncertainty via remote elicitation. We emphasise that i) the aggregation of diverse individual judgements into pooled group judgments almost always outperformed individuals, and ii) use of a modified Delphi approach helped to remove linguistic ambiguity, and further improved individual and group judgements. Importantly, the protocol encourages review, critical appraisal and replication, each of which is required if judgements are to be used in place of data in a scientific context. The results add to the growing body of literature that demonstrates the merit of using structured elicitation protocols. We urge decision-makers and analysts to use insights and examples to improve the evidence base of expert judgement in natural resource management.

A risk-management approach for effective integration of biomarkers in clinical trials: perspectives of an NCI, NCRI, and EORTC working group.

PubMed

Hall, Jacqueline Anne; Salgado, Roberto; Lively, Tracy; Sweep, Fred; Schuh, Anna

2014-04-01

Clinical cancer research today often includes testing the value of biomarkers to direct treatment and for drug development. However, the practical challenges of integration of molecular information into clinical trial protocols are increasingly appreciated. Inherent difficulties include evidence gaps in available biomarker data, a paucity of robust assay methods, and the design of appropriate studies within the constraints of feasible trial operations, and finite resources. Scalable and proportionate approaches are needed to systematically cope with these challenges. Therefore, we assembled international experts from three clinical trials organisations to identify the common challenges and common solutions. We present a practical risk-assessment framework allowing targeting of scarce resources to crucial issues coupled with a library of useful resources and a simple actionable checklist of recommendations. We hope that these practical methods will be useful for running biomarker-driven trials and ultimately help to develop biomarkers that are ready for integration in routine practice. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

PDT and emerging therapies for Actinic Keratosis-A resource letter.

PubMed

Filho, José D Vollet; Andrade, Cintia T; Buzza, Hilde H; Blanco, Kate; Carbinatto, Fernanda; Bagnato, Vanderlei S; Allison, Ron R

2017-03-01

Aktinic Keratosis is common and if left untreated may develop into life threatening squamous cell carcinoma. Therefore early intervention is the standard of care. While many treatments are available PDT continues to move to the for - front for this indication (Brito et al., 2016 [31]). Topical PS is commercially available that are able to reliably ablate these lesions. Innovative protocols including sunlight, large volume LED arrays and maneuvers to improve treatment parameters and cosmesis continue to make this a worldwide treatment of choice for AK. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cryopreservation for preservation of potato genetic resources

PubMed Central

Niino, Takao; Arizaga, Miriam Valle

2015-01-01

Cryopreservation is becoming a very important tool for the long-term storage of plant genetic resources and efficient cryopreservation protocols have been developed for a large number of plant species. Practical procedures, developed using in vitro tissue culture, can be a simple and reliable preservation option of potato genetic resources rather than maintaining by vegetative propagation in genebanks due their allogamous nature. Cryopreserved materials insure a long-term backup of field collections against loss of plant germplasm. Occurrence of genetic variation, in tissue culture cells during prolonged subcultures, can be avoided with suitable cryopreservation protocols that provide high regrowth, leading and facilitating a systematic and strategic cryo-banking of plant genetic resources. Cryopreservation protocols for potato reviewed here, can efficiently complement field and in vitro conservation, providing for preservation of genotypes difficult to preserve by other methods, wild types and other species decided as priority collections. PMID:25931979

Data aggregation in wireless sensor networks using the SOAP protocol

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Al-Yasiri, A.; Sunley, A.

2007-07-01

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) offer an increasingly attractive method of data gathering in distributed system architectures and dynamic access via wireless connectivity. Wireless sensor networks have physical and resource limitations, this leads to increased complexity for application developers and often results in applications that are closely coupled with network protocols. In this paper, a data aggregation framework using SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) on wireless sensor networks is presented. The framework works as a middleware for aggregating data measured by a number of nodes within a network. The aim of the study is to assess the suitability of the protocol in such environments where resources are limited compared to traditional networks.

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

USGS Publications Warehouse

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

2011-01-01

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

IP access networks with QoS support

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sargento, Susana; Valadas, Rui J. M. T.; Goncalves, Jorge; Sousa, Henrique

2001-07-01

The increasing demand of new services and applications is pushing for drastic changes on the design of access networks targeted mainly for residential and SOHO users. Future access networks will provide full service integration (including multimedia), resource sharing at the packet level and QoS support. It is expected that using IP as the base technology, the ideal plug-and-play scenario, where the management actions of the access network operator are kept to a minimum, will be achieved easily. This paper proposes an architecture for access networks based on layer 2 or layer 3 multiplexers that allows a number of simplifications in the network elements and protocols (e.g. in the routing and addressing functions). We discuss two possible steps in the evolution of access networks towards a more efficient support of IP based services. The first one still provides no QoS support and was designed with the goal of reusing as much as possible current technologies; it is based on tunneling to transport PPP sessions. The second one introduces QoS support through the use of emerging technologies and protocols. We illustrate the different phases of a multimedia Internet access session, when using SIP for session initiation, COPS for the management of QoS policies including the AAA functions and RSVP for resource reservation.

Protocol and Topology Issues for Wide-Area Satellite Interconnection of Terrestrial Optical LANs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parraga, N.

2002-01-01

Apart from broadcasting, the satellite business is targeting niche markets. Wide area interconnection is considered as one of these niche markets, since it addresses operators and business LANs (B2B, business to business) in remote areas where terrestrial infrastructure is not available. These LANs - if high-speed - are typically based on optical networks such as SONET. One of the advantages of SONET is its architecture flexibility and capacity to transport all kind of applications including multimedia with a range of different transmission rates. The applications can be carried by different protocols among which the Internet Protocol (IP) or the Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) are the most prominent ones. Thus, the question arises how these protocols can be interconnected via the satellite segment. The paper addresses several solutions for interworking with different protocols. For this investigation we distinguish first of all between the topology and the switching technology of the satellites. In case of a star network with transparent satellite, the satellite protocol consists of physical layer and data layer which can be directly interconnected with layer 2 interworking function to their terrestrial counterparts in the SONET backbone. For regenerative satellites the situation is more complex: here we need to distinguish the types of transport protocols being used in the terrestrial and satellite segment. Whereas IP, ATM, MPEG dominate in the terrestrial networks, satellite systems usually do not follow these standards. Some might employ minor additions (for instance, satellite specific packet headers), some might be completely proprietary. In general, interworking must be done for the data plane on top of layer 2 (data link layer), whereas for the signaling plane the interworking is on top of layer 3. In the paper we will discuss the protocol stacks for ATM, IP, and MPEG with a regenerative satellite system. As an example we will use the EuroSkyWay satellite system for multimedia services. EuroSkyWay uses a GEO satellite with onboard switching. It has its own proprietary protocol stack for data link control (DLC), logical link control (LLC) and layer 3 functions such as resource management, call admission control and authentication. Special attention is paid to the IP interworking with Layer 3 function since IP does not support connection set-up and session protocols, thus proper interworking functions with IP signaling protocols for resource reservation routing such as RSVP, BGP, and ICMP need to be developed. Whereas the EuroSkyWay system is an representative for a meshed topology, DVB-RCS systems have usually star configuration with a central hub station. Different data streams are distinguished by program identifiers (PIDs). Recent proposals aim at the evolution of DVB-RCS towards a fully meshed structure. The paper will also discuss the protocol architecture for interconnect SONET LANs over these systems. Finally, a performance comparison of the different solutions will be given in terms of cell overhead rate and signalling effort for selected scenarios.

CSMA/RN: A universal protocol for gigabit networks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Foudriat, E. C.; Maly, Kurt J.; Overstreet, C. Michael; Khanna, S.; Paterra, Frank

1990-01-01

Networks must provide intelligent access for nodes to share the communications resources. In the range of 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps, the demand access class of protocols were studied extensively. Many use some form of slot or reservation system and many the concept of attempt and defer to determine the presence or absence of incoming information. The random access class of protocols like shared channel systems (Ethernet), also use the concept of attempt and defer in the form of carrier sensing to alleviate the damaging effects of collisions. In CSMA/CD, the sensing of interference is on a global basis. All systems discussed above have one aspect in common, they examine activity on the network either locally or globally and react in an attempt and whatever mechanism. Of the attempt + mechanisms discussed, one is obviously missing; that is attempt and truncate. Attempt and truncate was studied in a ring configuration called the Carrier Sensed Multiple Access Ring Network (CSMA/RN). The system features of CSMA/RN are described including a discussion of the node operations for inserting and removing messages and for handling integrated traffic. The performance and operational features based on analytical and simulation studies which indicate that CSMA/RN is a useful and adaptable protocol over a wide range of network conditions are discussed. Finally, the research and development activities necessary to demonstrate and realize the potential of CSMA/RN as a universal, gigabit network protocol is outlined.

How well do General EMS 911 dispatch protocols predict ED resource utilization for pediatric patients?

PubMed

Fessler, Stephanie J; Simon, Harold K; Yancey, Arthur H; Colman, Michael; Hirsh, Daniel A

2014-03-01

The use of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) for low-acuity pediatric problems is well documented. Attempts have been made to curb potentially unnecessary transports, including using EMS dispatch protocols, shown to predict acuity and needs of adults. However, there are limited data about this in children. The primary objective of this study is to determine the pediatric emergency department (PED) resource utilization (surrogate of acuity level) for pediatric patients categorized as "low-acuity" by initial EMS protocols. Records of all pediatric patients classified as "low acuity" and transported to a PED in winter and summer of 2010 were reviewed. Details of the PED visit were recorded. Patients were categorized and compared based on chief complaint group. Resource utilization was defined as requiring any prescription medications, labs, procedures, consults, admission or transfer. "Under-triage" was defined as a "low-acuity" EMS transport subsequently requiring emergent interventions. Of the 876 eligible cases, 801 were included; 392/801 had no resource utilization while 409 of 801 had resource utilization. Most (737/801) were discharged to home; however, 64/801 were admitted, including 1 of 801 requiring emergent intervention (under-triage rate 0.12%). Gastroenterology and trauma groups had a significant increase in resource utilization, while infectious disease and ear-nose-throat groups had decreased resource utilization. While this EMS system did not well predict overall resource utilization, it safely identified most low-acuity patients, with a low under-triage rate. This study identifies subgroups of patients that could be managed without emergent transport and can be used to further refine current protocols or establish secondary triage systems. © 2013.

Validating Vegetable Production Unit (VPU) Plants, Protocols, Procedures and Requirements (P3R) using Currently Existing Flight Resources

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bingham, Gail; Bates, Scott; Bugbee, Bruce; Garland, Jay; Podolski, Igor; Levinskikh, Rita; Sychev, Vladimir; Gushin, Vadim

2009-01-01

Validating Vegetable Production Unit (VPU) Plants, Protocols, Procedures and Requirements (P3R) Using Currently Existing Flight Resources (Lada-VPU-P3R) is a study to advance the technology required for plant growth in microgravity and to research related food safety issues. Lada-VPU-P3R also investigates the non-nutritional value to the flight crew of developing plants on-orbit. The Lada-VPU-P3R uses the Lada hardware on the ISS and falls under a cooperative agreement between National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Russian Federal Space Association (FSA). Research Summary: Validating Vegetable Production Unit (VPU) Plants, Protocols, Procedures and Requirements (P3R) Using Currently Existing Flight Resources (Lada-VPU-P3R) will optimize hardware and

Enhancing robustness of multiparty quantum correlations using weak measurement

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

Singh, Uttam, E-mail: uttamsingh@hri.res.in; Mishra, Utkarsh, E-mail: utkarsh@hri.res.in; Dhar, Himadri Shekhar, E-mail: dhar.himadri@gmail.com

Multipartite quantum correlations are important resources for the development of quantum information and computation protocols. However, the resourcefulness of multipartite quantum correlations in practical settings is limited by its fragility under decoherence due to environmental interactions. Though there exist protocols to protect bipartite entanglement under decoherence, the implementation of such protocols for multipartite quantum correlations has not been sufficiently explored. Here, we study the effect of local amplitude damping channel on the generalized Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger state, and use a protocol of optimal reversal quantum weak measurement to protect the multipartite quantum correlations. We observe that the weak measurement reversal protocol enhancesmore » the robustness of multipartite quantum correlations. Further it increases the critical damping value that corresponds to entanglement sudden death. To emphasize the efficacy of the technique in protection of multipartite quantum correlation, we investigate two proximately related quantum communication tasks, namely, quantum teleportation in a one sender, many receivers setting and multiparty quantum information splitting, through a local amplitude damping channel. We observe an increase in the average fidelity of both the quantum communication tasks under the weak measurement reversal protocol. The method may prove beneficial, for combating external interactions, in other quantum information tasks using multipartite resources. - Highlights: • Extension of weak measurement reversal scheme to protect multiparty quantum correlations. • Protection of multiparty quantum correlation under local amplitude damping noise. • Enhanced fidelity of quantum teleportation in one sender and many receivers setting. • Enhanced fidelity of quantum information splitting protocol.« less

Changing Donor Funding and the Challenges of Integrated HIV Treatment.

PubMed

Nattrass, Nicoli; Hodes, Rebecca; Cluver, Lucie

2016-07-01

Donor financing for HIV prevention and treatment has shifted from supporting disease-specific ("vertical") programs to health systems strengthening ("horizontal") programs intended to integrate all aspects of care. We examine the consequences of shifting resources from three perspectives: first, through a broad analysis of the changing policy context of health care financing; second, through an account of changing priorities for HIV treatment in South Africa; and third, through a description of some clinical consequences that the authors observed in a research study examining adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) and sexual health among adolescents. We note that AIDS responses are neither completely vertical nor horizontal but rather increasingly diagonal, as disease-specific protocols operate alongside integrated supply chain management, human resource development, and preventive screening. We conclude that health care programs are better conceived of as networks of policies requiring different degrees of integration into communities. © 2016 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved. ISSN 2376-6980.

Tetrahymena in the laboratory: strain resources, methods for culture, maintenance, and storage.

PubMed

Cassidy-Hanley, Donna M

2012-01-01

The ciliated protozoan Tetrahymena thermophila has been an important model system for biological research for many years. During that time, a variety of useful strains, including highly inbred stocks, a collection of diverse mutant strains, and wild cultivars from a variety of geographical locations have been identified. In addition, thanks to the efforts of many different laboratories, optimal conditions for growth, maintenance, and storage of Tetrahymena have been worked out. To facilitate the efficient use of Tetrahymena, especially by those new to the system, this chapter presents a brief description of many available Tetrahymena strains and lists possible resources for obtaining viable cultures of T. thermophila and other Tetrahymena species. Descriptions of commonly used media, methods for cell culture and maintenance, and protocols for short- and long-term storage are also presented. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Protocol to Exploit Waiting Resources for UASNs.

PubMed

Hung, Li-Ling; Luo, Yung-Jeng

2016-03-08

The transmission speed of acoustic waves in water is much slower than that of radio waves in terrestrial wireless sensor networks. Thus, the propagation delay in underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASN) is much greater. Longer propagation delay leads to complicated communication and collision problems. To solve collision problems, some studies have proposed waiting mechanisms; however, long waiting mechanisms result in low bandwidth utilization. To improve throughput, this study proposes a slotted medium access control protocol to enhance bandwidth utilization in UASNs. The proposed mechanism increases communication by exploiting temporal and spatial resources that are typically idle in order to protect communication against interference. By reducing wait time, network performance and energy consumption can be improved. A performance evaluation demonstrates that when the data packets are large or sensor deployment is dense, the energy consumption of proposed protocol is less than that of existing protocols as well as the throughput is higher than that of existing protocols.

Enhancing point of care vigilance using computers.

PubMed

St Jacques, Paul; Rothman, Brian

2011-09-01

Information technology has the potential to provide a tremendous step forward in perioperative patient safety. Through automated delivery of information through fixed and portable computer resources, clinicians may achieve improved situational awareness of the overall operation of the operating room suite and the state of individual patients in various stages of surgical care. Coupling the raw, but integrated, information with decision support and alerting algorithms enables clinicians to achieve high reliability in documentation compliance and response to care protocols. Future studies and outcomes analysis are needed to quantify the degree of benefit of these new components of perioperative information systems. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Comparison of H.323 and SIP for IP telephony signaling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dalgic, Ismail; Fang, Hanlin

1999-11-01

Two standards currently compete for the dominance of IP telephony signaling: the H.323 protocol suite by ITU-T, and the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) by IETF. Both of these signaling protocols provide mechanisms for call establishment and teardown, call control and supplementary services, and capability exchange. We investigate and compare these two protocols in terms of Functionality, Quality of Service (QoS), Scalability, Flexibility, Interoperability, and Ease of Implementation. For fairness of comparison, we consider similar scenarios for both protocols. In particular, we focus on scenarios that involve a gatekeeper for H.323, and a Proxy/Redirect server for SIP. The reason is that medium-to-large IP Telephony systems are not manageable without a gatekeeper or proxy server. We consider all three versions of H.323. In terms of functionality and services that can be supported, H.323 version 2 and SIP are very similar. However, supplementary services in H.323 are more rigorously defined, and therefore fewer interoperability issues are expected among its implementations. Furthermore, H.323 has taken more steps to ensure compatibility among its different versions, and to interoperate with PSTN. The two protocols are comparable in their QoS support [similar call setup delays, no support for resource reservation or class of service (CoS) setting], but H.323 version 3 will allow signaling of the requested CoS. SIP's primary advantages are (1) flexibility to add new features, and (2) relative ease of implementation and debugging. Finally, we note that H.323 and SIP are improving themselves by learning from each other, and the differences between them are diminishing with each new version.

An Impaled Potential Unexploded Device in the Civilian Trauma Setting: A Case Report and Review of the Literature.

PubMed

Thaut, Lane C; Murtha, Andrew S; Johnson, Anthony E; Roper, Jamie L

2018-05-01

The management of patients with impaled unexploded devices is rare in the civilian setting. However, as the lines of the traditional battlefield are blurred by modern warfare and terrorist activity, emergency providers should be familiar with facility protocols, plans, and contact information of their local resources for unexploded devices. A 44-year-old male sustained a close-proximity blast injury to his lower extremities while manipulating a mortar-type firework. He presented to the regional trauma center with an open, comminuted distal femur fracture and radiographic evidence of a potential explosive device in his thigh. His management was coordinated with the local Explosive Ordinance Disposal and the fire department. WHY SHOULD AN EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN BE AWARE OF THIS?: Explosive devices pose a grave threat when encountered. Familiarization with protocols to manage these patients can mitigate disaster. Emergency providers should expect and be prepared to coordinate care for these patients. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of a manual DNA extraction protocol and an isothermal amplification assay for detecting HIV-1 DNA from dried blood spots for use in resource-limited settings.

PubMed

Jordan, Jeanne A; Ibe, Christine O; Moore, Miranda S; Host, Christel; Simon, Gary L

2012-05-01

In resource-limited settings (RLS) dried blood spots (DBS) are collected on infants and transported through provincial laboratories to a central facility where HIV-1 DNA PCR testing is performed using specialized equipment. Implementing a simpler approach not requiring such equipment or skilled personnel could allow the more numerous provincial laboratories to offer testing, improving turn-around-time to identify and treat infected infants sooner. Assess performances of a manual DNA extraction method and helicase-dependent amplification (HDA) assay for detecting HIV-1 DNA from DBS. 60 HIV-1 infected adults were enrolled, blood samples taken and DBS made. DBS extracts were assessed for DNA concentration and beta globin amplification using PCR and melt-curve analysis. These same extracts were then tested for HIV-1 DNA using HDA and compared to results generated by PCR and pyrosequencing. Finally, HDA limit of detection (LOD) studies were performed using DBS extracts prepared with known numbers of 8E5 cells. The manual extraction protocol consistently yielded high concentrations of amplifiable DNA from DBS. LOD assessment demonstrated HDA detected ∼470 copies/ml of HIV-1 DNA extracts in 4/4 replicates. No statistical difference was found using the McNemar's test when comparing HDA to PCR for detecting HIV-1 DNA from DBS. Using just a magnet, heat block and pipettes, the manual extraction protocol and HDA assay detected HIV-1 DNA from DBS at levels that would be useful for early infant diagnosis. Next steps will include assessing HDA for non-B HIV-1 subtypes recognition and comparison to Roche HIV-1 DNA v1.5 PCR assay. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Distributed reservation control protocols for random access broadcasting channels

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Greene, E. P.; Ephremides, A.

1981-01-01

Attention is given to a communication network consisting of an arbitrary number of nodes which can communicate with each other via a time-division multiple access (TDMA) broadcast channel. The reported investigation is concerned with the development of efficient distributed multiple access protocols for traffic consisting primarily of single packet messages in a datagram mode of operation. The motivation for the design of the protocols came from the consideration of efficient multiple access utilization of moderate to high bandwidth (4-40 Mbit/s capacity) communication satellite channels used for the transmission of short (1000-10,000 bits) fixed length packets. Under these circumstances, the ratio of roundtrip propagation time to packet transmission time is between 100 to 10,000. It is shown how a TDMA channel can be adaptively shared by datagram traffic and constant bandwidth users such as in digital voice applications. The distributed reservation control protocols described are a hybrid between contention and reservation protocols.

LINCS: Livermore's network architecture. [Octopus computing network

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

Fletcher, J.G.

1982-01-01

Octopus, a local computing network that has been evolving at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for over fifteen years, is currently undergoing a major revision. The primary purpose of the revision is to consolidate and redefine the variety of conventions and formats, which have grown up over the years, into a single standard family of protocols, the Livermore Interactive Network Communication Standard (LINCS). This standard treats the entire network as a single distributed operating system such that access to a computing resource is obtained in a single way, whether that resource is local (on the same computer as the accessingmore » process) or remote (on another computer). LINCS encompasses not only communication but also such issues as the relationship of customer to server processes and the structure, naming, and protection of resources. The discussion includes: an overview of the Livermore user community and computing hardware, the functions and structure of each of the seven layers of LINCS protocol, the reasons why we have designed our own protocols and why we are dissatisfied by the directions that current protocol standards are taking.« less

Secure Continuous Variable Teleportation and Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Steering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Qiongyi; Rosales-Zárate, Laura; Adesso, Gerardo; Reid, Margaret D.

2015-10-01

We investigate the resources needed for secure teleportation of coherent states. We extend continuous variable teleportation to include quantum teleamplification protocols that allow nonunity classical gains and a preamplification or postattenuation of the coherent state. We show that, for arbitrary Gaussian protocols and a significant class of Gaussian resources, two-way steering is required to achieve a teleportation fidelity beyond the no-cloning threshold. This provides an operational connection between Gaussian steerability and secure teleportation. We present practical recipes suggesting that heralded noiseless preamplification may enable high-fidelity heralded teleportation, using minimally entangled yet steerable resources.

A Novel Quantum Solution to Privacy-Preserving Nearest Neighbor Query in Location-Based Services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luo, Zhen-yu; Shi, Run-hua; Xu, Min; Zhang, Shun

2018-04-01

We present a cheating-sensitive quantum protocol for Privacy-Preserving Nearest Neighbor Query based on Oblivious Quantum Key Distribution and Quantum Encryption. Compared with the classical related protocols, our proposed protocol has higher security, because the security of our protocol is based on basic physical principles of quantum mechanics, instead of difficulty assumptions. Especially, our protocol takes single photons as quantum resources and only needs to perform single-photon projective measurement. Therefore, it is feasible to implement this protocol with the present technologies.

Group-based antenatal birth and parent preparation for improving birth outcomes and parenting resources: study protocol for a randomised trial.

PubMed

Koushede, Vibeke; Brixval, Carina Sjöberg; Axelsen, Solveig Forberg; Lindschou, Jane; Winkel, Per; Maimburg, Rikke Damkjær; Due, Pernille

2013-10-01

To examine the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of group based antenatal education for improving childbirth and parenting resources compared to auditorium based education. 2350 Danish pregnant women and their partners ≥18 years old, recruited before 20+0 gestational weeks. Population-based individually randomised superiority trial with two parallel arms: Four sessions of birth and parent preparation in small groups (experimental group); two lectures in an auditorium (control group). Data is collected by (1) questionnaires at baseline (≈18 weeks of gestation), 37 weeks of gestation, 9 weeks-, 6 months-, and 1 year post-partum, (2) the hospital obstetric database, (3) national registers. use of epidural analgesia. stress, parenting alliance; explorative outcomes: depressive symptoms, use of health care services, self-efficacy, well-being, family break-ups. Analyses will be intention-to-treat as well as per protocol. Process evaluation will be conducted using questionnaires and qualitative interviews. The incremental societal cost of the intervention will be computed and compared to the measured outcomes in a cost-effectiveness analysis. To the best of our knowledge this is the largest well-designed randomised trial of its kind to date. The trial will bring much-needed evidence for decision makers of the content and form of antenatal education. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

REFOLDdb: a new and sustainable gateway to experimental protocols for protein refolding.

PubMed

Mizutani, Hisashi; Sugawara, Hideaki; Buckle, Ashley M; Sangawa, Takeshi; Miyazono, Ken-Ichi; Ohtsuka, Jun; Nagata, Koji; Shojima, Tomoki; Nosaki, Shohei; Xu, Yuqun; Wang, Delong; Hu, Xiao; Tanokura, Masaru; Yura, Kei

2017-04-24

More than 7000 papers related to "protein refolding" have been published to date, with approximately 300 reports each year during the last decade. Whilst some of these papers provide experimental protocols for protein refolding, a survey in the structural life science communities showed a necessity for a comprehensive database for refolding techniques. We therefore have developed a new resource - "REFOLDdb" that collects refolding techniques into a single, searchable repository to help researchers develop refolding protocols for proteins of interest. We based our resource on the existing REFOLD database, which has not been updated since 2009. We redesigned the data format to be more concise, allowing consistent representations among data entries compared with the original REFOLD database. The remodeled data architecture enhances the search efficiency and improves the sustainability of the database. After an exhaustive literature search we added experimental refolding protocols from reports published 2009 to early 2017. In addition to this new data, we fully converted and integrated existing REFOLD data into our new resource. REFOLDdb contains 1877 entries as of March 17 th , 2017, and is freely available at http://p4d-info.nig.ac.jp/refolddb/ . REFOLDdb is a unique database for the life sciences research community, providing annotated information for designing new refolding protocols and customizing existing methodologies. We envisage that this resource will find wide utility across broad disciplines that rely on the production of pure, active, recombinant proteins. Furthermore, the database also provides a useful overview of the recent trends and statistics in refolding technology development.

Dehydration improves cryopreservation of coconut (Cocos nucifera L.).

PubMed

Sisunandar; Sopade, Peter A; Samosir, Yohannes M S; Rival, Alain; Adkins, Steve W

2010-12-01

Cryopreservation of coconut can be used as a strategy to back up the establishment of living collections which are expensive to maintain and are under constant threat from biotic and abiotic factors. Unfortunately, cryopreservation protocols still need to be developed that are capable of producing a sizeable number of field-grown plants. Therefore, we report on the development of an improved cryopreservation protocol which can be used on a wide range of coconut cultivars. The cryopreservation of zygotic embryos and their recovery to soil-growing plants was achieved through the application of four optimised steps viz.: (i) rapid dehydration; (ii) rapid cooling; (iii) rapid warming and recovery in vitro and (iv) acclimatization and soil-supported growth. The thermal properties of water within the embryos were monitored using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) in order to ensure that the freezable component was kept to a minimum. The feasibility of the protocol was assessed using the Malayan Yellow Dwarf (MYD) cultivar in Australia and then tested on a range of cultivars which were freshly harvested and studied in Indonesia. The most efficient protocol was one based on an 8-h rapid dehydration step followed by rapid cooling step. Best recovery percentages were obtained when a rapid warming step and an optimised in vitro culture step were used. Following this protocol, 20% (when cryopreserved 12 days after harvesting) and 40% (when cryopreserved at the time of harvest) of all MYD embryos cryopreserved could be returned to normal seedlings growing in soil. DSC showed that this protocol induced a drop in embryo fresh weight to 19% and significantly reduced the amount of water remaining that could produce ice crystals (0.1%). Of the 20 cultivars tested, 16 were found to produce between 10% and 40% normal seedlings while four cultivars generated between 0% and 10% normal seedlings after cryopreservation. This new protocol is applicable to a wide range of coconut cultivars and is useful for the routine cryopreservation of coconut genetic resources. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Strategies that reduce 90-day readmissions and inpatient costs after liver transplantation.

PubMed

Zeidan, Joseph H; Levi, David M; Pierce, Ruth; Russo, Mark W

2018-04-25

Liver transplantation is hospital-resource intensive and associated with high rates of readmission. We have previously shown a reduction in 30-day readmission rates by implementing a specifically designed protocol to increase access to outpatient care. To determine if strategies that reduce 30-day readmission after liver transplant were effective in also reducing 90-day readmission rates and costs. A protocol was developed to reduce inpatient readmissions after liver transplant that expanded outpatient services and provided alternatives to readmission. The 90-day readmission rates and costs were compared before and implementing strategies outlined in the protocol. Multivariable analysis was used to control for potential confounding factors. Over the study period 304 adult primary liver transplants were performed on patients with a median biologic MELD of 22. 112 (37%) patients were readmitted within 90 days of transplant. The readmission rates before and after implementation of the protocol were 53% and 26% respectively, p<0.001. The most common reason for readmission was elevated liver tests/rejection (24%). In multivariable analysis, the protocol remained associated with avoiding readmission, OR=0.33, [95% CI 0.20,0.55], p<0.001. The median length of stay after transplant preprotocol and postprotocol was 8 and 7 days, respectively. A greater proportion of patients were discharged to hospital lodging post protocol, 10% versus 19%, p=0.03. 90-day readmissions costs were reduced by 55% but total 90 day costs by only 2.7% due to higher outpatient costs and index admission costs. 90-day readmission rates and readmission costs can be reduced by improving access to outpatient services and hospital local lodging. Total 90-day costs were similar between the two groups because of higher outpatient costs after the protocol was introduced. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. © 2018 by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

Network support for turn-taking in multimedia collaboration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dommel, Hans-Peter; Garcia-Luna-Aceves, Jose J.

1997-01-01

The effectiveness of collaborative multimedia systems depends on the regulation of access to their shared resources, such as continuous media or instruments used concurrently by multiple parties. Existing applications use only simple protocols to mediate such resource contention. Their cooperative rules follow a strict agenda and are largely application-specific. The inherent problem of floor control lacks a systematic methodology. This paper presents a general model on floor control for correct, scalable, fine-grained and fair resource sharing that integrates user interaction with network conditions, and adaptation to various media types. The motion of turn-taking known from psycholinguistics in studies on discourse structure is adapted for this framework. Viewed as a computational analogy to speech communication, online collaboration revolves around dynamically allocated access permissions called floors. The control semantics of floors derives from concurrently control methodology. An explicit specification and verification of a novel distributed Floor Control Protocol are presented. Hosts assume sharing roles that allow for efficient dissemination of control information, agreeing on a floor holder which is granted mutually exclusive access to a resource. Performance analytic aspects of floor control protocols are also briefly discussed.

How do nurses, midwives and health visitors contribute to protocol-based care? A synthesis of the UK literature.

PubMed

Ilott, Irene; Booth, Andrew; Rick, Jo; Patterson, Malcolm

2010-06-01

To explore how nurses, midwives and health visitors contribute to the development, implementation and audit of protocol-based care. Protocol-based care refers to the use of documents that set standards for clinical care processes with the intent of reducing unacceptable variations in practice. Documents such as protocols, clinical guidelines and care pathways underpin evidence-based practice throughout the world. An interpretative review using the five-stage systematic literature review process. The data sources were the British Nursing Index, CINAHL, EMBASE, MEDLINE and Web of Science from onset to 2005. The Journal of Integrated Care Pathways was hand searched (1997-June 2006). Thirty three studies about protocol-based care in the United Kingdom were appraised using the Qualitative Assessment and Review Instrument (QARI version 2). The literature was synthesized inductively and deductively, using an official 12-step guide for development as a framework for the deductive synthesis. Most papers were descriptive, offering practitioner knowledge and positive findings about a locally developed and owned protocol-based care. The majority were instigated in response to clinical need or service re-design. Development of protocol-based care was a non-linear, idiosyncratic process, with steps omitted, repeated or completed in a different order. The context and the multiple purposes of protocol-based care influenced the development process. Implementation and sustainability were rarely mentioned, or theorised as a change. The roles and activities of nurses were so understated as to be almost invisible. There were notable gaps in the literature about the resource use costs, the engagement of patients in the decision-making process, leadership and the impact of formalisation and new roles on inter-professional relations. Documents that standardise clinical care are part of the history of nursing as well as contemporary evidence-based care and expanded roles. Considering the proliferation and contested nature of protocol-based care, the dearth of literature about the contribution, experience and outcomes for nurses, midwives and health visitors is noteworthy and requires further investigation. (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Multiprocessor Real-Time Locking Protocols for Replicated Resources

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-07-01

circular buffer of slots, each representing a discrete segment of time . For example, if the maintenance of a timing wheel occurs af- ter an interrupt ...Experimental Evaluation To evaluate Algs. 2, 3, and 4, we conducted a series of ex- periments in which we measured relevant overheads and blocking times . We...Multiprocessor Real- Time Locking Protocols for Replicated Resources ∗ Catherine E. Jarrett1, Kecheng Yang1, Ming Yang1, Pontus Ekberg2, and James H

A Guide to Writing a Qualitative Systematic Review Protocol to Enhance Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing and Health Care.

PubMed

Butler, Ashleigh; Hall, Helen; Copnell, Beverley

2016-06-01

The qualitative systematic review is a rapidly developing area of nursing research. In order to present trustworthy, high-quality recommendations, such reviews should be based on a review protocol to minimize bias and enhance transparency and reproducibility. Although there are a number of resources available to guide researchers in developing a quantitative review protocol, very few resources exist for qualitative reviews. To guide researchers through the process of developing a qualitative systematic review protocol, using an example review question. The key elements required in a systematic review protocol are discussed, with a focus on application to qualitative reviews: Development of a research question; formulation of key search terms and strategies; designing a multistage review process; critical appraisal of qualitative literature; development of data extraction techniques; and data synthesis. The paper highlights important considerations during the protocol development process, and uses a previously developed review question as a working example. This paper will assist novice researchers in developing a qualitative systematic review protocol. By providing a worked example of a protocol, the paper encourages the development of review protocols, enhancing the trustworthiness and value of the completed qualitative systematic review findings. Qualitative systematic reviews should be based on well planned, peer reviewed protocols to enhance the trustworthiness of results and thus their usefulness in clinical practice. Protocols should outline, in detail, the processes which will be used to undertake the review, including key search terms, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and the methods used for critical appraisal, data extraction and data analysis to facilitate transparency of the review process. Additionally, journals should encourage and support the publication of review protocols, and should require reference to a protocol prior to publication of the review results. © 2016 Sigma Theta Tau International.

Enhanced International Space Station Ku-Band Telemetry Service

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cecil, Andrew; Pitts, Lee; Welch, Steven; Bryan, Jason

2014-01-01

(1) The ISS is diligently working to increase utilization of the resources this unique laboratory provides; (2) Recent upgrades enabled the use of Internet Protocol communication using the CCSDS IP Encapsulation protocol; and (3) The Huntsville Operations Support Center has extended the onboard LAN to payload teams enabling the use of standard IP protocols for payload operations.

Clinical outcomes and mortality before and after implementation of a pediatric sepsis protocol in a limited resource setting: A retrospective cohort study in Bangladesh.

PubMed

Kortz, Teresa Bleakly; Axelrod, David M; Chisti, Mohammod J; Kache, Saraswati

2017-01-01

Pediatric sepsis has a high mortality rate in limited resource settings. Sepsis protocols have been shown to be a cost-effective strategy to improve morbidity and mortality in a variety of populations and settings. At Dhaka Hospital in Bangladesh, mortality from pediatric sepsis in high-risk children previously approached 60%, which prompted the implementation of an evidenced-based protocol in 2010. The clinical effectiveness of this protocol had not been measured. We hypothesized that implementation of a pediatric sepsis protocol improved clinical outcomes, including reducing mortality and length of hospital stay. This was a retrospective cohort study of children 1-59 months old with a diagnosis of sepsis, severe sepsis or septic shock admitted to Dhaka Hospital from 10/25/2009-10/25/2011. The primary outcome was inpatient mortality pre- and post-protocol implementation. Secondary outcomes included fluid overload, heart failure, respiratory insufficiency, length of hospital stay, and protocol compliance, as measured by antibiotic and fluid bolus administration within 60 minutes of hospital presentation. 404 patients were identified by a key-word search of the electronic medical record; 328 patients with a primary diagnosis of sepsis, severe sepsis, or septic shock were included (143 pre- and185 post-protocol) in the analysis. Pre- and post-protocol mortality were similar and not statistically significant (32.17% vs. 34.59%, p = 0.72). The adjusted odds ratio (AOR) for post-protocol mortality was 1.55 (95% CI, 0.88-2.71). The odds for developing fluid overload were significantly higher post-protocol (AOR 3.45, 95% CI, 2.04-5.85), as were the odds of developing heart failure (AOR 4.52, 95% CI, 1.43-14.29) and having a longer median length of stay (AOR 1.81, 95% CI 1.10-2.96). There was no statistically significant difference in respiratory insufficiency (pre- 65.7% vs. post- 70.3%, p = 0.4) or antibiotic administration between the cohorts (pre- 16.08% vs. post- 12.43%, p = 0.42). Implementation of a pediatric sepsis protocol did not improve all-cause mortality or length of stay and may have been associated with increased fluid overload and heart failure during the study period in a large, non-governmental hospital in Bangladesh. Similar rates of early antibiotic administration may indicate poor protocol compliance. Though evidenced-based protocols are a potential cost-effective strategy to improve outcomes, future studies should focus on optimal implementation of context-relevant sepsis protocols in limited resource settings.

Protection of pregnant women at work in Switzerland: practices, obstacles and resources. A mixed-methods study protocol.

PubMed

Krief, Peggy; Zellweger, Alessia; Politis Mercier, Maria-Pia; Danuser, Brigitta; Wild, Pascal; Zenoni, Michela; Probst, Isabelle

2018-06-14

Like most industrialised countries, Switzerland has introduced legislation to protect the health of pregnant workers and their unborn children from workplace exposure. This legislation provides for a risk assessment, adaptations to workplaces and, if the danger is not eliminated, preventive leave (prescribed by a gynaecologist). This study's first objective is to analyse the degree to which companies, gynaecologists and midwives implement the law. Its second objective is to understand the obstacles and resources of this implementation, with a focus on how relevant stakeholders perceive protective measures and their involvement with them. Data will be collected using mixed methods: (1) online questionnaires for gynaecologists and midwives; telephone questionnaires with company human resources (HR) managers in the healthcare and food production sectors; (2a) case studies of 6-8 companies in each sector, including interviews with stakeholders such as women workers, HR managers and occupational health physicians; (2b) two focus groups, one involving occupational physicians and hygienists, one involving labour inspectors.Quantitative data will be analysed statistically using STATA software V.15. Qualitative data will be transcribed and thematically analysed using MaxQDA software. The Human Research Ethics Committee of the Canton Vaud (CER-VD) has certified that this research study protocol falls outside of the field of application of the Swiss Federal Act on Research Involving Humans.The publications and recommendations resulting from this study will form the starting point for future improvements to the protection of pregnant women at work and their unborn children.This study started in February 2017 and will continue until January 2020. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

The U.S. Culture Collection Network Responding to the Requirements of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing

PubMed Central

Barker, Katharine B.; Barton, Hazel A.; Boundy-Mills, Kyria; Brown, Daniel R.; Coddington, Jonathan A.; Cook, Kevin; Desmeth, Philippe; Geiser, David; Glaeser, Jessie A.; Greene, Stephanie; Kang, Seogchan; Lomas, Michael W.; Melcher, Ulrich; Miller, Scott E.; Nobles, David R.; Owens, Kristina J.; Reichman, Jerome H.; da Silva, Manuela; Wertz, John; Whitworth, Cale; Smith, David

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT The U.S. Culture Collection Network held a meeting to share information about how culture collections are responding to the requirements of the recently enacted Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The meeting included representatives of many culture collections and other biological collections, the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Secretariat of the CBD, interested scientific societies, and collection groups, including Scientific Collections International and the Global Genome Biodiversity Network. The participants learned about the policies of the United States and other countries regarding access to genetic resources, the definition of genetic resources, and the status of historical materials and genetic sequence information. Key topics included what constitutes access and how the CBD Access and Benefit-Sharing Clearing-House can help guide researchers through the process of obtaining Prior Informed Consent on Mutually Agreed Terms. U.S. scientists and their international collaborators are required to follow the regulations of other countries when working with microbes originally isolated outside the United States, and the local regulations required by the Nagoya Protocol vary by the country of origin of the genetic resource. Managers of diverse living collections in the United States described their holdings and their efforts to provide access to genetic resources. This meeting laid the foundation for cooperation in establishing a set of standard operating procedures for U.S. and international culture collections in response to the Nagoya Protocol. PMID:28811341

The U.S. Culture Collection Network Responding to the Requirements of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing.

PubMed

McCluskey, Kevin; Barker, Katharine B; Barton, Hazel A; Boundy-Mills, Kyria; Brown, Daniel R; Coddington, Jonathan A; Cook, Kevin; Desmeth, Philippe; Geiser, David; Glaeser, Jessie A; Greene, Stephanie; Kang, Seogchan; Lomas, Michael W; Melcher, Ulrich; Miller, Scott E; Nobles, David R; Owens, Kristina J; Reichman, Jerome H; da Silva, Manuela; Wertz, John; Whitworth, Cale; Smith, David

2017-08-15

The U.S. Culture Collection Network held a meeting to share information about how culture collections are responding to the requirements of the recently enacted Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The meeting included representatives of many culture collections and other biological collections, the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Secretariat of the CBD, interested scientific societies, and collection groups, including Scientific Collections International and the Global Genome Biodiversity Network. The participants learned about the policies of the United States and other countries regarding access to genetic resources, the definition of genetic resources, and the status of historical materials and genetic sequence information. Key topics included what constitutes access and how the CBD Access and Benefit-Sharing Clearing-House can help guide researchers through the process of obtaining Prior Informed Consent on Mutually Agreed Terms. U.S. scientists and their international collaborators are required to follow the regulations of other countries when working with microbes originally isolated outside the United States, and the local regulations required by the Nagoya Protocol vary by the country of origin of the genetic resource. Managers of diverse living collections in the United States described their holdings and their efforts to provide access to genetic resources. This meeting laid the foundation for cooperation in establishing a set of standard operating procedures for U.S. and international culture collections in response to the Nagoya Protocol.

An inventory and monitoring plan for a Sonoran Desert ecosystem; Barry M. Goldwater Range-West

USGS Publications Warehouse

Villarreal, Miguel L.; van Riper, Charles; Lovich, Robert E.; Palmer, Robert L.; Nauman, Travis; Studd, Sarah E.; Drake, Sam; Rosenberg, Abigail S.; Malusa, Jim; Pearce, Ronald L.

2011-01-01

Marine Corps Air Station Yuma manages the Barry M. Goldwater Range-West, which encompasses approximately 2,800 square kilometers of Sonoran Desert habitat in southwestern Arizona. The Barry M. Goldwater Range is a major U.S. military installation designed as an air combat training location for the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Air Force, but it also includes some of the most pristine desert habitat in the United States. In an effort to ensure the long-term viability of this unique natural resource, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has developed an Integrated Natural Resources Management Plan and Inventory and Monitoring Plan to guide natural resource management of the Barry M. Goldwater Range-West. This Inventory and Monitoring Plan provides a framework for long-term ecosystem monitoring on Barry M. Goldwater Range-West lands by identifying existing and potential threats to ecosystem function, prioritizing resources for monitoring, and providing information and protocols necessary to initiate a long-term ecosystem monitoring program. The Inventory and Monitoring Plan and related protocols were developed through extensive review of existing Sonoran Desert monitoring programs and monitoring literature and through a 2-day workshop with resource managers, monitoring experts, and other stakeholders. The Barry M. Goldwater Range-West Inventory and Monitoring Plan stresses the importance of regional monitoring partnerships and protocol standardization for understanding landscape-scale ecosystem changes in the Sonoran Desert; information and protocols contained within the plan may also be of interest to land managers engaged in large-scale ecosystem monitoring and adaptive management of other arid regions.

Substance abuse interface with intimate partner violence: what treatment programs need to know.

PubMed

Brackley, Margaret H; Williams, Gail B; Wei, Christina C

2010-12-01

This article provides suggestions for skill development for substance abuse (SA) treatment agencies and providers for implementing Treatment Improvement Protocol number 25: Substance Abuse Treatment and Domestic Violence. Methods for detecting, screening, intervening, and referring victims and perpetrators of intimate partner violence enrolled in SA treatment are presented. Evidence-based brief intervention is presented. A 2-minute screen for domestic violence as well as danger assessment for lethality of abuse and the Conflict Tactics Scales 2 are reviewed. A survey of interventions aimed at establishing trust, brief intervention from best practice, guidelines for safety planning, compliance strategies for SA treatment, and community resource development are presented. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Progress, challenges and perspectives on fish gamete cryopreservation: A mini-review.

PubMed

Asturiano, Juan F; Cabrita, Elsa; Horváth, Ákos

2017-05-01

Protocols for the cryopreservation of fish gametes have been developed for many different fish species, in special, freshwater salmonids and cyprinids. Methods for sperm freezing have progressed during the last decades due to the increasing number of potential applications: aquaculture (genetic improvement programs, broodstock management, helping with species having reproductive problems), biotechnology studies using model fish species (preservation of transgenic or mutant lines), cryobanking of genetic resources from endangered species, etc. This mini-review tries to give an overview of the present situation of this area of research, identifying the main challenges and perspectives, redirecting the reader to more in-depth reviews and papers. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An Enhanced Reservation-Based MAC Protocol for IEEE 802.15.4 Networks

PubMed Central

Afonso, José A.; Silva, Helder D.; Macedo, Pedro; Rocha, Luis A.

2011-01-01

The IEEE 802.15.4 Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol is an enabling standard for wireless sensor networks. In order to support applications requiring dedicated bandwidth or bounded delay, it provides a reservation-based scheme named Guaranteed Time Slot (GTS). However, the GTS scheme presents some drawbacks, such as inefficient bandwidth utilization and support to a maximum of only seven devices. This paper presents eLPRT (enhanced Low Power Real Time), a new reservation-based MAC protocol that introduces several performance enhancing features in comparison to the GTS scheme. This MAC protocol builds on top of LPRT (Low Power Real Time) and includes various mechanisms designed to increase data transmission reliability against channel errors, improve bandwidth utilization and increase the number of supported devices. A motion capture system based on inertial and magnetic sensors has been used to validate the protocol. The effectiveness of the performance enhancements introduced by each of the new features is demonstrated through the provision of both simulation and experimental results. PMID:22163826

Multi-server blind quantum computation over collective-noise channels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xiao, Min; Liu, Lin; Song, Xiuli

2018-03-01

Blind quantum computation (BQC) enables ordinary clients to securely outsource their computation task to costly quantum servers. Besides two essential properties, namely correctness and blindness, practical BQC protocols also should make clients as classical as possible and tolerate faults from nonideal quantum channel. In this paper, using logical Bell states as quantum resource, we propose multi-server BQC protocols over collective-dephasing noise channel and collective-rotation noise channel, respectively. The proposed protocols permit completely or almost classical client, meet the correctness and blindness requirements of BQC protocol, and are typically practical BQC protocols.

Update of Ireland's national average indoor radon concentration - Application of a new survey protocol.

PubMed

Dowdall, A; Murphy, P; Pollard, D; Fenton, D

2017-04-01

In 2002, a National Radon Survey (NRS) in Ireland established that the geographically weighted national average indoor radon concentration was 89 Bq m -3 . Since then a number of developments have taken place which are likely to have impacted on the national average radon level. Key among these was the introduction of amending Building Regulations in 1998 requiring radon preventive measures in new buildings in High Radon Areas (HRAs). In 2014, the Irish Government adopted the National Radon Control Strategy (NRCS) for Ireland. A knowledge gap identified in the NRCS was to update the national average for Ireland given the developments since 2002. The updated national average would also be used as a baseline metric to assess the effectiveness of the NRCS over time. A new national survey protocol was required that would measure radon in a sample of homes representative of radon risk and geographical location. The design of the survey protocol took into account that it is not feasible to repeat the 11,319 measurements carried out for the 2002 NRS due to time and resource constraints. However, the existence of that comprehensive survey allowed for a new protocol to be developed, involving measurements carried out in unbiased randomly selected volunteer homes. This paper sets out the development and application of that survey protocol. The results of the 2015 survey showed that the current national average indoor radon concentration for homes in Ireland is 77 Bq m -3 , a decrease from the 89 Bq m -3 reported in the 2002 NRS. Analysis of the results by build date demonstrate that the introduction of the amending Building Regulations in 1998 have led to a reduction in the average indoor radon level in Ireland. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Flight related tuberculosis contact investigations in the United States: comparative risk and economic analysis of alternate protocols.

PubMed

Marienau, Karen J; Cramer, Elaine H; Coleman, Margaret S; Marano, Nina; Cetron, Martin S

2014-01-01

In-flight transmission risk of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is not well defined, although studies suggest it is low. The impact of flight-related tuberculosis (TB) contact investigations (TBCIs) on TB prevention and control is not well established, and they compete for resources with activities with established benefits. We sought to determine the risks and cost-benefits of using more restrictive criteria in comparison to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 2008 protocol for TBCIs. The risk-benefits of a modified CDC protocol were analyzed in comparison to the 2008 CDC protocol using data from flight-related TBCIs conducted in the United States from 2007 through 2009. We predicted the numbers and characteristics of case-travelers that would be identified using each protocol's criteria, and results of the associated passenger-contacts' TB screening tests. The economic analysis compared the costs of TBCIs to avoided costs of TB treatment and mortality using a Return on Investment model. The estimated in-flight transmission risk using a modified CDC protocol was 1.4%-19% versus 1.1%-24% for the 2008 protocol. Numbers of TBCIs and immediate costs to health departments were reduced by half. Long-term cost-benefits were comparable. CDC's modified protocol appears to be a feasible alternative that will conserve public health resources without jeopardizing the public's health. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Quantifying the nonlocality of Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger quantum correlations by a bounded communication simulation protocol.

PubMed

Branciard, Cyril; Gisin, Nicolas

2011-07-08

The simulation of quantum correlations with finite nonlocal resources, such as classical communication, gives a natural way to quantify their nonlocality. While multipartite nonlocal correlations appear to be useful resources, very little is known on how to simulate multipartite quantum correlations. We present a protocol that reproduces tripartite Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger correlations with bounded communication: 3 bits in total turn out to be sufficient to simulate all equatorial Von Neumann measurements on the tripartite Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state.

A probabilistic quantum communication protocol using mixed entangled channel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Choudhury, Binayak S.; Dhara, Arpan

2016-05-01

Qubits are realized as polarization state of photons or as superpositions of the spin states of electrons. In this paper we propose a scheme to probabilistically teleport an unknown arbitrary two-qubit state using a non-maximally entangled GHZ- like state and a non-maximally Bell state simultaneously as quantum channels. We also discuss the success probability of our scheme. We perform POVM in the protocol which is operationally advantageous. In our scheme we show that the non-maximal quantum resources perform better than maximal resources.

Quantum key distribution with finite resources: Secret key rates via Renyi entropies

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

Abruzzo, Silvestre; Kampermann, Hermann; Mertz, Markus

A realistic quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol necessarily deals with finite resources, such as the number of signals exchanged by the two parties. We derive a bound on the secret key rate which is expressed as an optimization problem over Renyi entropies. Under the assumption of collective attacks by an eavesdropper, a computable estimate of our bound for the six-state protocol is provided. This bound leads to improved key rates in comparison to previous results.

A Protocol for Generating and Exchanging (Genome-Scale) Metabolic Resource Allocation Models.

PubMed

Reimers, Alexandra-M; Lindhorst, Henning; Waldherr, Steffen

2017-09-06

In this article, we present a protocol for generating a complete (genome-scale) metabolic resource allocation model, as well as a proposal for how to represent such models in the systems biology markup language (SBML). Such models are used to investigate enzyme levels and achievable growth rates in large-scale metabolic networks. Although the idea of metabolic resource allocation studies has been present in the field of systems biology for some years, no guidelines for generating such a model have been published up to now. This paper presents step-by-step instructions for building a (dynamic) resource allocation model, starting with prerequisites such as a genome-scale metabolic reconstruction, through building protein and noncatalytic biomass synthesis reactions and assigning turnover rates for each reaction. In addition, we explain how one can use SBML level 3 in combination with the flux balance constraints and our resource allocation modeling annotation to represent such models.

Application of natural resource valuation concepts for development of sustainable remediation plans for groundwater.

PubMed

Connor, John A; Paquette, Shawn; McHugh, Thomas; Gie, Elaine; Hemingway, Mark; Bianchi, Gino

2017-12-15

This paper explores the application of natural resource assessment and valuation procedures as a tool for developing groundwater remediation strategies that achieve the objectives for health and environmental protection, in balance with considerations of economic viability and conservation of natural resources. The natural resource assessment process, as applied under U.S. and international guidelines, entails characterization of groundwater contamination in terms of the pre-existing beneficial services of the impacted resource, the loss of these services caused by the contamination, and the measures and associated costs necessary to restore or replace the lost services. Under many regulatory programs, groundwater remediation objectives assume that the impacted groundwater may be used as a primary source of drinking water in the future, even if not presently in use. In combination with a regulatory preference for removal or treatment technologies, this assumed exposure, while protective of human health, can drive the remedy selection process toward remedies that may not be protective of the groundwater resource itself or of the other natural resources (energy, materials, chemicals, etc.) that may be consumed in the remediation effort. To achieve the same health and environmental protection goals under a sustainable remediation framework, natural resource assessment methods can be applied to restore the lost services and preserve the intact services of the groundwater so as to protect both current and future users of that resource. In this paper, we provide practical guidelines for use of natural resource assessment procedures in the remedy selection process and present a case study demonstrating the use of these protocols for development of sustainable remediation strategies. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

The evaluation of complex clinical trial protocols: resources available to research ethics committees and the use of clinical trial registries--a case study.

PubMed

Homedes, Núria; Ugalde, Antonio

2015-06-01

To assess the potential role of clinical trial (CT) registries and other resources available to research ethics committees (RECs) in the evaluation of complex CT protocols in low-income and middle-income countries. Using a case study approach, the authors examined the decision-making process of a REC in Argentina and its efforts to use available resources to decide on a complex protocol. We also analysed the information in the USA and other CT registries and consulted 24 CT experts in seven countries. Information requested by the Argentinean REC from other national RECs and ethics' experts was not useful to verify the adequacy of the REC's decision whether or not to approve the CT. The responses from the national regulatory agency and the sponsor were not helpful either. The identification of international resources that could assist was beyond the REC's capability. The information in the USA and other CT registries is limited, and at times misleading; and its accuracy is not verified by register keepers. RECs have limited access to experts and institutions that could assist them in their deliberations. Sponsors do not always answer RECs' request for information to properly conduct the ethical and methodological assessment of CT protocols. The usefulness of the CT registries is curtailed by the lack of appropriate codes and by data errors. Information about reasons for rejection, withdrawal or suspension of the trial should be included in the registries. Establishing formal channels of communication among national and foreign RECs and with independent international reference centres could strengthen the ethical review of CT protocols. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Unconditionally verifiable blind quantum computation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fitzsimons, Joseph F.; Kashefi, Elham

2017-07-01

Blind quantum computing (BQC) allows a client to have a server carry out a quantum computation for them such that the client's input, output, and computation remain private. A desirable property for any BQC protocol is verification, whereby the client can verify with high probability whether the server has followed the instructions of the protocol or if there has been some deviation resulting in a corrupted output state. A verifiable BQC protocol can be viewed as an interactive proof system leading to consequences for complexity theory. We previously proposed [A. Broadbent, J. Fitzsimons, and E. Kashefi, in Proceedings of the 50th Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, Atlanta, 2009 (IEEE, Piscataway, 2009), p. 517] a universal and unconditionally secure BQC scheme where the client only needs to be able to prepare single qubits in separable states randomly chosen from a finite set and send them to the server, who has the balance of the required quantum computational resources. In this paper we extend that protocol with additional functionality allowing blind computational basis measurements, which we use to construct another verifiable BQC protocol based on a different class of resource states. We rigorously prove that the probability of failing to detect an incorrect output is exponentially small in a security parameter, while resource overhead remains polynomial in this parameter. This resource state allows entangling gates to be performed between arbitrary pairs of logical qubits with only constant overhead. This is a significant improvement on the original scheme, which required that all computations to be performed must first be put into a nearest-neighbor form, incurring linear overhead in the number of qubits. Such an improvement has important consequences for efficiency and fault-tolerance thresholds.

The National Riparian Core Protocol: A riparian vegetation monitoring protocol for wadeable streams of the conterminous United States

Treesearch

David M. Merritt; Mary E. Manning; Nate Hough-Snee

2017-01-01

Riparian areas are hotspots of biological diversity that may serve as high quality habitat for fish and wildlife. The National Riparian Core Protocol (NRCP) provides tools and methods to assist natural resource professionals in sampling riparian vegetation and physical characteristics along wadeable streams. Guidance is provided for collecting basic information on...

A Lightweight Protocol for Secure Video Streaming

PubMed Central

Morkevicius, Nerijus; Bagdonas, Kazimieras

2018-01-01

The Internet of Things (IoT) introduces many new challenges which cannot be solved using traditional cloud and host computing models. A new architecture known as fog computing is emerging to address these technological and security gaps. Traditional security paradigms focused on providing perimeter-based protections and client/server point to point protocols (e.g., Transport Layer Security (TLS)) are no longer the best choices for addressing new security challenges in fog computing end devices, where energy and computational resources are limited. In this paper, we present a lightweight secure streaming protocol for the fog computing “Fog Node-End Device” layer. This protocol is lightweight, connectionless, supports broadcast and multicast operations, and is able to provide data source authentication, data integrity, and confidentiality. The protocol is based on simple and energy efficient cryptographic methods, such as Hash Message Authentication Codes (HMAC) and symmetrical ciphers, and uses modified User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets to embed authentication data into streaming data. Data redundancy could be added to improve reliability in lossy networks. The experimental results summarized in this paper confirm that the proposed method efficiently uses energy and computational resources and at the same time provides security properties on par with the Datagram TLS (DTLS) standard. PMID:29757988

A Lightweight Protocol for Secure Video Streaming.

PubMed

Venčkauskas, Algimantas; Morkevicius, Nerijus; Bagdonas, Kazimieras; Damaševičius, Robertas; Maskeliūnas, Rytis

2018-05-14

The Internet of Things (IoT) introduces many new challenges which cannot be solved using traditional cloud and host computing models. A new architecture known as fog computing is emerging to address these technological and security gaps. Traditional security paradigms focused on providing perimeter-based protections and client/server point to point protocols (e.g., Transport Layer Security (TLS)) are no longer the best choices for addressing new security challenges in fog computing end devices, where energy and computational resources are limited. In this paper, we present a lightweight secure streaming protocol for the fog computing "Fog Node-End Device" layer. This protocol is lightweight, connectionless, supports broadcast and multicast operations, and is able to provide data source authentication, data integrity, and confidentiality. The protocol is based on simple and energy efficient cryptographic methods, such as Hash Message Authentication Codes (HMAC) and symmetrical ciphers, and uses modified User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets to embed authentication data into streaming data. Data redundancy could be added to improve reliability in lossy networks. The experimental results summarized in this paper confirm that the proposed method efficiently uses energy and computational resources and at the same time provides security properties on par with the Datagram TLS (DTLS) standard.

FuGeF: A Resource Bound Secure Forwarding Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks.

PubMed

Umar, Idris Abubakar; Mohd Hanapi, Zurina; Sali, A; Zulkarnain, Zuriati A

2016-06-22

Resource bound security solutions have facilitated the mitigation of spatio-temporal attacks by altering protocol semantics to provide minimal security while maintaining an acceptable level of performance. The Dynamic Window Secured Implicit Geographic Forwarding (DWSIGF) routing protocol for Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) has been proposed to achieve a minimal selection of malicious nodes by introducing a dynamic collection window period to the protocol's semantics. However, its selection scheme suffers substantial packet losses due to the utilization of a single distance based parameter for node selection. In this paper, we propose a Fuzzy-based Geographic Forwarding protocol (FuGeF) to minimize packet loss, while maintaining performance. The FuGeF utilizes a new form of dynamism and introduces three selection parameters: remaining energy, connectivity cost, and progressive distance, as well as a Fuzzy Logic System (FLS) for node selection. These introduced mechanisms ensure the appropriate selection of a non-malicious node. Extensive simulation experiments have been conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed FuGeF protocol as compared to DWSIGF variants. The simulation results show that the proposed FuGeF outperforms the two DWSIGF variants (DWSIGF-P and DWSIGF-R) in terms of packet delivery.

Resourcefulness training intervention: a promising approach to improve mental health of mothers with technology-dependent children.

PubMed

Toly, Valerie Boebel; Musil, Carol M; Zauszniewski, Jaclene A

2014-02-01

The population of children dependent on medical technology such as mechanical ventilation, feeding tubes, and supplemental oxygen continues to grow in the United States. These children are frequently cared for by their mothers at home following hospital discharge. Research indicates that these mothers are at high risk for negative mental health outcomes that affect both caregiver and care recipient. The purpose of this randomized controlled pilot trial was to determine the feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of resourcefulness training (RT), a cognitive-behavioral intervention, among mothers of technology-dependent children. RT was found to be a feasible and acceptable intervention with this population during the 6 week study. The effect size in this pilot study demonstrates initial efficacy and indicates areas for strengthening the intervention protocol. RT is a promising intervention that can be employed by pediatric nurses to assist mothers in the home management of technology-dependent children. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The NSW brain tissue resource centre: Banking for alcohol and major neuropsychiatric disorders research.

PubMed

Sutherland, G T; Sheedy, D; Stevens, J; McCrossin, T; Smith, C C; van Roijen, M; Kril, J J

2016-05-01

The New South Wales Brain Tissue Resource Centre (NSWBTRC) at the University of Sydney (Australia) is an established human brain bank providing tissue to the neuroscience research community for investigations on alcohol-related brain damage and major psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia. The NSWBTRC relies on wide community engagement to encourage those with and without neuropsychiatric illness to consent to donation through its allied research programs. The subsequent provision of high-quality samples relies on standardized operational protocols, associated clinical data, quality control measures, integrated information systems, robust infrastructure, and governance. These processes are continually augmented to complement the changes in internal and external governance as well as the complexity and diversity of advanced investigation techniques. This report provides an overview of the dynamic process of brain banking and discusses the challenges of meeting the future needs of researchers, including synchronicity with other disease-focus collections. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Analytical approach to cross-layer protocol optimization in wireless sensor networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hortos, William S.

2008-04-01

In the distributed operations of route discovery and maintenance, strong interaction occurs across mobile ad hoc network (MANET) protocol layers. Quality of service (QoS) requirements of multimedia service classes must be satisfied by the cross-layer protocol, along with minimization of the distributed power consumption at nodes and along routes to battery-limited energy constraints. In previous work by the author, cross-layer interactions in the MANET protocol are modeled in terms of a set of concatenated design parameters and associated resource levels by multivariate point processes (MVPPs). Determination of the "best" cross-layer design is carried out using the optimal control of martingale representations of the MVPPs. In contrast to the competitive interaction among nodes in a MANET for multimedia services using limited resources, the interaction among the nodes of a wireless sensor network (WSN) is distributed and collaborative, based on the processing of data from a variety of sensors at nodes to satisfy common mission objectives. Sensor data originates at the nodes at the periphery of the WSN, is successively transported to other nodes for aggregation based on information-theoretic measures of correlation and ultimately sent as information to one or more destination (decision) nodes. The "multimedia services" in the MANET model are replaced by multiple types of sensors, e.g., audio, seismic, imaging, thermal, etc., at the nodes; the QoS metrics associated with MANETs become those associated with the quality of fused information flow, i.e., throughput, delay, packet error rate, data correlation, etc. Significantly, the essential analytical approach to MANET cross-layer optimization, now based on the MVPPs for discrete random events occurring in the WSN, can be applied to develop the stochastic characteristics and optimality conditions for cross-layer designs of sensor network protocols. Functional dependencies of WSN performance metrics are described in terms of the concatenated protocol parameters. New source-to-destination routes are sought that optimize cross-layer interdependencies to achieve the "best available" performance in the WSN. The protocol design, modified from a known reactive protocol, adapts the achievable performance to the transient network conditions and resource levels. Control of network behavior is realized through the conditional rates of the MVPPs. Optimal cross-layer protocol parameters are determined by stochastic dynamic programming conditions derived from models of transient packetized sensor data flows. Moreover, the defining conditions for WSN configurations, grouping sensor nodes into clusters and establishing data aggregation at processing nodes within those clusters, lead to computationally tractable solutions to the stochastic differential equations that describe network dynamics. Closed-form solution characteristics provide an alternative to the "directed diffusion" methods for resource-efficient WSN protocols published previously by other researchers. Performance verification of the resulting cross-layer designs is found by embedding the optimality conditions for the protocols in actual WSN scenarios replicated in a wireless network simulation environment. Performance tradeoffs among protocol parameters remain for a sequel to the paper.

A simple, effective media access protocol system for integrated, high data rate networks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Foudriat, E. C.; Maly, K.; Overstreet, C. M.; Khanna, S.; Zhang, L.

1992-01-01

The operation and performance of a dual media access protocol for integrated, gigabit networks are described. Unlike other dual protocols, each protocol supports a different class of traffic. The Carrier Sensed Multiple Access-Ring Network (CSMA/RN) protocol and the Circulating Reservation Packet (CRP) protocol support asynchronous and synchronous traffic, respectively. The two protocols operate with minimal impact upon each other. Performance information demonstrates that they support a complete range of integrated traffic loads, do not require call setup/termination or a special node for synchronous traffic control, and provide effective pre-use and recovery. The CRP also provides guaranteed access and fairness control for the asynchronous system. The paper demonstrates that the CSMA-CRP system fulfills many of the requirements for gigabit LAN-MAN networks most effectively and simply. To accomplish this, CSMA-CRP features are compared against similar ring and bus systems, such as Cambridge Fast Ring, Metaring, Cyclic Reservation Multiple Access, and Distributed Dual Queue Data Bus (DQDB).

Manuals Used in the National Aquatic Resource Surveys

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Various manuals are used to communicate the methods and guidelines for the National Aquatic Resource Surveys. The Field Operations Manual: outlines the field protocols that crews will utilize to sample sites.

A protocol using coho salmon to monitor Tongass National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan standards and guidelines for fish habitat.

Treesearch

M.D. Bryant; Trent McDonald; R. Aho; B.E. Wright; Michelle Bourassa Stahl

2008-01-01

We describe a protocol to monitor the effectiveness of the Tongass Land Management Plan (TLMP) management standards for maintaining fish habitat. The protocol uses juvenile coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) in small tributary streams in forested watersheds. We used a 3-year pilot study to develop detailed methods to estimate juvenile salmonid...

Clinical outcomes and mortality before and after implementation of a pediatric sepsis protocol in a limited resource setting: A retrospective cohort study in Bangladesh

PubMed Central

Axelrod, David M.; Chisti, Mohammod J.; Kache, Saraswati

2017-01-01

Background Pediatric sepsis has a high mortality rate in limited resource settings. Sepsis protocols have been shown to be a cost-effective strategy to improve morbidity and mortality in a variety of populations and settings. At Dhaka Hospital in Bangladesh, mortality from pediatric sepsis in high-risk children previously approached 60%, which prompted the implementation of an evidenced-based protocol in 2010. The clinical effectiveness of this protocol had not been measured. We hypothesized that implementation of a pediatric sepsis protocol improved clinical outcomes, including reducing mortality and length of hospital stay. Materials and methods This was a retrospective cohort study of children 1–59 months old with a diagnosis of sepsis, severe sepsis or septic shock admitted to Dhaka Hospital from 10/25/2009-10/25/2011. The primary outcome was inpatient mortality pre- and post-protocol implementation. Secondary outcomes included fluid overload, heart failure, respiratory insufficiency, length of hospital stay, and protocol compliance, as measured by antibiotic and fluid bolus administration within 60 minutes of hospital presentation. Results 404 patients were identified by a key-word search of the electronic medical record; 328 patients with a primary diagnosis of sepsis, severe sepsis, or septic shock were included (143 pre- and185 post-protocol) in the analysis. Pre- and post-protocol mortality were similar and not statistically significant (32.17% vs. 34.59%, p = 0.72). The adjusted odds ratio (AOR) for post-protocol mortality was 1.55 (95% CI, 0.88–2.71). The odds for developing fluid overload were significantly higher post-protocol (AOR 3.45, 95% CI, 2.04–5.85), as were the odds of developing heart failure (AOR 4.52, 95% CI, 1.43–14.29) and having a longer median length of stay (AOR 1.81, 95% CI 1.10–2.96). There was no statistically significant difference in respiratory insufficiency (pre- 65.7% vs. post- 70.3%, p = 0.4) or antibiotic administration between the cohorts (pre- 16.08% vs. post- 12.43%, p = 0.42). Conclusions Implementation of a pediatric sepsis protocol did not improve all-cause mortality or length of stay and may have been associated with increased fluid overload and heart failure during the study period in a large, non-governmental hospital in Bangladesh. Similar rates of early antibiotic administration may indicate poor protocol compliance. Though evidenced-based protocols are a potential cost-effective strategy to improve outcomes, future studies should focus on optimal implementation of context-relevant sepsis protocols in limited resource settings. PMID:28753618

Communications protocol

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zhou, Xiaoming (Inventor); Baras, John S. (Inventor)

2010-01-01

The present invention relates to an improved communications protocol which increases the efficiency of transmission in return channels on a multi-channel slotted Alohas system by incorporating advanced error correction algorithms, selective retransmission protocols and the use of reserved channels to satisfy the retransmission requests.

40 CFR Appendix J to Subpart A of... - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 18 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false [Reserved] J Appendix J to Subpart A of Part 82-Parties to the Montreal Protocol Classied Under Article 5(1) That Have Banned the Import... Montreal Protocol Classied Under Article 5(1) That Have Banned the Import of Controlled Products That Rely...

40 CFR Appendix J to Subpart A of... - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 17 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false [Reserved] J Appendix J to Subpart A of Part 82-Parties to the Montreal Protocol Classied Under Article 5(1) That Have Banned the Import... Montreal Protocol Classied Under Article 5(1) That Have Banned the Import of Controlled Products That Rely...

40 CFR Appendix J to Subpart A of... - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 18 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false [Reserved] J Appendix J to Subpart A of Part 82-Parties to the Montreal Protocol Classied Under Article 5(1) That Have Banned the Import... Montreal Protocol Classied Under Article 5(1) That Have Banned the Import of Controlled Products That Rely...

40 CFR Appendix J to Subpart A of... - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 18 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false [Reserved] J Appendix J to Subpart A of Part 82-Parties to the Montreal Protocol Classied Under Article 5(1) That Have Banned the Import... Montreal Protocol Classied Under Article 5(1) That Have Banned the Import of Controlled Products That Rely...

40 CFR Appendix J to Subpart A of... - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 17 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false [Reserved] J Appendix J to Subpart A of Part 82-Parties to the Montreal Protocol Classied Under Article 5(1) That Have Banned the Import... Montreal Protocol Classied Under Article 5(1) That Have Banned the Import of Controlled Products That Rely...

Health-care management of an unexpected case of Ebola virus disease at the Alcorcón Foundation University Teaching Hospital.

PubMed

Rodríguez-Caravaca, Gil; Timermans, Rafael; Parra-Ramírez, Juan Manuel; Domínguez-Hernández, Francisco Javier; Algora-Weber, Alejandro; Delgado-Iribarren, Alberto; Hermida-Gutiérrez, Guillermo

2015-04-01

The first Ebola virus infected patient outside Africa was diagnosed and treated at Alcorcón Foundation University Teaching Hospital (AFUTH). We describe the integrated management strategy (medical, occupational health, preventive and public health) applied to the case. Descriptive study of health-care management of an unexpected case of Ebola virus disease (EVD) at AFUTH treated on 6 October 2014. We describe the clinical evolution of the patient while he was attended at the Emergency Department, the drawing-up process of the action protocol, the process of training of hospital staff, the administrative management for transferring the patient to the referral centre, and the measures implemented for cleaning, disinfection and management of waste. Qualitative variables are expressed as percentages. Our centre designed and updated, from May to October, five versions of the acting and care protocol for patients with EVD. The protocol was in force at the AFUTH when a nursing assistant was attended on 6 October 2014. All preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic measures outlined in the protocol were applied and 206 professionals had received training and information about care procedures with a suspect case. Health-care management of an unexpected case of EVD was adequate and there was no secondary cases in our staff as a result. All resources available should be used to fight EVD. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier España, S.L.U. y Sociedad Española de Enfermedades Infecciosas y Microbiología Clínica. All rights reserved.

[Endovascular treatment in acute ischaemic stroke. A stroke care plan for the region of Madrid].

PubMed

Alonso de Leciñana, M; Díaz-Guzmán, J; Egido, J A; García Pastor, A; Martínez-Sánchez, P; Vivancos, J; Díez-Tejedor, E

2013-09-01

Endovascular therapies (intra-arterial thrombolysis and mechanical thrombectomy) after acute ischaemic stroke are being implemented in the clinical setting even as they are still being researched. Since we lack sufficient data to establish accurate evidence-based recommendations for use of these treatments, we must develop clinical protocols based on current knowledge and carefully monitor all procedures. After review of the literature and holding work sessions to reach a consensus among experts, we developed a clinical protocol including indications and contraindications for endovascular therapies use in acute ischaemic stroke. The protocol includes methodology recommendations for diagnosing and selecting patients, performing revascularisation procedures, and for subsequent patient management. Its objective is to increase the likelihood of efficacy and treatment benefit and minimise risk of complications and ineffective recanalisation. Based on an analysis of healthcare needs and available resources, a cooperative inter-hospital care system has been developed. This helps to ensure availability of endovascular therapies to all patients, a fast response time, and a good cost-to-efficacy ratio. It includes also a prospective register which serves to monitor procedures in order to identify any opportunities for improvement. Implementation of endovascular techniques for treating acute ischaemic stroke requires the elaboration of evidence-based clinical protocols and the establishment of appropriate cooperative healthcare networks guaranteeing both the availability and the quality of these actions. Such procedures must be monitored in order to improve methodology. Copyright © 2012 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Design and Practical Evaluation of a Family of Lightweight Protocols for Heterogeneous Sensing through BLE Beacons in IoT Telemetry Applications.

PubMed

Hernández-Rojas, Dixys L; Fernández-Caramés, Tiago M; Fraga-Lamas, Paula; Escudero, Carlos J

2017-12-27

The Internet of Things (IoT) involves a wide variety of heterogeneous technologies and resource-constrained devices that interact with each other. Due to such constraints, IoT devices usually require lightweight protocols that optimize the use of resources and energy consumption. Among the different commercial IoT devices, Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)-based beacons, which broadcast periodically certain data packets to notify their presence, have experienced a remarkable growth, specially due to their application in indoor positioning systems. This article proposes a family of protocols named Lightweight Protocol for Sensors (LP4S) that provides fast responses and enables plug-and-play mechanisms that allow IoT telemetry systems to discover new nodes and to describe and auto-register the sensors and actuators connected to a beacon. Thus, three protocols are defined depending on the beacon hardware characteristics: LP4S-6 (for resource-constraint beacons), LP4S-X (for more powerful beacons) and LP4S-J (for beacons able to run complex firmware). In order to demonstrate the capabilities of the designed protocols, the most restrictive (LP4S-6) is tested after implementing it for a telemetry application in a beacon based on Eddystone (Google's open beacon format). Thus, the beacon specification is extended in order to increase its ability to manage unlimited sensors in a telemetry system without interfering in its normal operation with Eddystone frames. The performed experiments show the feasibility of the proposed solution and its superiority, in terms of latency and energy consumption, with respect to approaches based on Generic Attribute Profile (GATT) when multiple users connect to a mote or in scenarios where latency is not a restriction, but where low-energy consumption is essential.

Design and Practical Evaluation of a Family of Lightweight Protocols for Heterogeneous Sensing through BLE Beacons in IoT Telemetry Applications

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

The Internet of Things (IoT) involves a wide variety of heterogeneous technologies and resource-constrained devices that interact with each other. Due to such constraints, IoT devices usually require lightweight protocols that optimize the use of resources and energy consumption. Among the different commercial IoT devices, Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)-based beacons, which broadcast periodically certain data packets to notify their presence, have experienced a remarkable growth, specially due to their application in indoor positioning systems. This article proposes a family of protocols named Lightweight Protocol for Sensors (LP4S) that provides fast responses and enables plug-and-play mechanisms that allow IoT telemetry systems to discover new nodes and to describe and auto-register the sensors and actuators connected to a beacon. Thus, three protocols are defined depending on the beacon hardware characteristics: LP4S-6 (for resource-constraint beacons), LP4S-X (for more powerful beacons) and LP4S-J (for beacons able to run complex firmware). In order to demonstrate the capabilities of the designed protocols, the most restrictive (LP4S-6) is tested after implementing it for a telemetry application in a beacon based on Eddystone (Google’s open beacon format). Thus, the beacon specification is extended in order to increase its ability to manage unlimited sensors in a telemetry system without interfering in its normal operation with Eddystone frames. The performed experiments show the feasibility of the proposed solution and its superiority, in terms of latency and energy consumption, with respect to approaches based on Generic Attribute Profile (GATT) when multiple users connect to a mote or in scenarios where latency is not a restriction, but where low-energy consumption is essential. PMID:29280975

A secure medical data exchange protocol based on cloud environment.

PubMed

Chen, Chin-Ling; Yang, Tsai-Tung; Shih, Tzay-Farn

2014-09-01

In recent years, health care technologies already became matured such as electronic medical records that can be easily stored. However, how to get medical resources more convenient is currently concern issue. In spite of many literatures discussed about medical systems, but these literatures should face many security challenges. The most important issue is patients' privacy. Therefore, we propose a secure medical data exchange protocol based on cloud environment. In our scheme, we use mobile device's characteristics, allowing peoples use medical resources on the cloud environment to seek medical advice conveniently.

A Simple XML Producer-Consumer Protocol

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, Warren; Gunter, Dan; Quesnel, Darcy; Biegel, Bryan (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

There are many different projects from government, academia, and industry that provide services for delivering events in distributed environments. The problem with these event services is that they are not general enough to support all uses and they speak different protocols so that they cannot interoperate. We require such interoperability when we, for example, wish to analyze the performance of an application in a distributed environment. Such an analysis might require performance information from the application, computer systems, networks, and scientific instruments. In this work we propose and evaluate a standard XML-based protocol for the transmission of events in distributed systems. One recent trend in government and academic research is the development and deployment of computational grids. Computational grids are large-scale distributed systems that typically consist of high-performance compute, storage, and networking resources. Examples of such computational grids are the DOE Science Grid, the NASA Information Power Grid (IPG), and the NSF Partnerships for Advanced Computing Infrastructure (PACIs). The major effort to deploy these grids is in the area of developing the software services to allow users to execute applications on these large and diverse sets of resources. These services include security, execution of remote applications, managing remote data, access to information about resources and services, and so on. There are several toolkits for providing these services such as Globus, Legion, and Condor. As part of these efforts to develop computational grids, the Global Grid Forum is working to standardize the protocols and APIs used by various grid services. This standardization will allow interoperability between the client and server software of the toolkits that are providing the grid services. The goal of the Performance Working Group of the Grid Forum is to standardize protocols and representations related to the storage and distribution of performance data. These standard protocols and representations must support tasks such as profiling parallel applications, monitoring the status of computers and networks, and monitoring the performance of services provided by a computational grid. This paper describes a proposed protocol and data representation for the exchange of events in a distributed system. The protocol exchanges messages formatted in XML and it can be layered atop any low-level communication protocol such as TCP or UDP Further, we describe Java and C++ implementations of this protocol and discuss their performance. The next section will provide some further background information. Section 3 describes the main communication patterns of our protocol. Section 4 describes how we represent events and related information using XML. Section 5 describes our protocol and Section 6 discusses the performance of two implementations of the protocol. Finally, an appendix provides the XML Schema definition of our protocol and event information.

[Iliac artery occlusion balloons for suspected placenta accreta during cesarean section].

PubMed

Burgos Frías, N; Gredilla, E; Guasch, E; Gilsanz, F

2014-02-01

Massive obstetric hemorrhage still remains a major cause of maternal mortality and morbidity. The risk factors associated with this pathology must be identified in order to schedule the appropriate delivery with the necessary resources. A case is presented of an iliac artery occlusion with intravascular balloons for suspected placenta accreta during cesarean section. The perioperative treatment, as well as an analysis of the treatment options is described, along with their advantages and disadvantages, from the use of postpartum hemorrhage protocols, blood transfusion and procoagulant factors, and other maneuvers to control bleeding, until the hysterectomy. Copyright © 2012 Sociedad Española de Anestesiología, Reanimación y Terapéutica del Dolor. Published by Elsevier España. All rights reserved.

Revisiting phage therapy: new applications for old resources.

PubMed

Nobrega, Franklin L; Costa, Ana Rita; Kluskens, Leon D; Azeredo, Joana

2015-04-01

The success of phage therapy is dependent on the development of strategies able to overcome the limitations of bacteriophages as therapeutic agents, the creation of an adequate regulatory framework, the implementation of safety protocols, and acceptance by the general public. Many approaches have been proposed to circumvent phages' intrinsic limitations but none have proved to be completely satisfactory. In this review we present the major hurdles of phage therapy and the solutions proposed to circumvent them. A thorough discussion of the advantages and drawbacks of these solutions is provided and special attention is given to the genetic modification of phages as an achievable strategy to shape bacteriophages to exhibit desirable biological properties. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Secret-key-assisted private classical communication capacity over quantum channels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hsieh, Min-Hsiu; Luo, Zhicheng; Brun, Todd

2008-10-01

We prove a regularized formula for the secret-key-assisted capacity region of a quantum channel for transmitting private classical information. This result parallels the work of Devetak (e-print arXiv:quant-ph/0512015) on entanglement-assisted quantum communication capacity . This formula provides a family protocol, the private father protocol, under the resource inequality framework that includes private classical communication without secret-key assistance as a child protocol.

Game-theoretic approach for improving cooperation in wireless multihop networks.

PubMed

Ng, See-Kee; Seah, Winston K G

2010-06-01

Traditional networks are built on the assumption that network entities cooperate based on a mandatory network communication semantic to achieve desirable qualities such as efficiency and scalability. Over the years, this assumption has been eroded by the emergence of users that alter network behavior in a way to benefit themselves at the expense of others. At one extreme, a malicious user/node may eavesdrop on sensitive data or deliberately inject packets into the network to disrupt network operations. The solution to this generally lies in encryption and authentication. In contrast, a rational node acts only to achieve an outcome that he desires most. In such a case, cooperation is still achievable if the outcome is to the best interest of the node. The node misbehavior problem would be more pronounced in multihop wireless networks like mobile ad hoc and sensor networks, which are typically made up of wireless battery-powered devices that must cooperate to forward packets for one another. However, cooperation may be hard to maintain as it consumes scarce resources such as bandwidth, computational power, and battery power. This paper applies game theory to achieve collusive networking behavior in such network environments. In this paper, pricing, promiscuous listening, and mass punishments are avoided altogether. Our model builds on recent work in the field of Economics on the theory of imperfect private monitoring for the dynamic Bertrand oligopoly, and adapts it to the wireless multihop network. The model derives conditions for collusive packet forwarding, truthful routing broadcasts, and packet acknowledgments under a lossy wireless multihop environment, thus capturing many important characteristics of the network layer and link layer in one integrated analysis that has not been achieved previously. We also provide a proof of the viability of the model under a theoretical wireless environment. Finally, we show how the model can be applied to design a generic protocol which we call the Selfishness Resilient Resource Reservation protocol, and validate the effectiveness of this protocol in ensuring cooperation using simulations.

Identifying Effective and Sustainable Measures for Community-Based Environmental Monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McKay, Ariana J.; Johnson, Chris J.

2017-09-01

Resource development projects typically result in monitoring programs that fail to fully consider the values and participation of surrounding communities. Also, monitoring protocols for single environmental values can be insufficient for addressing the cumulative impacts of resource development. Community-based environmental monitoring (CBEM) has emerged as a way to meaningfully include local citizens in the decision-making process and assessment of the development of natural resources. Our research explored how to develop effective and sustainable CBEM. Interviews were conducted with staff from 15 CBEM programs established across Canada to identify criteria of what constitutes effective CBEM. Results demonstrate that CBEM offers an effective, locally adapted, and culturally applicable approach to facilitate community participation in natural resource management and to track environmental change. Benefits of CBEM include: locally relevant monitoring protocols, inclusion of cumulative impacts, better informed decision-making, and increased awareness and collaboration amongst community, governments, and proponents. Challenges associated with CBEM are cost, capacity, longevity, distribution of results, and establishing credibility. This research validates the use of CBEM for improving resource management.

Quantum computation over the butterfly network

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

Soeda, Akihito; Kinjo, Yoshiyuki; Turner, Peter S.

2011-07-15

In order to investigate distributed quantum computation under restricted network resources, we introduce a quantum computation task over the butterfly network where both quantum and classical communications are limited. We consider deterministically performing a two-qubit global unitary operation on two unknown inputs given at different nodes, with outputs at two distinct nodes. By using a particular resource setting introduced by M. Hayashi [Phys. Rev. A 76, 040301(R) (2007)], which is capable of performing a swap operation by adding two maximally entangled qubits (ebits) between the two input nodes, we show that unitary operations can be performed without adding any entanglementmore » resource, if and only if the unitary operations are locally unitary equivalent to controlled unitary operations. Our protocol is optimal in the sense that the unitary operations cannot be implemented if we relax the specifications of any of the channels. We also construct protocols for performing controlled traceless unitary operations with a 1-ebit resource and for performing global Clifford operations with a 2-ebit resource.« less

Operating systems and network protocols for wireless sensor networks.

PubMed

Dutta, Prabal; Dunkels, Adam

2012-01-13

Sensor network protocols exist to satisfy the communication needs of diverse applications, including data collection, event detection, target tracking and control. Network protocols to enable these services are constrained by the extreme resource scarcity of sensor nodes-including energy, computing, communications and storage-which must be carefully managed and multiplexed by the operating system. These challenges have led to new protocols and operating systems that are efficient in their energy consumption, careful in their computational needs and miserly in their memory footprints, all while discovering neighbours, forming networks, delivering data and correcting failures.

SSWAP: A Simple Semantic Web Architecture and Protocol for semantic web services.

PubMed

Gessler, Damian D G; Schiltz, Gary S; May, Greg D; Avraham, Shulamit; Town, Christopher D; Grant, David; Nelson, Rex T

2009-09-23

SSWAP (Simple Semantic Web Architecture and Protocol; pronounced "swap") is an architecture, protocol, and platform for using reasoning to semantically integrate heterogeneous disparate data and services on the web. SSWAP was developed as a hybrid semantic web services technology to overcome limitations found in both pure web service technologies and pure semantic web technologies. There are currently over 2400 resources published in SSWAP. Approximately two dozen are custom-written services for QTL (Quantitative Trait Loci) and mapping data for legumes and grasses (grains). The remaining are wrappers to Nucleic Acids Research Database and Web Server entries. As an architecture, SSWAP establishes how clients (users of data, services, and ontologies), providers (suppliers of data, services, and ontologies), and discovery servers (semantic search engines) interact to allow for the description, querying, discovery, invocation, and response of semantic web services. As a protocol, SSWAP provides the vocabulary and semantics to allow clients, providers, and discovery servers to engage in semantic web services. The protocol is based on the W3C-sanctioned first-order description logic language OWL DL. As an open source platform, a discovery server running at http://sswap.info (as in to "swap info") uses the description logic reasoner Pellet to integrate semantic resources. The platform hosts an interactive guide to the protocol at http://sswap.info/protocol.jsp, developer tools at http://sswap.info/developer.jsp, and a portal to third-party ontologies at http://sswapmeet.sswap.info (a "swap meet"). SSWAP addresses the three basic requirements of a semantic web services architecture (i.e., a common syntax, shared semantic, and semantic discovery) while addressing three technology limitations common in distributed service systems: i.e., i) the fatal mutability of traditional interfaces, ii) the rigidity and fragility of static subsumption hierarchies, and iii) the confounding of content, structure, and presentation. SSWAP is novel by establishing the concept of a canonical yet mutable OWL DL graph that allows data and service providers to describe their resources, to allow discovery servers to offer semantically rich search engines, to allow clients to discover and invoke those resources, and to allow providers to respond with semantically tagged data. SSWAP allows for a mix-and-match of terms from both new and legacy third-party ontologies in these graphs.

Combined Protocol for Acute Malnutrition Study (ComPAS) in rural South Sudan and urban Kenya: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Bailey, Jeanette; Lelijveld, Natasha; Marron, Bethany; Onyoo, Pamela; Ho, Lara S; Manary, Mark; Briend, André; Opondo, Charles; Kerac, Marko

2018-04-24

Acute malnutrition is a continuum condition, but severe and moderate forms are treated separately, with different protocols and therapeutic products, managed by separate United Nations agencies. The Combined Protocol for Acute Malnutrition Study (ComPAS) aims to simplify and unify the treatment of uncomplicated severe and moderate acute malnutrition (SAM and MAM) for children 6-59 months into one protocol in order to improve the global coverage, quality, continuity of care and cost-effectiveness of acute malnutrition treatment in resource-constrained settings. This study is a multi-site, cluster randomized non-inferiority trial with 12 clusters in Kenya and 12 clusters in South Sudan. Participants are 3600 children aged 6-59 months with uncomplicated acute malnutrition. This study will evaluate the impact of a simplified and combined protocol for the treatment of SAM and MAM compared to the standard protocol, which is the national treatment protocol in each country. We will assess recovery rate as a primary outcome and coverage, defaulting, death, length of stay, average weekly weight gain and average weekly mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) gain as secondary outcomes. Recovery rate is defined across both treatment arms as MUAC ≥125 mm and no oedema for two consecutive visits. Per-protocol and intention-to-treat analyses will be conducted. If the combined protocol is shown to be non-inferior to the standard protocol, updating guidelines to use the combined protocol would eliminate the need for separate products, resources and procedures for MAM treatment. This would likely be more cost-effective, increase availability of services, enable earlier case finding and treatment before deterioration of MAM into SAM, promote better continuity of care and improve community perceptions of the programme. ISRCTN, ISRCTN30393230 . Registered on 16 March 2017.

SSWAP: A Simple Semantic Web Architecture and Protocol for semantic web services

PubMed Central

Gessler, Damian DG; Schiltz, Gary S; May, Greg D; Avraham, Shulamit; Town, Christopher D; Grant, David; Nelson, Rex T

2009-01-01

Background SSWAP (Simple Semantic Web Architecture and Protocol; pronounced "swap") is an architecture, protocol, and platform for using reasoning to semantically integrate heterogeneous disparate data and services on the web. SSWAP was developed as a hybrid semantic web services technology to overcome limitations found in both pure web service technologies and pure semantic web technologies. Results There are currently over 2400 resources published in SSWAP. Approximately two dozen are custom-written services for QTL (Quantitative Trait Loci) and mapping data for legumes and grasses (grains). The remaining are wrappers to Nucleic Acids Research Database and Web Server entries. As an architecture, SSWAP establishes how clients (users of data, services, and ontologies), providers (suppliers of data, services, and ontologies), and discovery servers (semantic search engines) interact to allow for the description, querying, discovery, invocation, and response of semantic web services. As a protocol, SSWAP provides the vocabulary and semantics to allow clients, providers, and discovery servers to engage in semantic web services. The protocol is based on the W3C-sanctioned first-order description logic language OWL DL. As an open source platform, a discovery server running at (as in to "swap info") uses the description logic reasoner Pellet to integrate semantic resources. The platform hosts an interactive guide to the protocol at , developer tools at , and a portal to third-party ontologies at (a "swap meet"). Conclusion SSWAP addresses the three basic requirements of a semantic web services architecture (i.e., a common syntax, shared semantic, and semantic discovery) while addressing three technology limitations common in distributed service systems: i.e., i) the fatal mutability of traditional interfaces, ii) the rigidity and fragility of static subsumption hierarchies, and iii) the confounding of content, structure, and presentation. SSWAP is novel by establishing the concept of a canonical yet mutable OWL DL graph that allows data and service providers to describe their resources, to allow discovery servers to offer semantically rich search engines, to allow clients to discover and invoke those resources, and to allow providers to respond with semantically tagged data. SSWAP allows for a mix-and-match of terms from both new and legacy third-party ontologies in these graphs. PMID:19775460

Lesson Study with Mathematical Resources: A Sustainable Model for Locally-Led Teacher Professional Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewis, Catherine; Perry, Rebecca

2014-01-01

Teams of educators conducted lesson study independently, supported by a resource kit that included mathematical tasks, curriculum materials, lesson videos and plans, and research articles, as well as protocols to support lesson study. The mathematical resources focused on linear measurement interpretation of fractions. This report examines the…

The Quantum Steganography Protocol via Quantum Noisy Channels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wei, Zhan-Hong; Chen, Xiu-Bo; Niu, Xin-Xin; Yang, Yi-Xian

2015-08-01

As a promising branch of quantum information hiding, Quantum steganography aims to transmit secret messages covertly in public quantum channels. But due to environment noise and decoherence, quantum states easily decay and change. Therefore, it is very meaningful to make a quantum information hiding protocol apply to quantum noisy channels. In this paper, we make the further research on a quantum steganography protocol for quantum noisy channels. The paper proved that the protocol can apply to transmit secret message covertly in quantum noisy channels, and explicity showed quantum steganography protocol. In the protocol, without publishing the cover data, legal receivers can extract the secret message with a certain probability, which make the protocol have a good secrecy. Moreover, our protocol owns the independent security, and can be used in general quantum communications. The communication, which happen in our protocol, do not need entangled states, so our protocol can be used without the limitation of entanglement resource. More importantly, the protocol apply to quantum noisy channels, and can be used widely in the future quantum communication.

An Energy-Efficient and High-Quality Video Transmission Architecture in Wireless Video-Based Sensor Networks.

PubMed

Aghdasi, Hadi S; Abbaspour, Maghsoud; Moghadam, Mohsen Ebrahimi; Samei, Yasaman

2008-08-04

Technological progress in the fields of Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and wireless communications and also the availability of CMOS cameras, microphones and small-scale array sensors, which may ubiquitously capture multimedia content from the field, have fostered the development of low-cost limited resources Wireless Video-based Sensor Networks (WVSN). With regards to the constraints of videobased sensor nodes and wireless sensor networks, a supporting video stream is not easy to implement with the present sensor network protocols. In this paper, a thorough architecture is presented for video transmission over WVSN called Energy-efficient and high-Quality Video transmission Architecture (EQV-Architecture). This architecture influences three layers of communication protocol stack and considers wireless video sensor nodes constraints like limited process and energy resources while video quality is preserved in the receiver side. Application, transport, and network layers are the layers in which the compression protocol, transport protocol, and routing protocol are proposed respectively, also a dropping scheme is presented in network layer. Simulation results over various environments with dissimilar conditions revealed the effectiveness of the architecture in improving the lifetime of the network as well as preserving the video quality.

FuGeF: A Resource Bound Secure Forwarding Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Umar, Idris Abubakar; Mohd Hanapi, Zurina; Sali, A.; Zulkarnain, Zuriati A.

2016-01-01

Resource bound security solutions have facilitated the mitigation of spatio-temporal attacks by altering protocol semantics to provide minimal security while maintaining an acceptable level of performance. The Dynamic Window Secured Implicit Geographic Forwarding (DWSIGF) routing protocol for Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) has been proposed to achieve a minimal selection of malicious nodes by introducing a dynamic collection window period to the protocol’s semantics. However, its selection scheme suffers substantial packet losses due to the utilization of a single distance based parameter for node selection. In this paper, we propose a Fuzzy-based Geographic Forwarding protocol (FuGeF) to minimize packet loss, while maintaining performance. The FuGeF utilizes a new form of dynamism and introduces three selection parameters: remaining energy, connectivity cost, and progressive distance, as well as a Fuzzy Logic System (FLS) for node selection. These introduced mechanisms ensure the appropriate selection of a non-malicious node. Extensive simulation experiments have been conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed FuGeF protocol as compared to DWSIGF variants. The simulation results show that the proposed FuGeF outperforms the two DWSIGF variants (DWSIGF-P and DWSIGF-R) in terms of packet delivery. PMID:27338411

Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee Considerations for the Use of Wildlife in Research and Education.

PubMed

Sikes, Robert S; Bryan, John A

2016-01-01

Ethical and effective oversight of the use of wildlife species in research and education requires consideration of issues and methods not relevant to work with traditional laboratory or domesticated animals, just as the effective oversight of biomedical research requires consideration of issues and methods not germane to wildlife research. Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees or other institutional review committees can meet their responsibilities in these disparate types of animal activities only by using resources tailored to the animals and situations encountered. Here we review the issues and the resources that facilitate effective oversight of such activities in the wildlife research arena available to researchers, institutional review committees, regulatory bodies, and accrediting bodies. Issues covered include an understanding of the fundamental differences between wildlife research and biomedical research; the profound differences between wildlife species and traditional laboratory subjects, most of which are domesticated animals; and the unique issues presented when the research subjects are members of wild populations and communities. We review the resources available for effective oversight of wildlife projects and emphasize that competent oversight of wildlife research demands the use of appropriate resources. These resources include guidelines designed for the use of wild species (taxon-specific guidelines) and protocol forms tailored for the species and situations encountered. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Withholding and termination of resuscitation of adult cardiopulmonary arrest secondary to trauma: resource document to the joint NAEMSP-ACSCOT position statements.

PubMed

Millin, Michael G; Galvagno, Samuel M; Khandker, Samiur R; Malki, Alisa; Bulger, Eileen M

2013-09-01

In the setting of traumatic cardiopulmonary arrest, protocols that direct emergency medical service (EMS) providers to withhold or terminate resuscitation, when clinically indicated, have the potential to decrease unnecessary use of warning lights and sirens and save valuable public health resources. Protocols to withhold resuscitation should be based on the determination that there are no obvious signs of life, the injuries are obviously incompatible with life, there is evidence of prolonged arrest, and there is a lack of organized electrocardiographic activity. Termination of resuscitation is indicated when there are no signs of life and no return of spontaneous circulation despite appropriate field EMS treatment that includes minimally interrupted cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Further research is needed to determine the appropriate duration of cardiopulmonary resuscitation before termination of resuscitation and the proper role of direct medical oversight in termination of resuscitation protocols. This article is the resource document to the position statements, jointly endorsed by the National Association of EMS Physicians and the American College of Surgeons' Committee on Trauma, on withholding and termination of resuscitation in traumatic cardiopulmonary arrest.

National ITS Architecture and Standards Resource Guide

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1998-09-01

The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) encourages the use of the National ITS Architecture and the adoption of ITS standards and protocols. This guide provides field personnel with guidance and resources necessary for implementin...

The Montreal Protocol treaty and its illuminating history of science-policy decision-making

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grady, C.

2017-12-01

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, hailed as one of the most effective environmental treaties of all time, has a thirty year history of science-policy decision-making. The partnership between Parties to the Montreal Protocol and its technical assessment panels serve as a basis for understanding successes and evaluating stumbles of global environmental decision-making. Real-world environmental treaty negotiations can be highly time-sensitive, politically motivated, and resource constrained thus scientists and policymakers alike are often unable to confront the uncertainties associated with the multitude of choices. The science-policy relationship built within the framework of the Montreal Protocol has helped constrain uncertainty and inform policy decisions but has also highlighted the limitations of the use of scientific understanding in political decision-making. This talk will describe the evolution of the scientist-policymaker relationship over the history of the Montreal Protocol. Examples will illustrate how the Montreal Protocol's technical panels inform decisions of the country governments and will characterize different approaches pursued by different countries with a particular focus on the recently adopted Kigali Amendment. In addition, this talk will take a deeper dive with an analysis of the historic technical panel assessments on estimating financial resources necessary to enable compliance to the Montreal Protocol compared to the political financial decisions made through the Protocol's Multilateral Fund replenishment negotiation process. Finally, this talk will describe the useful lessons and challenges from these interactions and how they may be applicable in other environmental management frameworks across multiple scales under changing climatic conditions.

QoS and energy aware cooperative routing protocol for wildfire monitoring wireless sensor networks.

PubMed

Maalej, Mohamed; Cherif, Sofiane; Besbes, Hichem

2013-01-01

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are presented as proper solution for wildfire monitoring. However, this application requires a design of WSN taking into account the network lifetime and the shadowing effect generated by the trees in the forest environment. Cooperative communication is a promising solution for WSN which uses, at each hop, the resources of multiple nodes to transmit its data. Thus, by sharing resources between nodes, the transmission quality is enhanced. In this paper, we use the technique of reinforcement learning by opponent modeling, optimizing a cooperative communication protocol based on RSSI and node energy consumption in a competitive context (RSSI/energy-CC), that is, an energy and quality-of-service aware-based cooperative communication routing protocol. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm performs well in terms of network lifetime, packet delay, and energy consumption.

Cognitive LF-Ant: a novel protocol for healthcare wireless sensor networks.

PubMed

Sousa, Marcelo; Lopes, Waslon; Madeiro, Francisco; Alencar, Marcelo

2012-01-01

In this paper, the authors present the Cognitive LF-Ant protocol for emergency reporting in healthcare wireless sensor networks. The protocol is inspired by the natural behaviour of ants and a cognitive component provides the capabilities to dynamically allocate resources, in accordance with the emergency degree of each patient. The intra-cluster emergency reporting is inspired by the different capabilities of leg-manipulated ants. The inter-cluster reporting is aided by the cooperative modulation diversity with spectrum sensing, which can detect new emergency reporting requests and forward them. Simulations results show the decrease of average delay time as the probability of opportunistic access increases, which privileges the emergency reporting related to the patients with higher priority of resources' usage. Furthermore, the packet loss rate is decreased by the use of cooperative modulation diversity with spectrum sensing.

Cognitive LF-Ant: A Novel Protocol for Healthcare Wireless Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Sousa, Marcelo; Lopes, Waslon; Madeiro, Francisco; Alencar, Marcelo

2012-01-01

In this paper, the authors present the Cognitive LF-Ant protocol for emergency reporting in healthcare wireless sensor networks. The protocol is inspired by the natural behaviour of ants and a cognitive component provides the capabilities to dynamically allocate resources, in accordance with the emergency degree of each patient. The intra-cluster emergency reporting is inspired by the different capabilities of leg-manipulated ants. The inter-cluster reporting is aided by the cooperative modulation diversity with spectrum sensing, which can detect new emergency reporting requests and forward them. Simulations results show the decrease of average delay time as the probability of opportunistic access increases, which privileges the emergency reporting related to the patients with higher priority of resources' usage. Furthermore, the packet loss rate is decreased by the use of cooperative modulation diversity with spectrum sensing. PMID:23112610

Enhancing Science Teacher Training Using Water Resources and GLOBE

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Falco, James W.

2002-01-01

Heritage College, located on the Yakama Indian Reservation in south central Washington state, serves a multicultural, underserved, rural population and trains teachers to staff the disadvantaged school districts on and surrounding the reservation. In-service teachers and pre-service teachers in the area show strength in biology but have weak backgrounds in chemistry and mathematics. We are addressing this problem by providing a 2-year core of courses for 3 groups of 25 students (15 pre-service and 10 in-service teachers) using GLOBE to teach integrated physical science and mathematics. At the conclusion of the program, the students will qualify for science certification by Washington State. Water resources are the focal point of the curriculum because it is central to life in our desert area. The lack or excess of water, its uses, quality and distribution is being studied by using GIS, remote sensing and historical records. Students are learning the methodology to incorporate scientific protocols and data into all aspects of their future teaching curriculum. In addition, in each of the three years of the project, pre-service teachers attended a seminar series during the fall semester with presentations by collaborators from industry, agriculture, education and government agencies. Students used NASA educational materials in the presentations that they gave at the conclusion of the seminar series. All pre- and in-service teachers continue to have support via a local web site for Heritage College GLOBE participants.

Discriminatory validity of the Aspects of Wheelchair Mobility Test as demonstrated by a comparison of four wheelchair types designed for use in low-resource areas

PubMed Central

Hamm, Elisa; Wee, Joy

2017-01-01

Background Comparative effectiveness research on wheelchairs available in low-resource areas is needed to enable effective use of limited funds. Mobility on commonly encountered rolling environments is a key aspect of function. High variation in capacity among wheelchair users can mask changes in mobility because of wheelchair design. A repeated measures protocol in which the participants use one type of wheelchair and then another minimises the impact of individual variation. Objectives The Aspects of Wheelchair Mobility Test (AWMT) was designed to be used in repeated measures studies in low-resource areas. It measures the impact of different wheelchair types on physical performance in commonly encountered rolling environments and provides an opportunity for qualitative and quantitative participant response. This study sought to confirm the ability of the AWMT to discern differences in mobility because of wheelchair design. Method Participants were wheelchair users at a boarding school for students with disabilities in a low-resource area. Each participant completed timed tests on measured tracks on rough and smooth surfaces, in tight spaces and over curbs. Four types of wheelchairs designed for use in low-resource areas were included. Results The protocol demonstrated the ability to discriminate changes in mobility of individuals because of wheelchair type. Conclusion Comparative effectiveness studies with this protocol can enable beneficial change. This is illustrated by design alterations by wheelchair manufacturers in response to results. PMID:28936413

A Study of Shared-Memory Mutual Exclusion Protocols Using CADP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mateescu, Radu; Serwe, Wendelin

Mutual exclusion protocols are an essential building block of concurrent systems: indeed, such a protocol is required whenever a shared resource has to be protected against concurrent non-atomic accesses. Hence, many variants of mutual exclusion protocols exist in the shared-memory setting, such as Peterson's or Dekker's well-known protocols. Although the functional correctness of these protocols has been studied extensively, relatively little attention has been paid to their non-functional aspects, such as their performance in the long run. In this paper, we report on experiments with the performance evaluation of mutual exclusion protocols using Interactive Markov Chains. Steady-state analysis provides an additional criterion for comparing protocols, which complements the verification of their functional properties. We also carefully re-examined the functional properties, whose accurate formulation as temporal logic formulas in the action-based setting turns out to be quite involved.

Global Access to Library of Congress' Digital Resources: National Digital Library and Internet Resources.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Ching-chih

1996-01-01

Summarizes how the Library of Congress' digital library collections can be accessed globally via the Internet and World Wide Web. Outlines the resources found in each of the various access points: gopher, online catalog, library and legislative Web sites, legal and copyright databases, and FTP (file transfer protocol) sites. (LAM)

HIV-1 viral load measurement in venous blood and fingerprick blood using Abbott RealTime HIV-1 DBS assay.

PubMed

Tang, Ning; Pahalawatta, Vihanga; Frank, Andrea; Bagley, Zowie; Viana, Raquel; Lampinen, John; Leckie, Gregor; Huang, Shihai; Abravaya, Klara; Wallis, Carole L

2017-07-01

HIV RNA suppression is a key indicator for monitoring success of antiretroviral therapy. From a logistical perspective, viral load (VL) testing using Dried Blood Spots (DBS) is a promising alternative to plasma based VL testing in resource-limited settings. To evaluate the analytical and clinical performance of the Abbott RealTime HIV-1 assay using a fully automated one-spot DBS sample protocol. Limit of detection (LOD), linearity, lower limit of quantitation (LLQ), upper limit of quantitation (ULQ), and precision were determined using serial dilutions of HIV-1 Virology Quality Assurance stock (VQA Rush University), or HIV-1-containing armored RNA, made in venous blood. To evaluate correlation, bias, and agreement, 497 HIV-1 positive adult clinical samples were collected from Ivory Coast, Uganda and South Africa. For each HIV-1 participant, DBS-fingerprick, DBS-venous and plasma sample results were compared. Correlation and bias values were obtained. The sensitivity and specificity were analyzed at a threshold of 1000 HIV-1 copies/mL generated using the standard plasma protocol. The Abbott HIV-1 DBS protocol had an LOD of 839 copies/mL, a linear range from 500 to 1×10 7 copies/mL, an LLQ of 839 copies/mL, a ULQ of 1×10 7 copies/mL, and an inter-assay SD of ≤0.30 log copies/mL for all tested levels within this range. With clinical samples, the correlation coefficient (r value) was 0.896 between DBS-fingerprick and plasma and 0.901 between DBS-venous and plasma, and the bias was -0.07 log copies/mL between DBS-fingerprick and plasma and -0.02 log copies/mL between DBS-venous and plasma. The sensitivity of DBS-fingerprick and DBS-venous was 93%, while the specificity of both DBS methods was 95%. The results demonstrated that the Abbott RealTime HIV-1 assay with DBS sample protocol is highly sensitive, specific and precise across a wide dynamic range and correlates well with plasma values. The Abbott RealTime HIV-1 assay with DBS sample protocol provides an alternative sample collection and transfer option in resource-limited settings and expands the utility of a viral load test to monitor HIV-1 ART treatment for infected patients. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Medium Access Control Protocols for Cognitive Radio Ad Hoc Networks: A Survey

PubMed Central

Islam, A. K. M. Muzahidul; Baharun, Sabariah; Mansoor, Nafees

2017-01-01

New wireless network paradigms will demand higher spectrum use and availability to cope with emerging data-hungry devices. Traditional static spectrum allocation policies cause spectrum scarcity, and new paradigms such as Cognitive Radio (CR) and new protocols and techniques need to be developed in order to have efficient spectrum usage. Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols are accountable for recognizing free spectrum, scheduling available resources and coordinating the coexistence of heterogeneous systems and users. This paper provides an ample review of the state-of-the-art MAC protocols, which mainly focuses on Cognitive Radio Ad Hoc Networks (CRAHN). First, a description of the cognitive radio fundamental functions is presented. Next, MAC protocols are divided into three groups, which are based on their channel access mechanism, namely time-slotted protocol, random access protocol and hybrid protocol. In each group, a detailed and comprehensive explanation of the latest MAC protocols is presented, as well as the pros and cons of each protocol. A discussion on future challenges for CRAHN MAC protocols is included with a comparison of the protocols from a functional perspective. PMID:28926952

National trends in pediatric blunt spleen and liver injury management and potential benefits of an abbreviated bed rest protocol.

PubMed

Dodgion, Christopher M; Gosain, Ankush; Rogers, Andrew; St Peter, Shawn D; Nichol, Peter F; Ostlie, Daniel J

2014-06-01

Recent reports suggest that an abbreviated bed rest protocol (ABRP) may safely reduce length of stay (LOS) and resource utilization in pediatric blunt spleen and liver injury (BSLI) patients. This study evaluates national temporal trends in BLSI management and estimates national reduction in LOS using an ABRP. Pediatric patients (<18 years old) sustaining BLSI were identified in the Kids' Inpatient Database from 2000 to 2009. Yearly rates of injury and operative intervention were examined and stratified by type of injury. APSA guidelines and the reported ABRP were applied based on abbreviated injury score (AIS) and compared with actual LOS. 22,153 patients were identified. Over the study period, operative rates for spleen and liver injuries and overall mortality significantly declined: LOS=3.1 days (±1.6) and 2.7 days (±1.9) for spleen and liver, respectively. If APSA guidelines were followed, the rates were LOS=3.7 days (±1.1) and 3.4 days (±0.7), respectively. Application of the ABRP would result in LOS=1.3 days (±0.5) for all BSLI patients. An ABRP could potentially save 1.7 hospital days/patient or 36,964 patient hospital days nationally. Our study confirms a significant national decrease in operative intervention and overall mortality in patients with BSLI. Additionally, it appears that a shorter observation period than the APSA guidelines is being utilized. The implementation of ABRP holds potential in further reducing LOS and resource utilization. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

[Detection of intimate partner violence in primary care and related factors].

PubMed

Rodríguez-Blanes, Gloria M; Vives-Cases, Carmen; Miralles-Bueno, Juan José; San Sebastián, Miguel; Goicolea, Isabel

Intimate partner violence (IPV) against women is a significant public health and human rights problem. Primary care professionals play a key role in detecting and addressing this issue. The aim of this study is to determine the frequency of IPV and its associated factors in primary care by means of a screening questionnaire and to describe the main actions taken in identified cases. Cross-sectional study in 15 health centres in four autonomous regions of Spain with a total of 265 health professionals. The information was collected through the self-administered PREMIS questionnaire (Physician Readiness to Manage Intimate Partner Violence Survey), which includes variables concerning screening questions, sociodemographic factors, level of training/knowledge about IPV, perceptions and actions. A descriptive and analytical study was conducted. 67.2% of participants said they ask about IPV during consultations. The most frequent actions were: referring patients to other departments, individual counselling and information delivery. ≥21hours of training, an advanced training level, knowledge of policies and programmes and the implementation of an appropriate protocol and reference resources were all factors that increased the likelihood of investigating IPV. The asking of questions increases in line with professionals' perceived level of training in IPV and the provision of a case management protocol. Two thirds of health professional respondents said they inquire about IPV. Given the influence of training in IPV and awareness of the resources to address the issue, it is essential to continue investing in the IPV training of healthcare personnel. Copyright © 2017 SESPAS. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Applications of the pipeline environment for visual informatics and genomics computations

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Contemporary informatics and genomics research require efficient, flexible and robust management of large heterogeneous data, advanced computational tools, powerful visualization, reliable hardware infrastructure, interoperability of computational resources, and detailed data and analysis-protocol provenance. The Pipeline is a client-server distributed computational environment that facilitates the visual graphical construction, execution, monitoring, validation and dissemination of advanced data analysis protocols. Results This paper reports on the applications of the LONI Pipeline environment to address two informatics challenges - graphical management of diverse genomics tools, and the interoperability of informatics software. Specifically, this manuscript presents the concrete details of deploying general informatics suites and individual software tools to new hardware infrastructures, the design, validation and execution of new visual analysis protocols via the Pipeline graphical interface, and integration of diverse informatics tools via the Pipeline eXtensible Markup Language syntax. We demonstrate each of these processes using several established informatics packages (e.g., miBLAST, EMBOSS, mrFAST, GWASS, MAQ, SAMtools, Bowtie) for basic local sequence alignment and search, molecular biology data analysis, and genome-wide association studies. These examples demonstrate the power of the Pipeline graphical workflow environment to enable integration of bioinformatics resources which provide a well-defined syntax for dynamic specification of the input/output parameters and the run-time execution controls. Conclusions The LONI Pipeline environment http://pipeline.loni.ucla.edu provides a flexible graphical infrastructure for efficient biomedical computing and distributed informatics research. The interactive Pipeline resource manager enables the utilization and interoperability of diverse types of informatics resources. The Pipeline client-server model provides computational power to a broad spectrum of informatics investigators - experienced developers and novice users, user with or without access to advanced computational-resources (e.g., Grid, data), as well as basic and translational scientists. The open development, validation and dissemination of computational networks (pipeline workflows) facilitates the sharing of knowledge, tools, protocols and best practices, and enables the unbiased validation and replication of scientific findings by the entire community. PMID:21791102

Development and Implementation of Clinical Trial Protocol Templates at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

PubMed Central

Bridge, Heather; Smolskis, Mary; Bianchine, Peter; Dixon, Dennis O.; Kelly, Grace; Herpin, Betsey; Tavel, Jorge

2009-01-01

Background: A clinical research protocol document must reflect both sound scientific rationale as well as local, national and, when applicable, international regulatory and human subject protections requirements. These requirements originate from a variety of sources, undergo frequent revision and are subject to interpretation. Tools to assist clinical investigators in the production of clinical protocols could facilitate navigating these requirements and ultimately increase the efficiency of clinical research. Purpose: The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) developed templates for investigators to serve as the foundation for protocol development. These protocol templates are designed as tools to support investigators in developing clinical protocols. Methods: NIAID established a series of working groups to determine how to improve its capacity to conduct clinical research more efficiently and effectively. The Protocol Template Working Group was convened to determine what protocol templates currently existed within NIAID and whether standard NIAID protocol templates should be produced. After review and assessment of existing protocol documents and requirements, the group reached consensus about required and optional content, determined the format and identified methods for distribution as well as education of investigators in the use of these templates. Results: The templates were approved by the NIAID Executive Committee in 2006 and posted as part of the NIAID Clinical Research Toolkit[1]website for broad access. These documents require scheduled revisions to stay current with regulatory and policy changes. Limitations: The structure of any clinical protocol template, whether comprehensive or specific to a particular study phase, setting or design, affects how it is used by investigators. Each structure presents its own set of advantages and disadvantages. While useful, protocol templates are not stand-alone tools for creating an optimal protocol document but must be complemented by institutional resources and support. Education and guidance of investigators in the appropriate use of templates is necessary to ensure a complete yet concise protocol document. Due to changing regulatory requirements, clinical protocol templates cannot become static but require frequent revisions. Conclusions: Standard protocol templates that meet applicable regulations can be important tools to assist investigators in the effective conduct of clinical research, but they require dedicated resources and ongoing input from key stakeholders. PMID:19625326

The UNC/UMN Baby Connectome Project (BCP): An overview of the study design and protocol development.

PubMed

Howell, Brittany R; Styner, Martin A; Gao, Wei; Yap, Pew-Thian; Wang, Li; Baluyot, Kristine; Yacoub, Essa; Chen, Geng; Potts, Taylor; Salzwedel, Andrew; Li, Gang; Gilmore, John H; Piven, Joseph; Smith, J Keith; Shen, Dinggang; Ugurbil, Kamil; Zhu, Hongtu; Lin, Weili; Elison, Jed T

2018-03-22

The human brain undergoes extensive and dynamic growth during the first years of life. The UNC/UMN Baby Connectome Project (BCP), one of the Lifespan Connectome Projects funded by NIH, is an ongoing study jointly conducted by investigators at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Minnesota. The primary objective of the BCP is to characterize brain and behavioral development in typically developing infants across the first 5 years of life. The ultimate goals are to chart emerging patterns of structural and functional connectivity during this period, map brain-behavior associations, and establish a foundation from which to further explore trajectories of health and disease. To accomplish these goals, we are combining state of the art MRI acquisition and analysis techniques, including high-resolution structural MRI (T1-and T2-weighted images), diffusion imaging (dMRI), and resting state functional connectivity MRI (rfMRI). While the overall design of the BCP largely is built on the protocol developed by the Lifespan Human Connectome Project (HCP), given the unique age range of the BCP cohort, additional optimization of imaging parameters and consideration of an age appropriate battery of behavioral assessments were needed. Here we provide the overall study protocol, including approaches for subject recruitment, strategies for imaging typically developing children 0-5 years of age without sedation, imaging protocol and optimization, a description of the battery of behavioral assessments, and QA/QC procedures. Combining HCP inspired neuroimaging data with well-established behavioral assessments during this time period will yield an invaluable resource for the scientific community. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

InteractiveROSETTA: a graphical user interface for the PyRosetta protein modeling suite.

PubMed

Schenkelberg, Christian D; Bystroff, Christopher

2015-12-15

Modern biotechnical research is becoming increasingly reliant on computational structural modeling programs to develop novel solutions to scientific questions. Rosetta is one such protein modeling suite that has already demonstrated wide applicability to a number of diverse research projects. Unfortunately, Rosetta is largely a command-line-driven software package which restricts its use among non-computational researchers. Some graphical interfaces for Rosetta exist, but typically are not as sophisticated as commercial software. Here, we present InteractiveROSETTA, a graphical interface for the PyRosetta framework that presents easy-to-use controls for several of the most widely used Rosetta protocols alongside a sophisticated selection system utilizing PyMOL as a visualizer. InteractiveROSETTA is also capable of interacting with remote Rosetta servers, facilitating sophisticated protocols that are not accessible in PyRosetta or which require greater computational resources. InteractiveROSETTA is freely available at https://github.com/schenc3/InteractiveROSETTA/releases and relies upon a separate download of PyRosetta which is available at http://www.pyrosetta.org after obtaining a license (free for academic use). © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Selection of forward osmosis draw solutes for subsequent integration with anaerobic treatment to facilitate resource recovery from wastewater.

PubMed

Ansari, Ashley J; Hai, Faisal I; Guo, Wenshan; Ngo, Hao H; Price, William E; Nghiem, Long D

2015-09-01

Forward osmosis (FO) can be used to extract clean water and pre-concentrate municipal wastewater to make it amenable to anaerobic treatment. A protocol was developed to assess the suitability of FO draw solutes for pre-concentrating wastewater for potential integration with anaerobic treatment to facilitate resource recovery from wastewater. Draw solutes were evaluated in terms of their ability to induce osmotic pressure, water flux, and reverse solute flux. The compatibility of each draw solute with subsequent anaerobic treatment was assessed by biomethane potential analysis. The effect of each draw solute (at concentrations corresponding to the reverse solute flux at ten-fold pre-concentration of wastewater) on methane production was also evaluated. The results show that ionic organic draw solutes (e.g., sodium acetate) were most suitable for FO application and subsequent anaerobic treatment. On the other hand, the reverse solute flux of inorganic draw solutions could inhibit methane production from FO pre-concentrated wastewater. Crown Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

National estimates of soil loss on rangelands

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Since 1995, an interagency group composed of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Agricultural Research Service, and U.S. Geological Survey have worked together to develop a robust field approach for National Resource Inventory (NRI) on rangeland. The new NRI protocols are designed to detect ...

30 CFR 402.5 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false [Reserved] 402.5 Section 402.5 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR WATER-RESOURCES RESEARCH PROGRAM AND THE WATER-RESOURCES TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM General § 402.5 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 402.5 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false [Reserved] 402.5 Section 402.5 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR WATER-RESOURCES RESEARCH PROGRAM AND THE WATER-RESOURCES TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM General § 402.5 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 402.5 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false [Reserved] 402.5 Section 402.5 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR WATER-RESOURCES RESEARCH PROGRAM AND THE WATER-RESOURCES TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM General § 402.5 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 402.5 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false [Reserved] 402.5 Section 402.5 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR WATER-RESOURCES RESEARCH PROGRAM AND THE WATER-RESOURCES TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM General § 402.5 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 402.5 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false [Reserved] 402.5 Section 402.5 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR WATER-RESOURCES RESEARCH PROGRAM AND THE WATER-RESOURCES TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM General § 402.5 [Reserved] ...

BioQueue: a novel pipeline framework to accelerate bioinformatics analysis.

PubMed

Yao, Li; Wang, Heming; Song, Yuanyuan; Sui, Guangchao

2017-10-15

With the rapid development of Next-Generation Sequencing, a large amount of data is now available for bioinformatics research. Meanwhile, the presence of many pipeline frameworks makes it possible to analyse these data. However, these tools concentrate mainly on their syntax and design paradigms, and dispatch jobs based on users' experience about the resources needed by the execution of a certain step in a protocol. As a result, it is difficult for these tools to maximize the potential of computing resources, and avoid errors caused by overload, such as memory overflow. Here, we have developed BioQueue, a web-based framework that contains a checkpoint before each step to automatically estimate the system resources (CPU, memory and disk) needed by the step and then dispatch jobs accordingly. BioQueue possesses a shell command-like syntax instead of implementing a new script language, which means most biologists without computer programming background can access the efficient queue system with ease. BioQueue is freely available at https://github.com/liyao001/BioQueue. The extensive documentation can be found at http://bioqueue.readthedocs.io. li_yao@outlook.com or gcsui@nefu.edu.cn. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

A secured authentication protocol for wireless sensor networks using elliptic curves cryptography.

PubMed

Yeh, Hsiu-Lien; Chen, Tien-Ho; Liu, Pin-Chuan; Kim, Tai-Hoo; Wei, Hsin-Wen

2011-01-01

User authentication is a crucial service in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) that is becoming increasingly common in WSNs because wireless sensor nodes are typically deployed in an unattended environment, leaving them open to possible hostile network attack. Because wireless sensor nodes are limited in computing power, data storage and communication capabilities, any user authentication protocol must be designed to operate efficiently in a resource constrained environment. In this paper, we review several proposed WSN user authentication protocols, with a detailed review of the M.L Das protocol and a cryptanalysis of Das' protocol that shows several security weaknesses. Furthermore, this paper proposes an ECC-based user authentication protocol that resolves these weaknesses. According to our analysis of security of the ECC-based protocol, it is suitable for applications with higher security requirements. Finally, we present a comparison of security, computation, and communication costs and performances for the proposed protocols. The ECC-based protocol is shown to be suitable for higher security WSNs.

A Secure Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks Considering Secure Data Aggregation.

PubMed

Rahayu, Triana Mugia; Lee, Sang-Gon; Lee, Hoon-Jae

2015-06-26

The commonly unattended and hostile deployments of WSNs and their resource-constrained sensor devices have led to an increasing demand for secure energy-efficient protocols. Routing and data aggregation receive the most attention since they are among the daily network routines. With the awareness of such demand, we found that so far there has been no work that lays out a secure routing protocol as the foundation for a secure data aggregation protocol. We argue that the secure routing role would be rendered useless if the data aggregation scheme built on it is not secure. Conversely, the secure data aggregation protocol needs a secure underlying routing protocol as its foundation in order to be effectively optimal. As an attempt for the solution, we devise an energy-aware protocol based on LEACH and ESPDA that combines secure routing protocol and secure data aggregation protocol. We then evaluate its security effectiveness and its energy-efficiency aspects, knowing that there are always trade-off between both.

A Secure Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks Considering Secure Data Aggregation

PubMed Central

Rahayu, Triana Mugia; Lee, Sang-Gon; Lee, Hoon-Jae

2015-01-01

The commonly unattended and hostile deployments of WSNs and their resource-constrained sensor devices have led to an increasing demand for secure energy-efficient protocols. Routing and data aggregation receive the most attention since they are among the daily network routines. With the awareness of such demand, we found that so far there has been no work that lays out a secure routing protocol as the foundation for a secure data aggregation protocol. We argue that the secure routing role would be rendered useless if the data aggregation scheme built on it is not secure. Conversely, the secure data aggregation protocol needs a secure underlying routing protocol as its foundation in order to be effectively optimal. As an attempt for the solution, we devise an energy-aware protocol based on LEACH and ESPDA that combines secure routing protocol and secure data aggregation protocol. We then evaluate its security effectiveness and its energy-efficiency aspects, knowing that there are always trade-off between both. PMID:26131669

A Secured Authentication Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks Using Elliptic Curves Cryptography

PubMed Central

Yeh, Hsiu-Lien; Chen, Tien-Ho; Liu, Pin-Chuan; Kim, Tai-Hoo; Wei, Hsin-Wen

2011-01-01

User authentication is a crucial service in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) that is becoming increasingly common in WSNs because wireless sensor nodes are typically deployed in an unattended environment, leaving them open to possible hostile network attack. Because wireless sensor nodes are limited in computing power, data storage and communication capabilities, any user authentication protocol must be designed to operate efficiently in a resource constrained environment. In this paper, we review several proposed WSN user authentication protocols, with a detailed review of the M.L Das protocol and a cryptanalysis of Das’ protocol that shows several security weaknesses. Furthermore, this paper proposes an ECC-based user authentication protocol that resolves these weaknesses. According to our analysis of security of the ECC-based protocol, it is suitable for applications with higher security requirements. Finally, we present a comparison of security, computation, and communication costs and performances for the proposed protocols. The ECC-based protocol is shown to be suitable for higher security WSNs. PMID:22163874

Diagnostic, treatment, and prevention protocols for canine heartworm infection in animal sheltering agencies.

PubMed

Colby, Kathleen N; Levy, Julie K; Dunn, Kiri F; Michaud, Rachel I

2011-03-22

The high prevalence of heartworm infection in shelter dogs creates a dilemma for shelter managers, who frequently operate with insufficient funding, staffing, and expertise to comply with heartworm guidelines developed for owned pet dogs. The purpose of this study was to survey canine heartworm management protocols used by 504 animal sheltering agencies in the endemic states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi. Open-admission shelters, which tended to be larger and more likely to perform animal control functions, were less likely (41%) to test all adult dogs than were limited-admission shelters (80%), which tended to be smaller non-profit humane agencies, and foster programs (98%) based out of private residences. Open-admission shelters were more likely to euthanize infected dogs (27%) or to release them without treatment (39%), whereas limited-admission shelters and foster programs were more likely to provide adulticide therapy (82% and 89%, respectively). Of the 319 agencies that treated infections, 44% primarily used a standard two-dose melarsomine protocol, and 35% primarily used a three-dose split-treatment melarsomine protocol. Long-term low-dose ivermectin was the most common treatment used in 22% of agencies. Open-admission shelters were less likely (35%) to provide preventive medications for all dogs than were limited-admission shelters (82%) and foster programs (97%). More agencies used preventives labeled for monthly use in dogs (60%) than ivermectin products labeled for livestock (38%). The most common reason diagnostic testing and preventive medication was not provided was cost. These results indicate a lack of protocol uniformity among agencies and insufficient resources to identify, treat, and prevent infection. Sheltering agencies and companion animal health industries should develop guidelines that are feasible for use in sheltering agencies and provide improved access to preventive and treatment strategies for management of Dirofilaria immitis. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Protocols for distributive scheduling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Richards, Stephen F.; Fox, Barry

1993-01-01

The increasing complexity of space operations and the inclusion of interorganizational and international groups in the planning and control of space missions lead to requirements for greater communication, coordination, and cooperation among mission schedulers. These schedulers must jointly allocate scarce shared resources among the various operational and mission oriented activities while adhering to all constraints. This scheduling environment is complicated by such factors as the presence of varying perspectives and conflicting objectives among the schedulers, the need for different schedulers to work in parallel, and limited communication among schedulers. Smooth interaction among schedulers requires the use of protocols that govern such issues as resource sharing, authority to update the schedule, and communication of updates. This paper addresses the development and characteristics of such protocols and their use in a distributed scheduling environment that incorporates computer-aided scheduling tools. An example problem is drawn from the domain of space shuttle mission planning.

Distributed project scheduling at NASA: Requirements for manual protocols and computer-based support

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Richards, Stephen F.

1992-01-01

The increasing complexity of space operations and the inclusion of interorganizational and international groups in the planning and control of space missions lead to requirements for greater communication, coordination, and cooperation among mission schedulers. These schedulers must jointly allocate scarce shared resources among the various operational and mission oriented activities while adhering to all constraints. This scheduling environment is complicated by such factors as the presence of varying perspectives and conflicting objectives among the schedulers, the need for different schedulers to work in parallel, and limited communication among schedulers. Smooth interaction among schedulers requires the use of protocols that govern such issues as resource sharing, authority to update the schedule, and communication of updates. This paper addresses the development and characteristics of such protocols and their use in a distributed scheduling environment that incorporates computer-aided scheduling tools. An example problem is drawn from the domain of Space Shuttle mission planning.

A Survey on Underwater Acoustic Sensor Network Routing Protocols.

PubMed

Li, Ning; Martínez, José-Fernán; Meneses Chaus, Juan Manuel; Eckert, Martina

2016-03-22

Underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs) have become more and more important in ocean exploration applications, such as ocean monitoring, pollution detection, ocean resource management, underwater device maintenance, etc. In underwater acoustic sensor networks, since the routing protocol guarantees reliable and effective data transmission from the source node to the destination node, routing protocol design is an attractive topic for researchers. There are many routing algorithms have been proposed in recent years. To present the current state of development of UASN routing protocols, we review herein the UASN routing protocol designs reported in recent years. In this paper, all the routing protocols have been classified into different groups according to their characteristics and routing algorithms, such as the non-cross-layer design routing protocol, the traditional cross-layer design routing protocol, and the intelligent algorithm based routing protocol. This is also the first paper that introduces intelligent algorithm-based UASN routing protocols. In addition, in this paper, we investigate the development trends of UASN routing protocols, which can provide researchers with clear and direct insights for further research.

A Survey on Underwater Acoustic Sensor Network Routing Protocols

PubMed Central

Li, Ning; Martínez, José-Fernán; Meneses Chaus, Juan Manuel; Eckert, Martina

2016-01-01

Underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs) have become more and more important in ocean exploration applications, such as ocean monitoring, pollution detection, ocean resource management, underwater device maintenance, etc. In underwater acoustic sensor networks, since the routing protocol guarantees reliable and effective data transmission from the source node to the destination node, routing protocol design is an attractive topic for researchers. There are many routing algorithms have been proposed in recent years. To present the current state of development of UASN routing protocols, we review herein the UASN routing protocol designs reported in recent years. In this paper, all the routing protocols have been classified into different groups according to their characteristics and routing algorithms, such as the non-cross-layer design routing protocol, the traditional cross-layer design routing protocol, and the intelligent algorithm based routing protocol. This is also the first paper that introduces intelligent algorithm-based UASN routing protocols. In addition, in this paper, we investigate the development trends of UASN routing protocols, which can provide researchers with clear and direct insights for further research. PMID:27011193

Point-to-Point Multicast Communications Protocol

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Byrd, Gregory T.; Nakano, Russell; Delagi, Bruce A.

1987-01-01

This paper describes a protocol to support point-to-point interprocessor communications with multicast. Dynamic, cut-through routing with local flow control is used to provide a high-throughput, low-latency communications path between processors. In addition multicast transmissions are available, in which copies of a packet are sent to multiple destinations using common resources as much as possible. Special packet terminators and selective buffering are introduced to avoid a deadlock during multicasts. A simulated implementation of the protocol is also described.

Detection of Hepatitis B Virus DNA among Chronic and potential Occult HBV patients in resource-limited settings by Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification assay.

PubMed

Akram, Arifa; Islam, S M Rashedul; Munshi, Saif Ullah; Tabassum, Shahina

2018-05-16

Transmission of Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) usually occurs due to the transfusion of blood or blood products from chronic HBV (CHB) or occult HBV infected (OBI) patients. Besides serological tests e.g. HBsAg and anti-HBc (total), detection of HBV-DNA is necessary for the diagnosis of OBI patients. Different nucleic acid tests (NATs) including real-time-Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) are used for the detect HBV-DNA. The NATs are expensive and require technical expertise which are barriers to introducing them in resource-limited settings. This study was undertaken to evaluate the use of Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) assay as an alternative to qPCR for the detection of HBV-DNA in CHB and potential OBI patients in resource-limited settings. Following the published protocols with some modifications, a LAMP assay was developed for detection of HBV-DNA by either using a heat block followed by detection in an agarose gel or using a qPCR thermocycler. The LAMP assay was applied to supernatant prepared from heat treated serum collected from CHB and potential OBI patients. HBV viral load in serum was measured by qPCR using a single step HBV-DNA quantification kit. Among 200 samples tested, qPCR was capable to detect HBV-DNA in 25.5% of cases, whereas LAMP assay detected HBV-DNA in 43.5% cases. The qPCR was able to detect 11 (9.16%) potential OBI cases, whereas LAMP assay identified HBV-DNA in 43 (35.83%) cases. In addition to tests for HBsAg and/or anti-HBc (total), detection of HBV-DNA by LAMP assay may aid in preventing post-transfusion HBV infection in resource-limited settings. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

In-memory interconnect protocol configuration registers

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

Cheng, Kevin Y.; Roberts, David A.

Systems, apparatuses, and methods for moving the interconnect protocol configuration registers into the main memory space of a node. The region of memory used for storing the interconnect protocol configuration registers may also be made cacheable to reduce the latency of accesses to the interconnect protocol configuration registers. Interconnect protocol configuration registers which are used during a startup routine may be prefetched into the host's cache to make the startup routine more efficient. The interconnect protocol configuration registers for various interconnect protocols may include one or more of device capability tables, memory-side statistics (e.g., to support two-level memory data mappingmore » decisions), advanced memory and interconnect features such as repair resources and routing tables, prefetching hints, error correcting code (ECC) bits, lists of device capabilities, set and store base address, capability, device ID, status, configuration, capabilities, and other settings.« less

Benefits Transfer: Procedures, Problems, and Research Needs, 1992 Association of Environmental and Resource Economists Workshop, Snowbird, Utah (1993)

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Contains the proceedings for the 1992 Association of Environmental and Resource Economists Workshop on benefits transfer. At the workshop, three formal papers on benefit transfer issues and six benefits transfer study protocols were presented.

Microbial Genome Analysis and Comparisons: Web-based Protocols and Resources

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Fully annotated genome sequences of many microorganisms are publicly available as a resource. However, in-depth analysis of these genomes using specialized tools is required to derive meaningful information. We describe here the utility of three powerful publicly available genome databases and ana...

Distributed event-triggered consensus strategy for multi-agent systems under limited resources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Noorbakhsh, S. Mohammad; Ghaisari, Jafar

2016-01-01

The paper proposes a distributed structure to address an event-triggered consensus problem for multi-agent systems which aims at concurrent reduction in inter-agent communication, control input actuation and energy consumption. Following the proposed approach, asymptotic convergence of all agents to consensus requires that each agent broadcasts its sampled-state to the neighbours and updates its control input only at its own triggering instants, unlike the existing related works. Obviously, it decreases the network bandwidth usage, sensor energy consumption, computation resources usage and actuator wears. As a result, it facilitates the implementation of the proposed consensus protocol in the real-world applications with limited resources. The stability of the closed-loop system under an event-based protocol is proved analytically. Some numerical results are presented which confirm the analytical discussion on the effectiveness of the proposed design.

Implementation of Siemens USS protocol into LabVIEW.

PubMed

Hosek, P; Diblik, M

2011-10-01

This article gives basic overview of the USS protocol as a communication interface to drive Siemens frequency inverters. It presents our implementation of this protocol into LabVIEW, as there was permanent demand from the community of the users to have native LabVIEW implementation of the USS protocol. It also states encountered problems and their solutions. Copyright © 2011 Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Privacy-Preserving RFID Authentication Using Public Exponent Three RSA Algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Yoonjeong; Ohm, Seongyong; Yi, Kang

In this letter, we propose a privacy-preserving authentication protocol with RSA cryptosystem in an RFID environment. For both overcoming the resource restriction and strengthening security, our protocol uses only modular exponentiation with exponent three at RFID tag side, with the padded random message whose length is greater than one-sixth of the whole message length.

An economical and effective high-throughput DNA extraction protocol for molecular marker analysis in honey bees

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Extraction of DNA from tissue samples can be expensive both in time and monetary resources and can often require handling and disposal of hazardous chemicals. We have developed a high throughput protocol for extracting DNA from honey bees that is of a high enough quality and quantity to enable hundr...

Research protocols in National Park Service wilderness

Treesearch

Jim Walters

2000-01-01

While the National Park Service encourages the use of its wilderness resource for research, management policies require that all research apply “minimum requirement” protocols to determine: 1) if the research is needed to support the purposes of wilderness and, 2) if it is appropriate, determine the minimum tool needed to accomplish the work.

The US Culture Collection Network responding to the requirements of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The US Culture Collection Network held a meeting to share information about how collections are responding to the requirements of the recently enacted Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Bio...

A software defined RTU multi-protocol automatic adaptation data transmission method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jin, Huiying; Xu, Xingwu; Wang, Zhanfeng; Ma, Weijun; Li, Sheng; Su, Yong; Pan, Yunpeng

2018-02-01

Remote terminal unit (RTU) is the core device of the monitor system in hydrology and water resources. Different devices often have different communication protocols in the application layer, which results in the difficulty in information analysis and communication networking. Therefore, we introduced the idea of software defined hardware, and abstracted the common feature of mainstream communication protocols of RTU application layer, and proposed a uniformed common protocol model. Then, various communication protocol algorithms of application layer are modularized according to the model. The executable codes of these algorithms are labeled by the virtual functions and stored in the flash chips of embedded CPU to form the protocol stack. According to the configuration commands to initialize the RTU communication systems, it is able to achieve dynamic assembling and loading of various application layer communication protocols of RTU and complete the efficient transport of sensor data from RTU to central station when the data acquisition protocol of sensors and various external communication terminals remain unchanged.

Is it economical to manage jointly for wood and carbon under the Climate Action Reserve Protocol? In: Standiford, Richard B.; Weller, Theodore J.; Piirto, Douglas D.; Stuart, John D., tech

Treesearch

Richard P. Thompson; Steve R. Auten

2012-01-01

To quantify the benefits and costs of modifying forest management for additional climate benefits, Cal Poly's Swanton Pacific demonstration forest was used to test the Climate Action Reserve's protocol and identify management strategies for both wood and carbon markets. Residing in the Southern Sub-district with its clearcutting restrictions, Swanton offers...

Mothers' and Fathers' Parenting Challenges, Strategies, and Resources in Toddlerhood

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kwon, Kyong-Ah; Han, Suejung; Jeon, Hyun-Joo; Bingham, Gary E.

2013-01-01

This study examined mothers' and fathers' parenting challenges and strategies/resources used when parenting toddlers. Through a qualitative interview protocol, implemented with mothers and fathers separately at a university laboratory, this study found that both fathers and mothers appeared to be transitioning from traditional gender roles towards…

18 CFR 37.6 - Information to be posted on the OASIS.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... protocols, information regarding the transmission system necessary to enable prudent business decision... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Information to be posted on the OASIS. 37.6 Section 37.6 Conservation of Power and Water Resources FEDERAL ENERGY...

18 CFR 37.6 - Information to be posted on the OASIS.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... protocols, information regarding the transmission system necessary to enable prudent business decision... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Information to be posted on the OASIS. 37.6 Section 37.6 Conservation of Power and Water Resources FEDERAL ENERGY...

Learning natural resource asssessment protocols: Elements for success and lessons from an international workshop in Inner Mongolia, China.

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Learning to complete natural resource assessments requires hands-on training. This paper illustrates eight elements of successful international workshops illustrated by data and experiences from a workshop in Inner Mongolia, China: translation, integration of a site potential-based land classificati...

Internet Resources on Aging: Parts of the Internet.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Post, Joyce A.

1996-01-01

Provides a brief history of the Internet and a listing of various resources on aging that can be obtained through the Internet. Components of the Internet discussed are electronic-mail applications (listservs, USENET Newsgroups, Bulletin Board Systems, Freenets, and Commercial Services); File Transfer Protocol; Telnet/Remote Login; Gophers; Wide…

SoyBase Simple Semantic Web Architecture and Protocol (SSWAP) Services

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Semantic web technologies offer the potential to link internet resources and data by shared concepts without having to rely on absolute lexical matches. Thus two web sites or web resources which are concerned with similar data types could be identified based on similar semantics. In the biological...

Explanation of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing and its implication for microbiology.

PubMed

Smith, David; da Silva, Manuela; Jackson, Julian; Lyal, Christopher

2017-03-01

Working with genetic resources and associated data requires greater attention since the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) came into force in October 2014. Biologists must ensure that they have legal clarity in how they can and cannot use the genetic resources on which they carry out research. Not only must they work within the spirit in the Convention on Biological Diversity (https://www.cbd.int/convention/articles/default.shtml?a=cbd-02) but also they may have regulatory requirements to meet. Although the Nagoya Protocol was negotiated and agreed globally, it is the responsibility of each country that ratifies it to introduce their individual implementing procedures and practices. Many countries in Europe, such as the UK, have chosen not to put access controls in place at this time, but others already have laws enacted providing ABS measures under the Convention on Biological Diversity or specifically to implement the Nagoya Protocol. Access legislation is in place in many countries and information on this can be found at the ABS Clearing House (https://absch.cbd.int/). For example, Brazil, although not a Party to the Nagoya Protocol at the time of writing, has Law 13.123 which entered into force on 17 November 2015, regulated by Decree 8.772 which was published on 11 May 2016. In this case, export of Brazilian genetic resources is not allowed unless the collector is registered in the National System for Genetic Heritage and Associated Traditional Knowledge Management (SisGen). The process entails that a foreign scientist must first of all be registered working with someone in Brazil and have authorization to collect. The enactment of European Union Regulation po. 511/2014 implements Nagoya Protocol elements that govern compliance measures for users and offers the opportunity to demonstrate due diligence in sourcing their organisms by selecting from holdings of 'registered collections'. The UK has introduced a Statutory Instrument that puts in place enforcement measures within the UK to implement this European Union Regulation; this is regulated by Regulatory Delivery, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategies. Scientific communities, including the private sector, individual institutions and organizations, have begun to design policy and best practices for compliance. Microbiologists and culture collections alike need to be aware of the legislation of the source country of the materials they use and put in place best practices for compliance; such best practice has been drafted by the Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure, and other research communities such as the Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities, the Global Genome Biodiversity Network and the International Organisation for Biological Control have published best practice and/or codes of conduct to ensure legitimate exchange and use of genetic resources.

Using Cloud Computing infrastructure with CloudBioLinux, CloudMan and Galaxy

PubMed Central

Afgan, Enis; Chapman, Brad; Jadan, Margita; Franke, Vedran; Taylor, James

2012-01-01

Cloud computing has revolutionized availability and access to computing and storage resources; making it possible to provision a large computational infrastructure with only a few clicks in a web browser. However, those resources are typically provided in the form of low-level infrastructure components that need to be procured and configured before use. In this protocol, we demonstrate how to utilize cloud computing resources to perform open-ended bioinformatics analyses, with fully automated management of the underlying cloud infrastructure. By combining three projects, CloudBioLinux, CloudMan, and Galaxy into a cohesive unit, we have enabled researchers to gain access to more than 100 preconfigured bioinformatics tools and gigabytes of reference genomes on top of the flexible cloud computing infrastructure. The protocol demonstrates how to setup the available infrastructure and how to use the tools via a graphical desktop interface, a parallel command line interface, and the web-based Galaxy interface. PMID:22700313

Additive Classical Capacity of Quantum Channels Assisted by Noisy Entanglement.

PubMed

Zhuang, Quntao; Zhu, Elton Yechao; Shor, Peter W

2017-05-19

We give a capacity formula for the classical information transmission over a noisy quantum channel, with separable encoding by the sender and limited resources provided by the receiver's preshared ancilla. Instead of a pure state, we consider the signal-ancilla pair in a mixed state, purified by a "witness." Thus, the signal-witness correlation limits the resource available from the signal-ancilla correlation. Our formula characterizes the utility of different forms of resources, including noisy or limited entanglement assistance, for classical communication. With separable encoding, the sender's signals across multiple channel uses are still allowed to be entangled, yet our capacity formula is additive. In particular, for generalized covariant channels, our capacity formula has a simple closed form. Moreover, our additive capacity formula upper bounds the general coherent attack's information gain in various two-way quantum key distribution protocols. For Gaussian protocols, the additivity of the formula indicates that the collective Gaussian attack is the most powerful.

Microbiological Research Under the Nagoya Protocol: Facts and Fiction.

PubMed

Overmann, Jörg; Scholz, Amber Hartman

2017-02-01

The Nagoya Protocol is based on concepts of biological diversity that are hardly applicable to microorganisms. Because of this incongruence, the Nagoya Protocol threatens future microbial research, potentially defeating its original purpose. Countries with appropriate regulations can promote science and their bioeconomy through international collaboration and simultaneously gain a competitive advantage. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

PROFILE: Environmental Impact Assessment Under the National Environmental Policy Act and the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty.

PubMed

Ensminger; McCold; Webb

1999-07-01

/ Antarctica has been set aside by the international community for protection as a natural reserve and a place for scientific research. Through the Antarctic Treaty of 1961, the signing nations agreed to cooperate in protecting the antarctic environment, in conducting scientific studies, and in abstaining from the exercise of territorial claims. The 1991 signing of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (Protocol) by representatives of the 26 nations comprising the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties (Parties) significantly strengthened environmental protection measures for the continent. The Protocol required ratification by each of the governments individually prior to official implementation. The US government ratified the Protocol by passage of the Antarctic Science, Tourism, and Conservation Act of 1997. Japan completed the process by ratifying the Protocol on December 15, 1997. US government actions undertaken in Antarctica are subject to the requirements of both the Protocol and the US National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). There are differences in the scope and intent of the Protocol and NEPA; however, both require environmental impact assessment (EIA) as part of the planning process for proposed actions that have the potential for environmental impacts. In this paper we describe the two instruments and highlight key similarities and differences with particular attention to EIA. Through this comparison of the EIA requirements of NEPA and the Protocol, we show how the requirements of each can be used in concert to provide enhanced environmental protection for the antarctic environment. NEPA applies only to actions of the US government; therefore, because NEPA includes certain desirable attributes that have been refined and clarified through numerous court cases, and because the Protocol is just entering implementation internationally, some recommendations are made for strengthening the procedural requirements of the Protocol for activities undertaken by all Parties in Antarctica. The Protocol gives clear and strong guidance for protection of specific, valued antarctic environmental resources including intrinsic wilderness and aesthetic values, and the value of Antarctica as an area for scientific research. That guidance requires a higher standard of environmental protection for Antarctica than is required in other parts of the world. This paper shows that taken together NEPA and the Protocol call for closer examination of proposed actions and a more rigorous consideration of environmental impacts than either would alone. Three areas are identified where the EIA provisions of the Protocol could be strengthened to improve its effectiveness. First, the thresholds defined by the Protocol need to be clarified. Specifically, the meanings of the terms "minor" and "transitory" are not clear in the context of the Protocol. The use of "or" in the phrase "minor or transitory" further confuses the meaning. Second, cumulative impact assessment is called for by the Protocol but is not defined. A clear definition could reduce the chance that cumulative impacts would be given inadequate consideration. Finally, the public has limited opportunities to comment on or influence the preparation of initial or comprehensive environmental evaluations. Experience has shown that public input to environmental documents has a considerable influence on agency decision making and the quality of EIA that agencies perform.KEY WORDS: Environment; Impact assessment; Antarctica; NEPA; Protocol; Antarctic Treatyhttp://link.springer-ny.com/link/service/journals/00267/bibs/24n1p13.html

SPIRIT 2013 explanation and elaboration: guidance for protocols of clinical trials

PubMed Central

Tetzlaff, Jennifer M; Gøtzsche, Peter C; Altman, Douglas G; Mann, Howard; Berlin, Jesse A; Dickersin, Kay; Hróbjartsson, Asbjørn; Schulz, Kenneth F; Parulekar, Wendy R; Krleža-Jerić, Karmela; Laupacis, Andreas; Moher, David

2013-01-01

High quality protocols facilitate proper conduct, reporting, and external review of clinical trials. However, the completeness of trial protocols is often inadequate. To help improve the content and quality of protocols, an international group of stakeholders developed the SPIRIT 2013 Statement (Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials). The SPIRIT Statement provides guidance in the form of a checklist of recommended items to include in a clinical trial protocol. This SPIRIT 2013 Explanation and Elaboration paper provides important information to promote full understanding of the checklist recommendations. For each checklist item, we provide a rationale and detailed description; a model example from an actual protocol; and relevant references supporting its importance. We strongly recommend that this explanatory paper be used in conjunction with the SPIRIT Statement. A website of resources is also available (www.spirit-statement.org). The SPIRIT 2013 Explanation and Elaboration paper, together with the Statement, should help with the drafting of trial protocols. Complete documentation of key trial elements can facilitate transparency and protocol review for the benefit of all stakeholders. PMID:23303884

SPIRIT 2013 explanation and elaboration: guidance for protocols of clinical trials.

PubMed

Chan, An-Wen; Tetzlaff, Jennifer M; Gøtzsche, Peter C; Altman, Douglas G; Mann, Howard; Berlin, Jesse A; Dickersin, Kay; Hróbjartsson, Asbjørn; Schulz, Kenneth F; Parulekar, Wendy R; Krleza-Jeric, Karmela; Laupacis, Andreas; Moher, David

2013-01-08

High quality protocols facilitate proper conduct, reporting, and external review of clinical trials. However, the completeness of trial protocols is often inadequate. To help improve the content and quality of protocols, an international group of stakeholders developed the SPIRIT 2013 Statement (Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials). The SPIRIT Statement provides guidance in the form of a checklist of recommended items to include in a clinical trial protocol. This SPIRIT 2013 Explanation and Elaboration paper provides important information to promote full understanding of the checklist recommendations. For each checklist item, we provide a rationale and detailed description; a model example from an actual protocol; and relevant references supporting its importance. We strongly recommend that this explanatory paper be used in conjunction with the SPIRIT Statement. A website of resources is also available (www.spirit-statement.org). The SPIRIT 2013 Explanation and Elaboration paper, together with the Statement, should help with the drafting of trial protocols. Complete documentation of key trial elements can facilitate transparency and protocol review for the benefit of all stakeholders.

Energy Efficient and QoS sensitive Routing Protocol for Ad Hoc Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saeed Tanoli, Tariq; Khalid Khan, Muhammad

2013-12-01

Efficient routing is an important part of wireless ad hoc networks. Since in ad hoc networks we have limited resources, there are many limitations like bandwidth, battery consumption, and processing cycle etc. Reliability is also necessary since there is no allowance for invalid or incomplete information (and expired data is useless). There are various protocols that perform routing by considering one parameter but ignoring other parameters. In this paper we present a protocol that finds route on the basis of bandwidth, energy and mobility of the nodes participating in the communication.

Efficacy of lures and hair snares to detect lynx

Treesearch

Gregory W. McDaniel; Kevin S. McKelvey; John R. Squires; Leonard F. Ruggiero

2000-01-01

Resource managers lack an inexpensive and quantifiable method to detect lynx presence across large landscapes. We tested efficacy of a protocol based on hair snagging to detect presence of lynx (Lynx canadensis). We tested 2 key elements of the protocol: 1) a hair-snaring device and 2) commercial lures used to attract and elicit rubbing behavior in lynx. The...

A Framework for Human Microbiome Research

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-06-14

determined that many compo- nents of data production and processing can contribute errors and artefacts. We investigated methods that avoid these errors and...protocol that ensured consistency in the high-throughput production . To maximize accuracy and consistency, protocols were evaluated primarily using a...future benefits, this resource may promote the development of novel prophylactic strategies such as the application of prebiotics and probiotics to

The Growing Awareness Inventory: Building Capacity for Culturally Responsive Science and Mathematics with a Structured Observation Protocol

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Julie C.; Crippen, Kent J.

2016-01-01

This study represents a first iteration in the design process of the Growing Awareness Inventory (GAIn), a structured observation protocol for building the awareness of preservice teachers (PSTs) for resources in mathematics and science classrooms that can be used for culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP). The GAIn is designed to develop awareness…

Bandwidth Management in Resource Constrained Networks

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-03-01

Postgraduate School OSI Open Systems Interconnection QoS Quality of Service TCP Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol TCP/IP Transmission...filtering. B. NORMAL TCP/IP COMMUNICATIONS The Internet is a “complex network WAN that connects LANs and clients around the globe” (Dean, 2009...of the Open Systems Interconnection ( OSI ) model allowing them to route traffic based on MAC address (Kurose & Ross, 2009). While switching

Early risk assessment for viral haemorrhagic fever: experience at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, London, UK.

PubMed

Woodrow, Charles J; Eziefula, Alice C; Agranoff, Dan; Scott, Geoffrey M; Watson, Julie; Chiodini, Peter L; Lockwood, Diana N J; Grant, Alison D

2007-01-01

To implement a policy of systematic screening for viral haemorrhagic fever (VHF) among travellers returning from African countries with fever, commencing at initial clinical contact. A protocol based on UK Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens guidance was developed collaboratively by medical, nursing and laboratory staff. Audit was carried out to quantify resource demands and effects on time to diagnose malaria, the main differential diagnosis. A protocol is now implemented for all patients presenting to HTD with fever, with clear guidelines for interaction with clinical and laboratory staff at each stage. The protocol required moderate amounts of clinical and laboratory staff time and resulted in some additional hospital admissions. The time to a diagnosis of malaria increased from a median of 90 (range 50-125) min in patients without VHF risk to a median of 140 (range 101-225) min (p=0.0025) in those assessed as at risk. Although all acute medical services need to have robust procedures for early detection of patients with serious transmissible conditions, few implement such a policy. Our protocol requires increased human and other resources but has no important impact on the rapidity of diagnosis of malaria, and is now embedded in local practice.

A Low Cost Key Agreement Protocol Based on Binary Tree for EPCglobal Class 1 Generation 2 RFID Protocol

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jeng, Albert; Chang, Li-Chung; Chen, Sheng-Hui

There are many protocols proposed for protecting Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system privacy and security. A number of these protocols are designed for protecting long-term security of RFID system using symmetric key or public key cryptosystem. Others are designed for protecting user anonymity and privacy. In practice, the use of RFID technology often has a short lifespan, such as commodity check out, supply chain management and so on. Furthermore, we know that designing a long-term security architecture to protect the security and privacy of RFID tags information requires a thorough consideration from many different aspects. However, any security enhancement on RFID technology will jack up its cost which may be detrimental to its widespread deployment. Due to the severe constraints of RFID tag resources (e. g., power source, computing power, communication bandwidth) and open air communication nature of RFID usage, it is a great challenge to secure a typical RFID system. For example, computational heavy public key and symmetric key cryptography algorithms (e. g., RSA and AES) may not be suitable or over-killed to protect RFID security or privacy. These factors motivate us to research an efficient and cost effective solution for RFID security and privacy protection. In this paper, we propose a new effective generic binary tree based key agreement protocol (called BKAP) and its variations, and show how it can be applied to secure the low cost and resource constraint RFID system. This BKAP is not a general purpose key agreement protocol rather it is a special purpose protocol to protect privacy, un-traceability and anonymity in a single RFID closed system domain.

A rapid infusion protocol is safe for total dose iron polymaltose: time for change.

PubMed

Garg, M; Morrison, G; Friedman, A; Lau, A; Lau, D; Gibson, P R

2011-07-01

Intravenous correction of iron deficiency by total dose iron polymaltose is inexpensive and safe, but current protocols entail prolonged administration over more than 4 h. This results in reduced patient acceptance, and hospital resource strain. We aimed to assess prospectively the safety of a rapid intravenous protocol and compare this with historical controls. Consecutive patients in whom intravenous iron replacement was indicated were invited to have up to 1.5 g iron polymaltose by a 58-min infusion protocol after an initial 15-min test dose without pre-medication. Infusion-related adverse events (AE) and delayed AE over the ensuing 5 days were also prospectively documented and graded as mild, moderate or severe. One hundred patients, 63 female, mean age 54 (range 18-85) years were studied. Thirty-four infusion-related AE to iron polymaltose occurred in a total of 24 patients--25 mild, 8 moderate and 1 severe; higher than previously reported for a slow protocol iron infusion. Thirty-one delayed AE occurred in 26 patients--26 mild, 3 moderate and 2 severe; similar to previously reported. All but five patients reported they would prefer iron replacement through the rapid protocol again. The presence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) predicted infusion-related reactions (54% vs 14% without IBD, P < 0.001) and the serum C-reactive protein was higher in those with reactions (P = 0.043). Iron polymaltose can be successfully administered using a rapid total dose infusion protocol and was well accepted by patients. It offers significant cost, resource utilization and time benefits for the patient and hospital system. © 2011 The Authors. Internal Medicine Journal © 2011 Royal Australasian College of Physicians.

A randomized trial of microdose leuprolide acetate protocol versus luteal phase ganirelix protocol in predicted poor responders.

PubMed

DiLuigi, Andrea J; Engmann, Lawrence; Schmidt, David W; Benadiva, Claudio A; Nulsen, John C

2011-06-30

We performed a randomized trial to compare IVF outcomes in 54 poor responder patients undergoing a microdose leuprolide acetate (LA) protocol or a GnRH antagonist protocol incorporating a luteal phase E(2) patch and GnRH antagonist in the preceding menstrual cycle. Cancellation rates, number of oocytes retrieved, clinical pregnancy rates (PR), and ongoing PRs were similar between the two groups. Copyright © 2011 American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Compact continuous-variable entanglement distillation.

PubMed

Datta, Animesh; Zhang, Lijian; Nunn, Joshua; Langford, Nathan K; Feito, Alvaro; Plenio, Martin B; Walmsley, Ian A

2012-02-10

We introduce a new scheme for continuous-variable entanglement distillation that requires only linear temporal and constant physical or spatial resources. Distillation is the process by which high-quality entanglement may be distributed between distant nodes of a network in the unavoidable presence of decoherence. The known versions of this protocol scale exponentially in space and doubly exponentially in time. Our optimal scheme therefore provides exponential improvements over existing protocols. It uses a fixed-resource module-an entanglement distillery-comprising only four quantum memories of at most 50% storage efficiency and allowing a feasible experimental implementation. Tangible quantum advantages are obtainable by using existing off-resonant Raman quantum memories outside their conventional role of storage.

Strategies to support recruitment of patients with life-limiting illness for research: the Palliative Care Research Cooperative Group.

PubMed

Hanson, Laura C; Bull, Janet; Wessell, Kathryn; Massie, Lisa; Bennett, Rachael E; Kutner, Jean S; Aziz, Noreen M; Abernethy, Amy

2014-12-01

The Palliative Care Research Cooperative Group (PCRC) is the first clinical trials cooperative for palliative care in the U.S. To describe barriers and strategies for recruitment during the inaugural PCRC clinical trial. The parent study was a multisite randomized controlled trial enrolling adults with life expectancy anticipated to be one to six months, randomized to discontinue statins (intervention) vs. to continue on statins (control). To study recruitment best practices, we conducted semistructured interviews with 18 site principal investigators (PIs) and clinical research coordinators (CRCs) and reviewed recruitment rates. Interviews covered three topics: 1) successful strategies for recruitment, 2) barriers to recruitment, and 3) optimal roles of the PI and CRC. All eligible site PIs and CRCs completed interviews and provided data on statin protocol recruitment. The parent study completed recruitment of 381 patients. Site enrollment ranged from 1 to 109 participants, with an average of 25 enrolled per site. Five major barriers included difficulty locating eligible patients, severity of illness, family and provider protectiveness, seeking patients in multiple settings, and lack of resources for recruitment activities. Five effective recruitment strategies included systematic screening of patient lists, thoughtful messaging to make research relevant, flexible protocols to accommodate patients' needs, support from clinical champions, and the additional resources of a trials cooperative group. The recruitment experience from the multisite PCRC yields new insights into methods for effective recruitment to palliative care clinical trials. These results will inform training materials for the PCRC and may assist other investigators in the field. Copyright © 2014 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

[Evaluation of good manufacturing practices in the elaboration of enteral formulas in public hospitals of Santiago (Chile)].

PubMed

Lara González, Sandra; Domecq Jendres, C; Atalah Samur, Eduardo

2013-11-01

The development of enteral formulas (FE) is subject to various risks of contamination. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), have worried about alerting, recommendations and documents released to prevent contamination the FE, suggesting the standardization and protocols for all procedures involved. The study was aimed to evaluate compliance with the technical criteria contained in a Guideline for Good Practice of Manufacture in relation to the development, maintenance and administration of enteral nutrition in hospitals of Santiago, in the Metropolitan Area. The verification criteria considered Physical Plant, Equipment and Implementation, Hygienic and Sanitary Standards, Human Resources, Organization and Management, Safety and Warranty Quality Assurance. 639 criteria were defined, 309 risk Type 1, by mayor risk of producing pollution. The study was conducted by observing Central Units Enteral Formulas and interview with the caregiver. Medium of compliance for each group of criteria risk 1 and overall, was analyzed. A total of 14 public hospitals were studied. The degree of compliance with the 639 reached a median of 33.2% (p25-75 31.6%-40.4%), with the lowest value for physical plant with 27.9% (p25-75 23.9%-38.2%) and the highest for human resources with 52.4% (p25-75 44.1%-52.4%). Median compliance for risk criteria Type 1 was only 31.8% (p25-75 27.5%-41.2%). Most of the units tested, meets less than half of the internationals recommendations, or the Ministry of Health of Chile. It should develop protocols and train staff to ensure quality and safety in the development of enteral formulas and reduce risk of infection. Copyright AULA MEDICA EDICIONES 2013. Published by AULA MEDICA. All rights reserved.

15 CFR 921.40 - Ongoing oversight and evaluations of designated National Estuarine Research Reserves.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... need to keep some areas off limits to the public in order to protect fragile resources. (5) Inadequate... the ability to protect the Reserve site and resources from offsite impacts. (7) Inadequate... on use of the Reserve are adhered to, or evidence that Reserve resources are being damaged or...

15 CFR 921.40 - Ongoing oversight and evaluations of designated National Estuarine Research Reserves.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... need to keep some areas off limits to the public in order to protect fragile resources. (5) Inadequate... the ability to protect the Reserve site and resources from offsite impacts. (7) Inadequate... on use of the Reserve are adhered to, or evidence that Reserve resources are being damaged or...

15 CFR 921.40 - Ongoing oversight and evaluations of designated National Estuarine Research Reserves.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... need to keep some areas off limits to the public in order to protect fragile resources. (5) Inadequate... the ability to protect the Reserve site and resources from offsite impacts. (7) Inadequate... on use of the Reserve are adhered to, or evidence that Reserve resources are being damaged or...

15 CFR 921.40 - Ongoing oversight and evaluations of designated National Estuarine Research Reserves.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... need to keep some areas off limits to the public in order to protect fragile resources. (5) Inadequate... the ability to protect the Reserve site and resources from offsite impacts. (7) Inadequate... on use of the Reserve are adhered to, or evidence that Reserve resources are being damaged or...

Server-Controlled Identity-Based Authenticated Key Exchange

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Hua; Mu, Yi; Zhang, Xiyong; Li, Zhoujun

We present a threshold identity-based authenticated key exchange protocol that can be applied to an authenticated server-controlled gateway-user key exchange. The objective is to allow a user and a gateway to establish a shared session key with the permission of the back-end servers, while the back-end servers cannot obtain any information about the established session key. Our protocol has potential applications in strong access control of confidential resources. In particular, our protocol possesses the semantic security and demonstrates several highly-desirable security properties such as key privacy and transparency. We prove the security of the protocol based on the Bilinear Diffie-Hellman assumption in the random oracle model.

PREDICT-CP: study protocol of implementation of comprehensive surveillance to predict outcomes for school-aged children with cerebral palsy.

PubMed

Boyd, Roslyn N; Davies, Peter Sw; Ziviani, Jenny; Trost, Stewart; Barber, Lee; Ware, Robert; Rose, Stephen; Whittingham, Koa; Sakzewski, Leanne; Bell, Kristie; Carty, Christopher; Obst, Steven; Benfer, Katherine; Reedman, Sarah; Edwards, Priya; Kentish, Megan; Copeland, Lisa; Weir, Kelly; Davenport, Camilla; Brooks, Denise; Coulthard, Alan; Pelekanos, Rebecca; Guzzetta, Andrea; Fiori, Simona; Wynter, Meredith; Finn, Christine; Burgess, Andrea; Morris, Kym; Walsh, John; Lloyd, Owen; Whitty, Jennifer A; Scuffham, Paul A

2017-07-12

Cerebral palsy (CP) remains the world's most common childhood physical disability with total annual costs of care and lost well-being of $A3.87b. The PREDICT-CP (NHMRC 1077257 Partnership Project: Comprehensive surveillance to PREDICT outcomes for school age children with CP) study will investigate the influence of brain structure, body composition, dietary intake, oropharyngeal function, habitual physical activity, musculoskeletal development (hip status, bone health) and muscle performance on motor attainment, cognition, executive function, communication, participation, quality of life and related health resource use costs. The PREDICT-CP cohort provides further follow-up at 8-12 years of two overlapping preschool-age cohorts examined from 1.5 to 5 years (NHMRC 465128 motor and brain development; NHMRC 569605 growth, nutrition and physical activity). This population-based cohort study undertakes state-wide surveillance of 245 children with CP born in Queensland (birth years 2006-2009). Children will be classified for Gross Motor Function Classification System; Manual Ability Classification System, Communication Function Classification System and Eating and Drinking Ability Classification System. Outcomes include gross motor function, musculoskeletal development (hip displacement, spasticity, muscle contracture), upper limb function, communication difficulties, oropharyngeal dysphagia, dietary intake and body composition, participation, parent-reported and child-reported quality of life and medical and allied health resource use. These detailed phenotypical data will be compared with brain macrostructure and microstructure using 3 Tesla MRI (3T MRI). Relationships between brain lesion severity and outcomes will be analysed using multilevel mixed-effects models. The PREDICT-CP protocol is a prospectively registered and ethically accepted study protocol. The study combines data at 1.5-5 then 8-12 years of direct clinical assessment to enable prediction of outcomes and healthcare needs essential for tailoring interventions (eg, rehabilitation, orthopaedic surgery and nutritional supplements) and the projected healthcare utilisation. ACTRN: 12616001488493. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Multigranular integrated services optical network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Oliver; Yin, Leping; Xu, Huan; Liao, Ming

2006-12-01

Based on all-optical switches without requiring fiber delay lines and optical-electrical-optical interfaces, the multigranular optical switching (MGOS) network integrates three transport services via unified core control to efficiently support bursty and stream traffic of subwavelength to multiwavelength bandwidth. Adaptive robust optical burst switching (AR-OBS) aggregates subwavelength burst traffic into asynchronous light-rate bursts, transported via slotted-time light paths established by fast two-way reservation with robust blocking recovery control. Multiwavelength optical switching (MW-OS) decomposes multiwavelength stream traffic into a group of timing-related light-rate streams, transported via a light-path group to meet end-to-end delay-variation requirements. Optical circuit switching (OCS) simply converts wavelength stream traffic from an electrical-rate into a light-rate stream. The MGOS network employs decoupled routing, wavelength, and time-slot assignment (RWTA) and novel group routing and wavelength assignment (GRWA) to select slotted-time light paths and light-path groups, respectively. The selected resources are reserved by the unified multigranular robust fast optical reservation protocol (MG-RFORP). Simulation results show that elastic traffic is efficiently supported via AR-OBS in terms of loss rate and wavelength utilization, while connection-oriented wavelength traffic is efficiently supported via wavelength-routed OCS in terms of connection blocking and wavelength utilization. The GRWA-tuning result for MW-OS is also shown.

Geospatial Brokering - Challenges and Future Directions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

White, C. E.

2012-12-01

An important feature of many brokers is to facilitate straightforward human access to scientific data while maintaining programmatic access to it for system solutions. Standards-based protocols are critical for this, and there are a number of protocols to choose from. In this discussion, we will present a web application solution that leverages certain protocols - e.g., OGC CSW, REST, and OpenSearch - to provide programmatic as well as human access to geospatial resources. We will also discuss managing resources to reduce duplication yet increase discoverability, federated search solutions, and architectures that combine human-friendly interfaces with powerful underlying data management. The changing requirements witnessed in brokering solutions over time, our recent experience participating in the EarthCube brokering hack-a-thon, and evolving interoperability standards provide insight to future technological and philosophical directions planned for geospatial broker solutions. There has been much change over the past decade, but with the unprecedented data collaboration of recent years, in many ways the challenges and opportunities are just beginning.

Novel Multi-Party Quantum Key Agreement Protocol with G-Like States and Bell States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Min, Shi-Qi; Chen, Hua-Ying; Gong, Li-Hua

2018-03-01

A significant aspect of quantum cryptography is quantum key agreement (QKA), which ensures the security of key agreement protocols by quantum information theory. The fairness of an absolute security multi-party quantum key agreement (MQKA) protocol demands that all participants can affect the protocol result equally so as to establish a shared key and that nobody can determine the shared key by himself/herself. We found that it is difficult for the existing multi-party quantum key agreement protocol to withstand the collusion attacks. Put differently, it is possible for several cooperated and untruthful participants to determine the final key without being detected. To address this issue, based on the entanglement swapping between G-like state and Bell states, a new multi-party quantum key agreement protocol is put forward. The proposed protocol makes full use of EPR pairs as quantum resources, and adopts Bell measurement and unitary operation to share a secret key. Besides, the proposed protocol is fair, secure and efficient without involving a third party quantum center. It demonstrates that the protocol is capable of protecting users' privacy and meeting the requirement of fairness. Moreover, it is feasible to carry out the protocol with existing technologies.

Novel Multi-Party Quantum Key Agreement Protocol with G-Like States and Bell States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Min, Shi-Qi; Chen, Hua-Ying; Gong, Li-Hua

2018-06-01

A significant aspect of quantum cryptography is quantum key agreement (QKA), which ensures the security of key agreement protocols by quantum information theory. The fairness of an absolute security multi-party quantum key agreement (MQKA) protocol demands that all participants can affect the protocol result equally so as to establish a shared key and that nobody can determine the shared key by himself/herself. We found that it is difficult for the existing multi-party quantum key agreement protocol to withstand the collusion attacks. Put differently, it is possible for several cooperated and untruthful participants to determine the final key without being detected. To address this issue, based on the entanglement swapping between G-like state and Bell states, a new multi-party quantum key agreement protocol is put forward. The proposed protocol makes full use of EPR pairs as quantum resources, and adopts Bell measurement and unitary operation to share a secret key. Besides, the proposed protocol is fair, secure and efficient without involving a third party quantum center. It demonstrates that the protocol is capable of protecting users' privacy and meeting the requirement of fairness. Moreover, it is feasible to carry out the protocol with existing technologies.

IONAC-Lite

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Torgerson, Jordan L.; Clare, Loren P.; Pang, Jackson

2011-01-01

The Interplanetary Overlay Net - working Protocol Accelerator (IONAC) described previously in The Inter - planetary Overlay Networking Protocol Accelerator (NPO-45584), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 32, No. 10, (October 2008) p. 106 (http://www.techbriefs.com/component/ content/article/3317) provides functions that implement the Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) bundle protocol. New missions that require high-speed downlink-only use of DTN can now be accommodated by the unidirectional IONAC-Lite to support high data rate downlink mission applications. Due to constrained energy resources, a conventional software implementation of the DTN protocol can provide only limited throughput for any given reasonable energy consumption rate. The IONAC-Lite DTN Protocol Accelerator is able to reduce this energy consumption by an order of magnitude and increase the throughput capability by two orders of magnitude. In addition, a conventional DTN implementation requires a bundle database with a considerable storage requirement. In very high downlink datarate missions such as near-Earth radar science missions, the storage space utilization needs to be maximized for science data and minimized for communications protocol-related storage needs. The IONAC-Lite DTN Protocol Accelerator is implemented in a reconfigurable hardware device to accomplish exactly what s needed for high-throughput DTN downlink-only scenarios. The following are salient features of the IONAC-Lite implementation: An implementation of the Bundle Protocol for an environment that requires a very high rate bundle egress data rate. The C&DH (command and data handling) subsystem is also expected to be very constrained so the interaction with the C&DH processor and the temporary storage are minimized. Fully pipelined design so that bundle processing database is not required. Implements a lookup table-based approach to eliminate multi-pass processing requirement imposed by the Bundle Protocol header s length field structure and the SDNV (self-delimiting numeric value) data field formatting. 8-bit parallel datapath to support high data-rate missions. Reduced resource utilization implementation for missions that do not require custody transfer features. There was no known implementation of the DTN protocol in a field programmable gate array (FPGA) device prior to the current implementation. The combination of energy and performance optimization that embodies this design makes the work novel.

Template protocol for clinical trials investigating vaccines--focus on safety elements.

PubMed

Bonhoeffer, Jan; Imoukhuede, Egeruan B; Aldrovandi, Grace; Bachtiar, Novilia S; Chan, Eng-Soon; Chang, Soju; Chen, Robert T; Fernandopulle, Rohini; Goldenthal, Karen L; Heffelfinger, James D; Hossain, Shah; Jevaji, Indira; Khamesipour, Ali; Kochhar, Sonali; Makhene, Mamodikoe; Malkin, Elissa; Nalin, David; Prevots, Rebecca; Ramasamy, Ranjan; Sellers, Sarah; Vekemans, Johan; Walker, Kenneth B; Wilson, Pam; Wong, Virginia; Zaman, Khalequz; Heininger, Ulrich

2013-11-12

This document is intended as a guide to the protocol development for trials of prophylactic vaccines. The template may serve phases I-IV clinical trials protocol development to include safety relevant information as required by the regulatory authorities and as deemed useful by the investigators. This document may also be helpful for future site strengthening efforts. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Applications and Methods Utilizing the Simple Semantic Web Architecture and Protocol (SSWAP) for Bioinformatics Resource Discovery and Disparate Data and Service Integration

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Scientific data integration and computational service discovery are challenges for the bioinformatic community. This process is made more difficult by the separate and independent construction of biological databases, which makes the exchange of scientific data between information resources difficu...

Realistic continuous-variable quantum teleportation with non-Gaussian resources

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

Dell'Anno, F.; De Siena, S.; CNR-INFM Coherentia, Napoli, Italy, and CNISM and INFN Sezione di Napoli, Gruppo Collegato di Salerno, Baronissi, SA

2010-01-15

We present a comprehensive investigation of nonideal continuous-variable quantum teleportation implemented with entangled non-Gaussian resources. We discuss in a unified framework the main decoherence mechanisms, including imperfect Bell measurements and propagation of optical fields in lossy fibers, applying the formalism of the characteristic function. By exploiting appropriate displacement strategies, we compute analytically the success probability of teleportation for input coherent states and two classes of non-Gaussian entangled resources: two-mode squeezed Bell-like states (that include as particular cases photon-added and photon-subtracted de-Gaussified states), and two-mode squeezed catlike states. We discuss the optimization procedure on the free parameters of the non-Gaussian resourcesmore » at fixed values of the squeezing and of the experimental quantities determining the inefficiencies of the nonideal protocol. It is found that non-Gaussian resources enhance significantly the efficiency of teleportation and are more robust against decoherence than the corresponding Gaussian ones. Partial information on the alphabet of input states allows further significant improvement in the performance of the nonideal teleportation protocol.« less

Group Membership Based Authorization to CADC Resources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Damian, A.; Dowler, P.; Gaudet, S.; Hill, N.

2012-09-01

The Group Membership Service (GMS), implemented at the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC), is a prototype of what could eventually be an IVOA standard for a distributed and interoperable group membership protocol. Group membership is the core authorization concept that enables teamwork and collaboration amongst astronomers accessing distributed resources and services. The service integrates and complements other access control related IVOA standards such as single-sign-on (SSO) using X.509 proxy certificates and the Credential Delegation Protocol (CDP). The GMS has been used at CADC for several years now, initially as a subsystem and then as a stand-alone Web service. It is part of the authorization mechanism for controlling the access to restricted Web resources as well as the VOSpace service hosted by the CADC. We present the role that GMS plays within the access control system at the CADC, including the functionality of the service and how the different CADC services make use of it to assert user authorization to resources. We also describe the main advantages and challenges of using the service as well as future work to increase its robustness and functionality.

Relating quantum privacy and quantum coherence: an operational approach.

PubMed

Devetak, I; Winter, A

2004-08-20

Given many realizations of a state or a channel as a resource, two parties can generate a secret key as well as entanglement. We describe protocols to perform the secret key distillation (as it turns out, with optimal rate). Then we show how to achieve optimal entanglement generation rates by "coherent" implementation of a class of secret key agreement protocols, proving the long-conjectured "hashing inequality."

The U.S. Culture Collection Network Responding to the Requirements of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing

Treesearch

Kevin McCluskey; Katharine B. Barker; Hazel A. Barton; Kyria Boundy-Mills; Daniel R. Brown; Jonathan A. Coddington; Kevin Cook; Philippe Desmeth; David Geiser; Jessie A. Glaeser; Stephanie Greene; Seogchan Kang; Michael W. Lomas; Ulrich Melcher; Scott E. Miller; David R. Nobles; Kristina J. Owens; Jerome H. Reichman; Manuela da Silva; John Wertz; Cale Whitworth; David Smith; Steven E. Lindow

2017-01-01

The U.S. Culture Collection Network held a meeting to share information about how culture collections are responding to the requirements of the recently enacted Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The meeting included representatives...

Best Management Practices (BMP) Monitoring Manual Field Guide: Implementation and Effectiveness for Protection of Water Resources

Treesearch

David Welsch; Roger Ryder; Tim Post

2006-01-01

The specific purpose of the BMP protocol is to create an economical, standardized, and repeatable BMP monitoring process that is completely automated, from data gathering through report generation, in order to provide measured data, ease of use, and compatibility with State BMP programs.The protocol was developed to meet the following needs:? Document the use and...

Current status of personnel and infrastructure resources for infection prevention and control programs in the Republic of Korea: A national survey.

PubMed

Yoon, Young Kyung; Lee, Sung Eun; Seo, Beom Sam; Kim, Hyeon Jeong; Kim, Jong Hun; Yang, Kyung Sook; Kim, Min Ja; Sohn, Jang Wook

2016-11-01

There is significant variability in personnel and infrastructural resources for infection prevention and control (IPC) among health care institutions. The aim of this study is to evaluate the current status of individual hospital-based IPC programs in the Republic of Korea (ROK). A multicenter cross-sectional survey of 100 hospitals participating in the national surveillance programs for multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) in the ROK was conducted in September 2015. The survey consisted of 140 standardized Web-based questionnaires. The survey response rate was 41.0%. The responding hospitals are largely organized with multibed rooms, with an insufficient numbers of single rooms. Employment status of infection specialists and hand hygiene resources were better in larger hospitals. The responding hospitals had 1 full-time infection control nurse per 400.3 ± 154.1 beds, with wide variations in training and experience. Facilities have great diversity in their approach to preventing MDROs. There appeared to be no difference in supplies consumption and protocols for IPC among the hospitals, stratified according to size. A greater availability of specialist personnel, single rooms, and a comprehensive IPC program, with the support of a policy-oriented management, is necessary to achieve effective IPC. Copyright © 2016 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

[Long-term prognosis of idiopathic chronic adult hydrocephalus: I. The University Hospital Marqués de Valdecilla diagnostic and therapeutic protocol].

PubMed

Martín-Láez, Rubén; Vázquez-Barquero, Alfonso

Despite the existence of published guidelines for more than a decade, there is still a substantial variation in the management of idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus due to its diagnostic and therapeutic complexity. The diagnostic and therapeutic protocol for the management of idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus in use at the Department of Neurosurgery of the University Hospital Marqués de Valdecilla is presented. The diagnostic process includes neuropsychological testing, phase contrast cine MRI, urodynamic evaluation, continuous intracranial pressure monitoring, cerebrospinal fluid hydrodynamics by means of lumbar infusion testing, and intra-abdominal pressure measurement. A patient is considered a surgical candidate if any of the following criteria is met: mean intracranial pressure >15mmHg, or B-waves present in >10% of overnight recording; pressure-volume index <15ml, or resistance to cerebrospinal fluid outflow (R OUT ) >4.5mmHg/ml/min in bolus infusion test; R OUT >12mmHg/ml/min, intracranial pressure >22mmHg, or high amplitude B-waves in the steady-state of the continuous rate infusion test; or a clinical response to high-volume cerebrospinal fluid withdrawal. The implementation of a diagnostic and therapeutic protocol for idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus management could improve various aspects of patient care. It could reduce variability in clinical practice, optimise the use of health resources, and help in identifying scientific uncertainty areas, in order to direct research efforts in a more appropriate way. Copyright © 2016 Sociedad Española de Neurocirugía. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Reproducible model development in the cardiac electrophysiology Web Lab.

PubMed

Daly, Aidan C; Clerx, Michael; Beattie, Kylie A; Cooper, Jonathan; Gavaghan, David J; Mirams, Gary R

2018-05-26

The modelling of the electrophysiology of cardiac cells is one of the most mature areas of systems biology. This extended concentration of research effort brings with it new challenges, foremost among which is that of choosing which of these models is most suitable for addressing a particular scientific question. In a previous paper, we presented our initial work in developing an online resource for the characterisation and comparison of electrophysiological cell models in a wide range of experimental scenarios. In that work, we described how we had developed a novel protocol language that allowed us to separate the details of the mathematical model (the majority of cardiac cell models take the form of ordinary differential equations) from the experimental protocol being simulated. We developed a fully-open online repository (which we termed the Cardiac Electrophysiology Web Lab) which allows users to store and compare the results of applying the same experimental protocol to competing models. In the current paper we describe the most recent and planned extensions of this work, focused on supporting the process of model building from experimental data. We outline the necessary work to develop a machine-readable language to describe the process of inferring parameters from wet lab datasets, and illustrate our approach through a detailed example of fitting a model of the hERG channel using experimental data. We conclude by discussing the future challenges in making further progress in this domain towards our goal of facilitating a fully reproducible approach to the development of cardiac cell models. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

A Survey on the Taxonomy of Cluster-Based Routing Protocols for Homogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Naeimi, Soroush; Ghafghazi, Hamidreza; Chow, Chee-Onn; Ishii, Hiroshi

2012-01-01

The past few years have witnessed increased interest among researchers in cluster-based protocols for homogeneous networks because of their better scalability and higher energy efficiency than other routing protocols. Given the limited capabilities of sensor nodes in terms of energy resources, processing and communication range, the cluster-based protocols should be compatible with these constraints in either the setup state or steady data transmission state. With focus on these constraints, we classify routing protocols according to their objectives and methods towards addressing the shortcomings of clustering process on each stage of cluster head selection, cluster formation, data aggregation and data communication. We summarize the techniques and methods used in these categories, while the weakness and strength of each protocol is pointed out in details. Furthermore, taxonomy of the protocols in each phase is given to provide a deeper understanding of current clustering approaches. Ultimately based on the existing research, a summary of the issues and solutions of the attributes and characteristics of clustering approaches and some open research areas in cluster-based routing protocols that can be further pursued are provided. PMID:22969350

Blind quantum computation with identity authentication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Qin; Li, Zhulin; Chan, Wai Hong; Zhang, Shengyu; Liu, Chengdong

2018-04-01

Blind quantum computation (BQC) allows a client with relatively few quantum resources or poor quantum technologies to delegate his computational problem to a quantum server such that the client's input, output, and algorithm are kept private. However, all existing BQC protocols focus on correctness verification of quantum computation but neglect authentication of participants' identity which probably leads to man-in-the-middle attacks or denial-of-service attacks. In this work, we use quantum identification to overcome such two kinds of attack for BQC, which will be called QI-BQC. We propose two QI-BQC protocols based on a typical single-server BQC protocol and a double-server BQC protocol. The two protocols can ensure both data integrity and mutual identification between participants with the help of a third trusted party (TTP). In addition, an unjammable public channel between a client and a server which is indispensable in previous BQC protocols is unnecessary, although it is required between TTP and each participant at some instant. Furthermore, the method to achieve identity verification in the presented protocols is general and it can be applied to other similar BQC protocols.

Security Enhanced User Authentication Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks Using Elliptic Curves Cryptography

PubMed Central

Choi, Younsung; Lee, Donghoon; Kim, Jiye; Jung, Jaewook; Nam, Junghyun; Won, Dongho

2014-01-01

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) consist of sensors, gateways and users. Sensors are widely distributed to monitor various conditions, such as temperature, sound, speed and pressure but they have limited computational ability and energy. To reduce the resource use of sensors and enhance the security of WSNs, various user authentication protocols have been proposed. In 2011, Yeh et al. first proposed a user authentication protocol based on elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) for WSNs. However, it turned out that Yeh et al.'s protocol does not provide mutual authentication, perfect forward secrecy, and key agreement between the user and sensor. Later in 2013, Shi et al. proposed a new user authentication protocol that improves both security and efficiency of Yeh et al.'s protocol. However, Shi et al.'s improvement introduces other security weaknesses. In this paper, we show that Shi et al.'s improved protocol is vulnerable to session key attack, stolen smart card attack, and sensor energy exhausting attack. In addition, we propose a new, security-enhanced user authentication protocol using ECC for WSNs. PMID:24919012

Security enhanced user authentication protocol for wireless sensor networks using elliptic curves cryptography.

PubMed

Choi, Younsung; Lee, Donghoon; Kim, Jiye; Jung, Jaewook; Nam, Junghyun; Won, Dongho

2014-06-10

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) consist of sensors, gateways and users. Sensors are widely distributed to monitor various conditions, such as temperature, sound, speed and pressure but they have limited computational ability and energy. To reduce the resource use of sensors and enhance the security of WSNs, various user authentication protocols have been proposed. In 2011, Yeh et al. first proposed a user authentication protocol based on elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) for WSNs. However, it turned out that Yeh et al.'s protocol does not provide mutual authentication, perfect forward secrecy, and key agreement between the user and sensor. Later in 2013, Shi et al. proposed a new user authentication protocol that improves both security and efficiency of Yeh et al.'s protocol. However, Shi et al.'s improvement introduces other security weaknesses. In this paper, we show that Shi et al.'s improved protocol is vulnerable to session key attack, stolen smart card attack, and sensor energy exhausting attack. In addition, we propose a new, security-enhanced user authentication protocol using ECC for WSNs.

A survey on the taxonomy of cluster-based routing protocols for homogeneous wireless sensor networks.

PubMed

Naeimi, Soroush; Ghafghazi, Hamidreza; Chow, Chee-Onn; Ishii, Hiroshi

2012-01-01

The past few years have witnessed increased interest among researchers in cluster-based protocols for homogeneous networks because of their better scalability and higher energy efficiency than other routing protocols. Given the limited capabilities of sensor nodes in terms of energy resources, processing and communication range, the cluster-based protocols should be compatible with these constraints in either the setup state or steady data transmission state. With focus on these constraints, we classify routing protocols according to their objectives and methods towards addressing the shortcomings of clustering process on each stage of cluster head selection, cluster formation, data aggregation and data communication. We summarize the techniques and methods used in these categories, while the weakness and strength of each protocol is pointed out in details. Furthermore, taxonomy of the protocols in each phase is given to provide a deeper understanding of current clustering approaches. Ultimately based on the existing research, a summary of the issues and solutions of the attributes and characteristics of clustering approaches and some open research areas in cluster-based routing protocols that can be further pursued are provided.

Computing and Communications Infrastructure for Network-Centric Warfare: Exploiting COTS, Assuring Performance

DTIC Science & Technology

2004-06-01

remote databases, has seen little vendor acceptance. Each database ( Oracle , DB2, MySQL , etc.) has its own client- server protocol. Therefore each...existing standards – SQL , X.500/LDAP, FTP, etc. • View information dissemination as selective replication – State-oriented vs . message-oriented...allowing the 8 application to start. The resource management system would serve as a broker to the resources, making sure that resources are not

Cognitive and adaptive measurement endpoints for clinical trials in mucopolysaccharidoses types I, II, and III: A review of the literature.

PubMed

Janzen, Darren; Delaney, Kathleen A; Shapiro, Elsa G

2017-06-01

Sensitive, reliable measurement instruments are critical for the evaluation of disease progression and new treatments that affect the brain in the mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS). MPS I, II, and III have early onset clinical phenotypes that affect the brain during development and result in devastating cognitive decline and ultimately death without treatment. Comparisons of outcomes are hindered by diverse protocols and approaches to assessment including applicability to international trials necessary in rare diseases. We review both cognitive and adaptive measures with the goal of providing evidence to a Delphi panel to come to a consensus about recommendations for clinical trials for various age groups. The results of the consensus panel are reported in an accompanying article. The following data were gathered (from internet resources and from test manuals) for each measure and summarized in the discussion: reliability, validity, date and adequacy of normative data, applicability of the measure's metrics, cross cultural validity including translations and adaptations, feasibility in the MPS population, familiarity to sites, sensitivity to change, and interpretability. If, resulting from this consensus, standard protocols are used for both natural history and treatment studies, patients, their families, and health care providers will benefit from the ability to compare study outcomes. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

On-chip purification and detection of hepatitis C virus RNA from human plasma.

PubMed

Vaghi, V; Potrich, C; Pasquardini, L; Lunelli, L; Vanzetti, L; Ebranati, E; Lai, A; Zehender, G; Mombello, D; Cocuzza, M; Pirri, C F; Pederzolli, C

2016-01-01

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is one of the main causes of chronic liver disease worldwide. The diagnosis and monitoring of HCV infection is a crucial need in the clinical management. The conventional diagnostic technologies are challenged when trying to address molecular diagnostics, especially because they require a complex and time-consuming sample preparation phase. Here, a new concept based on surface functionalization was applied to viral RNA purification: first of all polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) flat surfaces were modified to hold RNA adsorption. After a careful chemical and morphological analysis of the modified surfaces, the functionalization protocols giving the best RNA adsorbing surfaces were applied to PDMS microdevices. The functionalized microdevices were then used for RNA purification from HCV infected human plasma samples. RNA purification and RT were successfully performed in the same microdevice chamber, saving time of analysis, reagents, and labor. The PCR protocol for HCV cDNA amplification was also implemented in the microdevice, demonstrating that the entire process of HCV analysis, from plasma to molecular readout, could be performed on-chip. Not only HCV but also other microdevice-based viral RNA detection could therefore result in a successful Point-of-Care (POC) diagnostics for resource-limited settings. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Increasing value and reducing waste in research design, conduct, and analysis.

PubMed

Ioannidis, John P A; Greenland, Sander; Hlatky, Mark A; Khoury, Muin J; Macleod, Malcolm R; Moher, David; Schulz, Kenneth F; Tibshirani, Robert

2014-01-11

Correctable weaknesses in the design, conduct, and analysis of biomedical and public health research studies can produce misleading results and waste valuable resources. Small effects can be difficult to distinguish from bias introduced by study design and analyses. An absence of detailed written protocols and poor documentation of research is common. Information obtained might not be useful or important, and statistical precision or power is often too low or used in a misleading way. Insufficient consideration might be given to both previous and continuing studies. Arbitrary choice of analyses and an overemphasis on random extremes might affect the reported findings. Several problems relate to the research workforce, including failure to involve experienced statisticians and methodologists, failure to train clinical researchers and laboratory scientists in research methods and design, and the involvement of stakeholders with conflicts of interest. Inadequate emphasis is placed on recording of research decisions and on reproducibility of research. Finally, reward systems incentivise quantity more than quality, and novelty more than reliability. We propose potential solutions for these problems, including improvements in protocols and documentation, consideration of evidence from studies in progress, standardisation of research efforts, optimisation and training of an experienced and non-conflicted scientific workforce, and reconsideration of scientific reward systems. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Psycho-medical care of transsexuals in Spain in the era of depathologization of transsexualism as a mental disorder. An overall review].

PubMed

Wittich, Regina-Michaela

2013-12-01

To identify the strengths and weaknesses of Spanish healthcare protocols for transsexual persons and to compare them to current international protocols. To review the current status as regards transsexuality etiology and prevalence. To suggest measures to optimize care to achieve a significant improvement, including options for saving financial resources. A comparison of the contents of texts related to transsexualism in the ICD-10, DSM-IV, and guidelines of the Spanish gender units with international standards of care for transgender persons and the last draft version of the DSM-5. Systematic revision of the literature related to the etiology and prevalence of transsexualism. Significant discrepancies have been found as regards the minimum time period for diagnosis, access to hormone replacement therapy and to genital surgery, and the requirement of the so-called real-life experience. Impact of sex hormones on the etiology of transsexualism and underestimation of its prevalence was confirmed. The access to hormonal and surgical treatment requires a profound review, and decentralization of transsexual care is recommended, because all university hospitals haves psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, and endocrinologists available. Although gender reassignment surgery also requires plastic surgery specialists, plastic surgeons currently receive training in this field. Copyright © 2012 SEEN. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

43 CFR 9268.2 - Natural history resource management procedures. [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Natural history resource management procedures. [Reserved] 9268.2 Section 9268.2 Public Lands: Interior Regulations Relating to Public Lands...-CRIMINAL Recreation Programs § 9268.2 Natural history resource management procedures. [Reserved] ...

43 CFR 9268.2 - Natural history resource management procedures. [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Natural history resource management procedures. [Reserved] 9268.2 Section 9268.2 Public Lands: Interior Regulations Relating to Public Lands...-CRIMINAL Recreation Programs § 9268.2 Natural history resource management procedures. [Reserved] ...

43 CFR 9268.2 - Natural history resource management procedures. [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Natural history resource management procedures. [Reserved] 9268.2 Section 9268.2 Public Lands: Interior Regulations Relating to Public Lands...-CRIMINAL Recreation Programs § 9268.2 Natural history resource management procedures. [Reserved] ...

43 CFR 9268.2 - Natural history resource management procedures. [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Natural history resource management procedures. [Reserved] 9268.2 Section 9268.2 Public Lands: Interior Regulations Relating to Public Lands...-CRIMINAL Recreation Programs § 9268.2 Natural history resource management procedures. [Reserved] ...

Development of Virtual Resource Based IoT Proxy for Bridging Heterogeneous Web Services in IoT Networks.

PubMed

Jin, Wenquan; Kim, DoHyeun

2018-05-26

The Internet of Things is comprised of heterogeneous devices, applications, and platforms using multiple communication technologies to connect the Internet for providing seamless services ubiquitously. With the requirement of developing Internet of Things products, many protocols, program libraries, frameworks, and standard specifications have been proposed. Therefore, providing a consistent interface to access services from those environments is difficult. Moreover, bridging the existing web services to sensor and actuator networks is also important for providing Internet of Things services in various industry domains. In this paper, an Internet of Things proxy is proposed that is based on virtual resources to bridge heterogeneous web services from the Internet to the Internet of Things network. The proxy enables clients to have transparent access to Internet of Things devices and web services in the network. The proxy is comprised of server and client to forward messages for different communication environments using the virtual resources which include the server for the message sender and the client for the message receiver. We design the proxy for the Open Connectivity Foundation network where the virtual resources are discovered by the clients as Open Connectivity Foundation resources. The virtual resources represent the resources which expose services in the Internet by web service providers. Although the services are provided by web service providers from the Internet, the client can access services using the consistent communication protocol in the Open Connectivity Foundation network. For discovering the resources to access services, the client also uses the consistent discovery interface to discover the Open Connectivity Foundation devices and virtual resources.

Pediatric Teleneurology: A Model of Epilepsy Care for Rural Populations.

PubMed

Velasquez, Sarah E; Chaves-Carballo, Enrique; Nelson, Eve-Lynn

2016-11-01

Approximately 2.7 million individuals in the United States are affected by epilepsy. It is the fourth most common neurological disorder and affects people of all ages, races, and economic backgrounds. In many rural states, the few pediatric neurologists commonly practice in the metropolitan areas. The inadequate resources present challenges for families residing in rural areas or with limited transportation resources. One remedy for this situation is to deliver pediatric neurology services to rural areas through videoconferencing. The University of Kansas Center for Telemedicine and Telehealth has been providing telemedicine consultations in various clinical specialties for 25 years, including mental health and teleneurology. On the basis of the telemedicine models provided at the University of Kansas Center for Telemedicine and Telehealth and other programs, we explain how to provide teleneurology services to rural communities while maintaining high quality care, including direction for assessing need, technology, privacy, administrative and clinical support, credentialing and legality, and sustainability. We provide a protocol for teleneurology development, outlining examples of needed staff, and measures to ensure a smooth implementation and execution, ending with an example of the current teleneurology clinic provided at the University of Kansas Center for Telemedicine and Telehealth. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Matching diagnosis and management of diabetes in pregnancy to local priorities and resources: an international approach.

PubMed

McIntyre, H David; Oats, Jeremy J N; Zeck, Willibald; Seshiah, V; Hod, Moshe

2011-11-01

The International Association of the Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups' (IADPSG) criteria for the diagnosis and classification of hyperglycemia in pregnancy are described and application of these in differing healthcare contexts on a worldwide basis is reported. Existing local protocols and known epidemiologic and clinical data regarding the detection and management of overt diabetes and gestational diabetes in the context of human pregnancy are considered. Although the IADPSG criteria are uniform, their introduction poses a variety of practical and technical challenges in differing healthcare contexts, both between and within countries. Knowledge of local factors will be vital in the implementation of the new guidelines and will require extensive liaison with local clinical and health policy groups. Resource availability will be critical in determining the type of treatment available in this context. The IADPSG criteria offer an important opportunity for a uniform approach to diabetes in pregnancy. Scaled implementation of these criteria adapted to a variety of local healthcare contexts should improve both research endeavors and patient care. Copyright © 2011 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Quality of service policy control in virtual private networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Yiqing; Wang, Hongbin; Zhou, Zhi; Zhou, Dongru

2004-04-01

This paper studies the QoS of VPN in an environment where the public network prices connection-oriented services based on source, destination and grade of service, and advertises these prices to its VPN customers (users). As different QoS technologies can produce different QoS, there are according different traffic classification rules and priority rules. The internet service provider (ISP) may need to build complex mechanisms separately for each node. In order to reduce the burden of network configuration, we need to design policy control technologies. We considers mainly directory server, policy server, policy manager and policy enforcers. Policy decision point (PDP) decide its control according to policy rules. In network, policy enforce point (PEP) decide its network controlled unit. For InterServ and DiffServ, we will adopt different policy control methods as following: (1) In InterServ, traffic uses resource reservation protocol (RSVP) to guarantee the network resource. (2) In DiffServ, policy server controls the DiffServ code points and per hop behavior (PHB), its PDP distributes information to each network node. Policy server will function as following: information searching; decision mechanism; decision delivering; auto-configuration. In order to prove the effectiveness of QoS policy control, we make the corrective simulation.

Dynamic Resource Adjustment to Provide Seamless Streaming Services on Multimedia Mobile Cellular Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Chow-Sing; Yen, Fang-Zhi

With the rapid advances in wireless network communication, multimedia presentation has become more applicable. However, due to the limited wireless network resource and the mobility of Mobile Host (MH), QoS for wireless streaming is much more difficult to maintain. How to decrease Call Dropping Probability (CDP) in multimedia traffic while still keeping acceptable Call Block Probability (CBP) without sacrificing QoS has become an significant issue in providing wireless streaming services. In this paper, we propose a novel Dynamic Resources Adjustment (DRA) algorithm, which can dynamically borrow idle reserved resources in the serving cell or the target cell for handoffing MHs to compensate the shortage of bandwidth in media streaming. The experimental simulation results show that compared with traditional No Reservation (NR), and Resource Reservation in the six neighboring cells (RR-nb), and Resource Reservation in the target cell (RR-t), our proposed DRA algorithm can fully utilize unused reserved resources to effectively decrease the CDP while still keeping acceptable CBP with high bandwidth utilization.

1995 National assessment of United States oil and gas resources; results, methodology, and supporting data

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gautier, Donald L.; Dolton, G.L.; Takahashi, K.I.; Varnes, K.L.

1995-01-01

This report summarizes the results of a 3-year study of the oil and gas resources of the onshore and state waters of the United States by the U.S. Geological Survey. A parallel study of the Federal offshore is being conducted by the Minerals Management Service. Estimates are made of technically recoverable oil, including measured (proved) reserves, future additions to reserves in existing fields, and undiscovered resources. Estimates are also made of the technically recoverable conventional resources of natural gas in measured reserves, in anticipated growth of reserves in existing fields, and in undiscovered resources. Additionally, an assessment is made of recoverable resources in continuous-type (largely unconventional) accumulations in sandstones, shales, chalks, and coal beds.

106-17 Telemetry Standards Chapter 7 Packet Telemetry Downlink

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-07-31

Acronyms IP Internet Protocol IPv4 Internet Protocol, Version 4 IPv6 Internet Protocol, Version 6 LLP low-latency PTDP MAC media access control...o 4’b0101: PT Internet Protocol (IP) Packet o 4’b0110: PT Chapter 24 TmNSMessage Packet o 4’b0111 – 4’b1111: Reserved • Fragment (bits 17 – 16...packet is defined as a free -running 12-bit counter. The PT test counter packet shall consist of one 12-bit word and shall be encoded as one 24-bit

30 CFR 402.8-402.9 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false [Reserved] 402.8-402.9 Section 402.8-402.9 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR WATER-RESOURCES RESEARCH PROGRAM AND THE WATER-RESOURCES TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM Description of Water-Resources Programs §§ 402.8-402.9...

30 CFR 402.8-402.9 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false [Reserved] 402.8-402.9 Section 402.8-402.9 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR WATER-RESOURCES RESEARCH PROGRAM AND THE WATER-RESOURCES TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM Description of Water-Resources Programs §§ 402.8-402.9...

30 CFR 402.8-402.9 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false [Reserved] 402.8-402.9 Section 402.8-402.9 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR WATER-RESOURCES RESEARCH PROGRAM AND THE WATER-RESOURCES TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM Description of Water-Resources Programs §§ 402.8-402.9...

30 CFR 402.8-402.9 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false [Reserved] 402.8-402.9 Section 402.8-402.9 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR WATER-RESOURCES RESEARCH PROGRAM AND THE WATER-RESOURCES TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM Description of Water-Resources Programs §§ 402.8-402.9...

30 CFR 402.8-402.9 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false [Reserved] 402.8-402.9 Section 402.8-402.9 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR WATER-RESOURCES RESEARCH PROGRAM AND THE WATER-RESOURCES TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM Description of Water-Resources Programs §§ 402.8-402.9...

Development of Genetic Occurrence Models for Geothermal Prospecting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walker, J. D.; Sabin, A.; Unruh, J.; Monastero, F. C.; Combs, J.

2007-12-01

Exploration for utility-grade geothermal resources has mostly relied on identifying obvious surface manifestations of possible geothermal activity, e.g., locating and working near steaming ground or hot springs. This approach has lead to the development of over 130 resources worldwide, but geothermal exploration done in this manner is akin to locating hydrocarbon plays by searching for oil seeps. Confining exploration to areas with such features will clearly not discover a blind resource, that is, one that does not have surface expression. Blind resources, however, constitute the vast majority of hydrocarbon plays; this may be the case for geothermal resources as well. We propose a geothermal exploration strategy for finding blind systems that is based on an understanding of the geologic processes that transfer heat from the mantle to the upper crust and foster the conditions for hydrothermal circulation or enhanced geothermal exploration. The strategy employs a genetically based screening protocol to assess potential geothermal sites. The approach starts at the plate boundary scale and progressively focuses in on the scale of a producing electrical-grade field. Any active margin or hot spot is a potential location for geothermal resources. Although Quaternary igneous activity provides a clear indication of active advection of hot material into the upper crust, it is not sufficient to guarantee a potential utility-grade resource. Active faulting and/or evidence of high strain rates appear to be the critical features associated with areas of utility-grade geothermal potential. This is because deformation on its own can advect sufficient heat into the upper crust to create conditions favorable for geothermal exploitation. In addition, active deformation is required to demonstrate that open pathways for circulation of geothermal fluids are present and/or can be maintained. The last step in the screening protocol is to identify any evidence of geothermal activity, including high heat flow, anomalous temperature water wells, high-temperature indications from aqueous geothermometry and geochemistry, Pliocene or younger ages from low-temperature thermochronometers, as well as more obvious factors such as geysers and fumaroles (which by definition will be missing for blind resources). Our occurrence-model strategy inverts the current approach that relies first on obvious evidence of geothermal activity. We evaluated our approach by retrospectively applying the protocol to the characteristics of producing geothermal fields, and in all cases, known resource areas fit the parameters identified from a genetic perspective.

Evaluating newly acquired authority of nurse practitioners and physician assistants for reserved medical procedures in the Netherlands: a study protocol

PubMed Central

De Bruijn-Geraets, Daisy P; Van Eijk-Hustings, Yvonne JL; Vrijhoef, Hubertus JM

2014-01-01

Aim The study protocol is designed to evaluate the effects of granting independent authorization for medical procedures to nurse practitioners and physician assistants on processes and outcomes of health care. Background Recent (temporarily) enacted legislation in Dutch health care authorizes nurse practitioners and physician assistants to indicate and perform specified medical procedures, i.e. catheterization, cardioversion, defibrillation, endoscopy, injection, puncture, prescribing and simple surgical procedures, independently. Formerly, these procedures were exclusively reserved to physicians, dentists and midwives. Design A triangulation mixed method design is used to collect quantitative (surveys) and qualitative (interviews) data. Methods Outcomes are selected from evidence-based frameworks and models for assessing the impact of advanced nursing on quality of health care. Data are collected in various manners. Surveys are structured around the domains: (i) quality of care; (ii) costs; (iii) healthcare resource use; and (iv) patient centredness. Focus group and expert interviews aim to ascertain facilitators and barriers to the implementation process. Data are collected before the amendment of the law, 1 and 2·5 years thereafter. Groups of patients, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, supervising physicians and policy makers all participate in this national study. The study is supported by a grant from the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport in March 2011. Research Ethics Committee approval was obtained in July 2011. Conclusion This study will provide information about the effects of granting independent authorization for medical procedures to nurse practitioners and physician assistants on processes and outcomes of health care. Study findings aim to support policy makers and other stakeholders in making related decisions. The study design enables a cross-national comparative analysis. PMID:24684631

76 FR 40338 - National Estuarine Research Reserve System

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-07-08

... Reserve System AGENCY: Estuarine Reserves Division, Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management.... SUMMARY: The Estuarine Reserves Division, Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, National Ocean... support reserve operations. The objectives described in this plan address the most critical coastal issues...

Examining Effects of Virtual Machine Settings on Voice over Internet Protocol in a Private Cloud Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liao, Yuan

2011-01-01

The virtualization of computing resources, as represented by the sustained growth of cloud computing, continues to thrive. Information Technology departments are building their private clouds due to the perception of significant cost savings by managing all physical computing resources from a single point and assigning them to applications or…

CLON: Overlay Networks and Gossip Protocols for Cloud Environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matos, Miguel; Sousa, António; Pereira, José; Oliveira, Rui; Deliot, Eric; Murray, Paul

Although epidemic or gossip-based multicast is a robust and scalable approach to reliable data dissemination, its inherent redundancy results in high resource consumption on both links and nodes. This problem is aggravated in settings that have costlier or resource constrained links as happens in Cloud Computing infrastructures composed by several interconnected data centers across the globe.

Effects of reduced-impact logging and forest physiognomy on bat populations of lowland Amazonian forest.

Treesearch

Steven J. Presley; Michael R. Willig; Wunderle Jr. Joseph M.; Luis Nélio Saldanha

2008-01-01

1.As human population size increases, demand for natural resources will increase. Logging pressure related to increasing demands continues to threaten remote areas of Amazonian forest. A harvest protocol is required to provide renewable timber resources that meet consumer needs while minimizing negative effects on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Reduced-impact...

30 CFR 402.14 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false [Reserved] 402.14 Section 402.14 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR WATER-RESOURCES RESEARCH PROGRAM AND THE WATER-RESOURCES TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM Application, Evaluation, and Management Procedures § 402.14...

30 CFR 402.14 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false [Reserved] 402.14 Section 402.14 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR WATER-RESOURCES RESEARCH PROGRAM AND THE WATER-RESOURCES TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM Application, Evaluation, and Management Procedures § 402.14...

30 CFR 402.14 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false [Reserved] 402.14 Section 402.14 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR WATER-RESOURCES RESEARCH PROGRAM AND THE WATER-RESOURCES TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM Application, Evaluation, and Management Procedures § 402.14...

30 CFR 402.14 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false [Reserved] 402.14 Section 402.14 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR WATER-RESOURCES RESEARCH PROGRAM AND THE WATER-RESOURCES TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM Application, Evaluation, and Management Procedures § 402.14...

30 CFR 402.14 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false [Reserved] 402.14 Section 402.14 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR WATER-RESOURCES RESEARCH PROGRAM AND THE WATER-RESOURCES TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM Application, Evaluation, and Management Procedures § 402.14...

Cost-Effective Encryption-Based Autonomous Routing Protocol for Efficient and Secure Wireless Sensor Networks.

PubMed

Saleem, Kashif; Derhab, Abdelouahid; Orgun, Mehmet A; Al-Muhtadi, Jalal; Rodrigues, Joel J P C; Khalil, Mohammed Sayim; Ali Ahmed, Adel

2016-03-31

The deployment of intelligent remote surveillance systems depends on wireless sensor networks (WSNs) composed of various miniature resource-constrained wireless sensor nodes. The development of routing protocols for WSNs is a major challenge because of their severe resource constraints, ad hoc topology and dynamic nature. Among those proposed routing protocols, the biology-inspired self-organized secure autonomous routing protocol (BIOSARP) involves an artificial immune system (AIS) that requires a certain amount of time to build up knowledge of neighboring nodes. The AIS algorithm uses this knowledge to distinguish between self and non-self neighboring nodes. The knowledge-building phase is a critical period in the WSN lifespan and requires active security measures. This paper proposes an enhanced BIOSARP (E-BIOSARP) that incorporates a random key encryption mechanism in a cost-effective manner to provide active security measures in WSNs. A detailed description of E-BIOSARP is presented, followed by an extensive security and performance analysis to demonstrate its efficiency. A scenario with E-BIOSARP is implemented in network simulator 2 (ns-2) and is populated with malicious nodes for analysis. Furthermore, E-BIOSARP is compared with state-of-the-art secure routing protocols in terms of processing time, delivery ratio, energy consumption, and packet overhead. The findings show that the proposed mechanism can efficiently protect WSNs from selective forwarding, brute-force or exhaustive key search, spoofing, eavesdropping, replaying or altering of routing information, cloning, acknowledgment spoofing, HELLO flood attacks, and Sybil attacks.

Cost-Effective Encryption-Based Autonomous Routing Protocol for Efficient and Secure Wireless Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Saleem, Kashif; Derhab, Abdelouahid; Orgun, Mehmet A.; Al-Muhtadi, Jalal; Rodrigues, Joel J. P. C.; Khalil, Mohammed Sayim; Ali Ahmed, Adel

2016-01-01

The deployment of intelligent remote surveillance systems depends on wireless sensor networks (WSNs) composed of various miniature resource-constrained wireless sensor nodes. The development of routing protocols for WSNs is a major challenge because of their severe resource constraints, ad hoc topology and dynamic nature. Among those proposed routing protocols, the biology-inspired self-organized secure autonomous routing protocol (BIOSARP) involves an artificial immune system (AIS) that requires a certain amount of time to build up knowledge of neighboring nodes. The AIS algorithm uses this knowledge to distinguish between self and non-self neighboring nodes. The knowledge-building phase is a critical period in the WSN lifespan and requires active security measures. This paper proposes an enhanced BIOSARP (E-BIOSARP) that incorporates a random key encryption mechanism in a cost-effective manner to provide active security measures in WSNs. A detailed description of E-BIOSARP is presented, followed by an extensive security and performance analysis to demonstrate its efficiency. A scenario with E-BIOSARP is implemented in network simulator 2 (ns-2) and is populated with malicious nodes for analysis. Furthermore, E-BIOSARP is compared with state-of-the-art secure routing protocols in terms of processing time, delivery ratio, energy consumption, and packet overhead. The findings show that the proposed mechanism can efficiently protect WSNs from selective forwarding, brute-force or exhaustive key search, spoofing, eavesdropping, replaying or altering of routing information, cloning, acknowledgment spoofing, HELLO flood attacks, and Sybil attacks. PMID:27043572

Shifting paradigms in diminished ovarian reserve and advanced reproductive age in assisted reproduction: customization instead of conformity.

PubMed

Reed, Beverly G; Babayev, Samir N; Bukulmez, Orhan

2015-05-01

As women are increasingly delaying childbearing into their 30s and beyond, diminished ovarian reserve (DOR) and advanced reproductive age (ARA) patients are bound to become a large proportion of all assisted reproductive technology practices. Traditional controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) protocols for DOR and/or ARA have had some limited success, but pregnancy rates are lower and cycle cancellation rates are higher than their younger counterparts with normal ovarian reserve. Though many physicians have a selection of favorite standard protocols that they use, patients with DOR may require closer monitoring and customization of the treatment cycle to address the common problems that come with low ovarian reserve. Frequent issues that surface in women with DOR and/or ARA include poor follicular response, premature luteinizing hormone surge, and poor embryo quality. Limited published evidence exists to guide treatment for DOR. However, use of minimal or mild doses of gonadotropins, avoidance of severe pituitary suppression, and consideration for luteal phase stimulation and a "freeze all" approach are possible customized treatment options that can be considered for such patients who have failed more traditional COS protocols. Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

A Qualitative Study of the Treatment Improvement Protocols (TIPs): An Assessment of the Use of TIPs by Individuals Affiliated with the Addiction Technology Transfer Centers (ATTCs).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hayashi, Susan W.; Suzuki, Marcia; Hubbard, Susan M.; Huang, Judy Y.; Cobb, Anita M.

2003-01-01

Evaluated the Addiction Technology Transfer Centers (ATTCs) of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) as a means of diffusion of innovations, focusing on use of the Treatment Improvement Protocols (TIPs). Qualitative studies at 6 ATTCs that included 57 interviews show that the CSAT is at the forefront of providing resources to the…

EMPReSS: European mouse phenotyping resource for standardized screens.

PubMed

Green, Eain C J; Gkoutos, Georgios V; Lad, Heena V; Blake, Andrew; Weekes, Joseph; Hancock, John M

2005-06-15

Standardized phenotyping protocols are essential for the characterization of phenotypes so that results are comparable between different laboratories and phenotypic data can be related to ontological descriptions in an automated manner. We describe a web-based resource for the visualization, searching and downloading of standard operating procedures and other documents, the European Mouse Phenotyping Resource for Standardized Screens-EMPReSS. Direct access: http://www.empress.har.mrc.ac.uk e.green@har.mrc.ac.uk.

Using principal component analysis for selecting network behavioral anomaly metrics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gregorio-de Souza, Ian; Berk, Vincent; Barsamian, Alex

2010-04-01

This work addresses new approaches to behavioral analysis of networks and hosts for the purposes of security monitoring and anomaly detection. Most commonly used approaches simply implement anomaly detectors for one, or a few, simple metrics and those metrics can exhibit unacceptable false alarm rates. For instance, the anomaly score of network communication is defined as the reciprocal of the likelihood that a given host uses a particular protocol (or destination);this definition may result in an unrealistically high threshold for alerting to avoid being flooded by false positives. We demonstrate that selecting and adapting the metrics and thresholds, on a host-by-host or protocol-by-protocol basis can be done by established multivariate analyses such as PCA. We will show how to determine one or more metrics, for each network host, that records the highest available amount of information regarding the baseline behavior, and shows relevant deviances reliably. We describe the methodology used to pick from a large selection of available metrics, and illustrate a method for comparing the resulting classifiers. Using our approach we are able to reduce the resources required to properly identify misbehaving hosts, protocols, or networks, by dedicating system resources to only those metrics that actually matter in detecting network deviations.

An Outline of Data Aggregation Security in Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks.

PubMed

Boubiche, Sabrina; Boubiche, Djallel Eddine; Bilami, Azzedine; Toral-Cruz, Homero

2016-04-12

Data aggregation processes aim to reduce the amount of exchanged data in wireless sensor networks and consequently minimize the packet overhead and optimize energy efficiency. Securing the data aggregation process is a real challenge since the aggregation nodes must access the relayed data to apply the aggregation functions. The data aggregation security problem has been widely addressed in classical homogeneous wireless sensor networks, however, most of the proposed security protocols cannot guarantee a high level of security since the sensor node resources are limited. Heterogeneous wireless sensor networks have recently emerged as a new wireless sensor network category which expands the sensor nodes' resources and capabilities. These new kinds of WSNs have opened new research opportunities where security represents a most attractive area. Indeed, robust and high security level algorithms can be used to secure the data aggregation at the heterogeneous aggregation nodes which is impossible in classical homogeneous WSNs. Contrary to the homogeneous sensor networks, the data aggregation security problem is still not sufficiently covered and the proposed data aggregation security protocols are numberless. To address this recent research area, this paper describes the data aggregation security problem in heterogeneous wireless sensor networks and surveys a few proposed security protocols. A classification and evaluation of the existing protocols is also introduced based on the adopted data aggregation security approach.

Children and youth's biopsychosocial wellbeing in the context of energy resource activities.

PubMed

Cox, Robin S; Irwin, Pamela; Scannell, Leila; Ungar, Michael; Bennett, Trevor Dixon

2017-10-01

Children and youth emerge as key populations that are impacted by energy resource activities, in part because of their developmental vulnerabilities, as well as the compounding effects of energy systems on their families, communities, and physical environments. While there is a larger literature focused on fossil fuel emissions and children, the impacts of many aspects of energy systems on children and youth remain under examined and scattered throughout the health, social science, and environmental science literatures. This systematic interdisciplinary review examines the biological, psychosocial, and economic impacts of energy systems identified through social science research - specifically focused on household and industrial extraction and emissions - on children and youth functioning. A critical interpretive search of interdisciplinary and international social sciences literature was conducted using an adaptive protocol focusing on the biopsychosocial and economic impacts of energy systems on children and youth. The initial results were complemented with a purposeful search to extend the breadth and depth of the final collection of articles. Although relatively few studies have specifically focused on children and youth in this context, the majority of this research uncovers a range of negative health impacts that are directly and indirectly related to the development and ongoing operations of natural resource production, particularly oil and gas, coal, and nuclear energy. Psychosocial and cultural effects, however, remain largely unexamined and provide a rich avenue for further research. This synthesis identifies an array of adverse biopsychosocial health outcomes on children and youth of energy resource extraction and emissions, and identifies gaps that will drive future research in this area. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Incorporating Brokers within Collaboration Environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rajasekar, A.; Moore, R.; de Torcy, A.

2013-12-01

A collaboration environment, such as the integrated Rule Oriented Data System (iRODS - http://irods.diceresearch.org), provides interoperability mechanisms for accessing storage systems, authentication systems, messaging systems, information catalogs, networks, and policy engines from a wide variety of clients. The interoperability mechanisms function as brokers, translating actions requested by clients to the protocol required by a specific technology. The iRODS data grid is used to enable collaborative research within hydrology, seismology, earth science, climate, oceanography, plant biology, astronomy, physics, and genomics disciplines. Although each domain has unique resources, data formats, semantics, and protocols, the iRODS system provides a generic framework that is capable of managing collaborative research initiatives that span multiple disciplines. Each interoperability mechanism (broker) is linked to a name space that enables unified access across the heterogeneous systems. The collaboration environment provides not only support for brokers, but also support for virtualization of name spaces for users, files, collections, storage systems, metadata, and policies. The broker enables access to data or information in a remote system using the appropriate protocol, while the collaboration environment provides a uniform naming convention for accessing and manipulating each object. Within the NSF DataNet Federation Consortium project (http://www.datafed.org), three basic types of interoperability mechanisms have been identified and applied: 1) drivers for managing manipulation at the remote resource (such as data subsetting), 2) micro-services that execute the protocol required by the remote resource, and 3) policies for controlling the execution. For example, drivers have been written for manipulating NetCDF and HDF formatted files within THREDDS servers. Micro-services have been written that manage interactions with the CUAHSI data repository, the DataONE information catalog, and the GeoBrain broker. Policies have been written that manage transfer of messages between an iRODS message queue and the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol. Examples of these brokering mechanisms will be presented. The DFC collaboration environment serves as the intermediary between community resources and compute grids, enabling reproducible data-driven research. It is possible to create an analysis workflow that retrieves data subsets from a remote server, assemble the required input files, automate the execution of the workflow, automatically track the provenance of the workflow, and share the input files, workflow, and output files. A collaborator can re-execute a shared workflow, compare results, change input files, and re-execute an analysis.

Comparative Analgesic Efficacy of Pregabalin Administered According to Either a Prevention Protocol or an Intervention Protocol in Rats with Cisplatin-induced Peripheral Neuropathy.

PubMed

Han, F Y; Kuo, A; Nicholson, J R; Corradinni, L; Smith, M T

2018-05-21

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is a type of peripheral neuropathic pain that may be dose-limiting in patients administered potentially curative cancer chemotherapy dosing regimens. In cancer survivors, persistent CIPN adversely affects patient quality of life and so adjuvant drugs (anticonvulsants e.g. pregabalin or antidepressants e.g. amitriptyline) are recommended for the relief of CIPN. However, most studies in rodent models of CIPN involve administration of single bolus doses of adjuvant drugs to assess pain-relieving efficacy. Hence this study was designed to assess the efficacy of pregabalin administered to CIPN-rats according to either a prevention or an intervention protocol. Groups of male Sprague-Dawley rats received four single intraperitoneal bolus doses of cisplatin at 3 mg/kg at once-weekly intervals to induce CIPN. For the prevention protocol, oral pregabalin (or vehicle) was administered to CIPN-rats once-daily for 21 consecutive days from day 0 to day 20 inclusive. For the intervention protocol, oral pregabalin was administered once-daily for 21 consecutive days from day 28 to day 48 inclusive. Mechanical allodynia and mechanical hyperalgesia in the bilateral hindpaws were assessed just prior to each dose of cisplatin and at least once-weekly until study completion (day 27, prevention protocol; or day 48, intervention protocol). Mechanical allodynia and mechanical hyperalgesia were also determined at the time of peak effect at ~2 h post- pregabalin/vehicle administration once-weekly until study completion. For the prevention protocol in CIPN-rats, pregabalin alleviated mechanical hyperalgesia but not mechanical allodynia. For the intervention protocol, pregabalin alleviated both mechanical allodynia and mechanical hyperalgesia in the hindpaws. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Synthesizing Existing CSMA and TDMA Based MAC Protocols for VANETs

PubMed Central

Huang, Jiawei; Li, Qi; Zhong, Shaohua; Liu, Lianhai; Zhong, Ping; Wang, Jianxin; Ye, Jin

2017-01-01

Many Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) and Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) based medium access control (MAC) protocols for vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) have been proposed recently. Contrary to the common perception that they are competitors, we argue that the underlying strategies used in these MAC protocols are complementary. Based on this insight, we design CTMAC, a MAC protocol that synthesizes existing strategies; namely, random accessing channel (used in CSMA-style protocols) and arbitral reserving channel (used in TDMA-based protocols). CTMAC swiftly changes its strategy according to the vehicle density, and its performance is better than the state-of-the-art protocols. We evaluate CTMAC using at-scale simulations. Our results show that CTMAC reduces the channel completion time and increases the network goodput by 45% for a wide range of application workloads and network settings. PMID:28208590

Usefulness of multiqubit W-type states in quantum information processing

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

Singh, P.; Adhikari, S.; Kumar, A., E-mail: atulk@iitj.ac.in

We analyze the efficiency of multiqubit W-type states as resources for quantum information. For this, we identify and generalize four-qubit W-type states. Our results show that these states can be used as resources for deterministic quantum information processing. The utility of results, however, is limited by the availability of experimental setups to perform and distinguish multiqubit measurements. We therefore emphasize protocols where two users want to establish an optimal bipartite entanglement using the partially entangled W-type states. We find that for such practical purposes, four-qubit W-type states can be a better resource in comparison to three-qubit W-type states. For amore » dense coding protocol, our states can be used deterministically to send two bits of classical message by locally manipulating a single qubit. In addition, we also propose a realistic experimental method to prepare the four-qubit W-type states using standard unitary operations and weak measurements.« less

Improving Service Management in the Internet of Things

PubMed Central

Sammarco, Chiara; Iera, Antonio

2012-01-01

In the Internet of Things (IoT) research arena, many efforts are devoted to adapt the existing IP standards to emerging IoT nodes. This is the direction followed by three Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Working Groups, which paved the way for research on IP-based constrained networks. Through a simplification of the whole TCP/IP stack, resource constrained nodes become direct interlocutors of application level entities in every point of the network. In this paper we analyze some side effects of this solution, when in the presence of large amounts of data to transmit. In particular, we conduct a performance analysis of the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP), a widely accepted web transfer protocol for the Internet of Things, and propose a service management enhancement that improves the exploitation of the network and node resources. This is specifically thought for constrained nodes in the abovementioned conditions and proves to be able to significantly improve the node energetic performance when in the presence of large resource representations (hence, large data transmissions).

Assessment of Three “WHO” Patient Safety Solutions: Where Do We Stand and What Can We Do?

PubMed Central

Banihashemi, Sheida; Hatam, Nahid; Zand, Farid; Kharazmi, Erfan; Nasimi, Soheila; Askarian, Mehrdad

2015-01-01

Background: Most medical errors are preventable. The aim of this study was to compare the current execution of the 3 patient safety solutions with WHO suggested actions and standards. Methods: Data collection forms and direct observation were used to determine the status of implementation of existing protocols, resources, and tools. Results: In the field of patient hand-over, there was no standardized approach. In the field of the performance of correct procedure at the correct body site, there were no safety checklists, guideline, and educational content for informing the patients and their families about the procedure. In the field of hand hygiene (HH), although availability of necessary resources was acceptable, availability of promotional HH posters and reminders was substandard. Conclusions: There are some limitations of resources, protocols, and standard checklists in all three areas. We designed some tools that will help both wards to improve patient safety by the implementation of adapted WHO suggested actions. PMID:26900434

Outcomes from a university-based low-cost in vitro fertilization program providing access to care for a low-resource socioculturally diverse urban community.

PubMed

Herndon, Christopher N; Anaya, Yanett; Noel, Martha; Cakmak, Hakan; Cedars, Marcelle I

2017-10-01

To report on outcomes from a university-based low-cost and low-complexity IVF program using mild stimulation approaches and simplified protocols to provide basic access to ART to a socioculturally diverse low-income urban population. Retrospective cohort study. Academic infertility center. Sixty-five infertile couples were enrolled from a county hospital serving a low-resource largely immigrant population. Patients were nonrandomly allocated to one of four mild stimulation protocols: clomiphene/letrozole alone, two clomiphene/letrozole-based protocols involving sequential or flare addition of low-dose gonadotropins, and low-dose gonadotropins alone. Clinical fellows managed all aspects of cycle preparation, monitoring, oocyte retrieval, and embryo transfer under an attending preceptor. Retrieval was undertaken without administration of deep anesthesia, and laboratory interventions were minimized. All embryo transfers were performed at the cleavage stage. Sociomedical demographics, treatment response, and pregnancy outcomes were recorded. From August 2010 to June 2016, 65 patients initiated 161 stimulation IVF cycles, which resulted in 107 retrievals, 91 fresh embryo transfers, and 40 frozen embryo transfer cycles. The mean age of patients was 33.3 years, and mean reported duration of infertility was 5.3 years; 33.5% (54/161) of cycles were cancelled before oocyte retrieval, with 13% due to premature ovulation. Overall, cumulative live birth rates per retrieval including subsequent use of frozen embryos was 29.0%; 44.6% (29/65) of patients enrolled in the program achieved pregnancy. Use of mild stimulation protocols, simplified monitoring, and minimized laboratory handling procedures enabled access to care in a low-resource socioculturally diverse infertile population. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Storage quality-of-service in cloud-based scientific environments: a standardization approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Millar, Paul; Fuhrmann, Patrick; Hardt, Marcus; Ertl, Benjamin; Brzezniak, Maciej

2017-10-01

When preparing the Data Management Plan for larger scientific endeavors, PIs have to balance between the most appropriate qualities of storage space along the line of the planned data life-cycle, its price and the available funding. Storage properties can be the media type, implicitly determining access latency and durability of stored data, the number and locality of replicas, as well as available access protocols or authentication mechanisms. Negotiations between the scientific community and the responsible infrastructures generally happen upfront, where the amount of storage space, media types, like: disk, tape and SSD and the foreseeable data life-cycles are negotiated. With the introduction of cloud management platforms, both in computing and storage, resources can be brokered to achieve the best price per unit of a given quality. However, in order to allow the platform orchestrator to programmatically negotiate the most appropriate resources, a standard vocabulary for different properties of resources and a commonly agreed protocol to communicate those, has to be available. In order to agree on a basic vocabulary for storage space properties, the storage infrastructure group in INDIGO-DataCloud together with INDIGO-associated and external scientific groups, created a working group under the umbrella of the Research Data Alliance (RDA). As communication protocol, to query and negotiate storage qualities, the Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI) has been selected. Necessary extensions to CDMI are defined in regular meetings between INDIGO and the Storage Network Industry Association (SNIA). Furthermore, INDIGO is contributing to the SNIA CDMI reference implementation as the basis for interfacing the various storage systems in INDIGO to the agreed protocol and to provide an official Open-Source skeleton for systems not being maintained by INDIGO partners.

Spatially distributed multipartite entanglement enables EPR steering of atomic clouds.

PubMed

Kunkel, Philipp; Prüfer, Maximilian; Strobel, Helmut; Linnemann, Daniel; Frölian, Anika; Gasenzer, Thomas; Gärttner, Martin; Oberthaler, Markus K

2018-04-27

A key resource for distributed quantum-enhanced protocols is entanglement between spatially separated modes. However, the robust generation and detection of entanglement between spatially separated regions of an ultracold atomic system remain a challenge. We used spin mixing in a tightly confined Bose-Einstein condensate to generate an entangled state of indistinguishable particles in a single spatial mode. We show experimentally that this entanglement can be spatially distributed by self-similar expansion of the atomic cloud. We used spatially resolved spin read-out to reveal a particularly strong form of quantum correlations known as Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering between distinct parts of the expanded cloud. Based on the strength of EPR steering, we constructed a witness, which confirmed genuine 5-partite entanglement. Copyright © 2018 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.

Achieving Full Neurological Recovery in Snakebite using Best Supportive Care.

PubMed

Wright, Sally; Haddock, Genevieve

2018-05-14

A 29-year-old woman presented to a community hospital in Sierra Leone 2 hours after being bitten by an unknown snake. On arrival, she was agitated though alert, however deteriorated into respiratory arrest. There was no local availability of antivenom. The patient remained in respiratory arrest undergoing best supportive care in a low-resource setting for 2 hours 55 minutes before returning to spontaneous ventilation. She went on to make a full neurological recovery. Though spontaneous recovery following snakebite envenoming is rare, this case showcases that good communication and basic manoeuvres can have a hugely positive impact on patient outcome. Alongside this, it highlights the need for staff and community engagement and implementation of local protocols in order to improve confidence and achieve consistent practice. © BMJ Publishing Group Ltd (unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

The role of fragment-based and computational methods in polypharmacology.

PubMed

Bottegoni, Giovanni; Favia, Angelo D; Recanatini, Maurizio; Cavalli, Andrea

2012-01-01

Polypharmacology-based strategies are gaining increased attention as a novel approach to obtaining potentially innovative medicines for multifactorial diseases. However, some within the pharmaceutical community have resisted these strategies because they can be resource-hungry in the early stages of the drug discovery process. Here, we report on fragment-based and computational methods that might accelerate and optimize the discovery of multitarget drugs. In particular, we illustrate that fragment-based approaches can be particularly suited for polypharmacology, owing to the inherent promiscuous nature of fragments. In parallel, we explain how computer-assisted protocols can provide invaluable insights into how to unveil compounds theoretically able to bind to more than one protein. Furthermore, several pragmatic aspects related to the use of these approaches are covered, thus offering the reader practical insights on multitarget-oriented drug discovery projects. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Neuroimaging follow-up of cerebral aneurysms treated with endovascular techniques].

PubMed

Delgado, F; Saiz, A; Hilario, A; Murias, E; San Román Manzanera, L; Lagares Gomez-Abascal, A; Gabarrós, A; González García, A

2014-01-01

There are no specific recommendations in clinical guidelines about the best time, imaging tests, or intervals for following up patients with intracranial aneurysms treated with endovascular techniques. We reviewed the literature, using the following keywords to search in the main medical databases: cerebral aneurysm, coils, endovascular procedure, and follow-up. Within the Cerebrovascular Disease Group of the Spanish Society of Neuroradiology, we aimed to propose recommendations and an orientative protocol based on the scientific evidence for using neuroimaging to monitor intracranial aneurysms that have been treated with endovascular techniques. We aimed to specify the most appropriate neuroimaging techniques, the interval, the time of follow-up, and the best approach to defining the imaging findings, with the ultimate goal of improving clinical outcomes while optimizing and rationalizing the use of available resources. Copyright © 2013 SERAM. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Unification of quantum information theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abeyesinghe, Anura

We present the unification of many previously disparate results in noisy quantum Shannon theory and the unification of all of noiseless quantum Shannon theory. More specifically we deal here with bipartite, unidirectional, and memoryless quantum Shannon theory. We find all the optimal protocols and quantify the relationship between the resources used, both for the one-shot and for the ensemble case, for what is arguably the most fundamental task in quantum information theory: sharing entangled states between a sender and a receiver. We find that all of these protocols are derived from our one-shot superdense coding protocol and relate nicely to each other. We then move on to noisy quantum information theory and give a simple, direct proof of the "mother" protocol, or rather her generalization to the Fully Quantum Slepian-Wolf protocol (FQSW). FQSW simultaneously accomplishes two goals: quantum communication-assisted entanglement distillation, and state transfer from the sender to the receiver. As a result, in addition to her other "children," the mother protocol generates the state merging primitive of Horodecki, Oppenheim, and Winter as well as a new class of distributed compression protocols for correlated quantum sources, which are optimal for sources described by separable density operators. Moreover, the mother protocol described here is easily transformed into the so-called "father" protocol, demonstrating that the division of single-sender/single-receiver protocols into two families was unnecessary: all protocols in the family are children of the mother.

Global Connections for Lasting Impressions: Experiential Learning about TCP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Allison, Colin; Miller, Alan; Oliver, Iain; Sturgeon, Thomas

“Tell me and I forget, Show me and I remember, Involve me and I understand”. This paper discusses the motivation for, and design of, a learning resource which allows students to explore the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). TCP is responsible for transporting over 80% of the traffic on the Internet - all web and e-mail for example - and in addition is the primary means of achieving Internet congestion control. TCP is therefore core to modern life. It is a protocol under constant study with a view to evolution, and it is incumbent on all ICT curricula to provide education at appropriate levels about its dynamics, strengths and weaknesses. There are no shortages of good textbooks which provide information on TCP, but these are no substitute for experiential learning in order to provide a lasting understanding. The TCP Live learning resource allows students to explore the behavior of TCP on the global Internet, and see the wide variety of conditions that the protocol has to cope with, thereby extending their viewpoint outwith the limited scope of their own institutional firewalls.

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

Hummon, M.; Kiliccote, S.

Demand response (DR) resources present a potentially important source of grid flexibility however, DR in grid models is limited by data availability and modeling complexity. This presentation focuses on the co-optimization of DR resources to provide energy and ancillary services in a production cost model of the Colorado "test system". We assume each DR resource can provide energy services by either shedding load or shifting its use between different times, as well as operating reserves: frequency regulation, contingency reserve, and flexibility (or ramping) reserve. There are significant variations in the availabilities of different types of DR resources, which affect bothmore » the operational savings as well as the revenue for each DR resource. The results presented include the system-wide avoided fuel and generator start-up costs as well as the composite revenue for each DR resource by energy and operating reserves.« less

1995 National Assessment of United States Oil and Gas Resources: Results, Methodology, and Supporting Data

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gautier, Donald L.; Dolton, Gordon L.; Takahashi, Kenneth I.; Varnes, Katharine L.

1996-01-01

This revised CD-ROM summarizes the results, released in 1995, of the 3-year study of the oil and gas resources of the onshore and state waters of the United States. Minor errors in the original DDS-30 (listed in DDS-35 and DDS-36) are corrected in this revised version and in the data files now released in DDS-35 and DDS-36. Estimates are made of technically recoverable oil, including measured (proved) reserves, future additions to reserves in existing fields, and undiscovered resources. Estimates are also made of the technically recoverable conventional resources of natural gas in measured reserves, in anticipated growth of reserves in existing fields, and in undiscovered resources. Additionally, an assessment is made of recoverable resources in continuous-type (largely unconventional) accumulations in sandstones, shales, chalks, and coal beds.

Open-Source Data Collection Techniques for Weapons Transfer Information

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-03-01

IR Infrared ISO International Organization for Standardization ITAR International Traffic in Arms Regulations NER Named Entity Recognition NLP ...Control Protocol UAE United Arab Emirates URI Uniform Resource Identifier URL Uniform Resource Locator USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics UTF...KOREA, DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF North Korea KOREA, REPUBLIC OF South Korea LIBYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA Libya RUSSIAN FEDERATION Russia Table 3

ModerateDrinking.com and Moderation Management: Outcomes of a Randomized Clinical Trial with Non-Dependent Problem Drinkers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hester, Reid K.; Delaney, Harold D.; Campbell, William

2011-01-01

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a web-based protocol, ModerateDrinking.com (MD; "www.moderatedrinking.com") combined with use of the online resources of Moderation Management (MM; "www.moderation.org") as opposed to the use of the online resources of MM alone. Method: We randomly assigned 80 problem drinkers to…

A Transcultural Wisdom Bank in the Classroom: Making Cultural Diversity a Key Resource in Teaching and Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Jui-shan

2006-01-01

This article presents an account of how the author has made cultural diversity a powerful pedagogical resource for teaching rather than a burden. It is suggested that such an approach can deliver real educational benefits, rather than simply being a protocol to meet the requirements of "political correctness" or commercial imperatives. The issues…

Towards Dynamic Service Level Agreement Negotiation:An Approach Based on WS-Agreement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pichot, Antoine; Wäldrich, Oliver; Ziegler, Wolfgang; Wieder, Philipp

In Grid, e-Science and e-Business environments, Service Level Agreements are often used to establish frameworks for the delivery of services between service providers and the organisations hosting the researchers. While this high level SLAs define the overall quality of the services, it is desirable for the end-user to have dedicated service quality also for individual services like the orchestration of resources necessary for composed services. Grid level scheduling services typically are responsible for the orchestration and co-ordination of resources in the Grid. Co-allocation e.g. requires the Grid level scheduler to co-ordinate resource management systems located in different domains. As the site autonomy has to be respected negotiation is the only way to achieve the intended co-ordination. SLAs emerged as a new way to negotiate and manage usage of resources in the Grid and are already adopted by a number of management systems. Therefore, it is natural to look for ways to adopt SLAs for Grid level scheduling. In order to do this, efficient and flexible protocols are needed, which support dynamic negotiation and creation of SLAs. In this paper we propose and discuss extensions to the WS-Agreement protocol addressing these issues.

Assessing U.S. coal resources and reserves

USGS Publications Warehouse

Shaffer, Brian N.

2017-09-27

The U.S. Coal Resources and Reserves Assessment Project, as part of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Energy Resources Program, conducts systematic, geology-based, regional assessments of significant coal beds in major coal basins in the United States. These assessments detail the quantity, quality, location, and economic potential of the Nation’s remaining coal resources and reserves and provide objective scientific information that assists in the formulation of energy strategies, environmental policies, land-use management practices, and economic projections.

Coal geology and assessment of coal resources and reserves in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming and Montana

USGS Publications Warehouse

Luppens, James A.; Scott, David C.

2015-01-01

This report presents the final results of the first assessment of both coal resources and reserves for all significant coal beds in the entire Powder River Basin, northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana. The basin covers about 19,500 square miles, exclusive of the part of the basin within the Crow and Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservations in Montana. The Powder River Basin, which contains the largest resources of low-sulfur, low-ash, subbituminous coal in the United States, is the single most important coal basin in the United States. The U.S. Geological Survey used a geology-based assessment methodology to estimate an original coal resource of about 1.16 trillion short tons for 47 coal beds in the Powder River Basin; in-place (remaining) resources are about 1.15 trillion short tons. This is the first time that all beds were mapped individually over the entire basin. A total of 162 billion short tons of recoverable coal resources (coal reserve base) are estimated at a 10:1 stripping ratio or less. An estimated 25 billion short tons of that coal reserve base met the definition of reserves, which are resources that can be economically produced at or below the current sales price at the time of the evaluation. The total underground coal resource in coal beds 10–20 feet thick is estimated at 304 billion short tons.

Virtual Global Transplant Laboratory Standard Operating Procedures for Blood Collection, PBMC Isolation, and Storage.

PubMed

Higdon, Lauren E; Lee, Karim; Tang, Qizhi; Maltzman, Jonathan S

2016-09-01

Research on human immune responses frequently involves the use of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) immediately, or at significantly delayed timepoints, after collection. This requires PBMC isolation from whole blood and cryopreservation for some applications. It is important to standardize protocols for blood collection, PBMC isolation, cryopreservation, and thawing that maximize survival and functionality of PBMC at the time of analysis. This resource includes detailed protocols describing blood collection tubes, isolation of PBMC using a density gradient, cryopreservation of PBMC, and thawing of cells as well as preparation for functional assays. For each protocol, we include important considerations, such as timing, storage temperatures, and freezing rate. In addition, we provide alternatives so that researchers can make informed decisions in determining the optimal protocol for their application.

Practical quantum coin flipping

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

Pappa, Anna; Diamanti, Eleni; Chailloux, Andre

2011-11-15

We show that in the unconditional security model, a single quantum strong coin flip with security guarantees that are strictly better than in any classical protocol is possible to implement with current technology. Our protocol takes into account all aspects of an experimental implementation, including losses, multiphoton pulses emitted by practical photon sources, channel noise, detector dark counts, and finite quantum efficiency. We calculate the abort probability when both players are honest, as well as the probability of one player forcing his desired outcome. For a channel length up to 21 km and commonly used parameter values, we can achievemore » honest abort and cheating probabilities that are better than in any classical protocol. Our protocol is, in principle, implementable using attenuated laser pulses, with no need for entangled photons or any other specific resources.« less

Carbon Offsets in California: What Role for Earth Scientists in the Policy Process? (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cullenward, D.; Strong, A. L.

2013-12-01

This talk addresses the policy structure in California for developing and approving carbon offset protocols, which rely on findings from the environmental and earth sciences communities. In addition to providing an overview of the legal requirements of carbon offsets, we describe a series of case studies of how scientists can engage with policymakers. Based on those experiences, we suggest ways for the earth sciences community to become more involved in climate policy development. California's climate law, known as AB 32, requires that major sectors of the state's economy reduce their emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. As part of AB 32, the California Air Resources Board created a cap-and-trade market to ensure compliance with the statutory target. Under this system, regulated companies have to acquire tradable emissions permits (called 'compliance instruments') for the greenhouse gas emissions they release. The State allocates a certain number of allowances to regulated entities through a mixture of auctions and free transfers, with the total number equal to the overall emissions target; these allowances, along with approved offsets credits, are the compliance instruments that regulated entities are required to obtain by law. One of the key policy design issues in California's cap-and-trade market concerns the use of carbon offsets. Under AB 32, the Air Resources Board can issue offset credits to project developers who reduce emissions outside of the capped sectors (electricity, industry, and transportation)--or even outside of California--pursuant to approved offset protocols. Project developers then sell the credits to regulated companies in California. Essentially, offsets allow regulated entities in California to earn credit for emissions reductions that take place outside the scope of AB 32. Many regulated entities and economists are in favor of offsets because they view them as a source of low-cost compliance instruments. On the other hand, critics argue that some offset protocols award credits for activities that would have occurred anyway; by replacing a company's need to acquire an allowance in the carbon market, critics believe that poorly designed offset protocols increase greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, the effectiveness of the policy approach depends on the scientific integrity of the offset protocols. To date, California has approved offset protocols for emissions reductions in four applications: (1) forestry, (2) urban forestry, (3) livestock, and (4) destruction of ozone-depleting substances. In addition, the State is currently considering protocols that would address (5) methane emissions from mining and (6) greenhouse gas reductions from improved rice cultivation practices. These protocols rely heavily on findings from the environmental and earth sciences communities, especially when the protocol subject involves land use or land use change. Yet, due to budget constraints, the Air Resources Board is relying primarily on third-party protocol developers to design and propose the detailed structures under which offset credits will be issued. Despite the fact that any member of the public may participate in the governance regime that leads to protocol approvals, few scientists or scientific organizations provide input into the policy process. We use case studies from several of the California protocols to illustrate ways scientists can apply their skills to a crucial stage of climate policy development.

Recent revisions of phosphate rock reserves and resources: a critique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Edixhoven, J. D.; Gupta, J.; Savenije, H. H. G.

2014-12-01

Phosphate rock (PR) is a finite mineral indispensable for fertilizer production, while P (phosphorus) is a major pollutant if applied or discharged in excess, causing widespread eutrophication (Carpenter and Bennet, 2011). High-grade PR is obtained from deposits which took millions of years to form and which are gradually being depleted. Recently, global PR reserves as reported by the US Geological Survey (USGS) have increased from 16 000 Mt PR in 2010 to 65 000 Mt PR in 2011 and further to 67 000 Mt PR in 2014. The majority of this 4-fold increase is based on a 2010 report by the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC), which increased Moroccan reserves from 5700 Mt PR as reported by USGS, to 51 000 Mt PR, reported as upgraded ("beneficiated") concentrate. The report also increased global resources from 163 000 Mt PR reported in the literature in 1989 to 290 000 Mt PR. IFDC used a simplified resource terminology which does not use the underlying thresholds for reserves and resources used in the USGS classification. IFDC proposed that agreement should be reached on PR resource terminology which should be as simple as possible. The report has profoundly influenced the PR scarcity debate, shifting the emphasis from resource scarcity to the pollution angle of the phosphate problem. In view of the high dependence of food production on PR and the importance of data on PR reserves and resources for scientific analysis and policy making, data on PR deposits should be transparent, comparable, reliable, and credible. We analyze (i) how IFDC's simplified terminology compares to international best practice in resource classification and whether it is likely to yield data that meet these requirements, (ii) whether the difference in volume between raw PR ore and upgraded PR concentrate is sufficiently noted in the literature, and (iii) whether the IFDC report presents an accurate picture of PR reserves and resources. We conclude that, while there is a global development toward common criteria in resource reporting, IFDC's lack of clear thresholds for reserves and resources contravenes this and that the vagueness of its definitions for reserves and resources may allow deposits to be termed reserves or resources which could not be recognized as such under leading mineral resource classifications. The difference between PR ore and PR concentrate is barely noted in the literature, causing pervasive confusion and a significant degree of error in many assessments. Finally, we find that the report most likely presents an inflated picture of global reserves, in particular those of Morocco, where the aggregate resources of three of the four Moroccan/Western Saharan major PR deposits appear to have been simply converted to "reserves". Following the release of the IFDC report, various analysts have concluded or suggested that the available PR deposits or even the currently reported resources would likely last several thousands of years at current consumption rates. However, the data on which these statements were based do not appear to warrant such a conclusion. Further research is required as to the quantity of PR deposits and their viability for future extraction, using uniform and transparent classification terminology.

CoR-MAC: Contention over Reservation MAC Protocol for Time-Critical Services in Wireless Body Area Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Yu, Jeongseok; Park, Laihyuk; Park, Junho; Cho, Sungrae; Keum, Changsup

2016-01-01

Reserving time slots for urgent data, such as life-critical information, seems to be very attractive to guarantee their deadline requirements in wireless body area sensor networks (WBASNs). On the other hand, this reservation imposes a negative impact on performance for the utilization of a channel. This paper proposes a new channel access scheme referred to as the contention over reservation MAC (CoR-MAC) protocol for time-critical services in wireless body area sensor networks. CoR-MAC uses the dual reservation; if the reserved time slots are known to be vacant, other nodes can access the time slots by contention-based reservation to maximize the utilization of a channel and decrease the delay of the data. To measure the effectiveness of the proposed scheme against IEEE 802.15.4 and IEEE 802.15.6, we evaluated their performances with various performance indexes. The CoR-MAC showed 50% to 850% performance improvement in terms of the delay of urgent and time-critical data according to the number of nodes. PMID:27171085

Quantum error correction assisted by two-way noisy communication

PubMed Central

Wang, Zhuo; Yu, Sixia; Fan, Heng; Oh, C. H.

2014-01-01

Pre-shared non-local entanglement dramatically simplifies and improves the performance of quantum error correction via entanglement-assisted quantum error-correcting codes (EAQECCs). However, even considering the noise in quantum communication only, the non-local sharing of a perfectly entangled pair is technically impossible unless additional resources are consumed, such as entanglement distillation, which actually compromises the efficiency of the codes. Here we propose an error-correcting protocol assisted by two-way noisy communication that is more easily realisable: all quantum communication is subjected to general noise and all entanglement is created locally without additional resources consumed. In our protocol the pre-shared noisy entangled pairs are purified simultaneously by the decoding process. For demonstration, we first present an easier implementation of the well-known EAQECC [[4, 1, 3; 1

Quantum error correction assisted by two-way noisy communication.

PubMed

Wang, Zhuo; Yu, Sixia; Fan, Heng; Oh, C H

2014-11-26

Pre-shared non-local entanglement dramatically simplifies and improves the performance of quantum error correction via entanglement-assisted quantum error-correcting codes (EAQECCs). However, even considering the noise in quantum communication only, the non-local sharing of a perfectly entangled pair is technically impossible unless additional resources are consumed, such as entanglement distillation, which actually compromises the efficiency of the codes. Here we propose an error-correcting protocol assisted by two-way noisy communication that is more easily realisable: all quantum communication is subjected to general noise and all entanglement is created locally without additional resources consumed. In our protocol the pre-shared noisy entangled pairs are purified simultaneously by the decoding process. For demonstration, we first present an easier implementation of the well-known EAQECC [[4, 1, 3; 1

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

USGS Publications Warehouse

Marion, Jeffrey L.; Leung, Yu-Fai

2011-01-01

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

Stream Mitigation Protocol Compendium - 2004

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This document is intended as a reference in order to select, adapt, or devise stream assessment methods appropriate for impact assessment and mitigation of fluvial resources in the CWA Section 404 Program.

30 CFR 585.911 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false [Reserved] 585.911 Section 585.911 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR OFFSHORE RENEWABLE ENERGY AND....911 [Reserved] Decommissioning Report ...

30 CFR 585.911 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false [Reserved] 585.911 Section 585.911 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR OFFSHORE RENEWABLE ENERGY AND....911 [Reserved] Decommissioning Report ...

30 CFR 401.5 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false [Reserved] 401.5 Section 401.5 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STATE WATER RESEARCH INSTITUTE PROGRAM General § 401.5 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 401.5 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false [Reserved] 401.5 Section 401.5 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STATE WATER RESEARCH INSTITUTE PROGRAM General § 401.5 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 401.5 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false [Reserved] 401.5 Section 401.5 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STATE WATER RESEARCH INSTITUTE PROGRAM General § 401.5 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 401.5 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false [Reserved] 401.5 Section 401.5 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STATE WATER RESEARCH INSTITUTE PROGRAM General § 401.5 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 401.5 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false [Reserved] 401.5 Section 401.5 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STATE WATER RESEARCH INSTITUTE PROGRAM General § 401.5 [Reserved] ...

Triage sepsis alert and sepsis protocol lower times to fluids and antibiotics in the ED.

PubMed

Hayden, Geoffrey E; Tuuri, Rachel E; Scott, Rachel; Losek, Joseph D; Blackshaw, Aaron M; Schoenling, Andrew J; Nietert, Paul J; Hall, Greg A

2016-01-01

Early identification of sepsis in the emergency department (ED), followed by adequate fluid hydration and appropriate antibiotics, improves patient outcomes. We sought to measure the impact of a sepsis workup and treatment protocol (SWAT) that included an electronic health record (EHR)-based triage sepsis alert, direct communication, mobilization of resources, and standardized order sets. We conducted a retrospective, quasiexperimental study of adult ED patients admitted with suspected sepsis, severe sepsis, or septic shock. We defined a preimplementation (pre-SWAT) group and a postimplementation (post-SWAT) group and further broke these down into SWAT A (septic shock) and SWAT B (sepsis with normal systolic blood pressure). We performed extensive data comparisons in the pre-SWAT and post-SWAT groups, including demographics, systemic inflammatory response syndrome criteria, time to intravenous fluids bolus, time to antibiotics, length-of-stay times, and mortality rates. There were 108 patients in the pre-SWAT group and 130 patients in the post-SWAT group. The mean time to bolus was 31 minutes less in the postimplementation group, 51 vs 82 minutes (95% confidence interval, 15-46; P value < .01). The mean time to antibiotics was 59 minutes less in the postimplementation group, 81 vs 139 minutes (95% confidence interval, 44-74; P value < .01). Segmented regression modeling did not identify secular trends in these outcomes. There was no significant difference in mortality rates. An EHR-based triage sepsis alert and SWAT protocol led to a significant reduction in the time to intravenous fluids and time to antibiotics in ED patients admitted with suspected sepsis, severe sepsis, and septic shock. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cost analysis of the History, ECG, Age, Risk factors, and initial Troponin (HEART) Pathway randomized control trial.

PubMed

Riley, Robert F; Miller, Chadwick D; Russell, Gregory B; Harper, Erin N; Hiestand, Brian C; Hoekstra, James W; Lefebvre, Cedric W; Nicks, Bret A; Cline, David M; Askew, Kim L; Mahler, Simon A

2017-01-01

The HEART Pathway is a diagnostic protocol designed to identify low-risk patients presenting to the emergency department with chest pain that are safe for early discharge. This protocol has been shown to significantly decrease health care resource utilization compared with usual care. However, the impact of the HEART Pathway on the cost of care has yet to be reported. We performed a cost analysis of patients enrolled in the HEART Pathway trial, which randomized participants to either usual care or the HEART Pathway protocol. For low-risk patients, the HEART Pathway recommended early discharge from the emergency department without further testing. We compared index visit cost, cost at 30 days, and cardiac-related health care cost at 30 days between the 2 treatment arms. Costs for each patient included facility and professional costs. Cost at 30 days included total inpatient and outpatient costs, including the index encounter, regardless of etiology. Cardiac-related health care cost at 30 days included the index encounter and costs adjudicated to be cardiac-related within that period. Two hundred seventy of the 282 patients enrolled in the trial had cost data available for analysis. There was a significant reduction in cost for the HEART Pathway group at 30 days (median cost savings of $216 per individual), which was most evident in low-risk (Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction score of 0-1) patients (median savings of $253 per patient) and driven primarily by lower cardiac diagnostic costs in the HEART Pathway group. Using the HEART Pathway as a decision aid for patients with undifferentiated chest pain resulted in significant cost savings. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Identifying Barriers to Delivering the Awakening and Breathing Coordination, Delirium, and Early Exercise/Mobility Bundle to Minimize Adverse Outcomes for Mechanically Ventilated Patients: A Systematic Review.

PubMed

Costa, Deena Kelly; White, Matthew R; Ginier, Emily; Manojlovich, Milisa; Govindan, Sushant; Iwashyna, Theodore J; Sales, Anne E

2017-08-01

Improved outcomes are associated with the Awakening and Breathing Coordination, Delirium, and Early exercise/mobility bundle (ABCDE); however, implementation issues are common. As yet, no study has integrated the barriers to ABCDE to provide an overview of reasons for less successful efforts. The purpose of this review was to identify and catalog the barriers to ABCDE delivery based on a widely used implementation framework, and to provide a resource to guide clinicians in overcoming barriers to implementation. We searched MEDLINE via PubMed, CINAHL, and Scopus for original research articles from January 1, 2007, to August 31, 2016, that identified barriers to ABCDE implementation for adult patients in the ICU. Two reviewers independently reviewed studies, extracted barriers, and conducted thematic content analysis of the barriers, guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research. Discrepancies were discussed, and consensus was achieved. Our electronic search yielded 1,908 articles. After applying our inclusion/exclusion criteria, we included 49 studies. We conducted thematic content analysis of the 107 barriers and identified four classes of ABCDE barriers: (1) patient-related (ie, patient instability and safety concerns); (2) clinician-related (ie, lack of knowledge, staff safety concerns); (3) protocol-related (ie, unclear protocol criteria, cumbersome protocols to use); and, not previously identified in past reviews, (4) ICU contextual barriers (ie, interprofessional team care coordination). We provide the first, to our knowledge, systematic differential diagnosis of barriers to ABCDE delivery, moving beyond the conventional focus on patient-level factors. Our analysis offers a differential diagnosis checklist for clinicians planning ABCDE implementation to improve patient care and outcomes. Copyright © 2017 American College of Chest Physicians. All rights reserved.

How Partners are Producing Science and Addressing Issues of Scale for Springs Management in the Desert Southwest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johnson, G.; Springer, A. E.; Misztal, L.; Grabau, M.

2017-12-01

Climate changes in the arid Southwest are expected to further stress critical water sources, such as springs, in the near future. Springs are abundant features in the Southwest, providing habitat for listed species and water for wildlife, agricultural, cities, recreation, and the base flow for many rivers. But springs occupy a small fraction of the land area and, as a result, they have not been significantly studied or mapped. Managers recognize that effective stewardship of these critical resources requires a landscape-scale understanding of distribution, ecological integrity, and risks; access to comprehensive inventory, assessment and restoration protocols; and local implementation. They need easy access to information at varying scales to respond to stressors like climate change. The Desert Landscape Conservation Cooperative, Sky Island Alliance, and Springs Stewardship Institute worked with scientists, resource managers, and conservationists to develop and increase access to data by involving them in the entire research process through field surveys, workshops, trainings, and development of products needed to solve critical management challenges. We built on and connected existing efforts underway in the Southwest, including developing: 1) Springs Inventory Protocol, 2) an online geospatial database, 3) methodologies for climate-savvy monitoring and 4) a springs restoration handbook. We also worked with partners to evaluate the condition and risk of springs' resources at the local scale to create products used in site-specific management planning. Our results indicate that coproduction resulted in more understanding of common issues, more focus on solving management challenges, and increased use of the science and protocols produced. Information developed through this project assists managers in understanding how their springs contribute at local and landscape scales. New information developed through this project is being used in support of planning and decisions that address resource protection at the regional level and in climate change adaptation planning for natural resources. This work highlights the need to increase collaboration and coproduction of information tailored for management issues at different spatial and temporal scales.

Development of a Prototype Continuity of Care Record with Context-Specific Links to Meet the Information Needs of Case Managers for Persons Living with HIV

PubMed Central

Cimino, James J.; Bakken, Suzanne

2012-01-01

Objectives (1) To develop a prototype Continuity of Care Record (CCR) with context-specific links to electronic HIV information resources; and (2) to assess case managers’ perceptions regarding the usability of the prototype. Methods We integrated context-specific links to HIV case management information resources into a prototype CCR using the Infobutton Manager and Librarian Infobutton Tailoring Environment (LITE). Case managers (N=9) completed a think-aloud protocol and the Computer System Usability Questionnaire (CSUQ) to evaluate the usability of the prototype. Verbalizations from the think-aloud protocol were summarized using thematic analysis. CSUQ data were analyzed with descriptive statistics. Results Although participants expressed positive comments regarding the usability of the prototype, the think-aloud protocol also identified the need for improvement in resource labels and for additional resources. On a scale ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 7 (strongly disagree), the average CSUQ overall satisfaction was 2.25 indicating that users (n=9) were generally satisfied with the system. Mean CSUQ factor scores were: System Usefulness (M=2.13), Information Quality (M=2.46), and Interface Quality (M=2.26). Conclusion Our novel application of the Infobutton Manager and LITE in the context of case management for persons living with HIV in community-based settings resulted in a prototype CCR with infobuttons that met the majority of case managers’ information needs and received relatively positive usability ratings. Findings from this study inform future integration of context-specific links into CCRs and electronic health records and support their use for meeting end-users information needs. PMID:22632821

Real-time distributed scheduling algorithm for supporting QoS over WDM networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kam, Anthony C.; Siu, Kai-Yeung

1998-10-01

Most existing or proposed WDM networks employ circuit switching, typically with one session having exclusive use of one entire wavelength. Consequently they are not suitable for data applications involving bursty traffic patterns. The MIT AON Consortium has developed an all-optical LAN/MAN testbed which provides time-slotted WDM service and employs fast-tunable transceivers in each optical terminal. In this paper, we explore extensions of this service to achieve fine-grained statistical multiplexing with different virtual circuits time-sharing the wavelengths in a fair manner. In particular, we develop a real-time distributed protocol for best-effort traffic over this time-slotted WDM service with near-optical fairness and throughput characteristics. As an additional design feature, our protocol supports the allocation of guaranteed bandwidths to selected connections. This feature acts as a first step towards supporting integrated services and quality-of-service guarantees over WDM networks. To achieve high throughput, our approach is based on scheduling transmissions, as opposed to collision- based schemes. Our distributed protocol involves one MAN scheduler and several LAN schedulers (one per LAN) in a master-slave arrangement. Because of propagation delays and limits on control channel capacities, all schedulers are designed to work with partial, delayed traffic information. Our distributed protocol is of the `greedy' type to ensure fast execution in real-time in response to dynamic traffic changes. It employs a hybrid form of rate and credit control for resource allocation. We have performed extensive simulations, which show that our protocol allocates resources (transmitters, receivers, wavelengths) fairly with high throughput, and supports bandwidth guarantees.

Asian Network of Research Resource Centers.

PubMed

Lee, Sunhee; Nam, Seungjoo; Jung, Paul E; Kim, Ki-Jeong; Lee, Yeonhee

2016-10-01

With the enactment of the Nagoya Protocol, biological resources are now increasingly considered as assets of an individual country, instead of as the common property of mankind. As worldwide interest for securing biological resources intensifies, research resource centers (RRCs), which collect, preserve, and provide resources and their information to academia and industries, are gathering more attention. The Asian Network of Research Resource Centers (ANRRC) strives for conservation and effective use of bioresources and their data by connecting resource centers of Asia, a continent with the greatest diversity of life. Since its foundation in 2009, the Network has significantly expanded to encompass 103 RRCs of 14 countries. Through the Network, member countries discuss opportunities for resource exchange and research collaboration and share biobanking information and regulations of different countries for international harmonization of resource management. ANRRC also contributes to developing of International Standards of biobanks and biological resources as a liaison to the International Organization for Standardization technical committee 276 Biotechnology.

Performances of different protocols for exocellular polysaccharides extraction from milk acid gels: Application to yogurt.

PubMed

Nguyen, An Thi-Binh; Nigen, Michaël; Jimenez, Luciana; Ait-Abderrahim, Hassina; Marchesseau, Sylvie; Picart-Palmade, Laetitia

2018-01-15

Dextran or xanthan were used as model exocellular polysaccharides (EPS) to compare the extraction efficiency of EPS from skim milk acid gels using three different protocols. Extraction yields, residual protein concentrations and the macromolecular properties of extracted EPS were determined. For both model EPS, the highest extraction yield (∼80%) was obtained when samples were heated in acidic conditions at the first step of extraction (Protocol 1). Protocols that contained steps of acid/ethanol precipitation without heating (Protocols 2 and 3) show lower extraction yields (∼55%) but allow a better preservation of the EPS macromolecular properties. Changing the pH of acid gels up to 7 before extraction (Protocol 3) improved the extraction yield of anionic EPS without effect on the macromolecular properties of EPS. Protocol 1 was then applied for the quantification of EPS produced during the yogurt fermentation, while Protocol 3 was dedicated to their macromolecular characterization. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Utah ski patrol: assessing training types and resources.

PubMed

Sagalyn, Emily B; McDevitt, Marion C; Ernst, Ryan

2014-12-01

Skiers and snowboarders incur a variety of injuries and medical emergencies each year at ski resorts. The ski patrol is primarily responsible for initial triage, assessment and stabilization of these problems. The purpose of this study was to subjectively evaluate the type of training, resources, and equipment available to local ski patrols within Utah. Ski patrol directors at ski resorts in Utah were asked to complete a voluntary computerized survey. Of the 14 ski areas in Utah, ski patrol directors representing 8 resorts responded. The majority of patrols in Utah use Outdoor Emergency Care (OEC) as their primary education and certification source. Most programs also include site-specific training in addition to basic certification. All responding resorts had basic first responder equipment, including splinting devices, basic airway management, and hemorrhage control. Six of 8 responding resorts had affiliated clinics, and all had access to aeromedical transport. All of the responding ski patrol directors believed the current training level was adequate. Utah area ski patrollers frequently see trauma-related injuries and have the resources to assess and provide initial immobilization techniques. Many resorts have affiliated clinics with advanced providers, and all have access to aeromedical support to rapidly transfer patients to trauma centers. Medical directors may be of use for training as well as developing extended scope of practice protocols for advanced airway use or medication administration. Patrols may benefit from additional resort-specific training that addresses other frequently seen injuries or illnesses. Copyright © 2014 Wilderness Medical Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

30 CFR 585.911 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false [Reserved] 585.911 Section 585.911 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR OFFSHORE RENEWABLE ENERGY AND... § 585.911 [Reserved] Decommissioning Report ...

Retrieving and routing quantum information in a quantum network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sazim, S.; Chiranjeevi, V.; Chakrabarty, I.; Srinathan, K.

2015-12-01

In extant quantum secret sharing protocols, once the secret is shared in a quantum network ( qnet) it cannot be retrieved, even if the dealer wishes that his/her secret no longer be available in the network. For instance, if the dealer is part of the two qnets, say {{Q}}_1 and {{Q}}_2 and he/she subsequently finds that {{Q}}_2 is more reliable than {{Q}}_1, he/she may wish to transfer all her secrets from {{Q}}_1 to {{Q}}_2. Known protocols are inadequate to address such a revocation. In this work we address this problem by designing a protocol that enables the source/dealer to bring back the information shared in the network, if desired. Unlike classical revocation, the no-cloning theorem automatically ensures that the secret is no longer shared in the network. The implications of our results are multi-fold. One interesting implication of our technique is the possibility of routing qubits in asynchronous qnets. By asynchrony we mean that the requisite data/resources are intermittently available (but not necessarily simultaneously) in the qnet. For example, we show that a source S can send quantum information to a destination R even though (a) S and R share no quantum resource, (b) R's identity is unknown to S at the time of sending the message, but is subsequently decided, (c) S herself can be R at a later date and/or in a different location to bequeath her information (`backed-up' in the qnet) and (d) importantly, the path chosen for routing the secret may hit a dead end due to resource constraints, congestion, etc., (therefore the information needs to be back-tracked and sent along an alternate path). Another implication of our technique is the possibility of using insecure resources. For instance, if the quantum memory within an organization is insufficient, it may safely store (using our protocol) its private information with a neighboring organization without (a) revealing critical data to the host and (b) losing control over retrieving the data. Putting the two implications together, namely routing and secure storage, it is possible to envision applications like quantum mail (qmail) as an outsourced service.

Co-scheduling of network resource provisioning and host-to-host bandwidth reservation on high-performance network and storage systems

DOEpatents

Yu, Dantong; Katramatos, Dimitrios; Sim, Alexander; Shoshani, Arie

2014-04-22

A cross-domain network resource reservation scheduler configured to schedule a path from at least one end-site includes a management plane device configured to monitor and provide information representing at least one of functionality, performance, faults, and fault recovery associated with a network resource; a control plane device configured to at least one of schedule the network resource, provision local area network quality of service, provision local area network bandwidth, and provision wide area network bandwidth; and a service plane device configured to interface with the control plane device to reserve the network resource based on a reservation request and the information from the management plane device. Corresponding methods and computer-readable medium are also disclosed.

A proportional integral estimator-based clock synchronization protocol for wireless sensor networks.

PubMed

Yang, Wenlun; Fu, Minyue

2017-11-01

Clock synchronization is an issue of vital importance in applications of WSNs. This paper proposes a proportional integral estimator-based protocol (EBP) to achieve clock synchronization for wireless sensor networks. As each local clock skew gradually drifts, synchronization accuracy will decline over time. Compared with existing consensus-based approaches, the proposed synchronization protocol improves synchronization accuracy under time-varying clock skews. Moreover, by restricting synchronization error of clock skew into a relative small quantity, it could reduce periodic re-synchronization frequencies. At last, a pseudo-synchronous implementation for skew compensation is introduced as synchronous protocol is unrealistic in practice. Numerical simulations are shown to illustrate the performance of the proposed protocol. Copyright © 2017 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Anesthesia and analgesia protocols for total knee arthroplasty.

PubMed

Rosenberg, Aaron G

2006-07-01

Uncontrolled pain associated with total knee arthroplasty can have significant untoward effects on patient outcomes, leading to delayed recovery, inability to participate in rehabilitation, prolonged hospitalization, and increased use of health care resources. In this article, I review the methodologies and outcomes of several studies and protocols involving preemptive, perioperative, and postoperative use of various anesthetic and analgesic agents. Used together with minimally invasive techniques, appropriate pain control should result in significant improvements in patient outcomes.

Anonymous broadcasting of classical information with a continuous-variable topological quantum code

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Menicucci, Nicolas C.; Baragiola, Ben Q.; Demarie, Tommaso F.; Brennen, Gavin K.

2018-03-01

Broadcasting information anonymously becomes more difficult as surveillance technology improves, but remarkably, quantum protocols exist that enable provably traceless broadcasting. The difficulty is making scalable entangled resource states that are robust to errors. We propose an anonymous broadcasting protocol that uses a continuous-variable surface-code state that can be produced using current technology. High squeezing enables large transmission bandwidth and strong anonymity, and the topological nature of the state enables local error mitigation.

Preparation of BAC libraries from marine microbial populations.

PubMed

Sabehi, Gazalah; Béjà, Oded

2013-01-01

A protocol is presented here for the construction of BAC (bacterial artificial chromosome) libraries from planktonic microbial communities collected in marine environments. The protocol describes the collection and preparation of the planktonic microbial cells, high molecular weight DNA purification from those cells, the preparation of the BAC vector, and the special ligation and electrotransformation procedures required for successful library preparation. With small modifications, this protocol can be applied to microbes collected from other environments. © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An Outline of Data Aggregation Security in Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Boubiche, Sabrina; Boubiche, Djallel Eddine; Bilami, Azzedine; Toral-Cruz, Homero

2016-01-01

Data aggregation processes aim to reduce the amount of exchanged data in wireless sensor networks and consequently minimize the packet overhead and optimize energy efficiency. Securing the data aggregation process is a real challenge since the aggregation nodes must access the relayed data to apply the aggregation functions. The data aggregation security problem has been widely addressed in classical homogeneous wireless sensor networks, however, most of the proposed security protocols cannot guarantee a high level of security since the sensor node resources are limited. Heterogeneous wireless sensor networks have recently emerged as a new wireless sensor network category which expands the sensor nodes’ resources and capabilities. These new kinds of WSNs have opened new research opportunities where security represents a most attractive area. Indeed, robust and high security level algorithms can be used to secure the data aggregation at the heterogeneous aggregation nodes which is impossible in classical homogeneous WSNs. Contrary to the homogeneous sensor networks, the data aggregation security problem is still not sufficiently covered and the proposed data aggregation security protocols are numberless. To address this recent research area, this paper describes the data aggregation security problem in heterogeneous wireless sensor networks and surveys a few proposed security protocols. A classification and evaluation of the existing protocols is also introduced based on the adopted data aggregation security approach. PMID:27077866

Assessing social vulnerability to climate change in human communities near public forests and grasslands: a framework for resource managers and planners

Treesearch

A. Paige Fischer; Travis Paveglio; Matthew Carroll; Daniel Murphy; Hannah Brenkert-Smith

2013-01-01

Public land management agencies have incorporated the concept of vulnerability into protocols for assessing and planning for climate change impacts on public forests and grasslands. However, resource managers and planners have little guidance for how to address the social aspects of vulnerability in these assessments and plans. Failure to assess social vulnerability to...

Managing the transition (ManTra): a resource for persons with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis and their health professionals: protocol for a mixed-methods study in Italy

PubMed Central

Giordano, Andrea; Pietrolongo, Erika; Confalonieri, Paolo; De Luca, Giovanna; Tortorella, Carla; Trojano, Maria; Messmer Uccelli, Michele; Torri Clerici, Valentina; Gitto, Lara; Köpke, Sascha; Borreani, Claudia; Heesen, Christoph; Solari, Alessandra

2017-01-01

Introduction 15 years after clinical onset, about 50% of patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis convert to secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS). Notwithstanding the importance of this transition, knowledge of the experiences and needs of patients and carers is fragmentary, and targeted interventions are not available. Managing the Transition to SPMS (ManTra) is a mixed methodology project to develop and test a user-led resource for newly diagnosed patients with SPMS. Here, we describe the developmental phase, consisting of a literature review and a new research study involving key stakeholders, in which we construct the resource. Methods and analysis Round 1: The literature review and study will be conducted in parallel. The latter will identify patient needs using a qualitative approach consisting of: personal semistructured interviews with >15 recently diagnosed patients with SPMS; three focus group meetings (one with significant others of patients, one with neurologists and one with other health professionals caring for patients with SPMS). An online survey (>200 recently diagnosed Italian patients with SPMS) will follow to verify needs in a larger independent sample. An expert panel will outline a set of candidate resources/interventions that aim to satisfy the needs thus identified. Round 2: Consensus on the final resource will be obtained in a 1-day meeting of recently diagnosed patients with SPMS, significant others, health professionals and other stakeholders, using the nominal group technique. The expert panel will refine the resource, identify the outcome measures to assess its efficacy and ascertain the most suitable comparator (ManTra Phase 2, not part of this protocol). Ethics and dissemination The study protocol was approved by the ethics committees of each of the involved centres: Foundation IRCCS Neurological Institute C Besta, Milan; G D’Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara and the Aldo Moro University of Bari. The results will be published in peer-reviewed journals, presented at conferences and a lay summary sent to participants. PMID:28838904

A multicentre evaluation of two intensive care unit triage protocols for use in an influenza pandemic.

PubMed

Cheung, Winston K; Myburgh, John; Seppelt, Ian M; Parr, Michael J; Blackwell, Nikki; Demonte, Shannon; Gandhi, Kalpesh; Hoyling, Larissa; Nair, Priya; Passer, Melissa; Reynolds, Claire; Saunders, Nicholas M; Saxena, Manoj K; Thanakrishnan, Govindasamy

2012-08-06

To determine the increase in intensive care unit (ICU) bed availability that would result from the use of the New South Wales and Ontario Health Plan for an Influenza Pandemic (OHPIP) triage protocols. Prospective evaluation study conducted in eight Australian, adult, general ICUs, between September 2009 and May 2010. All patients who were admitted to the ICU, excluding those who had elective surgery, were prospectively evaluated using the two triage protocols, simulating a pandemic situation. Both protocols were originally developed to determine which patients should be excluded from accessing ICU resources during an influenza pandemic. Increase in ICU bed availability. At admission, the increases in ICU bed availability using Tiers 1, 2 and 3 of the NSW triage protocol were 3.5%, 14.7% and 22.7%, respectively, and 52.8% using the OHPIP triage protocol (P < 0.001). Re-evaluation of patients at 12 hours after admission using Tiers 1, 2 and 3 of the NSW triage protocol incrementally increased ICU bed availability by 19.2%, 16.1% and 14.1%, respectively (P < 0.001). The maximal cumulative increases in ICU bed availability using Tiers 1, 2 and 3 of the NSW triage protocol were 23.7%, 31.6% and 37.5%, respectively, at 72 hours (P < 0.001), and 65.0% using the OHPIP triage protocol, at 120 hours (P < 0.001). Both triage protocols resulted in increases in ICU bed availability, but the OHPIP protocol provided the greatest increase overall. With the NSW triage protocol, ICU bed availability increased as the protocol was escalated.

Development of a neuro early mobilisation protocol for use in a neuroscience intensive care unit.

PubMed

Brissie, Megan A; Zomorodi, Meg; Soares-Sardinha, Sharmila; Jordan, J Dedrick

2017-10-01

Through evaluation of the literature and working with a team of multidisciplinary healthcare providers, our objective was to refine an interprofessional Neuro Early Mobilisation Protocol for complex patients in the Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit. Using the literature as a guide, key stakeholders, from multiple professions, designed and refined a Neuro Early Mobilisation Protocol. This project took place at a large academic medical center in the southeast United States classified as both a Level I Trauma Center and Comprehensive Stroke Center. Goals for protocol development were to: (1) simplify the protocol to allow for ease of use, (2) make the protocol more generalizable to the patient population cared for in the Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit, (3) receive feedback from those using the original protocol on ways to improve the protocol and (4) ensure patients were properly screened for inclusion and exclusion in the protocol. Using expert feedback and the evidence, an evidence-based Neuro Early Mobilisation Protocol was created for use with all patients in the Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit. Future work will consist of protocol implementation and evaluation in order to increase patient mobilisation in the Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

CO2 storage resources, reserves, and reserve growth: Toward a methodology for integrated assessment of the storage capacity of oil and gas reservoirs and saline formations

USGS Publications Warehouse

Burruss, R.C.

2009-01-01

Geologically based methodologies to assess the possible volumes of subsurface CO2 storage must apply clear and uniform definitions of resource and reserve concepts to each assessment unit (AU). Application of the current state of knowledge of geologic, hydrologic, geochemical, and geophysical parameters (contingencies) that control storage volume and injectivity allows definition of the contingent resource (CR) of storage. The parameters known with the greatest certainty are based on observations on known traps (KTs) within the AU that produced oil, gas, and water. The aggregate volume of KTs within an AU defines the most conservation volume of contingent resource. Application of the concept of reserve growth to CR volume provides a logical path for subsequent reevaluation of the total resource as knowledge of CO2 storage processes increases during implementation of storage projects. Increased knowledge of storage performance over time will probably allow the volume of the contingent resource of storage to grow over time, although negative growth is possible. ?? 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

15 CFR 921.30 - Designation of National Estuarine Research Reserves.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... AND COASTAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT NATIONAL ESTUARINE RESEARCH RESERVE SYSTEM REGULATIONS Reserve... protection for reserve resources to ensure a stable environment for research; (3) Designation of the area as... agencies and/or private organizations) have been signed; and (7) The coastal state in which the area is...

15 CFR 921.30 - Designation of National Estuarine Research Reserves.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... AND COASTAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT NATIONAL ESTUARINE RESEARCH RESERVE SYSTEM REGULATIONS Reserve... protection for reserve resources to ensure a stable environment for research; (3) Designation of the area as... agencies and/or private organizations) have been signed; and (7) The coastal state in which the area is...

15 CFR 921.30 - Designation of National Estuarine Research Reserves.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... AND COASTAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT NATIONAL ESTUARINE RESEARCH RESERVE SYSTEM REGULATIONS Reserve... protection for reserve resources to ensure a stable environment for research; (3) Designation of the area as... agencies and/or private organizations) have been signed; and (7) The coastal state in which the area is...

15 CFR 921.30 - Designation of National Estuarine Research Reserves.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... AND COASTAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT NATIONAL ESTUARINE RESEARCH RESERVE SYSTEM REGULATIONS Reserve... protection for reserve resources to ensure a stable environment for research; (3) Designation of the area as... agencies and/or private organizations) have been signed; and (7) The coastal state in which the area is...

15 CFR 921.30 - Designation of National Estuarine Research Reserves.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... AND COASTAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT NATIONAL ESTUARINE RESEARCH RESERVE SYSTEM REGULATIONS Reserve... protection for reserve resources to ensure a stable environment for research; (3) Designation of the area as... agencies and/or private organizations) have been signed; and (7) The coastal state in which the area is...

30 CFR 285.911 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false [Reserved] 285.911 Section 285.911 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT, REGULATION, AND ENFORCEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR... Decommissioning Facility Removal § 285.911 [Reserved] Decommissioning Report ...

Production of cloned mice from somatic cells, ES cells, and frozen bodies.

PubMed

Wakayama, Sayaka; Mizutani, Eiji; Wakayama, Teruhiko

2010-01-01

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) has become a unique and powerful tool for epigenetic reprogramming research and gene manipulation in animals. Although the success rates of somatic cloning have been inefficient and the mechanism of reprogramming is still largely unknown, therefore, the nuclear transfer (NT) method has been thought of as a "black box approach" and inadequate to determine the detail of how genomic reprogramming occurs. However, only the NT approach can reveal dynamic and global modifications in the epigenome without using genetic modification, as well as can create live animals. At present, this is the only technique available for the preservation and propagation of valuable genetic resources from mutant mice that are infertile or too old, or recovered from carcasses, without the use of germ cells. This chapter describes a basic protocol for mouse cloning and embryonic stem (ES) cell establishment from cloned embryo using a piezo-actuated micromanipulator. This technique will greatly help not only in mouse cloning but also in other forms of micromanipulation such as intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) into oocytes or ES cell injection into blastocysts. In addition, we describe a new, more efficient mouse cloning protocol using histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACi), which increases the success rates of cloned mice or establish rate of ES cells to fivefold. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Twice versus thrice weekly ECT in a clinical population: an evaluation of patient outcomes.

PubMed

Siskind, Dan; Charlson, Fiona; Saraf, Sudeep; Scheurer, Roman; Lie, David Charles

2012-10-30

Increasing demand on electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) services led to a recommendation that low risk patients be considered for twice weekly ECT rather than the usual thrice weekly. We evaluated whether practice changed and compared patient clinical outcomes for twice and thrice weekly ECT. Medical records for all patients receiving ECT in the 2-year study period (1/9/08 to 30/8/10) were reviewed to determine ECT protocol, diagnosis, admission duration and readmission rates. During the study period, 119 patients received 150 treatment courses. Patient outcomes were compared for twice weekly ECT and thrice weekly ECT protocols, as well as for 1 year before and after the recommendation (1/9/09). Twice weekly ECT courses increased (8-20) after the recommendation while thrice weekly ECT courses decreased (64-30). The recommendation had no significant effect on patient outcomes. Comparing twice and thrice weekly ECT, patient clinical outcomes were similar between the two groups, though non-affective twice weekly patients waited longer before starting ECT. In the context of resource constraints, psychiatrists can be influenced to examine and change their ECT prescribing practice. This bodes well for the implementation of evidence-based treatment into mental health services. Secondly, for adults, there appear to be no significant differences in clinical outcomes for twice versus thrice weekly ECT. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Two Quantum Protocols for Oblivious Set-member Decision Problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, Run-Hua; Mu, Yi; Zhong, Hong; Cui, Jie; Zhang, Shun

2015-10-01

In this paper, we defined a new secure multi-party computation problem, called Oblivious Set-member Decision problem, which allows one party to decide whether a secret of another party belongs to his private set in an oblivious manner. There are lots of important applications of Oblivious Set-member Decision problem in fields of the multi-party collaborative computation of protecting the privacy of the users, such as private set intersection and union, anonymous authentication, electronic voting and electronic auction. Furthermore, we presented two quantum protocols to solve the Oblivious Set-member Decision problem. Protocol I takes advantage of powerful quantum oracle operations so that it needs lower costs in both communication and computation complexity; while Protocol II takes photons as quantum resources and only performs simple single-particle projective measurements, thus it is more feasible with the present technology.

Symmetrically private information retrieval based on blind quantum computing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Zhiwei; Yu, Jianping; Wang, Ping; Xu, Lingling

2015-05-01

Universal blind quantum computation (UBQC) is a new secure quantum computing protocol which allows a user Alice who does not have any sophisticated quantum technology to delegate her computing to a server Bob without leaking any privacy. Using the features of UBQC, we propose a protocol to achieve symmetrically private information retrieval, which allows a quantum limited Alice to query an item from Bob with a fully fledged quantum computer; meanwhile, the privacy of both parties is preserved. The security of our protocol is based on the assumption that malicious Alice has no quantum computer, which avoids the impossibility proof of Lo. For the honest Alice, she is almost classical and only requires minimal quantum resources to carry out the proposed protocol. Therefore, she does not need any expensive laboratory which can maintain the coherence of complicated quantum experimental setups.

Combining accuracy assessment of land-cover maps with environmental monitoring programs

USGS Publications Warehouse

Stehman, S.V.; Czaplewski, R.L.; Nusser, S.M.; Yang, L.; Zhu, Z.

2000-01-01

A scientifically valid accuracy assessment of a large-area, land-cover map is expensive. Environmental monitoring programs offer a potential source of data to partially defray the cost of accuracy assessment while still maintaining the statistical validity. In this article, three general strategies for combining accuracy assessment and environmental monitoring protocols are described. These strategies range from a fully integrated accuracy assessment and environmental monitoring protocol, to one in which the protocols operate nearly independently. For all three strategies, features critical to using monitoring data for accuracy assessment include compatibility of the land-cover classification schemes, precisely co-registered sample data, and spatial and temporal compatibility of the map and reference data. Two monitoring programs, the National Resources Inventory (NRI) and the Forest Inventory and Monitoring (FIM), are used to illustrate important features for implementing a combined protocol.

Research and implementation of SATA protocol link layer based on FPGA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Wen-long; Liu, Xue-bin; Qiang, Si-miao; Yan, Peng; Wen, Zhi-gang; Kong, Liang; Liu, Yong-zheng

2018-02-01

In order to solve the problem high-performance real-time, high-speed the image data storage generated by the detector. In this thesis, it choose an suitable portable image storage hard disk of SATA interface, it is relative to the existing storage media. It has a large capacity, high transfer rate, inexpensive, power-down data which is not lost, and many other advantages. This paper focuses on the link layer of the protocol, analysis the implementation process of SATA2.0 protocol, and build state machines. Then analyzes the characteristics resources of Kintex-7 FPGA family, builds state machines according to the agreement, write Verilog implement link layer modules, and run the simulation test. Finally, the test is on the Kintex-7 development board platform. It meets the requirements SATA2.0 protocol basically.

Two Quantum Protocols for Oblivious Set-member Decision Problem

PubMed Central

Shi, Run-hua; Mu, Yi; Zhong, Hong; Cui, Jie; Zhang, Shun

2015-01-01

In this paper, we defined a new secure multi-party computation problem, called Oblivious Set-member Decision problem, which allows one party to decide whether a secret of another party belongs to his private set in an oblivious manner. There are lots of important applications of Oblivious Set-member Decision problem in fields of the multi-party collaborative computation of protecting the privacy of the users, such as private set intersection and union, anonymous authentication, electronic voting and electronic auction. Furthermore, we presented two quantum protocols to solve the Oblivious Set-member Decision problem. Protocol I takes advantage of powerful quantum oracle operations so that it needs lower costs in both communication and computation complexity; while Protocol II takes photons as quantum resources and only performs simple single-particle projective measurements, thus it is more feasible with the present technology. PMID:26514668

Two Quantum Protocols for Oblivious Set-member Decision Problem.

PubMed

Shi, Run-Hua; Mu, Yi; Zhong, Hong; Cui, Jie; Zhang, Shun

2015-10-30

In this paper, we defined a new secure multi-party computation problem, called Oblivious Set-member Decision problem, which allows one party to decide whether a secret of another party belongs to his private set in an oblivious manner. There are lots of important applications of Oblivious Set-member Decision problem in fields of the multi-party collaborative computation of protecting the privacy of the users, such as private set intersection and union, anonymous authentication, electronic voting and electronic auction. Furthermore, we presented two quantum protocols to solve the Oblivious Set-member Decision problem. Protocol I takes advantage of powerful quantum oracle operations so that it needs lower costs in both communication and computation complexity; while Protocol II takes photons as quantum resources and only performs simple single-particle projective measurements, thus it is more feasible with the present technology.

Insecurity of position-based quantum-cryptography protocols against entanglement attacks

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

Lau, Hoi-Kwan; Lo, Hoi-Kwong

2011-01-15

Recently, position-based quantum cryptography has been claimed to be unconditionally secure. On the contrary, here we show that the existing proposals for position-based quantum cryptography are, in fact, insecure if entanglement is shared among two adversaries. Specifically, we demonstrate how the adversaries can incorporate ideas of quantum teleportation and quantum secret sharing to compromise the security with certainty. The common flaw to all current protocols is that the Pauli operators always map a codeword to a codeword (up to an irrelevant overall phase). We propose a modified scheme lacking this property in which the same cheating strategy used to underminemore » the previous protocols can succeed with a rate of at most 85%. We prove the modified protocol is secure when the shared quantum resource between the adversaries is a two- or three-level system.« less

Advanced teleprocessing systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kleinrock, L.; Gerla, M.

1982-09-01

This Annual Technical Report covers research covering the period from October 1, 1981 to September 30, 1982. This contract has three primary designated research areas: packet radio systems, resource sharing and allocation, and distributed processing and control. This report contains abstracts of publications which summarize research results in these areas followed by the main body of the report which is devoted to a study of channel access protocols that are executed by the nodes of a network to schedule their transmissions on multi-access broadcast channel. In particular the main body consists of a Ph.D. dissertation, Channel Access Protocols for Multi-Hop Broadcast Packet Radio Networks. This work discusses some new channel access protocols useful for mobile radio networks. Included is an analysis of slotted ALOHA and some tight bounds on the performance of all possible protocols in a mobile environment.

A More Efficient Contextuality Distillation Protocol

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meng, Hui-xian; Cao, Huai-xin; Wang, Wen-hua; Fan, Ya-jing; Chen, Liang

2018-03-01

Based on the fact that both nonlocality and contextuality are resource theories, it is natural to ask how to amplify them more efficiently. In this paper, we present a contextuality distillation protocol which produces an n-cycle box B ∗ B ' from two given n-cycle boxes B and B '. It works efficiently for a class of contextual n-cycle ( n ≥ 4) boxes which we termed as "the generalized correlated contextual n-cycle boxes". For any two generalized correlated contextual n-cycle boxes B and B ', B ∗ B ' is more contextual than both B and B '. Moreover, they can be distilled toward to the maximally contextual box C H n as the times of iteration goes to infinity. Among the known protocols, our protocol has the strongest approximate ability and is optimal in terms of its distillation rate. What is worth noting is that our protocol can witness a larger set of nonlocal boxes that make communication complexity trivial than the protocol in Brunner and Skrzypczyk (Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 160403 2009), this might be helpful for exploring the problem that why quantum nonlocality is limited.

A More Efficient Contextuality Distillation Protocol

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meng, Hui-xian; Cao, Huai-xin; Wang, Wen-hua; Fan, Ya-jing; Chen, Liang

2017-12-01

Based on the fact that both nonlocality and contextuality are resource theories, it is natural to ask how to amplify them more efficiently. In this paper, we present a contextuality distillation protocol which produces an n-cycle box B ∗ B ' from two given n-cycle boxes B and B '. It works efficiently for a class of contextual n-cycle (n ≥ 4) boxes which we termed as "the generalized correlated contextual n-cycle boxes". For any two generalized correlated contextual n-cycle boxes B and B ', B ∗ B ' is more contextual than both B and B '. Moreover, they can be distilled toward to the maximally contextual box C H n as the times of iteration goes to infinity. Among the known protocols, our protocol has the strongest approximate ability and is optimal in terms of its distillation rate. What is worth noting is that our protocol can witness a larger set of nonlocal boxes that make communication complexity trivial than the protocol in Brunner and Skrzypczyk (Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 160403 2009), this might be helpful for exploring the problem that why quantum nonlocality is limited.

Network Basics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tennant, Roy

1992-01-01

Explains how users can find and access information resources available on the Internet. Highlights include network information centers (NICs); lists, both formal and informal; computer networking protocols, including international standards; electronic mail; remote log-in; and file transfer. (LRW)

Resource utilisation and costs in predementia and dementia: a systematic review protocol.

PubMed

Landeiro, Filipa; Wace, Helena; Ghinai, Isaac; Nye, Elsbeth; Mughal, Seher; Walsh, Katie; Roberts, Nia; Lecomte, Pascal; Wittenberg, Raphael; Wolstenholme, Jane; Handels, Ron; Roncancio-Diaz, Emilse; Potashman, Michele H; Tockhorn-Heidenreich, Antje; Gray, Alastair M

2018-01-23

Dementia is the fastest growing major cause of disability globally with a mounting social and financial impact for patients and their families but also to health and social care systems. This review aims to systematically synthesise evidence on the utilisation of resources and costs incurred by patients and their caregivers and by health and social care services across the full spectrum of dementia, from its preceding preclinical stage to end of life. The main drivers of resources used and costs will also be identified. A systematic literature review was conducted in MEDLINE, EMBASE, CDSR, CENTRAL, DARE, EconLit, CEA Registry, TRIP, NHS EED, SCI, RePEc and OpenGrey between January 2000 and beginning of May 2017. Two reviewers will independently assess each study for inclusion and disagreements will be resolved by a third reviewer. Data will be extracted using a predefined data extraction form following best practice. Study quality will be assessed with the Effective Public Health Practice Project quality assessment tool. The reporting of costing methodology will be assessed using the British Medical Journal checklist. A narrative synthesis of all studies will be presented for resources used and costs incurred, by level of disease severity when available. If feasible, the data will be synthesised using appropriate statistical techniques. Included articles will be reviewed for an ethics statement. The findings of the review will be disseminated in a related peer-reviewed journal and presented at conferences. They will also contribute to the work developed in the Real World Outcomes across the Alzheimer's disease spectrum for better care: multi-modal data access platform (ROADMAP). CRD42017071413. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

The complex interface between economy and healthcare: An introductory overview for clinicians.

PubMed

Ottolini, Federica Liliana; Buggio, Laura; Somigliana, Edgardo; Vercellini, Paolo

2016-12-01

In a period of generalized economic crisis, it seems particularly appropriate to try to manage a continuing growing sector such as healthcare in the best possible way. The crucial aim of optimization of available healthcare resources is obtaining the maximum possible benefit with the minimum expenditure. This has important social implications, whether individual citizens or tax-funded national health services eventually have to pay the bill. The keyword here is efficiency, which means either, maximizing the benefit from a fixed sum of money, or minimizing the resources required for a defined benefit. In order to achieve these objectives, economic evaluation is a helpful tool. Five different types of economic evaluation exist in the health-care field: cost-minimization, cost-benefit, cost-consequences, cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analysis. The objective of this narrative review is to provide an overview of the principal methods used for economic evaluation in healthcare. Economic evaluation represents a starting point for the allocation of resources, the decision of the valuable investments and the division of budgets across different health programs. Moreover, economic evaluation allows the comparison of different procedures in terms of quality of life and life expectancy, bearing in mind that cost-effectiveness is only one of multiple facets in the decision making-process. Economic evaluation is important to critically evaluate clinical interventions and ensure that we are implementing the most cost-effective management protocols. Clinicians are called to fulfill the complex task of optimizing the use of resources, and, at the same time, improving the quality of healthcare assistance. Copyright © 2016 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Gap Analysis Needs Assessment Tool to Drive a Care Delivery and Research Agenda for Integration of Care and Sharing of Best Practices Across a Health System.

PubMed

Golden, Sherita Hill; Hager, Daniel; Gould, Lois J; Mathioudakis, Nestoras; Pronovost, Peter J

2017-01-01

In a complex health system, it is important to establish a systematic and data-driven approach to identifying needs. The Diabetes Clinical Community (DCC) of Johns Hopkins Medicine's Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality developed a gap analysis tool and process to establish the system's current state of inpatient diabetes care. The collectively developed tool assessed the following areas: program infrastructure; protocols, policies, and order sets; patient and health care professional education; and automated data access. For the purposes of this analysis, gaps were defined as those instances in which local resources, infrastructure, or processes demonstrated a variance against the current national evidence base or institutionally defined best practices. Following the gap analysis, members of the DCC, in collaboration with health system leadership, met to identify priority areas in order to integrate and synergize diabetes care resources and efforts to enhance quality and reduce disparities in care across the system. Key gaps in care identified included lack of standardized glucose management policies, lack of standardized training of health care professionals in inpatient diabetes management, and lack of access to automated data collection and analysis. These results were used to gain resources to support collaborative diabetes health system initiatives and to successfully obtain federal research funding to develop and pilot a pragmatic diabetes educational intervention. At a health system level, the summary format of this gap analysis tool is an effective method to clearly identify disparities in care to focus efforts and resources to improve care delivery. Copyright © 2016 The Joint Commission. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Phenology monitoring protocol: Northeast Temperate Network

USGS Publications Warehouse

Tierney, Geri; Mitchell, Brian; Miller-Rushing, Abraham J.; Katz, Jonathan; Denny, Ellen; Brauer, Corinne; Donovan, Therese; Richardson, Andrew D.; Toomey, Michael; Kozlowski, Adam; Weltzin, Jake F.; Gerst, Kathy; Sharron, Ed; Sonnentag, Oliver; Dieffenbach, Fred

2013-01-01

historical parks and national historic sites in the northeastern US. This protocol was developed in collaboration with and relies upon the procedures and infrastructure of the USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN), including Nature’s Notebook, USA-NPN’s online plant and animal phenology observation program (www.nn.usanpn.org). Organized in 2007, USA-NPN is a nation-wide partnership among federal agencies, schools and universities, citizen volunteers, and others to monitor and understand the influence of seasonal cycles on the nation’s biological resources. The overall goal of NETN’s phenology monitoring program is to determine trends in the phenology of key species in order to assist park managers with the detection and mitigation of the effects of climate change on park resources. An additional programmatic goal is to interest and educate park visitors and staff, as well as a cadre of volunteer monitors.

CFDP for Interplanetary Overlay Network

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burleigh, Scott C.

2011-01-01

The CCSDS (Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems) File Delivery Protocol for Interplanetary Overlay Network (CFDP-ION) is an implementation of CFDP that uses IO' s DTN (delay tolerant networking) implementation as its UT (unit-data transfer) layer. Because the DTN protocols effect automatic, reliable transmission via multiple relays, CFDP-ION need only satisfy the requirements for Class 1 ("unacknowledged") CFDP. This keeps the implementation small, but without loss of capability. This innovation minimizes processing resources by using zero-copy objects for file data transmission. It runs without modification in VxWorks, Linux, Solaris, and OS/X. As such, this innovation can be used without modification in both flight and ground systems. Integration with DTN enables the CFDP implementation itself to be very simple; therefore, very small. Use of ION infrastructure minimizes consumption of storage and processing resources while maximizing safety.

Improving the efficiency of quantum hash function by dense coding of coin operators in discrete-time quantum walk

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, YuGuang; Zhang, YuChen; Xu, Gang; Chen, XiuBo; Zhou, Yi-Hua; Shi, WeiMin

2018-03-01

Li et al. first proposed a quantum hash function (QHF) in a quantum-walk architecture. In their scheme, two two-particle interactions, i.e., I interaction and π-phase interaction are introduced and the choice of I or π-phase interactions at each iteration depends on a message bit. In this paper, we propose an efficient QHF by dense coding of coin operators in discrete-time quantum walk. Compared with existing QHFs, our protocol has the following advantages: the efficiency of the QHF can be doubled and even more; only one particle is enough and two-particle interactions are unnecessary so that quantum resources are saved. It is a clue to apply the dense coding technique to quantum cryptographic protocols, especially to the applications with restricted quantum resources.

A neural networks-based hybrid routing protocol for wireless mesh networks.

PubMed

Kojić, Nenad; Reljin, Irini; Reljin, Branimir

2012-01-01

The networking infrastructure of wireless mesh networks (WMNs) is decentralized and relatively simple, but they can display reliable functioning performance while having good redundancy. WMNs provide Internet access for fixed and mobile wireless devices. Both in urban and rural areas they provide users with high-bandwidth networks over a specific coverage area. The main problems affecting these networks are changes in network topology and link quality. In order to provide regular functioning, the routing protocol has the main influence in WMN implementations. In this paper we suggest a new routing protocol for WMN, based on good results of a proactive and reactive routing protocol, and for that reason it can be classified as a hybrid routing protocol. The proposed solution should avoid flooding and creating the new routing metric. We suggest the use of artificial logic-i.e., neural networks (NNs). This protocol is based on mobile agent technologies controlled by a Hopfield neural network. In addition to this, our new routing metric is based on multicriteria optimization in order to minimize delay and blocking probability (rejected packets or their retransmission). The routing protocol observes real network parameters and real network environments. As a result of artificial logic intelligence, the proposed routing protocol should maximize usage of network resources and optimize network performance.

A Neural Networks-Based Hybrid Routing Protocol for Wireless Mesh Networks

PubMed Central

Kojić, Nenad; Reljin, Irini; Reljin, Branimir

2012-01-01

The networking infrastructure of wireless mesh networks (WMNs) is decentralized and relatively simple, but they can display reliable functioning performance while having good redundancy. WMNs provide Internet access for fixed and mobile wireless devices. Both in urban and rural areas they provide users with high-bandwidth networks over a specific coverage area. The main problems affecting these networks are changes in network topology and link quality. In order to provide regular functioning, the routing protocol has the main influence in WMN implementations. In this paper we suggest a new routing protocol for WMN, based on good results of a proactive and reactive routing protocol, and for that reason it can be classified as a hybrid routing protocol. The proposed solution should avoid flooding and creating the new routing metric. We suggest the use of artificial logic—i.e., neural networks (NNs). This protocol is based on mobile agent technologies controlled by a Hopfield neural network. In addition to this, our new routing metric is based on multicriteria optimization in order to minimize delay and blocking probability (rejected packets or their retransmission). The routing protocol observes real network parameters and real network environments. As a result of artificial logic intelligence, the proposed routing protocol should maximize usage of network resources and optimize network performance. PMID:22969360

Environmental Characteristics and Geographic Information System Applications for the Development of Nutrient Thresholds in Oklahoma Streams

USGS Publications Warehouse

Masoner, Jason R.; Haggard, Brian E.; Rea, Alan

2002-01-01

The U.S.Environmental Protection Agency has developed nutrient criteria using ecoregions to manage and protect rivers and streams in the United States. Individual states and tribes are encouraged by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to modify or improve upon the ecoregion approach. The Oklahoma Water Resources Board uses a dichotomous process that stratifies streams using environmental characteristics such as stream order and stream slope. This process is called the Use Support Assessment Protocols, subchapter15. The Use Support Assessment Protocols can be used to identify streams threatened by excessive amounts of nutrients, dependant upon a beneficial use designation for each stream. The Use Support Assessment Protocols, subchapter 15 uses nutrient and environmental characteristic thresholds developed from a study conducted in the Netherlands, but the Oklahoma Water Resources Board wants to modify the thresholds to reflect hydrologic and ecological conditions relevant to Oklahoma streams and rivers. Environmental characteristics thought to affect impairment from nutrient concentrations in Oklahoma streams and rivers were determined for 798 water-quality sites in Oklahoma. Nutrient, chlorophyll, water-properties, and location data were retrieved from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency STORET database including data from the U.S. Geological Survey, Oklahoma Conservation Commission, and Oklahoma Water Resources Board. Drainage-basin area, stream order, stream slope, and land-use proportions were determined for each site using a Geographic Information System. The methods, procedures, and data sets used to determine the environmental characteristics are described.

30 CFR 19.2 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false [Reserved] 19.2 Section 19.2 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR TESTING, EVALUATION, AND APPROVAL OF MINING PRODUCTS ELECTRIC CAP LAMPS § 19.2 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 22.3 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false [Reserved] 22.3 Section 22.3 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR TESTING, EVALUATION, AND APPROVAL OF MINING PRODUCTS PORTABLE METHANE DETECTORS § 22.3 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 19.2 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false [Reserved] 19.2 Section 19.2 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR TESTING, EVALUATION, AND APPROVAL OF MINING PRODUCTS ELECTRIC CAP LAMPS § 19.2 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 19.2 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false [Reserved] 19.2 Section 19.2 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR TESTING, EVALUATION, AND APPROVAL OF MINING PRODUCTS ELECTRIC CAP LAMPS § 19.2 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 19.2 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false [Reserved] 19.2 Section 19.2 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR TESTING, EVALUATION, AND APPROVAL OF MINING PRODUCTS ELECTRIC CAP LAMPS § 19.2 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 19.2 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false [Reserved] 19.2 Section 19.2 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR TESTING, EVALUATION, AND APPROVAL OF MINING PRODUCTS ELECTRIC CAP LAMPS § 19.2 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 285.608-285.609 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false [Reserved] 285.608-285.609 Section 285.608-285.609 Mineral Resources MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR OFFSHORE RENEWABLE... [Reserved] Contents of the Site Assessment Plan ...

30 CFR 285.643-285.644 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false [Reserved] 285.643-285.644 Section 285.643-285.644 Mineral Resources MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR OFFSHORE RENEWABLE....644 [Reserved] Contents of the General Activities Plan ...

30 CFR 22.3 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false [Reserved] 22.3 Section 22.3 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR TESTING, EVALUATION, AND APPROVAL OF MINING PRODUCTS PORTABLE METHANE DETECTORS § 22.3 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 22.3 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false [Reserved] 22.3 Section 22.3 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR TESTING, EVALUATION, AND APPROVAL OF MINING PRODUCTS PORTABLE METHANE DETECTORS § 22.3 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 22.3 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false [Reserved] 22.3 Section 22.3 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR TESTING, EVALUATION, AND APPROVAL OF MINING PRODUCTS PORTABLE METHANE DETECTORS § 22.3 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 22.3 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false [Reserved] 22.3 Section 22.3 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR TESTING, EVALUATION, AND APPROVAL OF MINING PRODUCTS PORTABLE METHANE DETECTORS § 22.3 [Reserved] ...

Review of the NURE assessment of the U.S. Gulf Coast Uranium Province

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hall, Susan M.

2013-01-01

Historic exploration and development were used to evaluate the reliability of domestic uranium reserves and potential resources estimated by the U.S. Department of Energy national uranium resource evaluation (NURE) program in the U.S. Gulf Coast Uranium Province. NURE estimated 87 million pounds of reserves in the $30/lb U3O8 cost category in the Coast Plain uranium resource region, most in the Gulf Coast Uranium Province. Since NURE, 40 million pounds of reserves have been mined, and 38 million pounds are estimated to remain in place as of 2012, accounting for all but 9 million pounds of U3O8 in the reserve or production categories in the NURE estimate. Considering the complexities and uncertainties of the analysis, this study indicates that the NURE reserve estimates for the province were accurate. An unconditional potential resource of 1.4 billion pounds of U3O8, 600 million pounds of U3O8 in the forward cost category of $30/lb U3O8 (1980 prices), was estimated in 106 favorable areas by the NURE program in the province. Removing potential resources from the non-productive Houston embayment, and those reserves estimated below historic and current mining depths reduces the unconditional potential resource 33% to about 930 million pounds of U3O8, and that in the $30/lb cost category 34% to 399 million pounds of U3O8. Based on production records and reserve estimates tabulated for the region, most of the production since 1980 is likely from the reserves identified by NURE. The potential resource predicted by NURE has not been developed, likely due to a variety of factors related to the low uranium prices that have prevailed since 1980.

Fast Virtual Fractional Flow Reserve Based Upon Steady-State Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis: Results From the VIRTU-Fast Study.

PubMed

Morris, Paul D; Silva Soto, Daniel Alejandro; Feher, Jeroen F A; Rafiroiu, Dan; Lungu, Angela; Varma, Susheel; Lawford, Patricia V; Hose, D Rodney; Gunn, Julian P

2017-08-01

Fractional flow reserve (FFR)-guided percutaneous intervention is superior to standard assessment but remains underused. The authors have developed a novel "pseudotransient" analysis protocol for computing virtual fractional flow reserve (vFFR) based upon angiographic images and steady-state computational fluid dynamics. This protocol generates vFFR results in 189 s (cf >24 h for transient analysis) using a desktop PC, with <1% error relative to that of full-transient computational fluid dynamics analysis. Sensitivity analysis demonstrated that physiological lesion significance was influenced less by coronary or lesion anatomy (33%) and more by microvascular physiology (59%). If coronary microvascular resistance can be estimated, vFFR can be accurately computed in less time than it takes to make invasive measurements.

Data-driven CT protocol review and management—experience from a large academic hospital.

PubMed

Zhang, Da; Savage, Cristy A; Li, Xinhua; Liu, Bob

2015-03-01

Protocol review plays a critical role in CT quality assurance, but large numbers of protocols and inconsistent protocol names on scanners and in exam records make thorough protocol review formidable. In this investigation, we report on a data-driven cataloging process that can be used to assist in the reviewing and management of CT protocols. We collected lists of scanner protocols, as well as 18 months of recent exam records, for 10 clinical scanners. We developed computer algorithms to automatically deconstruct the protocol names on the scanner and in the exam records into core names and descriptive components. Based on the core names, we were able to group the scanner protocols into a much smaller set of "core protocols," and to easily link exam records with the scanner protocols. We calculated the percentage of usage for each core protocol, from which the most heavily used protocols were identified. From the percentage-of-usage data, we found that, on average, 18, 33, and 49 core protocols per scanner covered 80%, 90%, and 95%, respectively, of all exams. These numbers are one order of magnitude smaller than the typical numbers of protocols that are loaded on a scanner (200-300, as reported in the literature). Duplicated, outdated, and rarely used protocols on the scanners were easily pinpointed in the cataloging process. The data-driven cataloging process can facilitate the task of protocol review. Copyright © 2015 American College of Radiology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Stochastic Characterization of Communication Network Latency for Wide Area Grid Control Applications.

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

Ameme, Dan Selorm Kwami; Guttromson, Ross

This report characterizes communications network latency under various network topologies and qualities of service (QoS). The characterizations are probabilistic in nature, allowing deeper analysis of stability for Internet Protocol (IP) based feedback control systems used in grid applications. The work involves the use of Raspberry Pi computers as a proxy for a controlled resource, and an ns-3 network simulator on a Linux server to create an experimental platform (testbed) that can be used to model wide-area grid control network communications in smart grid. Modbus protocol is used for information transport, and Routing Information Protocol is used for dynamic route selectionmore » within the simulated network.« less

Hysterectomy for placenta accreta; methods for gross and microscopic pathology examination.

PubMed

Dannheim, Katelyn; Shainker, Scott A; Hecht, Jonathan L

2016-05-01

Placenta accreta is an abnormal adherence of the placenta to the uterine wall. As the incidence of placenta accreta continues to rise, it has been useful to develop standard protocols for the diagnosis and management of affected patients. Pathologists have the opportunity to take an active role in evaluating these resource intensive protocols. We describe methods of gross dissection, microscopic examination and reporting of hysterectomy specimens containing placenta accreta. This protocol facilitates retrospective correlation with surgical and radiographic findings as well as standardized tissue sampling for potential research. Through regular review of such quality measures pathologists can give feedback on the quality of surgical planning and use of imaging.

Two-party secret key distribution via a modified quantum secret sharing protocol.

PubMed

Grice, W P; Evans, P G; Lawrie, B; Legré, M; Lougovski, P; Ray, W; Williams, B P; Qi, B; Smith, A M

2015-03-23

We present and demonstrate a novel protocol for distributing secret keys between two and only two parties based on N-party single-qubit Quantum Secret Sharing (QSS). We demonstrate our new protocol with N = 3 parties using phase-encoded photons. We show that any two out of N parties can build a secret key based on partial information from each other and with collaboration from the remaining N - 2 parties. Our implementation allows for an accessible transition between N-party QSS and arbitrary two party QKD without modification of hardware. In addition, our approach significantly reduces the number of resources such as single photon detectors, lasers and dark fiber connections needed to implement QKD.

Using EMBL-EBI services via Web interface and programmatically via Web Services

PubMed Central

Lopez, Rodrigo; Cowley, Andrew; Li, Weizhong; McWilliam, Hamish

2015-01-01

The European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) provides access to a wide range of databases and analysis tools that are of key importance in bioinformatics. As well as providing Web interfaces to these resources, Web Services are available using SOAP and REST protocols that enable programmatic access to our resources and allow their integration into other applications and analytical workflows. This unit describes the various options available to a typical researcher or bioinformatician who wishes to use our resources via Web interface or programmatically via a range of programming languages. PMID:25501941

The NIH Roadmap Epigenomics Program data resource

PubMed Central

Chadwick, Lisa Helbling

2012-01-01

The NIH Roadmap Reference Epigenome Mapping Consortium is developing a community resource of genome-wide epigenetic maps in a broad range of human primary cells and tissues. There are large amounts of data already available, and a number of different options for viewing and analyzing the data. This report will describe key features of the websites where users will find data, protocols and analysis tools developed by the consortium, and provide a perspective on how this unique resource will facilitate and inform human disease research, both immediately and in the future. PMID:22690667

The NIH Roadmap Epigenomics Program data resource.

PubMed

Chadwick, Lisa Helbling

2012-06-01

The NIH Roadmap Reference Epigenome Mapping Consortium is developing a community resource of genome-wide epigenetic maps in a broad range of human primary cells and tissues. There are large amounts of data already available, and a number of different options for viewing and analyzing the data. This report will describe key features of the websites where users will find data, protocols and analysis tools developed by the consortium, and provide a perspective on how this unique resource will facilitate and inform human disease research, both immediately and in the future.

Retrospective analysis for treatment of naïve canine multicentric lymphoma with a 15-week, maintenance-free CHOP protocol.

PubMed

Curran, K; Thamm, D H

2016-08-01

Standard of care treatment of dogs with multicentric lymphoma includes combination chemotherapy with cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisone (CHOP); however, owners may be hesitant to commit the resources necessary to complete a lengthy, multi-drug protocol. One hundred thirty-four client-owned dogs with multicentric lymphoma were treated with a 15-week CHOP chemotherapy protocol. The overall response rate was 98% with 104 dogs experiencing a complete response (CR). The median progression-free survival (PFS) time for all dogs was 176 days, and the median disease-specific overall survival time was 311 days. Prognostic factors identified on multivariate analysis as significant for PFS included substage, immunophenotype, hospitalization for adverse events, need for dose reduction, presence of neutrophilia at diagnosis, presence of anemia and experiencing a CR as best response to therapy. In conclusion, this protocol may be a viable alternative to CHOP protocols using a larger number of treatments. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Throughput and Energy Efficiency of a Cooperative Hybrid ARQ Protocol for Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Ghosh, Arindam; Lee, Jae-Won; Cho, Ho-Shin

2013-01-01

Due to its efficiency, reliability and better channel and resource utilization, cooperative transmission technologies have been attractive options in underwater as well as terrestrial sensor networks. Their performance can be further improved if merged with forward error correction (FEC) techniques. In this paper, we propose and analyze a retransmission protocol named Cooperative-Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (C-HARQ) for underwater acoustic sensor networks, which exploits both the reliability of cooperative ARQ (CARQ) and the efficiency of incremental redundancy-hybrid ARQ (IR-HARQ) using rate-compatible punctured convolution (RCPC) codes. Extensive Monte Carlo simulations are performed to investigate the performance of the protocol, in terms of both throughput and energy efficiency. The results clearly reveal the enhancement in performance achieved by the C-HARQ protocol, which outperforms both CARQ and conventional stop and wait ARQ (S&W ARQ). Further, using computer simulations, optimum values of various network parameters are estimated so as to extract the best performance out of the C-HARQ protocol. PMID:24217359

Robustness of quantum key distribution with discrete and continuous variables to channel noise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lasota, Mikołaj; Filip, Radim; Usenko, Vladyslav C.

2017-06-01

We study the robustness of quantum key distribution protocols using discrete or continuous variables to the channel noise. We introduce the model of such noise based on coupling of the signal to a thermal reservoir, typical for continuous-variable quantum key distribution, to the discrete-variable case. Then we perform a comparison of the bounds on the tolerable channel noise between these two kinds of protocols using the same noise parametrization, in the case of implementation which is perfect otherwise. Obtained results show that continuous-variable protocols can exhibit similar robustness to the channel noise when the transmittance of the channel is relatively high. However, for strong loss discrete-variable protocols are superior and can overcome even the infinite-squeezing continuous-variable protocol while using limited nonclassical resources. The requirement on the probability of a single-photon production which would have to be fulfilled by a practical source of photons in order to demonstrate such superiority is feasible thanks to the recent rapid development in this field.

Quantum gates by inverse engineering of a Hamiltonian

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Santos, Alan C.

2018-01-01

Inverse engineering of a Hamiltonian (IEH) from an evolution operator is a useful technique for the protocol of quantum control with potential applications in quantum information processing. In this paper we introduce a particular protocol to perform IEH and we show how this scheme can be used to implement a set of quantum gates by using minimal quantum resources (such as entanglement, interactions between more than two qubits or auxiliary qubits). Remarkably, while previous protocols request three-qubit interactions and/or auxiliary qubits to implement such gates, our protocol requires just two-qubit interactions and no auxiliary qubits. By using this approach we can obtain a large class of Hamiltonians that allow us to implement single and two-qubit gates necessary for quantum computation. To conclude this article we analyze the performance of our scheme against systematic errors related to amplitude noise, where we show that the free parameters introduced in our scheme can be useful for enhancing the robustness of the protocol against such errors.

[Complexity of social and healthcare coordination in addictions and the role of the nurse].

PubMed

Molina Fernández, Antonio Jesús; González Riera, Javier; Montero Bancalero, Francisco José; Gómez-Salgado, Juan

2016-01-01

The present article discusses the psychosocial impact of basic and advanced concepts, such as social support and prevention, as well as to establish a link between theoretical models related to the social sphere on one side, and the health aspects on the other. This work is based on the context of the influence on health shared by community psychology and social psychology. Starting from the historical background of current approaches, a review is presented of those first actions focused on the care plan and they are framed in a reaction model to the drug problem, which progressed to the current healthcare network model, through the creation of Spanish National Action Plan on Drugs. The complexity of the problem is then broken down into the following key elements: Multifactorial Model of Drugs and Addictions, importance of prevention, and social support. Subsequently, a description is presented on the different levels of the healthcare network, with their different resources. This is also illustrated using a coordination protocol. Finally, it features the nursing approach to drugs, with its contributions, particularly as regards the coordination of resources, and aspects that must be developed for improvement in this area. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Rebuilding from Resilience: Research Framework for a Randomized Controlled Trial of Community-led Interventions to Prevent Domestic Violence in Aboriginal Communities1

PubMed Central

Andersson, Neil; Shea, Beverley; Amaratunga, Carol; McGuire, Patricia; Sioui, Georges

2010-01-01

This research framework, which competed successfully in the 2008 CIHR open operating grants competition, focuses on protocols to measure the impact of community-led interventions to reduce domestic violence in Aboriginal communities. The project develops and tests tools and procedures for a randomized controlled trial of prevention of family violence. Women’s shelters mainly deal with victims of domestic violence, and the framework also addresses other types of domestic violence (male and female children, elderly, and disabled). The partner shelters are in Aboriginal communities across Canada, on and off reserve, in most provinces and territories. The baseline study applies a questionnaire developed by the shelters. Testing the stepped wedge design in an Aboriginal context, shelters randomized themselves to two waves of intervention, half the shelters receiving the resources for the first wave. A repeat survey after two years will measure the difference between first wave and second wave, after which the resources will shift to the second wave. At least two Aboriginal researchers will complete their doctoral studies in the project. The steering committee of 12 shelter directors guides the project and ensures ethical standards related to their populations. Each participating community and the University of Ottawa reviewed and passed the proposal. PMID:20975853

Skin Microbiome Surveys Are Strongly Influenced by Experimental Design.

PubMed

Meisel, Jacquelyn S; Hannigan, Geoffrey D; Tyldsley, Amanda S; SanMiguel, Adam J; Hodkinson, Brendan P; Zheng, Qi; Grice, Elizabeth A

2016-05-01

Culture-independent studies to characterize skin microbiota are increasingly common, due in part to affordable and accessible sequencing and analysis platforms. Compared to culture-based techniques, DNA sequencing of the bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene or whole metagenome shotgun (WMS) sequencing provides more precise microbial community characterizations. Most widely used protocols were developed to characterize microbiota of other habitats (i.e., gastrointestinal) and have not been systematically compared for their utility in skin microbiome surveys. Here we establish a resource for the cutaneous research community to guide experimental design in characterizing skin microbiota. We compare two widely sequenced regions of the 16S rRNA gene to WMS sequencing for recapitulating skin microbiome community composition, diversity, and genetic functional enrichment. We show that WMS sequencing most accurately recapitulates microbial communities, but sequencing of hypervariable regions 1-3 of the 16S rRNA gene provides highly similar results. Sequencing of hypervariable region 4 poorly captures skin commensal microbiota, especially Propionibacterium. WMS sequencing, which is resource and cost intensive, provides evidence of a community's functional potential; however, metagenome predictions based on 16S rRNA sequence tags closely approximate WMS genetic functional profiles. This study highlights the importance of experimental design for downstream results in skin microbiome surveys. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A splay tree-based approach for efficient resource location in P2P networks.

PubMed

Zhou, Wei; Tan, Zilong; Yao, Shaowen; Wang, Shipu

2014-01-01

Resource location in structured P2P system has a critical influence on the system performance. Existing analytical studies of Chord protocol have shown some potential improvements in performance. In this paper a splay tree-based new Chord structure called SChord is proposed to improve the efficiency of locating resources. We consider a novel implementation of the Chord finger table (routing table) based on the splay tree. This approach extends the Chord finger table with additional routing entries. Adaptive routing algorithm is proposed for implementation, and it can be shown that hop count is significantly minimized without introducing any other protocol overheads. We analyze the hop count of the adaptive routing algorithm, as compared to Chord variants, and demonstrate sharp upper and lower bounds for both worst-case and average case settings. In addition, we theoretically analyze the hop reducing in SChord and derive the fact that SChord can significantly reduce the routing hops as compared to Chord. Several simulations are presented to evaluate the performance of the algorithm and support our analytical findings. The simulation results show the efficiency of SChord.

Recommended features of protocols for long-term ecological monitoring

USGS Publications Warehouse

Oakley, Karen L.; Boudreau, Susan L.; Humphrey, Sioux-Z

2001-01-01

In 1991, the National Park Service (NPS) selected seven parks to serve as prototypes for development of a long-term ecological monitoring program. Denali National Park and Preserve was one of the prototype parks selected. The principal focus of this national program was to detect and document resource changes and to understand the forces driving those changes. One of the major tasks of each prototype park was to develop monitoring protocols. In this paper, we discuss some lessons learned and what we believe to be the most important features of protocols.One of the many lessons we have learned is that monitoring protocols vary greatly in content and format. This variation leads to confusion about what information protocols should contain and how they should be formatted. Problems we have observed in existing protocols include (1) not providing enough detail, (2) omitting critical topics (such as data management), and (3) mixing explanation with instructions. Once written, protocols often sit on the shelf to collect dust, allowing methods changes to occur without being adequately considered, tested, or documented. Because a lengthy and costly research effort is often needed to develop protocols, a vision of what the final product should look like is helpful. Based on our involvement with the prototype monitoring program for Denali (Oakley and Boudreau 2000), we recommend key features of protocols, including a scheme for linking protocols to data in the data management system and for tracking protocol revisions. A protocol system is crucial for producing long-term data sets of known quality that meet program objectives.

Optimizing the NASA Technical Report Server

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nelson, Michael L.; Maa, Ming-Hokng

1996-01-01

The NASA Technical Report Server (NTRS), a World Wide Web report distribution NASA technical publications service, is modified for performance enhancement, greater protocol support, and human interface optimization. Results include: Parallel database queries, significantly decreasing user access times by an average factor of 2.3; access from clients behind firewalls and/ or proxies which truncate excessively long Uniform Resource Locators (URLs); access to non-Wide Area Information Server (WAIS) databases and compatibility with the 239-50.3 protocol; and a streamlined user interface.

30 CFR 27.8 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false [Reserved] 27.8 Section 27.8 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR TESTING, EVALUATION, AND APPROVAL OF MINING PRODUCTS METHANE-MONITORING SYSTEMS General Provisions § 27.8 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 401.20-401.25 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false [Reserved] 401.20-401.25 Section 401.20-401.25 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STATE WATER RESEARCH INSTITUTE PROGRAM Reporting §§ 401.20-401.25 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 401.20-401.25 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false [Reserved] 401.20-401.25 Section 401.20-401.25 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STATE WATER RESEARCH INSTITUTE PROGRAM Reporting §§ 401.20-401.25 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 401.20-401.25 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false [Reserved] 401.20-401.25 Section 401.20-401.25 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STATE WATER RESEARCH INSTITUTE PROGRAM Reporting §§ 401.20-401.25 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 401.20-401.25 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false [Reserved] 401.20-401.25 Section 401.20-401.25 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STATE WATER RESEARCH INSTITUTE PROGRAM Reporting §§ 401.20-401.25 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 401.20-401.25 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false [Reserved] 401.20-401.25 Section 401.20-401.25 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STATE WATER RESEARCH INSTITUTE PROGRAM Reporting §§ 401.20-401.25 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 49.14 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false [Reserved] 49.14 Section 49.14 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING MINE RESCUE TEAMS Mine Rescue Teams for Underground Coal Mines § 49.14 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 49.14 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false [Reserved] 49.14 Section 49.14 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING MINE RESCUE TEAMS Mine Rescue Teams for Underground Coal Mines § 49.14 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 49.14 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false [Reserved] 49.14 Section 49.14 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING MINE RESCUE TEAMS Mine Rescue Teams for Underground Coal Mines § 49.14 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 49.14 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false [Reserved] 49.14 Section 49.14 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING MINE RESCUE TEAMS Mine Rescue Teams for Underground Coal Mines § 49.14 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 49.14 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false [Reserved] 49.14 Section 49.14 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING MINE RESCUE TEAMS Mine Rescue Teams for Underground Coal Mines § 49.14 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 27.8 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false [Reserved] 27.8 Section 27.8 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR TESTING, EVALUATION, AND APPROVAL OF MINING PRODUCTS METHANE-MONITORING SYSTEMS General Provisions § 27.8 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 253.44 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false [Reserved] 253.44 Section 253.44 Mineral Resources MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR OFFSHORE OIL SPILL FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR OFFSHORE FACILITIES Requirements for Submitting OSFR Information § 253.44 [Reserved] ...

Physical, technical, and economic accessibility of resources and reserves need to be distinguished by grade: Application to the case of phosphorus.

PubMed

Springer, Nathaniel P

2017-01-15

The amount of phosphorus in the total environment is finite, yet recent estimates suggest that more than enough phosphate ore resources exist in the lithosphere to meet future increases in demand during the next century. Still, it remains unclear how the accessibility of this resource stock - which is heterogeneous in terms of grade and location - will change as currently accessible resources are utilized, as extraction and processing technologies develop, and as the relative economic costs vary. This study uses an economic framework, the World Trade Model with Rectangular Choice-of-Technology, to link estimates of known geological resources of various grades with the technically and economically accessible reserves. Using the most recent public data on phosphate ore stocks and mining and technological capacity, this study estimates that the ~400,000teragrams (Tg) of known apatite ore (>1% P 2 O 5 content) equate to ~110,000Tg when converted to potential reserves (~30% P 2 O 5 ) using existing technologies, with over half of these remaining potential reserves converted from resources with grades below 20% P 2 O 5 . Corresponding global reserves are estimated at ~70,000Tg using the Rectangular Choice-of-Technology model, but since any reserve estimate is contingent on the state of the world economy, a set of five illustrative scenarios are constructed to show how this estimate can vary between ~67,000 and ~98,000Tg with only a small number of changes to the economic and technical parameters and variables. Calculating accessibility using consistent definitions for resources and reserves while distinguishing between grades not only creates a clearer picture of remaining non-renewable resources, but creates a framework that can be used to explore future geopolitical scenarios about ore availability, extraction technologies, supply networks, and global commodity prices. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Relationship between ovarian reserve and preovulatory estradiol during a fixed-time AI protocol in beef heifers

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Estradiol production is essential for reproductive efficiency. This study compared numbers of follicles in beef cows that did or did not have elevated preovulatory estradiol during a fixed-time AI (FTAI) protocol. In experiment 1, 5 low estradiol (LowE2) and 5 high estradiol (HighE2) cows were slaug...

Additional considerations are required when preparing a protocol for a systematic review with multiple interventions.

PubMed

Chaimani, Anna; Caldwell, Deborah M; Li, Tianjing; Higgins, Julian P T; Salanti, Georgia

2017-03-01

The number of systematic reviews that aim to compare multiple interventions using network meta-analysis is increasing. In this study, we highlight aspects of a standard systematic review protocol that may need modification when multiple interventions are to be compared. We take the protocol format suggested by Cochrane for a standard systematic review as our reference and compare the considerations for a pairwise review with those required for a valid comparison of multiple interventions. We suggest new sections for protocols of systematic reviews including network meta-analyses with a focus on how to evaluate their assumptions. We provide example text from published protocols to exemplify the considerations. Standard systematic review protocols for pairwise meta-analyses need extensions to accommodate the increased complexity of network meta-analysis. Our suggested modifications are widely applicable to both Cochrane and non-Cochrane systematic reviews involving network meta-analyses. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Updated United Nations Framework Classification for reserves and resources of extractive industries

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ahlbrandt, T.S.; Blaise, J.R.; Blystad, P.; Kelter, D.; Gabrielyants, G.; Heiberg, S.; Martinez, A.; Ross, J.G.; Slavov, S.; Subelj, A.; Young, E.D.

2004-01-01

The United Nations have studied how the oil and gas resource classification developed jointly by the SPE, the World Petroleum Congress (WPC) and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) could be harmonized with the United Nations Framework Classification (UNFC) for Solid Fuel and Mineral Resources (1). The United Nations has continued to build on this and other works, with support from many relevant international organizations, with the objective of updating the UNFC to apply to the extractive industries. The result is the United Nations Framework Classification for Energy and Mineral Resources (2) that this paper will present. Reserves and resources are categorized with respect to three sets of criteria: ??? Economic and commercial viability ??? Field project status and feasibility ??? The level of geologic knowledge The field project status criteria are readily recognized as the ones highlighted in the SPE/WPC/AAPG classification system of 2000. The geologic criteria absorb the rich traditions that form the primary basis for the Russian classification system, and the ones used to delimit, in part, proved reserves. Economic and commercial criteria facilitate the use of the classification in general, and reflect the commercial considerations used to delimit proved reserves in particular. The classification system will help to develop a common understanding of reserves and resources for all the extractive industries and will assist: ??? International and national resources management to secure supplies; ??? Industries' management of business processes to achieve efficiency in exploration and production; and ??? An appropriate basis for documenting the value of reserves and resources in financial statements.

Fractional, biodegradable and spectral characteristics of extracted and fractionated sludge extracellular polymeric substances.

PubMed

Wei, Liang-Liang; Wang, Kun; Zhao, Qing-Liang; Jiang, Jun-Qiu; Kong, Xiang-Juan; Lee, Duu-Jong

2012-09-15

Correlation between fractional, biodegradable and spectral characteristics of sludge extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) by different protocols has not been well established. This work extracted sludge EPS using alkaline extractants (NH₄OH and formaldehyde + NaOH) and physical protocols (ultrasonication, heating at 80 °C or cation exchange resin (CER)) and then fractionated the extracts using XAD-8/XAD-4 resins. The alkaline extractants yielded more sludge EPS than the physical protocols. However, the physical protocols extracted principally the hydrophilic components which were readily biodegradable by microorganisms. The alkaline extractants dissolved additional humic-like substances from sludge solids which were refractory in nature. Different extraction protocols preferably extracted EPS with distinct fractional, biodegradable and spectral characteristics which could be applied in specific usages. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mineral resources: Reserves, peak production and the future

USGS Publications Warehouse

Meinert, Lawrence D.; Robinson, Gilpin; Nassar, Nedal

2016-01-01

The adequacy of mineral resources in light of population growth and rising standards of living has been a concern since the time of Malthus (1798), but many studies erroneously forecast impending peak production or exhaustion because they confuse reserves with “all there is”. Reserves are formally defined as a subset of resources, and even current and potential resources are only a small subset of “all there is”. Peak production or exhaustion cannot be modeled accurately from reserves. Using copper as an example, identified resources are twice as large as the amount projected to be needed through 2050. Estimates of yet-to-be discovered copper resources are up to 40-times more than currently-identified resources, amounts that could last for many centuries. Thus, forecasts of imminent peak production due to resource exhaustion in the next 20–30 years are not valid. Short-term supply problems may arise, however, and supply-chain disruptions are possible at any time due to natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes) or political complications. Needed to resolve these problems are education and exploration technology development, access to prospective terrain, better recycling and better accounting of externalities associated with production (pollution, loss of ecosystem services and water and energy use).

Resource Control in Large-Scale Mobile-Agents Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-07-01

wakeup node schedule , much energy can be conserved. We also designed several protocols for global clock synchronization. The most interesting one is...choice as to which remote hosts to visit and in which order. Scheduling mobile-agent migration in a way that minimizes bandwidth and other resource...use, therefore, is both feasible and attractive. Dartmouth considered several variations of the scheduling problem, and devel- oped an algorithm for

Securing resource constraints embedded devices using elliptic curve cryptography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tam, Tony; Alfasi, Mohamed; Mozumdar, Mohammad

2014-06-01

The use of smart embedded device has been growing rapidly in recent time because of miniaturization of sensors and platforms. Securing data from these embedded devices is now become one of the core challenges both in industry and research community. Being embedded, these devices have tight constraints on resources such as power, computation, memory, etc. Hence it is very difficult to implement traditional Public Key Cryptography (PKC) into these resource constrained embedded devices. Moreover, most of the public key security protocols requires both public and private key to be generated together. In contrast with this, Identity Based Encryption (IBE), a public key cryptography protocol, allows a public key to be generated from an arbitrary string and the corresponding private key to be generated later on demand. While IBE has been actively studied and widely applied in cryptography research, conventional IBE primitives are also computationally demanding and cannot be efficiently implemented on embedded system. Simplified version of the identity based encryption has proven its competence in being robust and also satisfies tight budget of the embedded platform. In this paper, we describe the choice of several parameters for implementing lightweight IBE in resource constrained embedded sensor nodes. Our implementation of IBE is built using elliptic curve cryptography (ECC).

Geothermal resources and reserves in Indonesia: an updated revision

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fauzi, A.

2015-02-01

More than 300 high- to low-enthalpy geothermal sources have been identified throughout Indonesia. From the early 1980s until the late 1990s, the geothermal potential for power production in Indonesia was estimated to be about 20 000 MWe. The most recent estimate exceeds 29 000 MWe derived from the 300 sites (Geological Agency, December 2013). This resource estimate has been obtained by adding all of the estimated geothermal potential resources and reserves classified as "speculative", "hypothetical", "possible", "probable", and "proven" from all sites where such information is available. However, this approach to estimating the geothermal potential is flawed because it includes double counting of some reserve estimates as resource estimates, thus giving an inflated figure for the total national geothermal potential. This paper describes an updated revision of the geothermal resource estimate in Indonesia using a more realistic methodology. The methodology proposes that the preliminary "Speculative Resource" category should cover the full potential of a geothermal area and form the base reference figure for the resource of the area. Further investigation of this resource may improve the level of confidence of the category of reserves but will not necessarily increase the figure of the "preliminary resource estimate" as a whole, unless the result of the investigation is higher. A previous paper (Fauzi, 2013a, b) redefined and revised the geothermal resource estimate for Indonesia. The methodology, adopted from Fauzi (2013a, b), will be fully described in this paper. As a result of using the revised methodology, the potential geothermal resources and reserves for Indonesia are estimated to be about 24 000 MWe, some 5000 MWe less than the 2013 national estimate.

Detecting relay attacks on RFID communication systems using quantum bits

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jannati, Hoda; Ardeshir-Larijani, Ebrahim

2016-11-01

RFID systems became widespread in variety of applications because of their simplicity in manufacturing and usability. In the province of critical infrastructure protection, RFID systems are usually employed to identify and track people, objects and vehicles that enter restricted areas. The most important vulnerability which is prevalent among all protocols employed in RFID systems is against relay attacks. Until now, to protect RFID systems against this kind of attack, the only approach is the utilization of distance-bounding protocols which are not applicable over low-cost devices such as RFID passive tags. This work presents a novel technique using emerging quantum technologies to detect relay attacks on RFID systems. Recently, it is demonstrated that quantum key distribution (QKD) can be implemented in a client-server scheme where client only requires an on-chip polarization rotator that may be integrated into a handheld device. Now we present our technique for a tag-reader scenario which needs similar resources as the mentioned QKD scheme. We argue that our technique requires less resources and provides lower probability of false alarm for the system, compared with distance-bounding protocols, and may pave the way to enhance the security of current RFID systems.

Modelling optimal location for pre-hospital helicopter emergency medical services.

PubMed

Schuurman, Nadine; Bell, Nathaniel J; L'Heureux, Randy; Hameed, Syed M

2009-05-09

Increasing the range and scope of early activation/auto launch helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) may alleviate unnecessary injury mortality that disproportionately affects rural populations. To date, attempts to develop a quantitative framework for the optimal location of HEMS facilities have been absent. Our analysis used five years of critical care data from tertiary health care facilities, spatial data on origin of transport and accurate road travel time catchments for tertiary centres. A location optimization model was developed to identify where the expansion of HEMS would cover the greatest population among those currently underserved. The protocol was developed using geographic information systems (GIS) to measure populations, distances and accessibility to services. Our model determined Royal Inland Hospital (RIH) was the optimal site for an expanded HEMS - based on denominator population, distance to services and historical usage patterns. GIS based protocols for location of emergency medical resources can provide supportive evidence for allocation decisions - especially when resources are limited. In this study, we were able to demonstrate conclusively that a logical choice exists for location of additional HEMS. This protocol could be extended to location analysis for other emergency and health services.

For Your Phone Only: Custom Protocols for Efficient Secure Function Evaluation on Mobile Devices (Preprint)

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-11-01

that mobile application developers should reconsider implementing garbled circuits due to their extreme resource usage, and instead rely upon our equivalently secure and significantly more efficient alternative.

30 CFR 285.117 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false [Reserved] 285.117 Section 285.117 Mineral Resources MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR OFFSHORE RENEWABLE ENERGY ALTERNATE USES OF EXISTING FACILITIES ON THE OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF General Provisions § 285.117 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 20.4 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false [Reserved] 20.4 Section 20.4 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR TESTING, EVALUATION, AND APPROVAL OF MINING PRODUCTS ELECTRIC MINE LAMPS OTHER THAN STANDARD CAP LAMPS § 20.4 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 20.4 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false [Reserved] 20.4 Section 20.4 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR TESTING, EVALUATION, AND APPROVAL OF MINING PRODUCTS ELECTRIC MINE LAMPS OTHER THAN STANDARD CAP LAMPS § 20.4 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 20.4 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false [Reserved] 20.4 Section 20.4 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR TESTING, EVALUATION, AND APPROVAL OF MINING PRODUCTS ELECTRIC MINE LAMPS OTHER THAN STANDARD CAP LAMPS § 20.4 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 20.4 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false [Reserved] 20.4 Section 20.4 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR TESTING, EVALUATION, AND APPROVAL OF MINING PRODUCTS ELECTRIC MINE LAMPS OTHER THAN STANDARD CAP LAMPS § 20.4 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 20.4 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false [Reserved] 20.4 Section 20.4 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR TESTING, EVALUATION, AND APPROVAL OF MINING PRODUCTS ELECTRIC MINE LAMPS OTHER THAN STANDARD CAP LAMPS § 20.4 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 285.649 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false [Reserved] 285.649 Section 285.649 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT, REGULATION, AND ENFORCEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR... Information Requirements Contents of the General Activities Plan § 285.649 [Reserved] Activities Under an...

30 CFR 285.630 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false [Reserved] 285.630 Section 285.630 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT, REGULATION, AND ENFORCEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR... Information Requirements Contents of the Construction and Operations Plan § 285.630 [Reserved] Activities...

30 CFR 285.623-285.625 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false [Reserved] 285.623-285.625 Section 285.623-285.625 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT, REGULATION, AND ENFORCEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF....623-285.625 [Reserved] Contents of the Construction and Operations Plan ...

30 CFR 553.44 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false [Reserved] 553.44 Section 553.44 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR OFFSHORE OIL SPILL FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR OFFSHORE FACILITIES Requirements for Submitting OSFR Information § 553.44 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 553.44 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false [Reserved] 553.44 Section 553.44 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR OFFSHORE OIL SPILL FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR OFFSHORE FACILITIES Requirements for Submitting OSFR Information § 553.44 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 553.44 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false [Reserved] 553.44 Section 553.44 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR OFFSHORE OIL SPILL FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR OFFSHORE FACILITIES Requirements for Submitting OSFR Information § 553.44 [Reserved] ...

A comparison of two emergency medical dispatch protocols with respect to accuracy.

PubMed

Torlén, Klara; Kurland, Lisa; Castrén, Maaret; Olanders, Knut; Bohm, Katarina

2017-12-29

Emergency medical dispatching should be as accurate as possible in order to ensure patient safety and optimize the use of ambulance resources. This study aimed to compare the accuracy, measured as priority level, between two Swedish dispatch protocols - the three-graded priority protocol Medical Index and a newly developed prototype, the four-graded priority protocol, RETTS-A. A simulation study was carried out at the Emergency Medical Communication Centre (EMCC) in Stockholm, Sweden, between October and March 2016. Fifty-three voluntary telecommunicators working at SOS Alarm were recruited nationally. Each telecommunicator handled 26 emergency medical calls, simulated by experienced standard patients. Manuscripts for the scenarios were based on recorded real-life calls, representing the six most common complaints. A cross-over design with 13 + 13 calls was used. Priority level and medical condition for each scenario was set through expert consensus and used as gold standard in the study. A total of 1293 calls were included in the analysis. For priority level, n = 349 (54.0%) of the calls were assessed correctly with Medical Index and n = 309 (48.0%) with RETTS-A (p = 0.012). Sensitivity for the highest priority level was 82.6% (95% confidence interval: 76.6-87.3%) in the Medical Index and 54.0% (44.3-63.4%) in RETTS-A. Overtriage was 37.9% (34.2-41.7%) in the Medical Index and 28.6% (25.2-32.2%) in RETTS-A. The corresponding proportion of undertriage was 6.3% (4.7-8.5%) and 23.4% (20.3-26.9%) respectively. In this simulation study we demonstrate that Medical Index had a higher accuracy for priority level and less undertriage than the new prototype RETTS-A. The overall accuracy of both protocols is to be considered as low. Overtriage challenges resource utilization while undertriage threatens patient safety. The results suggest that in order to improve patient safety both protocols need revisions in order to guarantee safe emergency medical dispatching.

Analysis of stroke care resources in Spain in 2012: have we benefitted from the Spanish Health System's stroke care strategy?

PubMed

López Fernández, J C; Masjuan Vallejo, J; Arenillas Lara, J; Blanco González, M; Botia Paniagua, E; Casado Naranjo, I; Deyá Arbona, E; Escribano Soriano, B; Freijo Guerrero, M M; Fuentes, B; Gállego Cullere, J; Geffners Sclarskyi, D; Gil Núñez, A; Gómez Escalonilla, C; Lago Martin, A; Legarda Ramírez, I; Maciñeiras Montero, J L; Maestre Moreno, J; Moniche Álvarez, F; Muñoz Arrondo, R; Purroy García, F; Ramírez Moreno, J M; Rebollo Álvarez Amandix, M; Roquer, J; Rubio Borrego, F; Segura, T; Serrano Ponza, M; Tejada García, J; Tejero Juste, C; Vidal Sánchez, J A

2014-09-01

The Spanish Health System's stroke care strategy (EISNS) is a consensus statement that was drawn up by various government bodies and scientific societies with the aim of improving quality throughout the care process and ensuring equality among regions. Our objective is to analyse existing healthcare resources and establish whether they have met EISNS targets. The survey on available resources was conducted by a committee of neurologists representing each of Spain's regions; the same committee also conducted the survey of 2008. The items included were the number of stroke units (SU), their resources (monitoring, neurologists on call 24h/7d, nurse ratio, protocols), SU bed ratio/100,000 inhabitants, diagnostic resources (cardiac and cerebral arterial ultrasound, advanced neuroimaging), performing iv thrombolysis, neurovascular interventional radiology (neuro VIR), surgery for malignant middle cerebral artery (MCA) infarctions and telemedicine availability. We included data from 136 hospitals and found 45 Stroke Units distributed unequally among regions. The ratio of SU beds to residents ranged from 1/74,000 to 1/1,037,000 inhabitants; only the regions of Cantabria and Navarre met the target. Neurologists performed 3,237 intravenous thrombolysis procedures in 83 hospitals; thrombolysis procedures compared to the total of ischaemic strokes yielded percentages ranging from 0.3 to 33.7%. Hospitals without SUs showed varying levels of available resources. Neuro VIR is performed in every region except La Rioja, and VIR is only available on a 24h/7 d basis in 17 cities. Surgery for malignant MCA infarction is performed in 46 hospitals, and 5 have telemedicine. Stroke care has improved in terms of numbers of participating hospitals, the increased use of intravenous thrombolysis and endovascular procedures, and surgery for malignant MCA infarction. Implementation of SUs and telemedicine remain insufficient. The availability of diagnostic resources is good in most SUs and irregular in other hospitals. Regional governments should strive to ensure better care and territorial equality, which would achieve the EISNS objectives. Copyright © 2013 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

An Assessment of Agriculture and Natural Resource Extension Program Needs on American Indian Reservations in Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singletary, Loretta; Emm, Staci; Hill, George

2011-01-01

This article summarizes the results of a needs assessment involving American Indians and outreach professionals on reservations in Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. The survey featured 36 questions about agricultural and natural resource issues that may pose challenges on reservation lands. A comparison between reservation residents and…

Optimal Adenosine Stress for Maximum Stress Perfusion, Coronary Flow Reserve, and Pixel Distribution of Coronary Flow Capacity by Kolmogorov-Smirnov Analysis.

PubMed

Kitkungvan, Danai; Lai, Dejian; Zhu, Hongjian; Roby, Amanda E; Johnson, Nils P; Steptoe, Derek D; Patel, Monica B; Kirkeeide, Richard; Gould, K Lance

2017-02-01

Different adenosine stress imaging protocols have not been systemically validated for absolute myocardial perfusion and coronary flow reserve (CFR) by positron emission tomography, where submaximal stress precludes assessing physiological severity of coronary artery disease. In 127 volunteers, serial rest-stress positron emission tomography scans using rubidium-82 with various adenosine infusion protocols identified (1) the protocol with maximum stress perfusion and CFR, (2) test-retest precision in same subject, (3) stress perfusion and CFR after adenosine compared with dipyridamole, (4) heterogeneity of coronary flow capacity combining stress perfusion and CFR, and (5) potential relevance for patients with risk factors or coronary artery disease. The adenosine 6-minute infusion with rubidium-82 injection at 3 minutes caused CFR that was significantly 15.7% higher than the 4-minute adenosine infusion with rubidium-82 injection at 2 minutes and significantly more homogeneous by Kolmogorov-Smirnov analysis for histograms of 1344 pixel range of perfusion in paired positron emission tomographies. In a coronary artery disease cohort separate from volunteers of this study, compared with the 3/6-minute protocol, the 2/4-minute adenosine protocol would potentially have changed 332 of 1732 (19%) positron emission tomographies at low-risk physiological severity CFR ≥2.3 to CFR <2.0, thereby implying high-risk quantitative severity potentially appropriate for interventions but because of suboptimal stress of the 2/4 protocol in some patients. The 6-minute adenosine infusion with rubidium-82 activation at 3 minutes produced CFR that averaged 15.7% higher than that in the 2/4-minute protocol, thereby potentially providing essential information for personalized management in some patients. © 2017 American Heart Association, Inc.

Community resource centres to improve the health of women and children in informal settlements in Mumbai: a cluster-randomised, controlled trial.

PubMed

More, Neena Shah; Das, Sushmita; Bapat, Ujwala; Alcock, Glyn; Manjrekar, Shreya; Kamble, Vikas; Sawant, Rijuta; Shende, Sushma; Daruwalla, Nayreen; Pantvaidya, Shanti; Osrin, David

2017-03-01

Around 105 million people in India will be living in informal settlements by 2017. We investigated the effects of local resource centres delivering integrated activities to improve women's and children's health in urban informal settlements. In a cluster-randomised controlled trial in 40 clusters, each containing around 600 households, 20 were randomly allocated to have a resource centre (intervention group) and 20 no centre (control group). Community organisers in the intervention centres addressed maternal and neonatal health, child health and nutrition, reproductive health, and prevention of violence against women and children through home visits, group meetings, day care, community events, service provision, and liaison. The primary endpoints were met need for family planning in women aged 15-49 years, proportion of children aged 12-23 months fully immunised, and proportion of children younger than 5 years with anthropometric wasting. Census interviews with women aged 15-49 years were done before and 2 years after the intervention was implemented. The primary intention-to-treat analysis compared cluster allocation groups after the intervention. We also analysed the per-protocol population (all women with data from both censuses) and assessed cluster-level changes. This study is registered with ISRCTN, number ISRCTN56183183, and Clinical Trials Registry of India, number CTRI/2012/09/003004. 12 614 households were allocated to the intervention and 12 239 to control. Postintervention data were available for 8271 women and 5371 children younger than 5 years in the intervention group, and 7965 women and 5180 children in the control group. Met need for family planning was greater in the intervention clusters than in the control clusters (odds ratio [OR] 1·31, 95% CI 1·11-1·53). The proportions of fully immunised children were similar in the intervention and control groups in the intention-to-treat analysis (OR 1·30, 95% CI 0·84-2·01), but were greater in the intervention group when assessed per protocol (1·73, 1·05-2·86). Childhood wasting did not differ between groups (OR 0·92, 95% CI 0·75-1·12), although improvement was seen at the cluster level in the intervention group (p=0·020). This community resource model seems feasible and replicable and may be protocolised for expansion. Wellcome Trust, CRY, Cipla. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY license. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Assessment of four protocols for rapid bacterial identification from positive blood culture pellets by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (Vitek® MS).

PubMed

Thomin, Jean; Aubin, Guillaume Ghislain; Foubert, Fabrice; Corvec, Stéphane

2015-08-01

In this study, we developed and compared four protocols to prepare a bacterial pellet from 944 positive blood cultures for direct MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry Vitek® MS analysis. Protocol 4, tested on 200 monomicrobial samples, allowed 83% of bacterial identification. This easy, fast, cheap and accurate method is promising in daily practice, especially to limit broad range antibiotic treatment. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Minimizing variance in pediatric gastrostomy: does standardized perioperative feeding plan decrease cost and improve outcomes?

PubMed

Sunstrom, Rachel; Hamilton, Nicholas; Fialkowski, Elizabeth; Lofberg, Katrine; McKee, Julie; Sims, Thomas; Krishnaswami, Sanjay; Azarow, Kenneth

2016-05-01

A protocol for laparoscopic gastrostomy placement was implemented which specified perioperative antibiotics, feeding regimens, and discharge criteria. Our hypothesis was that hospital cost could be decreased, whereas at the same time improving or maintaining patient outcomes. Data were collected on consecutive patients beginning 6 months after implementation of our protocol. We recorded surgeon compliance, patient outcomes (as defined by 30-day NSQIP complication rates), and cost of initial hospitalization, which was then compare to a 6-month historical control period. Our control group n = 26 and protocol group n = 39. Length of stay was shorter in the protocol group (P ≤ .05 by nonparametric analysis). The complication rate was similar in both groups (23% control vs 15% protocol, P = .43). Initial hospital costs were not different. Surgeon compliance to protocol was 82%. A standard protocol is achievable for gastrostomy tube management. After implementation of our protocol, we were able to show a significant decrease in length of stay, whereas maintaining quality. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Analytical Models of Cross-Layer Protocol Optimization in Real-Time Wireless Sensor Ad Hoc Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hortos, William S.

The real-time interactions among the nodes of a wireless sensor network (WSN) to cooperatively process data from multiple sensors are modeled. Quality-of-service (QoS) metrics are associated with the quality of fused information: throughput, delay, packet error rate, etc. Multivariate point process (MVPP) models of discrete random events in WSNs establish stochastic characteristics of optimal cross-layer protocols. Discrete-event, cross-layer interactions in mobile ad hoc network (MANET) protocols have been modeled using a set of concatenated design parameters and associated resource levels by the MVPPs. Characterization of the "best" cross-layer designs for a MANET is formulated by applying the general theory of martingale representations to controlled MVPPs. Performance is described in terms of concatenated protocol parameters and controlled through conditional rates of the MVPPs. Modeling limitations to determination of closed-form solutions versus explicit iterative solutions for ad hoc WSN controls are examined.

Terrestrial vegetation monitoring protocol for the Mediterranean Coast Network—Cabrillo National Monument, Channel Islands National Park, and Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area: Standard Operating Procedures, Version 1.0

USGS Publications Warehouse

Tiszler, John; Rodriguez, Dirk; Lombardo, Keith; Sagar, Tarja; Aguilar, Luis; Lee, Lena; Handley, Timothy; McEachern, A. Kathryn; Harrod Starcevich, Leigh Ann; Witter, Marti; Philippi, Tom; Ostermann-Kelm, Stacey

2016-01-01

These Standard Operating Procedures are one part of a two-part protocol for monitoring terrestrial vegetation in the Mediterranean Coast Network. The second part of the protocol is the narrative:Tiszler, J., D. Rodriguez, K. Lombardo, T. Sagar, L. Aguilar, L. Lee, T. Handley, K. McEachern, L. Starcevich, M. Witter, T. Philippi, and S. Ostermann-Kelm. 2016. Terrestrial vegetation monitoring protocol for the Mediterranean Coast Network—Cabrillo National Monument, Channel Islands National Park, and Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area: Narrative, version 1.0. Natural Resource Report NPS/MEDN/NRR—2016/1296. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado.National parks in the Mediterranean Inventory and Monitoring Network:Cabrillo National Monument (CABR)Channel Islands National Park (CHIS)Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SAMO)

Multi-party Semi-quantum Key Agreement with Delegating Quantum Computation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Wen-Jie; Chen, Zhen-Yu; Ji, Sai; Wang, Hai-Bin; Zhang, Jun

2017-10-01

A multi-party semi-quantum key agreement (SQKA) protocol based on delegating quantum computation (DQC) model is proposed by taking Bell states as quantum resources. In the proposed protocol, the participants only need the ability of accessing quantum channel and preparing single photons {|0〉, |1〉, |+〉, |-〉}, while the complicated quantum operations, such as the unitary operations and Bell measurement, will be delegated to the remote quantum center. Compared with previous quantum key agreement protocols, this client-server model is more feasible in the early days of the emergence of quantum computers. In order to prevent the attacks from outside eavesdroppers, inner participants and quantum center, two single photon sequences are randomly inserted into Bell states: the first sequence is used to perform the quantum channel detection, while the second is applied to disorder the positions of message qubits, which guarantees the security of the protocol.

30 CFR 585.304 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false [Reserved] 585.304 Section 585.304 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR OFFSHORE RENEWABLE ENERGY AND... and Easement Grants for Renewable Energy Activities Row Grants and Rue Grants § 585.304 [Reserved...

30 CFR 585.304 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false [Reserved] 585.304 Section 585.304 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR OFFSHORE RENEWABLE ENERGY AND... and Easement Grants for Renewable Energy Activities Row Grants and Rue Grants § 585.304 [Reserved...

30 CFR 18.7 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false [Reserved] 18.7 Section 18.7 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR TESTING, EVALUATION, AND APPROVAL OF MINING PRODUCTS ELECTRIC MOTOR-DRIVEN MINE EQUIPMENT AND ACCESSORIES General Provisions § 18.7 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 401.13-401.18 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false [Reserved] 401.13-401.18 Section 401.13-401.18 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STATE WATER RESEARCH INSTITUTE PROGRAM Application and Management Procedures §§ 401.13-401.18 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 401.13-401.18 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false [Reserved] 401.13-401.18 Section 401.13-401.18 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STATE WATER RESEARCH INSTITUTE PROGRAM Application and Management Procedures §§ 401.13-401.18 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 401.8-401.10 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false [Reserved] 401.8-401.10 Section 401.8-401.10 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STATE WATER RESEARCH INSTITUTE PROGRAM Designation of Institutes; Institute Programs §§ 401.8-401.10 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 401.13-401.18 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false [Reserved] 401.13-401.18 Section 401.13-401.18 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STATE WATER RESEARCH INSTITUTE PROGRAM Application and Management Procedures §§ 401.13-401.18 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 401.13-401.18 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false [Reserved] 401.13-401.18 Section 401.13-401.18 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STATE WATER RESEARCH INSTITUTE PROGRAM Application and Management Procedures §§ 401.13-401.18 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 401.8-401.10 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false [Reserved] 401.8-401.10 Section 401.8-401.10 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STATE WATER RESEARCH INSTITUTE PROGRAM Designation of Institutes; Institute Programs §§ 401.8-401.10 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 401.8-401.10 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false [Reserved] 401.8-401.10 Section 401.8-401.10 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STATE WATER RESEARCH INSTITUTE PROGRAM Designation of Institutes; Institute Programs §§ 401.8-401.10 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 401.8-401.10 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false [Reserved] 401.8-401.10 Section 401.8-401.10 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STATE WATER RESEARCH INSTITUTE PROGRAM Designation of Institutes; Institute Programs §§ 401.8-401.10 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 401.13-401.18 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false [Reserved] 401.13-401.18 Section 401.13-401.18 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STATE WATER RESEARCH INSTITUTE PROGRAM Application and Management Procedures §§ 401.13-401.18 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 401.8-401.10 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false [Reserved] 401.8-401.10 Section 401.8-401.10 Mineral Resources GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STATE WATER RESEARCH INSTITUTE PROGRAM Designation of Institutes; Institute Programs §§ 401.8-401.10 [Reserved] ...

Onboard screening dockside testing as a new means of managing paralytic shellfish poisoning risks in federally closed waters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

DeGrasse, Stacey; Conrad, Stephen; DiStefano, Paul; Vanegas, Camilo; Wallace, David; Jensen, Pete; Hickey, J. Michael; Cenci, Florence; Pitt, Jaclyn; Deardorff, Dave; Rubio, Fernando; Easy, Dorothy; Donovan, Mary Anne; Laycock, Maurice; Rouse, Debbie; Mullen, John

2014-05-01

Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) is the foodborne intoxication associated with the consumption of seafood contaminated with naturally occurring neurotoxins known as paralytic shellfish toxins. To protect public health from this potentially fatal syndrome, harvesting closures are implemented when toxins exceed the regulatory action level. Traditional monitoring programs established by state shellfish authorities allow for timely closures in state waters with minimal negative impacts on industry. However, such monitoring programs are not feasible in federal offshore waters given their distance from shore and the range of their spatial coverage. Thus innovative management strategies were investigated for these offshore resources. Georges Bank, an offshore resource with an estimated market value of more than 3 billion in Atlantic surfclams and ocean quahogs, has been closed to harvesting following a temporary ban in 1989 and a subsequent indefinite closure in 1990 due to the risk of PSP. As a means of managing this risk and allowing harvest of safe shellfish from this important resource, the Onboard Screening Dockside Testing Protocol (referred to as the Protocol) was developed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), state shellfish control authorities, and industry. The Protocol, which sets forth control measures to ensure product safety and public health protection, was endorsed by the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference (ISSC) for pilot testing. Briefly, the pilot study Protocol required that (1) the fishing vessel receive a permit from NMFS to harvest in closed waters, (2) a miniμm of five shellfish samples per intended harvest lot be tested for PSP toxins onboard, and (3) harvesting only occur when the samples tested from the intended fishing area are negative using the Jellett Rapid Tests or Abraxis Shipboard ELISA kits. Finally, product landed under the Protocol was confirmed to be safe for consumption using the mouse bioassay (MBA) prior to its introduction into commerce. This paper presents data from the pilot study, with primary focus on the advantages and challenges of the field kits employed onboard compared to the dockside MBA, which has served as the longstanding regulatory method for PSP toxins. In 2010 alone, the successful pilot study resulted in the safe harvest of over 2.7 million worth of surfclams in an area that has otherwise been unavailable for decades. Due to the success of this pilot study, the Protocol was adopted into the National Shellfish Sanitation Program Model Ordinance as an approved marine biotoxin control strategy for use in federal waters at the 2011 ISSC Biennial Meeting. In January 2013 a portion of Georges Bank was reopened for the harvest of Atlantic surfclams and ocean quahogs to fishermen following the Protocol.

Oak Ridge Reservation. Physical Characteristics and National Resources

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

Parr, Patricia Dreyer; Joan, F. Hughes

The topology, geology, hydrology, vegetation, and wildlife of the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) provide a complex and intricate array of resources that directly impact land stewardship and use decisions. The purpose of this document is to consolidate general information regarding the natural resources and physical characteristics of the ORR.

Confronting barriers and recognizing opportunities: Developing effective community-based environmental monitoring programs to meet the needs of Aboriginal communities

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

McKay, Ariana J., E-mail: ariana.mckay@outlook.com; Johnson, Chris J., E-mail: chris.johnson@unbc.ca

Aboriginal communities can be negatively affected by resource development, but often they do not have a full opportunity to participate in project review and the resulting monitoring and mitigation activities. Cumulative impacts of resource development are also typically neglected in monitoring protocols that focus on a limited number of environmental values, rather than adopting a long-term, holistic view of development over time and space. Community-based environmental monitoring (CBEM) is emerging as a way to meaningfully include local Aboriginal citizens in the decision-making process as well as the assessment of the long-term impacts of the development of natural resources. We exploredmore » opportunities and barriers for developing CBEM programs that meet the needs of small and rural Aboriginal communities that are faced with the rapid and wide-spread development of natural resources. We conducted interviews with a local Aboriginal community, and natural resource management practitioners who could provide perspectives on the application of CBEM to resource management in north-central British Columbia, Canada. Results demonstrate that CBEM offers a locally adapted and culturally appropriate approach to facilitate the participation of Aboriginal communities in natural resource decision making and management. The interpretation of the specific role and purpose of CBEM differed among participants, depending on their objectives for and concerns about natural resource development. However, all parties were consistent in viewing CBEM as an effective method for engaging in dialogue, cooperation, and tracking environmental change. The development or improvement of CBEM programs should consider the efficacy of monitoring protocols, social cohesion and relationships, ability to inform decision-making, and effectiveness of CBEM for the members of the community. - Highlights: • We explored how to develop effective CBEM with a focus on Aboriginal communities. • We identified opportunities and barriers for developing CBEM programs. • CBEM can facilitate Aboriginal community participation in natural resource management.« less

The Effect of Passive Heat Stress and Exercise-Induced Dehydration on the Compensatory Reserve During Simulated Hemorrhage.

PubMed

Gagnon, Daniel; Schlader, Zachary J; Adams, Amy; Rivas, Eric; Mulligan, Jane; Grudic, Gregory Z; Convertino, Victor A; Howard, Jeffrey T; Crandall, Craig G

2016-09-01

Compensatory reserve represents the proportion of physiological responses engaged to compensate for reductions in central blood volume before the onset of decompensation. We hypothesized that compensatory reserve would be reduced by hyperthermia and exercise-induced dehydration, conditions often encountered on the battlefield. Twenty healthy males volunteered for two separate protocols during which they underwent lower-body negative pressure (LBNP) to hemodynamic decompensation (systolic blood pressure <80 mm Hg). During protocol #1, LBNP was performed following a passive increase in core temperature of ∼1.2°C (HT) or a normothermic time-control period (NT). During protocol #2, LBNP was performed following exercise during which: fluid losses were replaced (hydrated), fluid intake was restricted and exercise ended at the same increase in core temperature as hydrated (isothermic dehydrated), or fluid intake was restricted and exercise duration was the same as hydrated (time-match dehydrated). Compensatory reserve was estimated with the compensatory reserve index (CRI), a machine-learning algorithm that extracts features from continuous photoplethysmograph signals. Prior to LBNP, CRI was reduced by passive heating [NT: 0.87 (SD 0.09) vs. HT: 0.42 (SD 0.19) units, P <0.01] and exercise-induced dehydration [hydrated: 0.67 (SD 0.19) vs. isothermic dehydrated: 0.52 (SD 0.21) vs. time-match dehydrated: 0.47 (SD 0.25) units; P <0.01 vs. hydrated]. During subsequent LBNP, CRI decreased further and its rate of change was similar between conditions. CRI values at decompensation did not differ between conditions. These results suggest that passive heating and exercise-induced dehydration limit the body's physiological reserve to compensate for further reductions in central blood volume.

Assessment and monitoring of recreation impacts and resource conditions on mountain summits: examples from the Northern Forest, USA

USGS Publications Warehouse

Monz, Christopher A.; Marion, Jeffrey L.; Goonan, Kelly A.; Manning, Robert E.; Wimpey, Jeremy; Carr, Christopher

2010-01-01

Mountain summits present a unique challenge to manage sustainably: they are ecologically important and, in many circumstances, under high demand for recreation and tourism activities. This article presents recent advances in the assessment of resource conditions and visitor disturbance in mountain summit environments, by drawing on examples from a multiyear, interdisciplinary study of summits in the northeastern United States. Primary impact issues as a consequence of visitor use, such as informal trail formation, vegetation disturbance, and soil loss, were addressed via the adaption of protocols from recreation ecology studies to summit environments. In addition, new methodologies were developed that provide measurement sensitivity to change previously unavailable through standard recreation monitoring protocols. Although currently limited in application to the northeastern US summit environments, the methods presented show promise for widespread application wherever summits are in demand for visitor activities.

Simulation platform of LEO satellite communication system based on OPNET

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Yu; Zhang, Yong; Li, Xiaozhuo; Wang, Chuqiao; Li, Haihao

2018-02-01

For the purpose of verifying communication protocol in the low earth orbit (LEO) satellite communication system, an Optimized Network Engineering Tool (OPNET) based simulation platform is built. Using the three-layer modeling mechanism, the network model, the node model and the process model of the satellite communication system are built respectively from top to bottom, and the protocol will be implemented by finite state machine and Proto-C language. According to satellite orbit parameters, orbit files are generated via Satellite Tool Kit (STK) and imported into OPNET, and the satellite nodes move along their orbits. The simulation platform adopts time-slot-driven mode, divides simulation time into continuous time slots, and allocates slot number for each time slot. A resource allocation strategy is simulated on this platform, and the simulation results such as resource utilization rate, system throughput and packet delay are analyzed, which indicate that this simulation platform has outstanding versatility.

ASRM standard embryo transfer protocol template: a committee opinion.

PubMed

Penzias, Alan; Bendikson, Kristin; Butts, Samantha; Coutifaris, Christos; Falcone, Tommaso; Fossum, Gregory; Gitlin, Susan; Gracia, Clarisa; Hansen, Karl; Mersereau, Jennifer; Odem, Randall; Rebar, Robert; Reindollar, Richard; Rosen, Mitchell; Sandlow, Jay; Vernon, Michael

2017-04-01

Standardization improves performance and safety. A template for standardizing the embryo transfer procedure is presented here with 12 basic steps supported by published scientific literature and a survey of common practice of SART programs; it can be used by ART practices to model their own standard protocol. Copyright © 2017 American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Implementation of an Intensive Care Unit-Specific Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome Management Protocol Reduces the Need for Mechanical Ventilation.

PubMed

Heavner, Jason J; Akgün, Kathleen M; Heavner, Mojdeh S; Eng, Claire C; Drew, Matthew; Jackson, Peter; Pritchard, David; Honiden, Shyoko

2018-05-25

Alcohol use disorders are prevalent and put patients at risk for developing alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS). Treatment of AWS with a symptom-triggered protocol standardizes management and may avoid AWS-related complications. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether implementation of an intensive care unit (ICU)-specific, symptom-triggered protocol for management of AWS was associated with improved clinical outcomes and, in particular, would reduce the risk of patients with AWS requiring mechanical ventilation. Retrospective pre-post-protocol implementation study. Thirty-six-bed, closed medical ICU (MICU) at a large, tertiary care, teaching hospital in an urban setting. A total of 233 adults admitted to the MICU with any diagnosis of alcohol use disorders based on International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes and who received at least one dose of any benzodiazepine; of these patients, 139 were in the pre-protocol era (August 2009-January 2010 and August 2010-January 2011), and 94 were in the post-protocol era (August 2012-January 2013), after implementation of the Yale Alcohol Withdrawal Protocol (YAWP) in April 2012. The YAWP pairs a modified Minnesota Detoxification Scale with an order set that includes benzodiazepine dosing regimens and suggests adjuvant therapies. AWS was the primary reason for ICU admission (107/233 patients [45.9%]) and did not significantly vary between eras (P=0.2). Of the 233 patients included, 81.1% were male and 67.0% were white, which did not significantly differ by study era. Severity of illness at MICU admission did not significantly differ between patients in the pre-protocol and post-protocol eras (median [interquartile range] Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation [APACHE] II scores of 12 [9-17] and 12.5 [7-16], respectively, p=0.4). Median lorazepam-equivalent dose per MICU day, duration of benzodiazepine infusion, and use of adjuvant therapy were not significantly different between eras. MICU intubation was less common in the post-protocol era (36/139 patients [25.9%] pre-protocol vs 8/94 patients [8.5%] post-protocol, p=0.0009). ICU-related pneumonia was also decreased in the post-protocol era (30/139 patients [21.6%] pre-protocol vs 10/94 patients [10.6%] post-protocol, p=0.03). After adjusting for demographics, adjuvant therapies, and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II scores, protocol implementation was associated with a decreased odds of MICU intubation (odds ratio 0.13; 95% confidence interval 0.04-0.39). Implementation of YAWP was associated with a decreased risk of MICU intubation in patients at risk for AWS. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

18 CFR 37.4 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false [Reserved] 37.4 Section 37.4 Conservation of Power and Water Resources FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY REGULATIONS UNDER THE FEDERAL POWER ACT OPEN ACCESS SAME-TIME INFORMATION SYSTEMS § 37.4 [Reserved] ...

18 CFR 37.4 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false [Reserved] 37.4 Section 37.4 Conservation of Power and Water Resources FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY REGULATIONS UNDER THE FEDERAL POWER ACT OPEN ACCESS SAME-TIME INFORMATION SYSTEMS § 37.4 [Reserved] ...

30 CFR 285.608-285.609 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false [Reserved] 285.608-285.609 Section 285.608-285.609 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT, REGULATION, AND ENFORCEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF... Commercial Leases §§ 285.608-285.609 [Reserved] Contents of the Site Assessment Plan ...

18 CFR Appendix B to Part 2 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false [Reserved] B Appendix B to Part 2 Conservation of Power and Water Resources FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY GENERAL RULES GENERAL POLICY AND INTERPRETATIONS Appendix B to Part 2 [Reserved] ...

18 CFR Appendix B to Part 2 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false [Reserved] B Appendix B to Part 2 Conservation of Power and Water Resources FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY GENERAL RULES GENERAL POLICY AND INTERPRETATIONS Appendix B to Part 2 [Reserved] ...

18 CFR Appendix B to Part 2 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false [Reserved] B Appendix B to Part 2 Conservation of Power and Water Resources FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY GENERAL RULES GENERAL POLICY AND INTERPRETATIONS Appendix B to Part 2 [Reserved] ...

18 CFR Appendix B to Part 2 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false [Reserved] B Appendix B to Part 2 Conservation of Power and Water Resources FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY GENERAL RULES GENERAL POLICY AND INTERPRETATIONS Appendix B to Part 2 [Reserved] ...

Catatonia in Resource Limited Settings: A Case Series and Treatment Protocol

PubMed Central

Smith, Stephanie L.; Grelotti, David J.; Fils-Aime, Reginald; Uwimana, Eugenie; Ndikubwimana, Jean-Sauveur; Therosme, Tatiana; Severe, Jennifer; Dushimiyimana, Dominique; Uwamariya, Clemence; Bienvenu, Robert; Alcindor, Yoldie; Eustache, Eddy; Raviola, Giuseppe J.; Fricchione, Gregory L.

2014-01-01

Objective The Catatonic Syndrome (“catatonia”) is characterized by motor and motivation dysregulation and is associated with a number of neuropsychiatric and medical disorders. It is recognizable in a variety of clinical settings. We present observations from the treatment of four individuals with catatonia in Haiti and Rwanda, and introduce a treatment protocol for use in resource limited settings Methods Four patients from rural Haiti and Rwanda with clinical signs of catatonia and a positive screen using the Bush-Francis-Catatonia Rating Scale were treated collaboratively by general physicians and mental health clinicians with either lorazepam or diazepam. Success in treatment was clinically assessed by complete remittance of catatonia symptoms. Results The four patients in this report exhibited a range of characteristic and recognizable signs of catatonia, including immobility/stupor, stereotypic movements, echophenomena, posturing, odd mannerisms, mutism, and refusal to eat or drink. All four cases presented initially to rural outpatient general health services in low resource settings. In some cases, diagnostic uncertainty initially led to treatment with typical antipsychotics. In each case, proper identification and treatment of catatonia with benzodiazepines led to significant clinical improvement. Conclusion Catatonia can be effectively and inexpensively treated in resource limited settings. Identification and management of catatonia is critical for the health and safety of patients with this syndrome. Familiarity with the clinical features of catatonia is essential for health professionals working in low resource settings. To facilitate early recognition of this treatable disorder, catatonia should feature more prominently in global mental health discourse. PMID:25467078

[Wild resources survey of Marsdenia tenacissima in Honghe, Yunnan].

PubMed

Meng, Zhen-Gui; Yang, Sheng-Chao; Chen, Jun-Wen; Wang, Jian-Jun; Guo, Qiao-Sheng; Long, Guang-Qiang

2014-07-01

To ascertain current situation of wild Marsdenia tenacissima resources in Honghe, Yunnan province, the distribution, habitat characteristic and resources reserves of M. tenacissima were surveyed based on interviews and investigation. The results showed that M. tenacissima was found in 7 counties such as Jinping, Mengzi etc, and distributed mainly on the mountainsides from 800 m to 1 200 m. And distribution was affected by many factors, such as light, heat, topography, soil, and vegetation. M. tenacissima grew well in distribution areas. M. tenacissima had averagely a weight of 2.8 kg per plant. Resources reserve of M. tenacissima in Honghe was estimated to 1 300 tons by now but it reduced rapidly in resent years, the wild resources reserve may not meet demand of market. Resources protection and wildlife tending would be conducted to deal with increasing medication requirements.

Transport Protocols for Wireless Mesh Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eddie Law, K. L.

Transmission control protocol (TCP) provides reliable connection-oriented services between any two end systems on the Internet. With TCP congestion control algorithm, multiple TCP connections can share network and link resources simultaneously. These TCP congestion control mechanisms have been operating effectively in wired networks. However, performance of TCP connections degrades rapidly in wireless and lossy networks. To sustain the throughput performance of TCP connections in wireless networks, design modifications may be required accordingly in the TCP flow control algorithm, and potentially, in association with other protocols in other layers for proper adaptations. In this chapter, we explain the limitations of the latest TCP congestion control algorithm, and then review some popular designs for TCP connections to operate effectively in wireless mesh network infrastructure.

Enhancing the interpretation of stated choice analysis through the application of a verbal protocol assessment

USGS Publications Warehouse

Cahill, K.L.; Marion, J.L.; Lawson, S.R.

2007-01-01

A stated choice survey was employed to evaluate the relative importance of resource, social, and management attributes by asking visitors to select preferred configurations of these attributes. A verbal protocol assessment was added to consider how respondents interpret and respond to stated choice questions applied to hikers of a popular trail at Acadia National Park. Results suggest that visitors are sensitive to changes in public access to the trail and its ecological conditions, with level of encounters least important. Verbal protocol results identified considnations made by respondents that provide insight to their evaluations of alternative recreation setting configurations. These insights help clarify issues important to visitors that stated choice results on their own do not provide.

Experimental demonstration on the deterministic quantum key distribution based on entangled photons.

PubMed

Chen, Hua; Zhou, Zhi-Yuan; Zangana, Alaa Jabbar Jumaah; Yin, Zhen-Qiang; Wu, Juan; Han, Yun-Guang; Wang, Shuang; Li, Hong-Wei; He, De-Yong; Tawfeeq, Shelan Khasro; Shi, Bao-Sen; Guo, Guang-Can; Chen, Wei; Han, Zheng-Fu

2016-02-10

As an important resource, entanglement light source has been used in developing quantum information technologies, such as quantum key distribution(QKD). There are few experiments implementing entanglement-based deterministic QKD protocols since the security of existing protocols may be compromised in lossy channels. In this work, we report on a loss-tolerant deterministic QKD experiment which follows a modified "Ping-Pong"(PP) protocol. The experiment results demonstrate for the first time that a secure deterministic QKD session can be fulfilled in a channel with an optical loss of 9 dB, based on a telecom-band entangled photon source. This exhibits a conceivable prospect of ultilizing entanglement light source in real-life fiber-based quantum communications.

Experimental demonstration on the deterministic quantum key distribution based on entangled photons

PubMed Central

Chen, Hua; Zhou, Zhi-Yuan; Zangana, Alaa Jabbar Jumaah; Yin, Zhen-Qiang; Wu, Juan; Han, Yun-Guang; Wang, Shuang; Li, Hong-Wei; He, De-Yong; Tawfeeq, Shelan Khasro; Shi, Bao-Sen; Guo, Guang-Can; Chen, Wei; Han, Zheng-Fu

2016-01-01

As an important resource, entanglement light source has been used in developing quantum information technologies, such as quantum key distribution(QKD). There are few experiments implementing entanglement-based deterministic QKD protocols since the security of existing protocols may be compromised in lossy channels. In this work, we report on a loss-tolerant deterministic QKD experiment which follows a modified “Ping-Pong”(PP) protocol. The experiment results demonstrate for the first time that a secure deterministic QKD session can be fulfilled in a channel with an optical loss of 9 dB, based on a telecom-band entangled photon source. This exhibits a conceivable prospect of ultilizing entanglement light source in real-life fiber-based quantum communications. PMID:26860582

Economics of United States tuberculosis airline contact investigation policies: a return on investment analysis.

PubMed

Coleman, Margaret S; Marienau, Karen J; Marano, Nina; Marks, Suzanne M; Cetron, Martin S

2014-01-01

In 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention modified its 2008 protocol for flight-related tuberculosis contact investigation initiation. The 2011 Modified protocol was implemented and replaced the 2008 CDC protocol based on comparative epidemiologic and economic analyses; this publication reports the economic analysis results. A return on investment model compared relative changes in tuberculosis disease treatment costs resulting from expenditures on tuberculosis contact investigations and latent tuberculosis infection treatment for the 2008 CDC and Modified protocols. At moderate/high rates of latent tuberculosis infection and tuberculosis disease, positive returns on investment indicated each $1.00 spent on tuberculosis contact investigations and latent tuberculosis treatment resulted in more than $1.00 of savings from reduced tuberculosis disease treatment costs. Low rates of latent tuberculosis infection and tuberculosis disease resulted in negative returns on investment, indicating economic losses from tuberculosis disease treatment costs. There were smaller economic losses at low latent tuberculosis infection and tuberculosis disease rates with the Modified protocol in comparison to the 2008 CDC protocol, while both identified comparable numbers of persons at risk for tuberculosis. The Modified protocol for conducting flight-related tuberculosis contact investigations represents a better use of resources and protects public health. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Economics of United States tuberculosis airline contact investigation policies: A return on investment analysis

PubMed Central

Coleman, Margaret S.; Marienau, Karen J.; Marano, Nina; Marks, Suzanne M.; Cetron, Martin S.

2017-01-01

Summary Background In 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention modified its 2008 protocol for flight-related tuberculosis contact investigation initiation. The 2011 Modified protocol was implemented and replaced the 2008 CDC protocol based on comparative epidemiologic and economic analyses; this publication reports the economic analysis results. Methods A return on investment model compared relative changes in tuberculosis disease treatment costs resulting from expenditures on tuberculosis contact investigations and latent tuberculosis infection treatment for the 2008 CDC and Modified protocols. Results At moderate/high rates of latent tuberculosis infection and tuberculosis disease, positive returns on investment indicated each $1.00 spent on tuberculosis contact investigations and latent tuberculosis treatment resulted in more than $1.00 of savings from reduced tuberculosis disease treatment costs. Low rates of latent tuberculosis infection and tuberculosis disease resulted in negative returns on investment, indicating economic losses from tuberculosis disease treatment costs. There were smaller economic losses at low latent tuberculosis infection and tuberculosis disease rates with the Modified protocol in comparison to the 2008 CDC protocol, while both identified comparable numbers of persons at risk for tuberculosis. Conclusion The Modified protocol for conducting flight-related tuberculosis contact investigations represents a better use of resources and protects public health. PMID:24262643

[Resource situation investigation about Rheum tanguticum and its sustainable utilization analysis in main production area of China].

PubMed

Li, Li; Liu, Kai; Wei, Sheng-Li; Cheng, Xiao-Li; Liu, Juan; Ren, Guang-Xi; Wang, Wen-Quan

2014-04-01

This study was conducted to investigate the wild and cultivated resource situation of Rheum tanguticum in main production area of China, estimate its reserves, and put forward the feasible approach for the sustainable utilization of R. tanguticum. On the basis of the literature data about R. tanguticum, conbined with interview, investigation and sampling investigation, the total reserve of resources is estimated using the route-quadrat method and the vegetation and soil-type map area method proposed by our research group. The results indicate that there is no obvious change between the present distribution ranges of the wild R. tanguticum and its historical records, but its population density has changed clearly. The reserve of the wild R. tanguticum has seriously declined in lots of place, even faced the exhaustion in some regions. According to the investigation, the resource reserve of the wild R. tanguticum is no more than 5 000 t, and the cultivated is about 1 607 t. The resource reserve of the wild R. tanguticum is nearly depleted, and this suggests that the wild R. tanguticum should be enrolled in the protection plant list, and the cultivated will become the main resource of Rhubarb in the future. So it is extremely neccessary to collect and protect the germplasm resource of R. tanguticum, establish the germplasm nursery and repository, and conduct breeding research on those bases.

Influential aspects of glacial resource for establishing Kuhl system (gravity flow irrigation) in the Hindu Kush, Karakoram and Himalaya ranges.

PubMed

Ashraf, Arshad; Iqbal, Ayesha

2018-04-27

The meltwater components play an important role in the hydrological regime of the Hindu Kush, Karakorum and Himalaya (HKH) region, in terms of high demand of water for food and fiber from snow and glacial resource. The communities of Himalayan mountains are facing challenges of food security owing to lack of the resource information for meeting their water requirements. In this study, suitability index approach was adopted to assess glacier resource potential for establishing kuhl irrigation system in HKH ranges of Pakistan. The basis of indexing is glacier accessibility and water yield potential of the glacial resource for irrigation estimated in terms of number and ice reserve of the glaciers. The suitability index was found good for about 1.4% glaciers constituting about 80% of the total ice reserves of the HKH region. Medium suitability constitutes about 36.1% glaciers with 12.6% of the total ice reserves, while low suitability was assessed for about 60% glaciers containing 1.5% ice reserves only. Maximum unit glacial reserve was estimated for Shigar basin, i.e., 1.44 km 3 , and among HKH ranges, 0.46 km 3 for the Karakoram range. A regular monitoring of the glacial resource would prove helpful in assessing vulnerability of this resource to climate change in the high Himalayan region in future. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

37 CFR 7.2 - [Reserved

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2014-07-01

... 37 Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false [Reserved] 7.2 Section 7.2 Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE RULES OF PRACTICE IN FILINGS PURSUANT TO THE PROTOCOL RELATING TO THE MADRID AGREEMENT CONCERNING THE...

37 CFR 7.5 - [Reserved

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2013-07-01

... 37 Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false [Reserved] 7.5 Section 7.5 Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE RULES OF PRACTICE IN FILINGS PURSUANT TO THE PROTOCOL RELATING TO THE MADRID AGREEMENT CONCERNING THE...

37 CFR 7.2 - [Reserved

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2013-07-01

... 37 Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false [Reserved] 7.2 Section 7.2 Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE RULES OF PRACTICE IN FILINGS PURSUANT TO THE PROTOCOL RELATING TO THE MADRID AGREEMENT CONCERNING THE...

37 CFR 7.2 - [Reserved

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2010-07-01

... 37 Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false [Reserved] 7.2 Section 7.2 Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE RULES OF PRACTICE IN FILINGS PURSUANT TO THE PROTOCOL RELATING TO THE MADRID AGREEMENT CONCERNING THE...

37 CFR 7.2 - [Reserved

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2012-07-01

... 37 Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false [Reserved] 7.2 Section 7.2 Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE RULES OF PRACTICE IN FILINGS PURSUANT TO THE PROTOCOL RELATING TO THE MADRID AGREEMENT CONCERNING THE...

37 CFR 7.5 - [Reserved

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2012-07-01

... 37 Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false [Reserved] 7.5 Section 7.5 Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE RULES OF PRACTICE IN FILINGS PURSUANT TO THE PROTOCOL RELATING TO THE MADRID AGREEMENT CONCERNING THE...

37 CFR 7.5 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 37 Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false [Reserved] 7.5 Section 7.5 Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE RULES OF PRACTICE IN FILINGS PURSUANT TO THE PROTOCOL RELATING TO THE MADRID AGREEMENT CONCERNING THE...

37 CFR 7.2 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 37 Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false [Reserved] 7.2 Section 7.2 Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE RULES OF PRACTICE IN FILINGS PURSUANT TO THE PROTOCOL RELATING TO THE MADRID AGREEMENT CONCERNING THE...

37 CFR 7.5 - [Reserved

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2011-07-01

... 37 Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false [Reserved] 7.5 Section 7.5 Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE RULES OF PRACTICE IN FILINGS PURSUANT TO THE PROTOCOL RELATING TO THE MADRID AGREEMENT CONCERNING THE...

37 CFR 7.5 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 37 Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false [Reserved] 7.5 Section 7.5 Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE RULES OF PRACTICE IN FILINGS PURSUANT TO THE PROTOCOL RELATING TO THE MADRID AGREEMENT CONCERNING THE...

40 CFR Appendix H to Part 75... - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 17 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false [Reserved] H Appendix H to Part 75-Revised Traceability Protocol No. 1 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) CONTINUOUS EMISSION MONITORING Appendix H to Part 75—Revised Traceability...

40 CFR Appendix H to Part 75... - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 16 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false [Reserved] H Appendix H to Part 75-Revised Traceability Protocol No. 1 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) CONTINUOUS EMISSION MONITORING Appendix H to Part 75—Revised Traceability...

How to personalize ovarian stimulation in clinical practice.

PubMed

Sighinolfi, Giovanna; Grisendi, Valentina; La Marca, Antonio

2017-09-01

Controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) in in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles is the starting point from which couple's prognosis depends. Individualization in follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) starting dose and protocol used is based on ovarian response prediction, which depends on ovarian reserve. Anti-Müllerian hormone levels and the antral follicle count are considered the most accurate and reliable markers of ovarian reserve. A literature search was performed for studies that addressed the ability of ovarian reserve markers to predict poor and high ovarian response in assisted reproductive technology cycles. According to the predicted response to ovarian stimulation (poor- normal- or high- response), it is possible to counsel couples before treatment about the prognosis, and also to individualize ovarian stimulation protocols, choosing among GnRH-agonists or antagonists for endogenous FSH suppression, and the FSH starting dose in order to decrease the risk of cycle cancellation and ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. In this review we discuss how to choose the best COS therapy, based on ovarian reserve markers, in order to enhance chances in IVF.

Variability in Criteria for Emergency Medical Services Routing of Acute Stroke Patients to Designated Stroke Center Hospitals.

PubMed

Dimitrov, Nikolay; Koenig, William; Bosson, Nichole; Song, Sarah; Saver, Jeffrey L; Mack, William J; Sanossian, Nerses

2015-09-01

Comprehensive stroke systems of care include routing to the nearest designated stroke center hospital, bypassing non-designated hospitals. Routing protocols are implemented at the state or county level and vary in qualification criteria and determination of destination hospital. We surveyed all counties in the state of California for presence and characteristics of their prehospital stroke routing protocols. Each county's local emergency medical services agency (LEMSA) was queried for the presence of a stroke routing protocol. We reviewed these protocols for method of stroke identification and criteria for patient transport to a stroke center. Thirty-three LEMSAs serve 58 counties in California with populations ranging from 1,175 to nearly 10 million. Fifteen LEMSAs (45%) had stroke routing protocols, covering 23 counties (40%) and 68% of the state population. Counties with protocols had higher population density (1,500 vs. 140 persons per square mile). In the six counties without designated stroke centers, patients meeting criteria were transported out of county. Stroke identification in the field was achieved using the Cincinnati Prehospital Stroke Screen in 72%, Los Angeles Prehospital Stroke Screen in 7% and a county-specific protocol in 22%. California EMS prehospital acute stroke routing protocols cover 68% of the state population and vary in characteristics including activation by symptom onset time and destination facility features, reflecting matching of system design to local geographic resources.

[Estimating medicinal yield of Seutellaria baicalensis in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region based on 3S technology].

PubMed

Liu, Jin-xinp; Lu, Heng; Zeng, Yan; Yue, Jian-wei; Meng, Fan-yun; Zhang, Yi-guang

2012-09-01

Resources survey of traditional Chinese medicine and reserves estimation are found to be the most important issues for the protection and utilization of traditional Chinese medicine resources, this paper used multi-spatial resolution remote sensing images (RS) , geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning system (GPS) , to establish Scutellaria resources survey of 3S data platform. Combined with the traditional field survey methods, small-scale habitat types were established based on different skullcap reserve estimation model, which can estimate reserves of the wild Scutellaria in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and improve the estimation accuracy. It can provide an important parameter for the fourth national survey of traditional Chinese medicine resources and traditional Chinese medicine reserves estimates based on 3S technology by multiple spatial scales model.

EuroPhenome and EMPReSS: online mouse phenotyping resource

PubMed Central

Mallon, Ann-Marie; Hancock, John M.

2008-01-01

EuroPhenome (http://www.europhenome.org) and EMPReSS (http://empress.har.mrc.ac.uk/) form an integrated resource to provide access to data and procedures for mouse phenotyping. EMPReSS describes 96 Standard Operating Procedures for mouse phenotyping. EuroPhenome contains data resulting from carrying out EMPReSS protocols on four inbred laboratory mouse strains. As well as web interfaces, both resources support web services to enable integration with other mouse phenotyping and functional genetics resources, and are committed to initiatives to improve integration of mouse phenotype databases. EuroPhenome will be the repository for a recently initiated effort to carry out large-scale phenotyping on a large number of knockout mouse lines (EUMODIC). PMID:17905814

EuroPhenome and EMPReSS: online mouse phenotyping resource.

PubMed

Mallon, Ann-Marie; Blake, Andrew; Hancock, John M

2008-01-01

EuroPhenome (http://www.europhenome.org) and EMPReSS (http://empress.har.mrc.ac.uk/) form an integrated resource to provide access to data and procedures for mouse phenotyping. EMPReSS describes 96 Standard Operating Procedures for mouse phenotyping. EuroPhenome contains data resulting from carrying out EMPReSS protocols on four inbred laboratory mouse strains. As well as web interfaces, both resources support web services to enable integration with other mouse phenotyping and functional genetics resources, and are committed to initiatives to improve integration of mouse phenotype databases. EuroPhenome will be the repository for a recently initiated effort to carry out large-scale phenotyping on a large number of knockout mouse lines (EUMODIC).

The Interplanetary Overlay Networking Protocol Accelerator

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pang, Jackson; Torgerson, Jordan L.; Clare, Loren P.

2008-01-01

A document describes the Interplanetary Overlay Networking Protocol Accelerator (IONAC) an electronic apparatus, now under development, for relaying data at high rates in spacecraft and interplanetary radio-communication systems utilizing a delay-tolerant networking protocol. The protocol includes provisions for transmission and reception of data in bundles (essentially, messages), transfer of custody of a bundle to a recipient relay station at each step of a relay, and return receipts. Because of limitations on energy resources available for such relays, data rates attainable in a conventional software implementation of the protocol are lower than those needed, at any given reasonable energy-consumption rate. Therefore, a main goal in developing the IONAC is to reduce the energy consumption by an order of magnitude and the data-throughput capability by two orders of magnitude. The IONAC prototype is a field-programmable gate array that serves as a reconfigurable hybrid (hardware/ firmware) system for implementation of the protocol. The prototype can decode 108,000 bundles per second and encode 100,000 bundles per second. It includes a bundle-cache static randomaccess memory that enables maintenance of a throughput of 2.7Gb/s, and an Ethernet convergence layer that supports a duplex throughput of 1Gb/s.

Estimated cost of a health visitor-led protocol for perinatal mental health.

PubMed

Oluboyede, Yemi; Lewis, Anne; Ilott, Irene; Lekka, Chrysanthi

2010-06-01

Anecdotally, protocols, care pathways and clinical guidelines are time consuming to develop and sustain, but there is little research about the actual costs of their development, use and audit.This is a notable gap considering the pervasiveness of such documents that are intended to reduce unacceptable variations in practice by standardising care processes. A case study research design was used to calculate the resource use costs of a protocol for perinatal mental health, part of the core programme for health visitors in a primary care trust in the west of England. The methods were in-depth interviews with the operational lead for the protocol (a health visitor) and documentary analysis. The total estimated cost of staff time over a five-year period (2004 to 2008) was Euro 73,598, comprising Euro 36,162 (49%) for development and Euro 37,436 (51%) for implementation. Although these are best estimates dependent upon retrospective data, they indicate the opportunity cost of staff time for a single protocol in one trust over five years. When new protocols, care pathways or clinical guidelines are proposed, the costs need to be considered and weighed against the benefits of engaging frontline staff in service improvements.

Lightweight and confidential data discovery and dissemination for wireless body area networks.

PubMed

He, Daojing; Chan, Sammy; Zhang, Yan; Yang, Haomiao

2014-03-01

As a special sensor network, a wireless body area network (WBAN) provides an economical solution to real-time monitoring and reporting of patients' physiological data. After a WBAN is deployed, it is sometimes necessary to disseminate data into the network through wireless links to adjust configuration parameters of body sensors or distribute management commands and queries to sensors. A number of such protocols have been proposed recently, but they all focus on how to ensure reliability and overlook security vulnerabilities. Taking into account the unique features and application requirements of a WBAN, this paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of a secure, lightweight, confidential, and denial-of-service-resistant data discovery and dissemination protocol for WBANs to ensure the data items disseminated are not altered or tampered. Based on multiple one-way key hash chains, our protocol provides instantaneous authentication and can tolerate node compromise. Besides the theoretical analysis that demonstrates the security and performance of the proposed protocol, this paper also reports the experimental evaluation of our protocol in a network of resource-limited sensor nodes, which shows its efficiency in practice. In particular, extensive security analysis shows that our protocol is provably secure.

Quantum fingerprinting with coherent states and a constant mean number of photons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arrazola, Juan Miguel; Lütkenhaus, Norbert

2014-06-01

We present a protocol for quantum fingerprinting that is ready to be implemented with current technology and is robust to experimental errors. The basis of our scheme is an implementation of the signal states in terms of a coherent state in a superposition of time-bin modes. Experimentally, this requires only the ability to prepare coherent states of low amplitude and to interfere them in a balanced beam splitter. The states used in the protocol are arbitrarily close in trace distance to states of O (log2n) qubits, thus exhibiting an exponential separation in abstract communication complexity compared to the classical case. The protocol uses a number of optical modes that is proportional to the size n of the input bit strings but a total mean photon number that is constant and independent of n. Given the expended resources, our protocol achieves a task that is provably impossible using classical communication only. In fact, even in the presence of realistic experimental errors and loss, we show that there exist a large range of input sizes for which our quantum protocol transmits an amount of information that can be more than two orders of magnitude smaller than a classical fingerprinting protocol.

Development and implementation of clinical trial protocol templates at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

PubMed

Bridge, Heather; Smolskis, Mary; Bianchine, Peter; Dixon, Dennis O; Kelly, Grace; Herpin, Betsey; Tavel, Jorge

2009-08-01

A clinical research protocol document must reflect both sound scientific rationale as well as local, national and, when applicable, international regulatory and human subject protections requirements. These requirements originate from a variety of sources, undergo frequent revision and are subject to interpretation. Tools to assist clinical investigators in the production of clinical protocols could facilitate navigating these requirements and ultimately increase the efficiency of clinical research. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) developed templates for investigators to serve as the foundation for protocol development. These protocol templates are designed as tools to support investigators in developing clinical protocols. NIAID established a series of working groups to determine how to improve its capacity to conduct clinical research more efficiently and effectively. The Protocol Template Working Group was convened to determine what protocol templates currently existed within NIAID and whether standard NIAID protocol templates should be produced. After review and assessment of existing protocol documents and requirements, the group reached consensus about required and optional content, determined the format and identified methods for distribution as well as education of investigators in the use of these templates. The templates were approved by the NIAID Executive Committee in 2006 and posted as part of the NIAID Clinical Research Toolkit [1] website for broad access. These documents require scheduled revisions to stay current with regulatory and policy changes. The structure of any clinical protocol template, whether comprehensive or specific to a particular study phase, setting or design, affects how it is used by investigators. Each structure presents its own set of advantages and disadvantages. While useful, protocol templates are not stand-alone tools for creating an optimal protocol document, but must be complemented by institutional resources and support. Education and guidance of investigators in the appropriate use of templates is necessary to ensure a complete yet concise protocol document. Due to changing regulatory requirements, clinical protocol templates cannot become static, but require frequent revisions.

30 CFR 285.643-285.644 - [Reserved

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2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false [Reserved] 285.643-285.644 Section 285.643-285.644 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT, REGULATION, AND ENFORCEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF... Grants, and Rue Grants §§ 285.643-285.644 [Reserved] Contents of the General Activities Plan ...

A Study on Market-based Strategic Procurement Planning in Convergent Supply Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Opadiji, Jayeola Femi; Kaihara, Toshiya

We present a market-based decentralized approach which uses a market-oriented programming algorithm to obtain Pareto-optimal allocation of resources traded among agents which represent enterprise units in a supply network. The proposed method divides the network into a series of Walrsian markets in order to obtain procurement budgets for enterprises in the network. An interaction protocol based on market value propagation is constructed to coordinate the flow of resources across the network layers. The method mitigates the effect of product complementarity in convergent network by allowing for enterprises to hold private valuations of resources in the markets.

Using EMBL-EBI Services via Web Interface and Programmatically via Web Services.

PubMed

Lopez, Rodrigo; Cowley, Andrew; Li, Weizhong; McWilliam, Hamish

2014-12-12

The European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) provides access to a wide range of databases and analysis tools that are of key importance in bioinformatics. As well as providing Web interfaces to these resources, Web Services are available using SOAP and REST protocols that enable programmatic access to our resources and allow their integration into other applications and analytical workflows. This unit describes the various options available to a typical researcher or bioinformatician who wishes to use our resources via Web interface or programmatically via a range of programming languages. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.