CES 2011: Tablet Crazy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rapp, David

2011-01-01

Ereaders are so last year. Tablets were the watchword at this year's annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, January 6-9. This year, the show set new records, with some 2700 companies from around the world exhibiting at the multiple exhibition halls and 30,000 attendees gawking at the products. What did they see? There were still some…

Economic environment - housing bubbles: no national bubble, some regions vulnerable

Treesearch

Al Schuler

2005-01-01

Since 2001, a combination of low mortgage rates and "boring" equity markets have helped to fuel record-setting home sales, contributing to substantial price increases in the U.S. and many other parts of the world (see Table 1). Economists are concerned about riskier mortgage financing and the increasing incidence of speculative demand in some regions....

Supersonic Jump

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muller, Andreas

2013-01-01

On October 14,2012, Felix Baumgartner, an Austrian sky-diver, set some new world records for his discipline. Jumping from a height of about 39 km, he reached a top speed of 1342 km/h, becoming the first human being to break the sound barrier in free fall. In order to understand some essential physics aspects of this remarkable feat, we wonder why…

IMM Solar Cell Shows Its Versatility - Continuum Magazine | NREL

Science.gov Websites

. Inventing a new type of solar cell is one thing. Setting efficiency records with it and winning major awards add to the achievement. But when one of the world's leading manufacturers of compound semiconductor thin metal foil, and the substrate that the cell was grown on is removed. One advantage of this

A demonstration of an affinity between pyrite and organic matter in a hydrothermal setting

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

One of the key-principles of the iron-sulphur world theory is to bring organic molecules close enough to interact with each other, using the surface of pyrite as a substrate in a hydrothermal setting. The present paper explores the relationship of pyrite and organic matter in a hydrothermal setting from the geological record; in hydrothermal calcite veins from Carboniferous limestones in central Ireland. Here, the organic matter is accumulated as coatings around, and through, pyrite grains. Most of the pyrite grains are euhedral-subhedral crystals, ranging in size from ca 0.1-0.5 mm in diameter, and they are scattered throughout the matrix of the vein calcite. The organic matter was deposited from a hydrothermal fluid at a temperature of at least 200°C, and gives a Raman signature of disordered carbon. This study points to an example from a hydrothermal setting in the geological record, demonstrating that pyrite can have a high potential for the concentration and accumulation of organic materials. PMID:21299877

One in the Dance: Musical Correlates of Group Synchrony in a Real-World Club Environment

PubMed Central

Ellamil, Melissa; Berson, Joshua; Wong, Jen; Buckley, Louis; Margulies, Daniel S.

2016-01-01

Previous research on interpersonal synchrony has mainly investigated small groups in isolated laboratory settings, which may not fully reflect the complex and dynamic interactions of real-life social situations. The present study expands on this by examining group synchrony across a large number of individuals in a naturalistic environment. Smartphone acceleration measures were recorded from participants during a music set in a dance club and assessed to identify how group movement synchrony covaried with various features of the music. In an evaluation of different preprocessing and analysis methods, giving more weight to front-back movement provided the most sensitive and reliable measure of group synchrony. During the club music set, group synchrony of torso movement was most strongly associated with pulsations that approximate walking rhythm (100–150 beats per minute). Songs with higher real-world play counts were also correlated with greater group synchrony. Group synchrony thus appears to be constrained by familiarity of the movement (walking action and rhythm) and of the music (song popularity). These findings from a real-world, large-scale social and musical setting can guide the development of methods for capturing and examining collective experiences in the laboratory and for effectively linking them to synchrony across people in daily life. PMID:27764167

One in the Dance: Musical Correlates of Group Synchrony in a Real-World Club Environment.

PubMed

Ellamil, Melissa; Berson, Joshua; Wong, Jen; Buckley, Louis; Margulies, Daniel S

2016-01-01

Previous research on interpersonal synchrony has mainly investigated small groups in isolated laboratory settings, which may not fully reflect the complex and dynamic interactions of real-life social situations. The present study expands on this by examining group synchrony across a large number of individuals in a naturalistic environment. Smartphone acceleration measures were recorded from participants during a music set in a dance club and assessed to identify how group movement synchrony covaried with various features of the music. In an evaluation of different preprocessing and analysis methods, giving more weight to front-back movement provided the most sensitive and reliable measure of group synchrony. During the club music set, group synchrony of torso movement was most strongly associated with pulsations that approximate walking rhythm (100-150 beats per minute). Songs with higher real-world play counts were also correlated with greater group synchrony. Group synchrony thus appears to be constrained by familiarity of the movement (walking action and rhythm) and of the music (song popularity). These findings from a real-world, large-scale social and musical setting can guide the development of methods for capturing and examining collective experiences in the laboratory and for effectively linking them to synchrony across people in daily life.

NREL Achieves World Record Performance For Thin Film Solar Cell Technology

Science.gov Websites

World Record Performance For Thin Film Solar Cell Technology Golden, Colo., May 10, 1996 world record in the performance of an advanced solar cell technology designed to have a major impact on the cost of electricity from the sun. NREL established a new world record "sunlight-to

What Makes Usain Bolt Unique as a Sprinter?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shinabargar, A. J.; Hellrich, Matt; Baker, Blane

2010-01-01

For both casual and avid fans alike, Olympic and other sporting events can provide a wealth of data for simple physics analyses. One of the most impressive performances in recent Olympic history is that of Usain Bolt in the track-and-field sprinting events during the 2008 Summer Games. Over a seven-day span, Bolt set world records in the 100-m and…

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

Sepanski, R.J.; Boden, T.A.; Daniels, R.C.

This document presents land-based monthly surface air temperature anomalies (departures from a 1951--1970 reference period mean) on a 5{degree} latitude by 10{degree} longitude global grid. Monthly surface air temperature anomalies (departures from a 1957--1975 reference period mean) for the Antarctic (grid points from 65{degree}S to 85{degree}S) are presented in a similar way as a separate data set. The data were derived primarily from the World Weather Records and the archives of the United Kingdom Meteorological Office. This long-term record of temperature anomalies may be used in studies addressing possible greenhouse-gas-induced climate changes. To date, the data have been employed inmore » generating regional, hemispheric, and global time series for determining whether recent (i.e., post-1900) warming trends have taken place. This document also presents the monthly mean temperature records for the individual stations that were used to generate the set of gridded anomalies. The periods of record vary by station. Northern Hemisphere station data have been corrected for inhomogeneities, while Southern Hemisphere data are presented in uncorrected form. 14 refs., 11 figs., 10 tabs.« less

HIV drug resistance early warning indicators in cohorts of individuals starting antiretroviral therapy between 2004 and 2009: World Health Organization global report from 50 countries.

PubMed

Bennett, Diane E; Jordan, Michael R; Bertagnolio, Silvia; Hong, Steven Y; Ravasi, Giovanni; McMahon, James H; Saadani, Ahmed; Kelley, Karen F

2012-05-01

The World Health Organization developed a set of human immunodeficiency virus drug resistance (HIVDR) early warning indicators (EWIs) to assess antiretroviral therapy clinic and program factors associated with HIVDR. EWIs are monitored by abstracting data routinely recorded in clinical records, and the results enable clinics and program managers to identify problems that should be addressed to minimize preventable emergence of HIVDR in clinic populations. As of June 2011, 50 countries monitored EWIs, covering 131 686 patients initiating antiretroviral treatment between 2004 and 2009 at 2107 clinics. HIVDR prevention is associated with patient care (appropriate prescribing and patient monitoring), patient behavior (adherence), and clinic/program management efforts to reduce treatment interruptions (follow up, retention on first-line ART, procurement and supply management of antiretroviral drugs). EWIs measure these factors and the results have been used to optimize patient and population treatment outcomes.

Use of a secure Internet Web site for collaborative medical research.

PubMed

Marshall, W W; Haley, R W

2000-10-11

Researchers who collaborate on clinical research studies from diffuse locations need a convenient, inexpensive, secure way to record and manage data. The Internet, with its World Wide Web, provides a vast network that enables researchers with diverse types of computers and operating systems anywhere in the world to log data through a common interface. Development of a Web site for scientific data collection can be organized into 10 steps, including planning the scientific database, choosing a database management software system, setting up database tables for each collaborator's variables, developing the Web site's screen layout, choosing a middleware software system to tie the database software to the Web site interface, embedding data editing and calculation routines, setting up the database on the central server computer, obtaining a unique Internet address and name for the Web site, applying security measures to the site, and training staff who enter data. Ensuring the security of an Internet database requires limiting the number of people who have access to the server, setting up the server on a stand-alone computer, requiring user-name and password authentication for server and Web site access, installing a firewall computer to prevent break-ins and block bogus information from reaching the server, verifying the identity of the server and client computers with certification from a certificate authority, encrypting information sent between server and client computers to avoid eavesdropping, establishing audit trails to record all accesses into the Web site, and educating Web site users about security techniques. When these measures are carefully undertaken, in our experience, information for scientific studies can be collected and maintained on Internet databases more efficiently and securely than through conventional systems of paper records protected by filing cabinets and locked doors. JAMA. 2000;284:1843-1849.

m2-ABKS: Attribute-Based Multi-Keyword Search over Encrypted Personal Health Records in Multi-Owner Setting.

PubMed

Miao, Yinbin; Ma, Jianfeng; Liu, Ximeng; Wei, Fushan; Liu, Zhiquan; Wang, Xu An

2016-11-01

Online personal health record (PHR) is more inclined to shift data storage and search operations to cloud server so as to enjoy the elastic resources and lessen computational burden in cloud storage. As multiple patients' data is always stored in the cloud server simultaneously, it is a challenge to guarantee the confidentiality of PHR data and allow data users to search encrypted data in an efficient and privacy-preserving way. To this end, we design a secure cryptographic primitive called as attribute-based multi-keyword search over encrypted personal health records in multi-owner setting to support both fine-grained access control and multi-keyword search via Ciphertext-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption. Formal security analysis proves our scheme is selectively secure against chosen-keyword attack. As a further contribution, we conduct empirical experiments over real-world dataset to show its feasibility and practicality in a broad range of actual scenarios without incurring additional computational burden.

Using electronic medical records analysis to investigate the effectiveness of lifestyle programs in real-world primary care is challenging: a case study in diabetes mellitus.

PubMed

Linmans, Joris J; Viechtbauer, Wolfgang; Koppenaal, Tjarco; Spigt, Mark; Knottnerus, J André

2012-07-01

The increasing prevalence of diabetes suggests a gap between real world and controlled trial effectiveness of lifestyle interventions, but real-world investigations are rare. Electronic medical registration facilitates research on real-world effectiveness, although such investigations may require specific methodology and statistics. We investigated the effects of real-world primary care for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). We used medical records of patients (n=2,549) with T2DM from 10 primary health care centers. A mixed-effects regression model for repeated measurements was used to evaluate the changes in weight and Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) over time. There was no statistically significant change in weight (+0.07 kg, P=0.832) and HbA1c (+0.03%, P=0.657) during the observation period of 972 days. Most patients maintained their physical activity level (70%), and 54 % had an insufficient activity level. The variability in the course of weight and HbA1c was because of differences between patients and not between health care providers. Despite effective lifestyle interventions in controlled trial settings, we found that real-world primary care is only able to stabilize weight and HbA1c in patients with T2DM over time. Medical registration can be used to monitor the actual effectiveness of interventions in primary care. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

International Seismological Centre

USGS Publications Warehouse

Spall, H.; Hughes, A.

1979-01-01

The International Seismological Centre had its origins when the British seismologist Professor John Milne returned to England from Japan in 1895 to retire at Shide on the Isle of Eight. In cooperation with the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Milne had set up a number of seismographic stations around the world and, while Tokyo, had published a Catalogue of 8,33 Earthquakes Recorded in Japan, 1885-1892. 

Improved Pinning Morphology in HTS with Order of Magnitude Increase in Jc and Pinned Field

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-01-27

Patricia Nieto 0.25 Lilliana Phamnguyen 0.25 William Rifenburgh 0.25 Adriana Rodriguez 0.25 Jonathan Salazar 0.25 Michael Saldana 0.25 Clinton Seibert...times higher than the initial Jc. Bulk YBCO was used in the experiment, and Jc set a new world’s record of 321 kA /cc for this variety of HTS, over 5

KSC-06pd0041

NASA Image and Video Library

2006-01-12

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - The media (left) capture the landing of the Virgin Atlantic Airways GlobalFlyer aircraft at NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility. The aircraft, piloted by Steve Fossett, is being relocated from Salina, Kan., to the Shuttle Landing Facility to begin preparations for an attempt to set a new world record for the longest flight made by any aircraft. An exact takeoff date for the record-setting flight has not been determined and is contingent on weather and jet-stream conditions. The window for the attempt opens in mid-January, making the flight possible anytime between then and the end of February. NASA agreed to let Virgin Atlantic Airways use Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility as a takeoff site. The facility use is part of a pilot program to expand runway access for non-NASA activities.

Alternative Fuels Data Center: Silicon Valley-based Electric Vehicle Parade

Science.gov Websites

Breaks Guinness World Record Silicon Valley-based Electric Vehicle Parade Breaks Guinness World Parade Breaks Guinness World Record on Facebook Tweet about Alternative Fuels Data Center: Silicon Valley -based Electric Vehicle Parade Breaks Guinness World Record on Twitter Bookmark Alternative Fuels Data

Optimized Global Digital Elevation Data Records (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kobrick, M.; Farr, T.; Crippen, R. E.

2009-12-01

The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) used radar interferometry to map the Earth's topography between ±60° latitude - representing 80% of the land surface. The resulting digital elevation models bettered existing topographic data sets (including restricted military data) in accuracy, areal coverage and uniformity by several orders of magnitude, and the resulting data records have found broad application in most of the geosciences, military operations, even Google Earth. Despite their popularity the SRTM data have several limitations, including lack of coverage in polar regions and occasional small voids, or areas of no data in regions of high slope of low radar backscatter. Fortunately additional data sets have become available that, although lacking SRTM's data quality, are sufficient to mitigate many of these limitations. Primary among these is the Global Digital Elevation Model (GDEM) produced from ASTER stereo pairs. The MEaSUREs program is sponsoring an effort to merge these sets to produce and distribute an improved collection of data records that will optimize the topographic data, as well as make available additional non-topographic data products from the SRTM mission. There are four main areas of effort: (1) A systematic program to combine SRTM elevation data with those from other sensors, principally GDEM but also including SPOT stereo, the USGS’s National Elevation Data Set and others, to fill voids in the DEMs according to a prioritized plan, as well as extend the coverage beyond the current 60° latitude limit. (2) Combine the topographic data records with ICESat laser altimeter topography profiles to produce and distribute data records with enhanced ground control. (3) Document the existing SRTM radar image and ancillary data records, as well as generate image mosaics at multiple scales and distribute them via the world wide web. (4) Generate, document and distribute a standard and representative set of SRTM raw radar echo data, along with the appropriate ancillary tracking and pointing data necessary to process the echoes into DEMS using improved algorithms or

In defense of commitment: The curative power of violated expectations.

PubMed

Murray, Sandra L; Lamarche, Veronica M; Gomillion, Sarah; Seery, Mark D; Kondrak, Cheryl

2017-11-01

A new model of commitment defense in romantic relationships is proposed. It assumes that relationships afford a central resource for affirming meaning and purpose in the world. Consequently, violating expectations about the world outside the relationship can precipitate commitment defense inside the relationship. A meta-analysis of 5 experiments, 2 follow-up correlational studies, and a longitudinal study of the transition to first parenthood supported the model. Experimentally violating conventional expectations about the world (e.g., "hard work pays off") motivated less satisfied people to defensively affirm their commitment. Similarly, when becoming a parent naturalistically violated culturally conditioned gendered expectations about the division of household labor, less satisfied new mothers and fathers defensively affirmed their commitment from pre-to-post baby. The findings suggest that violating expected associations in the world outside the relationship motivates vulnerable people to set relationship their relationship right, thereby affirming expected associations in the relationship in the face of an unexpected world. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Understanding the experience of women admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Sydney with psychosis or mania following childbirth after World War II (1945-1955).

PubMed

Jefferies, Diana; Duff, Margaret; Nicholls, Daniel

2018-04-01

In the present study, we investigated a unique set of historical health-care records of women admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Sydney, Australia with a diagnosis of psychosis or mania after childbirth in the post-World War II (WWII) period, from 1945 to 1955. This research is part of a larger project examining how the descriptions of these women documented in the health-care records from 1885 to 1975 affected their treatment and the outcome of their admission. In the present paper, we report on the findings from an intensive examination of the post WWII documents. Eighteen health-care records from a psychiatric facility (Gladesville Hospital) were identified from admission registers housed in the State Records Office of New South Wales in 2014. Although seven records had been destroyed, 11 were transcribed verbatim. The records contain demographic information; descriptions of the women's signs and symptoms on admission; and information about the women before, during, and after their admission found in letters from relatives or medical staff. A content analysis of admission information showed how the women were described by health-care professionals, but a textual analysis of the records revealed that there were other factors that could have contributed to the women's condition, which might not have been taken into consideration when treatment and care were devised. The present study demonstrates the value of investigating historical health-care records to understand how prevailing attitudes and practices might affect diagnosis and treatment. © 2017 Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc.

Development of Virtual Auditory Interfaces

DTIC Science & Technology

2001-03-01

reference to compare the sound in the VE with the real 4. Lessons from the Entertainment Industry world experience. The entertainment industry has...systems are currently being evaluated. even though we have the technology to create astounding The first system uses a portable Sony TCD-D8 DAT audio...data set created a system called "Fantasound" which wrapped the including sound recordings and sound measurements musical compositions and sound

Superior Self-Paced Memorization of Digits in Spite of a Normal Digit Span: The Structure of a Memorist's Skill

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hu, Yi; Ericsson, K. Anders; Yang, Dan; Lu, Chao

2009-01-01

Over the last century many individuals with exceptional memory have been studied and tested in the laboratory. This article studies Chao Lu, who set a Guinness World Record by memorizing 67,890 decimals of pi. Chao Lu's superior self-paced memorization of digits is shown through analyses of study times and verbal reports to be mediated by mnemonic…

QM2017: Status and Key open Questions in Ultra-Relativistic Heavy-Ion Physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schukraft, Jurgen

2017-11-01

Almost exactly 3 decades ago, in the fall of 1986, the era of experimental ultra-relativistic E / m ≫ 1) heavy ion physics started simultaneously at the SPS at CERN and the AGS at Brookhaven with first beams of light Oxygen ions at fixed target energies of 200 GeV/A and 14.6 GeV/A, respectively. The event was announced by CERN [CERN's subatomic particle accelerators: Set up world-record in energy and break new ground for physics (CERN-PR-86-11-EN) (1986) 4 p, issued on 29 September 1986. URL (http://cds.cern.ch/record/855571)

An Updated Global Grid Point Surface Air Temperature Anomaly Data Set: 1851-1990 (revised 1991) (NDP-020)

DOE Data Explorer

Jones, P. D. [University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom; Raper, S. C.B. [University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom; Cherry, B. S.G. [University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom; Goodess, C. M. [University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom; Wigley, T. M. L. [University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom; Santer, B. [University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom; Kelly, P. M. [University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom; Bradley, R. S. [University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts (USA); Diaz, H. F. [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Environmental Research Laboratories, Boulder, CO (United States).

1991-01-01

This NDP presents land-based monthly surface-air-temperature anomalies (departures from a 1951-1970 reference period mean) on a 5° latitude by 10° longitude global grid. Monthly surface-air-temperature anomalies (departures from a 1957-1975 reference period mean) for the Antarctic (grid points from 65°S to 85°S) are presented in a similar way as a separate data set. The data were derived primarily from the World Weather Records and from the archives of the United Kingdom Meteorological Office. This long-term record of temperature anomalies may be used in studies addressing possible greenhouse-gas-induced climate changes. To date, the data have been employed in producing regional, hemispheric, and global time series for determining whether recent (i.e., post-1900) warming trends have taken place. The present updated version of this data set is identical to the earlier version for all records from 1851-1978 except for the addition of the Antarctic surface-air-temperature anomalies beginning in 1957. Beginning with the 1979 data, this package differs from the earlier version in several ways. Erroneous data for some sites have been corrected after a review of the actual station temperature data, and inconsistencies in the representation of missing values have been removed. For some grid locations, data have been added from stations that had not contributed to the original set. Data from satellites have also been used to correct station records where large discrepancies were evident. The present package also extends the record by adding monthly surface-air-temperature anomalies for the Northern (grid points from 85°N to 0°) and Southern (grid points from 5°S to 60°S) Hemispheres for 1985-1990. In addition, this updated package presents the monthly-mean-temperature records for the individual stations that were used to produce the set of gridded anomalies. The periods of record vary by station. Northern Hemisphere data have been corrected for inhomogeneities, while Southern Hemisphere data are presented in uncorrected form.

KSC-06pd0046

NASA Image and Video Library

2006-01-12

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - After the landing of the Virgin Atlantic Airways GlobalFlyer aircraft at NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility, Winston Scott (left), executive director of Florida Space Authority, brings pilot Steve Fossett to the microphone for a few words to the media. The aircraft is being relocated from Salina, Kan., to the Shuttle Landing Facility to begin preparations for an attempt to set a new world record for the longest flight made by any aircraft. An exact takeoff date for the record-setting flight has not been determined and is contingent on weather and jet-stream conditions. The window for the attempt opens in mid-January, making the flight possible anytime between then and the end of February. NASA agreed to let Virgin Atlantic Airways use Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility as a takeoff site. The facility use is part of a pilot program to expand runway access for non-NASA activities.

KSC-06pd0047

NASA Image and Video Library

2006-01-12

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Pilot Steve Fossett talks to the media after his landing of the Virgin Atlantic Airways GlobalFlyer aircraft at NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility. Standing at left are KSC Spaceport Development Manager Jim Ball, Center Director James Kennedy and Executive Director of Florida Space Authority Winston Scott. The aircraft is being relocated from Salina, Kan., to the Shuttle Landing Facility to begin preparations for an attempt to set a new world record for the longest flight made by any aircraft. An exact takeoff date for the record-setting flight has not been determined and is contingent on weather and jet-stream conditions. The window for the attempt opens in mid-January, making the flight possible anytime between then and the end of February. NASA agreed to let Virgin Atlantic Airways use Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility as a takeoff site. The facility use is part of a pilot program to expand runway access for non-NASA activities.

A Temporal Pattern Mining Approach for Classifying Electronic Health Record Data

PubMed Central

Batal, Iyad; Valizadegan, Hamed; Cooper, Gregory F.; Hauskrecht, Milos

2013-01-01

We study the problem of learning classification models from complex multivariate temporal data encountered in electronic health record systems. The challenge is to define a good set of features that are able to represent well the temporal aspect of the data. Our method relies on temporal abstractions and temporal pattern mining to extract the classification features. Temporal pattern mining usually returns a large number of temporal patterns, most of which may be irrelevant to the classification task. To address this problem, we present the Minimal Predictive Temporal Patterns framework to generate a small set of predictive and non-spurious patterns. We apply our approach to the real-world clinical task of predicting patients who are at risk of developing heparin induced thrombocytopenia. The results demonstrate the benefit of our approach in efficiently learning accurate classifiers, which is a key step for developing intelligent clinical monitoring systems. PMID:25309815

Content-level deduplication on mobile internet datasets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hou, Ziyu; Chen, Xunxun; Wang, Yang

2017-06-01

Various systems and applications involve a large volume of duplicate items. Based on high data redundancy in real world datasets, data deduplication can reduce storage capacity and improve the utilization of network bandwidth. However, chunks of existing deduplications range in size from 4KB to over 16KB, existing systems are not applicable to the datasets consisting of short records. In this paper, we propose a new framework called SF-Dedup which is able to implement the deduplication process on a large set of Mobile Internet records, the size of records can be smaller than 100B, or even smaller than 10B. SF-Dedup is a short fingerprint, in-line, hash-collisions-resolved deduplication. Results of experimental applications illustrate that SH-Dedup is able to reduce storage capacity and shorten query time on relational database.

Analysis of environmental sounds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Keansub

Environmental sound archives - casual recordings of people's daily life - are easily collected by MPS players or camcorders with low cost and high reliability, and shared in the web-sites. There are two kinds of user generated recordings we would like to be able to handle in this thesis: Continuous long-duration personal audio and Soundtracks of short consumer video clips. These environmental recordings contain a lot of useful information (semantic concepts) related with activity, location, occasion and content. As a consequence, the environment archives present many new opportunities for the automatic extraction of information that can be used in intelligent browsing systems. This thesis proposes systems for detecting these interesting concepts on a collection of these real-world recordings. The first system is to segment and label personal audio archives - continuous recordings of an individual's everyday experiences - into 'episodes' (relatively consistent acoustic situations lasting a few minutes or more) using the Bayesian Information Criterion and spectral clustering. The second system is for identifying regions of speech or music in the kinds of energetic and highly-variable noise present in this real-world sound. Motivated by psychoacoustic evidence that pitch is crucial in the perception and organization of sound, we develop a noise-robust pitch detection algorithm to locate speech or music-like regions. To avoid false alarms resulting from background noise with strong periodic components (such as air-conditioning), a new scheme is added in order to suppress these noises in the domain of autocorrelogram. In addition, the third system is to automatically detect a large set of interesting semantic concepts; which we chose for being both informative and useful to users, as well as being technically feasible. These 25 concepts are associated with people's activities, locations, occasions, objects, scenes and sounds, and are based on a large collection of consumer videos in conjunction with user studies. We model the soundtrack of each video, regardless of its original duration, as a fixed-sized clip-level summary feature. For each concept, an SVM-based classifier is trained according to three distance measures (Kullback-Leibler, Bhattacharyya, and Mahalanobis distance). Detecting the time of occurrence of a local object (for instance, a cheering sound) embedded in a longer soundtrack is useful and important for applications such as search and retrieval in consumer video archives. We finally present a Markov-model based clustering algorithm able to identify and segment consistent sets of temporal frames into regions associated with different ground-truth labels, and at the same time to exclude a set of uninformative frames shared in common from all clips. The labels are provided at the clip level, so this refinement of the time axis represents a variant of Multiple-Instance Learning (MIL). Quantitative evaluation shows that the performance of our proposed approaches tested on the 60h personal audio archives or 1900 YouTube video clips is significantly better than existing algorithms for detecting these useful concepts in real-world personal audio recordings.

Marine Magnetic Data Holdings of World Data Center-a for Marine Geology and Geophysics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sharman, George F.; Metzger, Dan

1992-01-01

The World Data Center-A for Marine Geology and Geophysics is co-located with the Marine Geology & Geophysical Data Center, Boulder, CO. Fifteen million digital marine magnetic trackline measurements are managed within the GEOphysical DAta System (GEODAS). The bulk of these data were collected with proton precision magnetometers under Transit Satellite navigational control. Along-track sampling averages about 1 sample per kilometer, while spatial density, a function of ship's track and survey pattern, range from 4 to 0.02 data points/sq. km. In the near future, the entire geophysical data set will be available on CD-ROM. The Marine Geology and Geophysics Division (World Data Center-A for MGG), of the National Geophysical Data Center, handles a broad spectrum of marine geophysical data, including measurements of bathymetry, magnetics, gravity, seismic reflection subbottom profiles, and side-scan images acquired by ships throughout the world's oceans. Digital data encompass the first three, while the latter two are in analog form, recorded on 35mm microfilm. The marine geophysical digital trackline data are contained in the GEODAS data base which includes 11.6 million nautical miles of cruise trackline coverage contributed by more than 70 organizations worldwide. The inventory includes data from 3206 cruises with 33 million digital records and indexing to 5.3 million track miles of analog data on microfilm.

Constructing Topic Models of Internet of Things for Information Processing

PubMed Central

Xin, Jie; Cui, Zhiming; Zhang, Shukui; He, Tianxu; Li, Chunhua; Huang, Haojing

2014-01-01

Internet of Things (IoT) is regarded as a remarkable development of the modern information technology. There is abundant digital products data on the IoT, linking with multiple types of objects/entities. Those associated entities carry rich information and usually in the form of query records. Therefore, constructing high quality topic hierarchies that can capture the term distribution of each product record enables us to better understand users' search intent and benefits tasks such as taxonomy construction, recommendation systems, and other communications solutions for the future IoT. In this paper, we propose a novel record entity topic model (RETM) for IoT environment that is associated with a set of entities and records and a Gibbs sampling-based algorithm is proposed to learn the model. We conduct extensive experiments on real-world datasets and compare our approach with existing methods to demonstrate the advantage of our approach. PMID:25110737

Constructing topic models of Internet of Things for information processing.

PubMed

Xin, Jie; Cui, Zhiming; Zhang, Shukui; He, Tianxu; Li, Chunhua; Huang, Haojing

2014-01-01

Internet of Things (IoT) is regarded as a remarkable development of the modern information technology. There is abundant digital products data on the IoT, linking with multiple types of objects/entities. Those associated entities carry rich information and usually in the form of query records. Therefore, constructing high quality topic hierarchies that can capture the term distribution of each product record enables us to better understand users' search intent and benefits tasks such as taxonomy construction, recommendation systems, and other communications solutions for the future IoT. In this paper, we propose a novel record entity topic model (RETM) for IoT environment that is associated with a set of entities and records and a Gibbs sampling-based algorithm is proposed to learn the model. We conduct extensive experiments on real-world datasets and compare our approach with existing methods to demonstrate the advantage of our approach.

Thermal energy, electricity, and transportation fuels from wood

Treesearch

John I. Zerbe

2006-01-01

In July of 2005, U.S. airlines were losing money. Some were in bankruptcy or on the verge of bankruptcy. The world’s Number 1 auto producer, General Motors, was losing money and market share. By the end of the month sales had set records, but this was mainly because of costly sales incentives. The U.S. dollar that had been at a high point of $1.29 in exchange for the...

12 CFR 309.4 - Publicly available records.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... INFORMATION § 309.4 Publicly available records. (a) Records available on the FDIC's World Wide Web page—(1... on the FDIC's World Wide Web page, located at: http://www.fdic.gov. The FDIC has elected to publish a broad range of materials on its World Wide Web page, including consumer guides; financial and...

Pattern Formation and Complexity Emergence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berezin, Alexander A.

2001-03-01

Success of nonlinear modelling of pattern formation and self-organization encourages speculations on informational and number theoretical foundations of complexity emergence. Pythagorean "unreasonable effectiveness of integers" in natural processes is perhaps extrapolatable even to universal emergence "out-of-nothing" (Leibniz, Wheeler). Because rational numbers (R = M/N) are everywhere dense on real axis, any digital string (hence any "book" from "Library of Babel" of J.L.Borges) is "recorded" infinitely many times in arbitrary many rationals. Furthermore, within any arbitrary small interval there are infinitely many Rs for which (either or both) integers (Ms and Ns) "carry" any given string of any given length. Because any iterational process (such as generation of fractal features of Mandelbrot Set) is arbitrary closely approximatable with rational numbers, the infinite pattern of integers expresses itself in generation of complexity of the world, as well as in emergence of the world itself. This "tunnelling" from Platonic World ("Platonia" of J.Barbour) to a real (physical) world is modern recast of Leibniz's motto ("for deriving all from nothing there suffices a single principle").

Will Future Measurement Needs of the Semiconductor Industry Be Met?

PubMed

Bennett, Herbert S

2007-01-01

We discuss the ability of the nation's measurement system to meet future metrology needs of the semiconductor industry. Lacking an acceptable metric for assessing the health of metrology for the semiconductor industry, we identify a limited set of unmet measurement needs. Assuming that this set of needs may serve as proxy for the galaxy of semiconductor measurement needs, we examine it from the perspective of what will be required to continue the semiconductor industry's powerful impact in the world's macro-economy and maintain its exceptional record of numerous technological innovations. This paper concludes with suggestions about ways to strengthen the measurement system for the semiconductor industry.

NREL, University of Washington Scientists Elevate Quantum Dot Solar Cell

Science.gov Websites

World Record to 13.4 Percent | NREL | News | NREL NREL, University of Washington Scientists Elevate Quantum Dot Solar Cell World Record to 13.4 Percent News Release: NREL, University of Washington Scientists Elevate Quantum Dot Solar Cell World Record to 13.4 Percent October 27, 2017 Researchers at the

Robust representation and recognition of facial emotions using extreme sparse learning.

PubMed

Shojaeilangari, Seyedehsamaneh; Yau, Wei-Yun; Nandakumar, Karthik; Li, Jun; Teoh, Eam Khwang

2015-07-01

Recognition of natural emotions from human faces is an interesting topic with a wide range of potential applications, such as human-computer interaction, automated tutoring systems, image and video retrieval, smart environments, and driver warning systems. Traditionally, facial emotion recognition systems have been evaluated on laboratory controlled data, which is not representative of the environment faced in real-world applications. To robustly recognize the facial emotions in real-world natural situations, this paper proposes an approach called extreme sparse learning, which has the ability to jointly learn a dictionary (set of basis) and a nonlinear classification model. The proposed approach combines the discriminative power of extreme learning machine with the reconstruction property of sparse representation to enable accurate classification when presented with noisy signals and imperfect data recorded in natural settings. In addition, this paper presents a new local spatio-temporal descriptor that is distinctive and pose-invariant. The proposed framework is able to achieve the state-of-the-art recognition accuracy on both acted and spontaneous facial emotion databases.

Differences in the prevalence of diagnosis of overweight-obesity in Spanish children according to the diagnostic criteria set used.

PubMed

Ajejas Bazán, María Julia; Jiménez Trujillo, María Isab; Wärnberg, Julia; Domínguez Fernández, Silvia; López de Andrés, Ana; Pérez Farinós, Napoleón

2017-09-28

To examine relevant differences in the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children aged 2-15 years according to different sets of criteria (Orbegozo Foundation, International Obesity Task Force and World Health Organization), and how their use affects the trends in obesity recorded for both sexes between 1995 and 2011 in Spain. Cross-sectional study, a population between 2 and 15 years. Three diagnosis criteria of overweight and obesity were be used. The boys according to the three criteria, showed higher values of overweight and obesity compared to the girls. The lowest levels of overweight and obesity were observed using the Orbegozo tables. The prevalence of overweight and obesity varies significantly according to the criteria used to define overweight and obesity. The percentiles of the Foundation Orbegozo gave the lowest estimates and the standards of growth of the World Health Organization were higher. Copyright © 2017 SESPAS. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Mapping and converting essential Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata into MARC21 and Dublin Core: towards an alternative to the FGDC Clearinghouse

USGS Publications Warehouse

Chandler, A.; Foley, D.; Hafez, A.M.

2000-01-01

The purpose of this article is to raise and address a number of issues related to the conversion of Federal Geographic Data Committee metadata into MARC21 and Dublin Core. We present an analysis of 466 FGDC metadata records housed in the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) node of the FGDC Clearinghouse, with special emphasis on the length of fields and the total length of records in this set. One of our contributions is a 34 element crosswalk, a proposal that takes into consideration the constraints of the MARC21 standard as implemented in OCLC's World Cat and the realities of user behavior.

Yemen in a Time of Cholera: Current Situation and Challenges.

PubMed

Al-Mekhlafi, Hesham M

2018-03-19

Since early 2015, Yemen has been in the throes of a grueling civil war, which has devastated the health system and public services, and created one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters. The country is currently facing a cholera epidemic the world's largest on record, surpassing one million (1,061,548) suspected cases, with 2,373 related deaths since October 2016. Cases were first confirmed in Sana'a city and then spread to almost all governorates except Socotra Island. Continued efforts are being made by the World Health Organization and international partners to contain the epidemic through improving water, sanitation and hygiene, setting up diarrhea treatment centers, and improving the population's awareness about the disease. The provision of clean water and adequate sanitation is imperative as an effective long-term solution to prevent the further spread of this epidemic. Cholera vaccination campaigns should also be conducted as a preventive measure.

Precipitation Records-HDSC/OWP

Science.gov Websites

resources and services. Greatest observed point precipitation values for the world and the USA US Comparison of the greatest point precipitation values for the world and the USA. World records (map, table) USA

The USSR sets another record

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

Fueg, J.C.

1988-08-01

The author discusses the oil market in Eastern Europe. Some of the highlights are: '87 Soviet production of 12.478 million bpd was a new world high; Gas output was up 5.79% last year to 70.4 Bcfd, reserves reached 1,488 Tcf; Drilling activity was down in almost all of the satellite states last year; Romania's first offshore Black Sea field is producing 4,300 bpd; and Yugoslavia plans to bring its offshore Adriatic Ivana gas field onstream in 1991.

Animating the Inanimate: Camay and Astronomical Huacas of Peru

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Malville, J. M.

2009-08-01

Running water was understood in the Andean world as a vitalizing life force, known by the Quechua verb, camay, which could empower inanimate matter. Stones and places could become living shrines or huacas with superhuman powers through this process. All of the cases of astronomy in the archaeological record of the Inca are associated with huaca sanctuaries and most are associated with flowing liquids. A set of distinguishing characteristics is developed for ceremonial centers with solar alignments.

Using modeling to understand how athletes in different disciplines solve the same problem: swimming versus running versus speed skating.

PubMed

de Koning, Jos J; Foster, Carl; Lucia, Alejandro; Bobbert, Maarten F; Hettinga, Florentina J; Porcari, John P

2011-06-01

Every new competitive season offers excellent examples of human locomotor abilities, regardless of the sport. As a natural consequence of competitions, world records are broken every now and then. World record races not only offer spectators the pleasure of watching very talented and highly trained athletes performing muscular tasks with remarkable skill, but also represent natural models of the ultimate expression of human integrated muscle biology, through strength, speed, or endurance performances. Given that humans may be approaching our species limit for muscular power output, interest in how athletes improve on world records has led to interest in the strategy of how limited energetic resources are best expended over a race. World record performances may also shed light on how athletes in different events solve exactly the same problem-minimizing the time required to reach the finish line. We have previously applied mathematical modeling to the understanding of world record performances in terms of improvements in facilities/equipment and improvements in the athletes' physical capacities. In this commentary, we attempt to demonstrate that differences in world record performances in various sports can be explained using a very simple modeling process.

Obtaining real-world evidence: the Salford Lung Study

PubMed Central

New, John P; Bakerly, Nawar Diar; Leather, David; Woodcock, Ashley

2014-01-01

We need to assess clinical treatments in real-life settings outside of randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Pragmatic RCT (pRCT) data can supplement RCTs by providing effectiveness information to support healthcare decisions. Electronic health records can facilitate concurrent safety monitoring and data collection without direct patient contact for large randomised study populations in pRCTs. The Salford Lung Study is the world's first phase III pRCT in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which aims to randomise over 7000 patients. This paper describes the hurdles overcome and the enormous effort and resource required to establish this comparative effectiveness study of a prelicence intervention. GlaxoSmithKline protocol HZC115151 Asthma study clinicaltrials.gov registration NCT01706198 COPD study clinicaltrials.gov registration NCT01551758 PMID:24603195

Automatic food detection in egocentric images using artificial intelligence technology.

PubMed

Jia, Wenyan; Li, Yuecheng; Qu, Ruowei; Baranowski, Thomas; Burke, Lora E; Zhang, Hong; Bai, Yicheng; Mancino, Juliet M; Xu, Guizhi; Mao, Zhi-Hong; Sun, Mingui

2018-03-26

To develop an artificial intelligence (AI)-based algorithm which can automatically detect food items from images acquired by an egocentric wearable camera for dietary assessment. To study human diet and lifestyle, large sets of egocentric images were acquired using a wearable device, called eButton, from free-living individuals. Three thousand nine hundred images containing real-world activities, which formed eButton data set 1, were manually selected from thirty subjects. eButton data set 2 contained 29 515 images acquired from a research participant in a week-long unrestricted recording. They included both food- and non-food-related real-life activities, such as dining at both home and restaurants, cooking, shopping, gardening, housekeeping chores, taking classes, gym exercise, etc. All images in these data sets were classified as food/non-food images based on their tags generated by a convolutional neural network. A cross data-set test was conducted on eButton data set 1. The overall accuracy of food detection was 91·5 and 86·4 %, respectively, when one-half of data set 1 was used for training and the other half for testing. For eButton data set 2, 74·0 % sensitivity and 87·0 % specificity were obtained if both 'food' and 'drink' were considered as food images. Alternatively, if only 'food' items were considered, the sensitivity and specificity reached 85·0 and 85·8 %, respectively. The AI technology can automatically detect foods from low-quality, wearable camera-acquired real-world egocentric images with reasonable accuracy, reducing both the burden of data processing and privacy concerns.

Pathfinder aircraft liftoff on altitude record setting flight of 71,500 feet

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1997-01-01

The Pathfinder aircraft has set a new unofficial world record for high-altitude flight of over 71,500 feet for solar-powered aircraft at the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility, Kauai, Hawaii. Pathfinder was designed and manufactured by AeroVironment, Inc, of Simi Valley, California, and was operated by the firm under a jointly sponsored research agreement with NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. Pathfinder's record-breaking flight occurred July 7, 1997. The aircraft took off at 11:34 a.m. PDT, passed its previous record altitude of 67,350 feet at about 5:45 p.m. and then reached its new record altitude at 7 p.m. The mission ended with a perfect nighttime landing at 2:05 a.m. PDT July 8. The new record is the highest altitude ever attained by a propellor-driven aircraft. Before Pathfinder, the altitude record for propellor-driven aircraft was 67,028 feet, set by the experimental Boeing Condor remotely piloted aircraft. Pathfinder was a lightweight, solar-powered, remotely piloted flying wing aircraft used to demonstrate the use of solar power for long-duration, high-altitude flight. Its name denotes its mission as the 'Pathfinder' or first in a series of solar-powered aircraft that will be able to remain airborne for weeks or months on scientific sampling and imaging missions. Solar arrays covered most of the upper wing surface of the Pathfinder aircraft. These arrays provided up to 8,000 watts of power at high noon on a clear summer day. That power fed the aircraft's six electric motors as well as its avionics, communications, and other electrical systems. Pathfinder also had a backup battery system that could provide power for two to five hours, allowing for limited-duration flight after dark. Pathfinder flew at airspeeds of only 15 to 20 mph. Pitch control was maintained by using tiny elevators on the trailing edge of the wing while turns and yaw control were accomplished by slowing down or speeding up the motors on the outboard sections of the wing. On September 11, 1995, Pathfinder set a new altitude record for solar-powered aircraft of 50,567 feet above Edwards Air Force Base, California, on a 12-hour flight. On July 7, 1997, it set another, unofficial record of 71,500 feet at the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Kauai, Hawaii. In 1998, Pathfinder was modified into the longer-winged Pathfinder Plus configuration. (See the Pathfinder Plus photos and project description.)

Adherence to self-monitoring healthy lifestyle behaviours through mobile phone-based ecological momentary assessments and photographic food records over 6 months in mostly ethnic minority mothers.

PubMed

Comulada, W Scott; Swendeman, Dallas; Koussa, Maryann K; Mindry, Deborah; Medich, Melissa; Estrin, Deborah; Mercer, Neil; Ramanathan, Nithya

2018-03-01

Mobile phones can replace traditional self-monitoring tools through cell phone-based ecological momentary assessment (CEMA) of lifestyle behaviours and camera phone-based images of meals, i.e. photographic food records (PFR). Adherence to mobile self-monitoring needs to be evaluated in real-world treatment settings. Towards this goal, we examine CEMA and PFR adherence to the use of a mobile app designed to help mothers self-monitor lifestyle behaviours and stress. Design/Setting In 2012, forty-two mothers recorded CEMA of diet quality, exercise, sleep, stress and mood four times daily and PFR during meals over 6 months in Los Angeles, California, USA. A purposive sample of mothers from mixed ethnicities. Adherence to recording CEMA at least once daily was higher compared with recording PFR at least once daily over the study period (74 v. 11 %); adherence to both types of reports decreased over time. Participants who recorded PFR for more than a day (n 31) were more likely to be obese v. normal- to overweight and to have higher blood pressure, on average (all P<0·05). Based on random-effects regression, CEMA and PFR adherence was highest during weekdays (both P<0·01). Additionally, PFR adherence was associated with older age (P=0·04). CEMA adherence was highest in the morning (P<0·01). PFR recordings occurred throughout the day. Variations in population and temporal characteristics should be considered for mobile assessment schedules. Neither CEMA nor PFR alone is ideal over extended periods.

Indian Ocean corals reveal crucial role of World War II bias for twentieth century warming estimates.

PubMed

Pfeiffer, M; Zinke, J; Dullo, W-C; Garbe-Schönberg, D; Latif, M; Weber, M E

2017-10-31

The western Indian Ocean has been warming faster than any other tropical ocean during the 20 th century, and is the largest contributor to the global mean sea surface temperature (SST) rise. However, the temporal pattern of Indian Ocean warming is poorly constrained and depends on the historical SST product. As all SST products are derived from the International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere dataset (ICOADS), it is challenging to evaluate which product is superior. Here, we present a new, independent SST reconstruction from a set of Porites coral geochemical records from the western Indian Ocean. Our coral reconstruction shows that the World War II bias in the historical sea surface temperature record is the main reason for the differences between the SST products, and affects western Indian Ocean and global mean temperature trends. The 20 th century Indian Ocean warming pattern portrayed by the corals is consistent with the SST product from the Hadley Centre (HadSST3), and suggests that the latter should be used in climate studies that include Indian Ocean SSTs. Our data shows that multi-core coral temperature reconstructions help to evaluate the SST products. Proxy records can provide estimates of 20 th century SST that are truly independent from the ICOADS data base.

KSC-06pd0045

NASA Image and Video Library

2006-01-12

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - After the landing of the Virgin Atlantic Airways GlobalFlyer aircraft at NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility, Center Director James Kennedy (center, in front of the plane) addresses the media. At right is the pilot, Steve Fossett. At left are Jim Ball, KSC Spaceport Development manager, and Winston Scott, executive director of Florida Space Authority. The aircraft is being relocated from Salina, Kan., to the Shuttle Landing Facility to begin preparations for an attempt to set a new world record for the longest flight made by any aircraft. An exact takeoff date for the record-setting flight has not been determined and is contingent on weather and jet-stream conditions. The window for the attempt opens in mid-January, making the flight possible anytime between then and the end of February. NASA agreed to let Virgin Atlantic Airways use Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility as a takeoff site. The facility use is part of a pilot program to expand runway access for non-NASA activities.

Implementation of Imaging Technology for Recordkeeping at the World Bank.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Clive D.

1997-01-01

Describes the evolution of an electronic document management system for the World Bank, including record-keeping components, and how the Pittsburgh requirements for evidence in record keeping were used to evaluate it. Discusses imaging technology for scanning paper records, metadata for retrieval and record keeping, and extending the system to…

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

Scientists set a new world record for converting non-concentrated sunlight into electricity using a dual-junction III-V/Si solar cell. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) scientists have collaborated to create a novel tandem solar cell that operates at 29.8% conversion efficiency under non-concentrator (1-sun) conditions. In comparison, the 1-sun efficiency of a silicon (Si) single-junction solar cell is probably still a few years away from converging on its practical limit of about 26%.

Clinical genomics in the world of the electronic health record.

PubMed

Marsolo, Keith; Spooner, S Andrew

2013-10-01

The widespread adoption of electronic health records presents a number of benefits to the field of clinical genomics. They include the ability to return results to the practitioner, to use genetic findings in clinical decision support, and to have data collected in the electronic health record that serve as a source of phenotypic information for analysis purposes. Not all electronic health records are created equal, however. They differ in their features, capabilities, and ease of use. Therefore, to understand the potential of the electronic health record, it is first necessary to understand its capabilities and the impact that implementation strategy has on usability. Specifically, we focus on the following areas: (i) how the electronic health record is used to capture data in clinical practice settings; (ii) how the implementation and configuration of the electronic health record affect the quality and availability of data; (iii) the management of clinical genetic test results and the feasibility of electronic health record integration; and (iv) the challenges of implementing an electronic health record in a research-intensive environment. This is followed by a discussion of the minimum functional requirements that an electronic health record must meet to enable the satisfactory integration of genomic results as well as the open issues that remain.

The gap in the Arctic Cenozoic Record: Expect the Unexpected

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sangiorgi, F.; Brumsack, H.; Schouten, S.; Brinkhuis, H.; Kaminski, M. A.; Reichart, G.; Stickley, C. E.; Willard, D. A.; Sinninghe Damste', J. S.

2006-12-01

Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 302, a.k.a. the Arctic Coring Expedition (ACEX), drilled more than 400 meters below the seafloor at the central Lomonosov Ridge, ca 250 km from the modern North Pole in water depths of about 1300 m. The partially recovered sediments provide a unique record of the geological and paleoceanographical evolution of the Arctic Ocean during the Cenozoic. The record indicates a transition from a "greenhouse world", characterized by a relative shallow marine setting, with organic-rich sediment and frequent brackish or even fresh surface waters during the latest Palaeocene and the early Eocene, to an "icehouse world" of hemipelagic sedimentation affected by the occurrence of sea ice from the middle Miocene to present. Much to our surprise, these two states are separated by a major hiatus, not obvious from the seismic record and the lithology of the cores, spanning at least 25 Ma as derived from dinocyst and benthic foraminifer stratigraphies. These testify that deposits of probable late early Miocene age directly overlie early middle Eocene sediments. To unravel the nature of the hiatus, we performed a multiproxy micropaleontological and geochemical study on the surrounding record, i.e. lithological units 1/6, 1/5 and 1/4, where the sediment changes from homogeneous dark into a cm-scaled alternation ("zebra-like") black and grey bands to light grey, blue and reddish-brown. Paleoenvironmental reconstructions based on organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts, pollen and spores, benthic foraminifera, inorganic and organic geochemistry and siliceous remains reveal conspicuous changes, suggesting a transition from brackish-freshwater to shallow-lagoonal and to open marine environments. These environmental turnovers, coupled with the occurrence of such a large hiatus, cannot be due to climatic shifts alone, but suggest that major tectonic rearrangements likely changed the depositional setting. On-going organic geochemical analysis will be used to constrain the climatic and environmental changes throughout the studied interval in terms of quantified temperature changes (TEX86), relative variations in freshwater input (BIT) and in water column oxygenation (oxic vs. euxinic conditions).

Automatable algorithms to identify nonmedical opioid use using electronic data: a systematic review.

PubMed

Canan, Chelsea; Polinski, Jennifer M; Alexander, G Caleb; Kowal, Mary K; Brennan, Troyen A; Shrank, William H

2017-11-01

Improved methods to identify nonmedical opioid use can help direct health care resources to individuals who need them. Automated algorithms that use large databases of electronic health care claims or records for surveillance are a potential means to achieve this goal. In this systematic review, we reviewed the utility, attempts at validation, and application of such algorithms to detect nonmedical opioid use. We searched PubMed and Embase for articles describing automatable algorithms that used electronic health care claims or records to identify patients or prescribers with likely nonmedical opioid use. We assessed algorithm development, validation, and performance characteristics and the settings where they were applied. Study variability precluded a meta-analysis. Of 15 included algorithms, 10 targeted patients, 2 targeted providers, 2 targeted both, and 1 identified medications with high abuse potential. Most patient-focused algorithms (67%) used prescription drug claims and/or medical claims, with diagnosis codes of substance abuse and/or dependence as the reference standard. Eleven algorithms were developed via regression modeling. Four used natural language processing, data mining, audit analysis, or factor analysis. Automated algorithms can facilitate population-level surveillance. However, there is no true gold standard for determining nonmedical opioid use. Users must recognize the implications of identifying false positives and, conversely, false negatives. Few algorithms have been applied in real-world settings. Automated algorithms may facilitate identification of patients and/or providers most likely to need more intensive screening and/or intervention for nonmedical opioid use. Additional implementation research in real-world settings would clarify their utility. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

Caveats for the Use of Operational Electronic Health Record Data in Comparative Effectiveness Research

PubMed Central

Hersh, William R.; Weiner, Mark G.; Embi, Peter J.; Logan, Judith R.; Payne, Philip R.O.; Bernstam, Elmer V.; Lehmann, Harold P.; Hripcsak, George; Hartzog, Timothy H.; Cimino, James J.; Saltz, Joel H.

2013-01-01

The growing amount of data in operational electronic health record (EHR) systems provides unprecedented opportunity for its re-use for many tasks, including comparative effectiveness research (CER). However, there are many caveats to the use of such data. EHR data from clinical settings may be inaccurate, incomplete, transformed in ways that undermine their meaning, unrecoverable for research, of unknown provenance, of insufficient granularity, and incompatible with research protocols. However, the quantity and real-world nature of these data provide impetus for their use, and we develop a list of caveats to inform would-be users of such data as well as provide an informatics roadmap that aims to insure this opportunity to augment CER can be best leveraged. PMID:23774517

Capture and surveillance of quad-bike (ATV)-related injuries in administrative data collections.

PubMed

Mitchell, Rebecca J; Grzebieta, Raphael; Rechnitzer, George

2016-09-01

Identifying quad-bike-related injuries in administrative data collections can be problematic. This study sought to determine whether quad-bike-related injuries could be identified in routinely collected administrative data collections in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, and to determine the information recorded according to World Health Organization (WHO) injury surveillance guidelines that could assist injury prevention efforts. Five routinely collected administrative data collections in NSW in the period 2000-2012 were reviewed. The WHO core minimum data items recorded in each of the five data collections ranged from 37.5% to 75.0%. Age and sex of the injured individual were the only data items that were recorded in all data collections. The data collections did not contain detailed information on the circumstances of quad bike incidents. Major improvements are needed in the information collected in these data-sets, if their value is to be increased and used for injury prevention purposes.

Data management by using R: big data clinical research series.

PubMed

Zhang, Zhongheng

2015-11-01

Electronic medical record (EMR) system has been widely used in clinical practice. Instead of traditional record system by hand writing and recording, the EMR makes big data clinical research feasible. The most important feature of big data research is its real-world setting. Furthermore, big data research can provide all aspects of information related to healthcare. However, big data research requires some skills on data management, which however, is always lacking in the curriculum of medical education. This greatly hinders doctors from testing their clinical hypothesis by using EMR. To make ends meet, a series of articles introducing data management techniques are put forward to guide clinicians to big data clinical research. The present educational article firstly introduces some basic knowledge on R language, followed by some data management skills on creating new variables, recoding variables and renaming variables. These are very basic skills and may be used in every project of big data research.

Brucellosis in low-income and middle-income countries

PubMed Central

Rubach, Matthew P.; Halliday, Jo E.B.; Cleaveland, Sarah; Crump, John A.

2014-01-01

Purpose of review Human brucellosis is a neglected, underrecognized infection of widespread geographic distribution. It causes acute febrile illness and a potentially debilitating chronic infection in humans, and livestock infection has substantial socioeconomic impact. This review describes new information regarding the epidemiology of brucellosis in the developing world and advances in diagnosis and treatment. Recent findings The highest recorded incidence of human brucellosis occurs in the Middle East and Central Asia. Fever etiology studies demonstrate brucellosis as a cause of undifferentiated febrile illness in the developing world. Brucellosis is a rare cause of fever among returning travelers, but is more common among travelers returning from the Middle East and North Africa. Sensitive and specific rapid diagnostic tests appropriate for resource-limited settings have been validated. Randomized controlled trials demonstrate that optimal treatment for human brucellosis consists of doxycycline and an aminoglycoside. Decreasing the burden of human brucellosis requires control of animal brucellosis, but evidence to inform the design of control programs in the developing world is needed. Summary Brucellosis causes substantial morbidity in human and animal populations. While improvements in diagnostic options for resource-limited settings and stronger evidence for optimal therapy should enhance identification and treatment of human brucellosis, prevention of human disease through control in animals remains paramount. PMID:23963260

Global Collective Resources: A Study of Monographic Bibliographic Records in WorldCat.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perrault, Anna H.

In 2001, WorldCat, the primary international bibliographic utility, contained 45 million records with over 750 million library location listings. These records span over 4,000 years of recorded knowledge in 377 languages. Under the auspices of an OCLC/ALISE (Online Computer Library Center/Association of Library and Information Science Educators)…

A computational study on outliers in world music.

PubMed

Panteli, Maria; Benetos, Emmanouil; Dixon, Simon

2017-01-01

The comparative analysis of world music cultures has been the focus of several ethnomusicological studies in the last century. With the advances of Music Information Retrieval and the increased accessibility of sound archives, large-scale analysis of world music with computational tools is today feasible. We investigate music similarity in a corpus of 8200 recordings of folk and traditional music from 137 countries around the world. In particular, we aim to identify music recordings that are most distinct compared to the rest of our corpus. We refer to these recordings as 'outliers'. We use signal processing tools to extract music information from audio recordings, data mining to quantify similarity and detect outliers, and spatial statistics to account for geographical correlation. Our findings suggest that Botswana is the country with the most distinct recordings in the corpus and China is the country with the most distinct recordings when considering spatial correlation. Our analysis includes a comparison of musical attributes and styles that contribute to the 'uniqueness' of the music of each country.

A computational study on outliers in world music

PubMed Central

Benetos, Emmanouil; Dixon, Simon

2017-01-01

The comparative analysis of world music cultures has been the focus of several ethnomusicological studies in the last century. With the advances of Music Information Retrieval and the increased accessibility of sound archives, large-scale analysis of world music with computational tools is today feasible. We investigate music similarity in a corpus of 8200 recordings of folk and traditional music from 137 countries around the world. In particular, we aim to identify music recordings that are most distinct compared to the rest of our corpus. We refer to these recordings as ‘outliers’. We use signal processing tools to extract music information from audio recordings, data mining to quantify similarity and detect outliers, and spatial statistics to account for geographical correlation. Our findings suggest that Botswana is the country with the most distinct recordings in the corpus and China is the country with the most distinct recordings when considering spatial correlation. Our analysis includes a comparison of musical attributes and styles that contribute to the ‘uniqueness’ of the music of each country. PMID:29253027

Effects of the gay publishing boom on classes of titles retrieved under the subject headings "Homosexuality," "Gay Men," and "Gays" in the OCLC WorldCat database.

PubMed

Carmichael, James V

2002-01-01

What do searchers find when they look for literature on homosexuality? This question has profound implications for older as well as younger gays in their coming out, as well as in their subsequent identity development. Library records provide credible data to answer the question, since they represent relatively free sources of information, unlike data from bookstores, publishers, and some World Wide Web sites. The records of WorldCat, the world's largest union database of library records, comprise over 30 million records listed in the Online Computer Library Center. For the purposes of the study, 18,757 records listed under "Homosexuality," "Gay Men," and "Gays" were downloaded; records for "Lesbian" and "Lesbians" were not examined. Findings of the study suggest that while there has indeed been considerable growth in terms of the quantity of gay literature produced since 1969, such gains may be offset by the deteriorating quality of cataloging copy, which makes the experience of browsing records a discouraging and confusing one.

Evaluating privacy-preserving record linkage using cryptographic long-term keys and multibit trees on large medical datasets.

PubMed

Brown, Adrian P; Borgs, Christian; Randall, Sean M; Schnell, Rainer

2017-06-08

Integrating medical data using databases from different sources by record linkage is a powerful technique increasingly used in medical research. Under many jurisdictions, unique personal identifiers needed for linking the records are unavailable. Since sensitive attributes, such as names, have to be used instead, privacy regulations usually demand encrypting these identifiers. The corresponding set of techniques for privacy-preserving record linkage (PPRL) has received widespread attention. One recent method is based on Bloom filters. Due to superior resilience against cryptographic attacks, composite Bloom filters (cryptographic long-term keys, CLKs) are considered best practice for privacy in PPRL. Real-world performance of these techniques using large-scale data is unknown up to now. Using a large subset of Australian hospital admission data, we tested the performance of an innovative PPRL technique (CLKs using multibit trees) against a gold-standard derived from clear-text probabilistic record linkage. Linkage time and linkage quality (recall, precision and F-measure) were evaluated. Clear text probabilistic linkage resulted in marginally higher precision and recall than CLKs. PPRL required more computing time but 5 million records could still be de-duplicated within one day. However, the PPRL approach required fine tuning of parameters. We argue that increased privacy of PPRL comes with the price of small losses in precision and recall and a large increase in computational burden and setup time. These costs seem to be acceptable in most applied settings, but they have to be considered in the decision to apply PPRL. Further research on the optimal automatic choice of parameters is needed.

Multiple Kernel Learning for Heterogeneous Anomaly Detection: Algorithm and Aviation Safety Case Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Das, Santanu; Srivastava, Ashok N.; Matthews, Bryan L.; Oza, Nikunj C.

2010-01-01

The world-wide aviation system is one of the most complex dynamical systems ever developed and is generating data at an extremely rapid rate. Most modern commercial aircraft record several hundred flight parameters including information from the guidance, navigation, and control systems, the avionics and propulsion systems, and the pilot inputs into the aircraft. These parameters may be continuous measurements or binary or categorical measurements recorded in one second intervals for the duration of the flight. Currently, most approaches to aviation safety are reactive, meaning that they are designed to react to an aviation safety incident or accident. In this paper, we discuss a novel approach based on the theory of multiple kernel learning to detect potential safety anomalies in very large data bases of discrete and continuous data from world-wide operations of commercial fleets. We pose a general anomaly detection problem which includes both discrete and continuous data streams, where we assume that the discrete streams have a causal influence on the continuous streams. We also assume that atypical sequence of events in the discrete streams can lead to off-nominal system performance. We discuss the application domain, novel algorithms, and also discuss results on real-world data sets. Our algorithm uncovers operationally significant events in high dimensional data streams in the aviation industry which are not detectable using state of the art methods

Failing to protect humanitarian workers: lessons from Britain and Voluntary Aid Detachments in the Second World War.

PubMed

Verma, Amol A

2017-09-01

This paper draws on official records of international and British organizations, newspaper reports, and volunteer memoirs to study the failure to protect humanitarian workers in the Second World War. The Second World War saw a significant expansion in the use of air warfare and flying missiles and these technological advances posed a grave threat to civilians and humanitarian workers. In this context, the International Committee of the Red Cross advocated unsuccessfully to restrict air warfare and create safe hospital zones. The British Government grappled with the tension between military and humanitarian objectives in setting its bombardment policy. Ultimately, humanitarian principles were neglected in pursuit of strategic aims, which endangered civilians and left humanitarian workers particularly vulnerable. British Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses experienced more than six-fold greater fatality rates than civil defence workers and the general population. The lessons from failures to protect humanitarian workers in the face of evolutions in warfare remain profoundly relevant.

Provenancing of unidentified World War II casualties: Application of strontium and oxygen isotope analysis in tooth enamel.

PubMed

Font, Laura; Jonker, Geert; van Aalderen, Patric A; Schiltmans, Els F; Davies, Gareth R

2015-01-01

In 2010 and 2012 two sets of unidentified human remains of two World War II soldiers were recovered in the area where the 1944-1945 Kapelsche Veer bridgehead battle took place in The Netherlands. Soldiers of four Allied nations: British Royal Marine Commandos, Free Norwegian Commandos, Free Poles and Canadians, fought against the German Army in this battle. The identification of these two casualties could not be achieved using dental record information of DNA analysis. The dental records of Missing in Action soldiers of the Allied nations did not match with the dental records of the two casualties. A DNA profile was determined for the casualty found in 2010, but no match was found. Due to the lack of information on the identification of the casualties provided by routine methods, an isotope study was conducted in teeth from the soldiers to constrain their provenance. The isotope study concluded that the tooth enamel isotope composition for both casualties matched with an origin from the United Kingdom. For one of the casualties a probable origin from the United Kingdom was confirmed, after the isotope study was conducted, by the recognition of a characteristic belt buckle derived from a Royal Marine money belt, only issued to British Royal Marines, found with the remains of the soldier. Copyright © 2014 Forensic Science Society. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Summary Report of Mission Acceleration Measurement for STS-87: Launched November 19, 1997

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rogers, Melissa J. B.; Hrovat, Kenneth; McPherson, Kevin; DeLombard, Richard; Reckart, Timothy

1999-01-01

Two accelerometer systems, the Orbital Acceleration Research Experiment and the Space Acceleration Measurement System, were used to measure and record the microgravity environment of the Orbiter Columbia during the STS-87 mission in November-December 1997. Data from two separate Space Acceleration Measurement System units were telemetered to the ground during the mission and data plots were displayed for investigators of the Fourth United States Microgravity Payload experiments in near real-time using the World Wide Web. Plots generated using Orbital Acceleration Research Experiment data (telemetered to the ground using a tape delay) were provided to the investigators using the World Wide Web approximately twelve hours after data recording. Disturbances in the microgravity environment as recorded by these instruments are grouped by source type: Orbiter systems, on-board activities, payload operations, and unknown sources. The environment related to the Ku-band antenna dither, Orbiter structural modes, attitude deadband collapses, water dump operations, crew sleep, and crew exercise was comparable to the effects of these sources on previous Orbiter missions. Disturbances related to operations of the Isothermal Dendritic Growth Experiment and Space Acceleration Measurement Systems that were not observed on previous missions are detailed. The effects of Orbiter cabin and airlock depressurization and extravehicular activities are also reported for the first time. A set of data plots representing the entire mission is included in the CD-ROM version of this report.

Kids'Cam: An Objective Methodology to Study the World in Which Children Live.

PubMed

Signal, Louise N; Smith, Moira B; Barr, Michelle; Stanley, James; Chambers, Tim J; Zhou, Jiang; Duane, Aaron; Jenkin, Gabrielle L S; Pearson, Amber L; Gurrin, Cathal; Smeaton, Alan F; Hoek, Janet; Ni Mhurchu, Cliona

2017-09-01

This paper reports on a new methodology to objectively study the world in which children live. The primary research study (Kids'Cam Food Marketing) illustrates the method; numerous ancillary studies include exploration of children's exposure to alcohol, smoking, "blue" space and gambling, and their use of "green" space, transport, and sun protection. One hundred sixty-eight randomly selected children (aged 11-13 years) recruited from 16 randomly selected schools in Wellington, New Zealand used wearable cameras and GPS units for 4 days, recording imagery every 7 seconds and longitude/latitude locations every 5 seconds. Data were collected from July 2014 to June 2015. Analysis commenced in 2015 and is ongoing. Bespoke software was used to manually code images for variables of interest including setting, marketing media, and product category to produce variables for statistical analysis. GPS data were extracted and cleaned in ArcGIS, version 10.3 for exposure spatial analysis. Approximately 1.4 million images and 2.2 million GPS coordinates were generated (most were usable) from many settings including the difficult to measure aspects of exposures in the home, at school, and during leisure time. The method is ethical, legal, and acceptable to children and the wider community. This methodology enabled objective analysis of the world in which children live. The main arm examined the frequency and nature of children's exposure to food and beverage marketing and provided data on difficult to measure settings. The methodology will likely generate robust evidence facilitating more effective policymaking to address numerous public health concerns. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

World-Wide Standardized Seismograph Network: a data users guide

USGS Publications Warehouse

Peterson, Jon R.; Hutt, Charles R.

2014-01-01

The purpose of this report, which is based on an unpublished draft prepared in the 1970s, is to provide seismologists with the information they may need to use the WWSSN data set as it becomes available in a more easily accessible and convenient format on the Internet. The report includes a description of the WWSSN network, station facilities, operations and instrumentation, a derivation of the instrument transfer functions, tables of transfer functions, a description of calibration techniques, and a description of a method used to determine important instrument constants using recorded calibration data.

Memory and neural networks on the basis of color centers in solids.

PubMed

Winnacker, Albrecht; Osvet, Andres

2009-11-01

Optical data recording is one of the most widely used and efficient systems of memory in the non-living world. The application of color centers in this context offers not only systems of high speed in writing and read-out due to a high degree of parallelism in data handling but also a possibility to set up models of neural networks. In this way, systems with a high potential for image processing, pattern recognition and logical operations can be constructed. A limitation to storage density is given by the diffraction limit of optical data recording. It is shown that this limitation can at least in principle be overcome by the principle of spectral hole burning, which results in systems of storage capacities close to the human brain system.

Characteristics of Real-World Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients Treated with Nivolumab and Pembrolizumab During the Year Following Approval.

PubMed

Khozin, Sean; Abernethy, Amy P; Nussbaum, Nathan C; Zhi, Jizu; Curtis, Melissa D; Tucker, Melisa; Lee, Shannon E; Light, David E; Gossai, Anala; Sorg, Rachael A; Torres, Aracelis Z; Patel, Payal; Blumenthal, Gideon Michael; Pazdur, Richard

2018-03-01

Evidence from cancer clinical trials can be difficult to generalize to real-world patient populations, but can be complemented by real-world evidence to optimize personalization of care. Further, real-world usage patterns of programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitors following approval can inform future studies of subpopulations underrepresented in clinical trials. We performed a multicenter analysis using electronic health record data collected during routine care of patients treated in community cancer care clinics in the Flatiron Health network. Real-world metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who received nivolumab or pembrolizumab in the metastatic setting ( n  = 1,344) were selected from a starting random sample of 55,969 NSCLC patients with two or more documented visits from January 1, 2011, through March 31, 2016. The primary study outcome measurement was demographic and treatment characteristics of the cohort. Median age at PD-1 inhibitor initiation was 69 years (interquartile range 61-75). Patients were 56% male, 88% smokers, 65% nonsquamous histology, and 64% diagnosed at stage IV. Of 1,344 patients, 112 (8%) were tested for programmed death-ligand 1 expression. Overall, 50% received nivolumab or pembrolizumab in the second line, with a substantial proportion of third and later line use that began to decline in Q4 2015. During the year following U.S. regulatory approval of PD-1 inhibitors for treatment of NSCLC, real-world patients receiving nivolumab or pembrolizumab were older at treatment initiation and more had smoking history relative to clinical trial cohorts. Studies of outcomes in underrepresented subgroups are needed to inform real-world treatment decisions. Evidence gathered in conventional clinical trials used to assess safety and efficacy of new therapies is not necessarily generalizable to real-world patients receiving these drugs following regulatory approval. Real-world evidence derived from electronic health record data can yield complementary evidence to enable optimal clinical decisions. Examined here is a cohort of programmed cell death protein 1 inhibitor-treated metastatic non-small cell lung cancer patients in the first year following regulatory approval of these therapies in this indication. The analysis revealed how the real-world cohort differed from the clinical trial cohorts, which will inform which patients are underrepresented and warrant additional studies. © AlphaMed Press 2018.

Naturalistic Observation of Health-Relevant Social Processes: The Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) Methodology in Psychosomatics

PubMed Central

Mehl, Matthias R.; Robbins, Megan L.; Deters, Fenne große

2012-01-01

This article introduces a novel, observational ambulatory monitoring method called the Electronically Activated Recorder or EAR. The EAR is a digital audio recorder that runs on a handheld computer and periodically and unobtrusively records snippets of ambient sounds from participants’ momentary environments. In tracking moment-to-moment ambient sounds, it yields acoustic logs of people’s days as they naturally unfold. In sampling only a fraction of the time, it protects participants’ privacy and makes large observational studies feasible. As a naturalistic observation method, it provides an observer’s account of daily life and is optimized for the objective assessment of audible aspects of social environments, behaviors, and interactions (e.g., habitual preferences for social settings, idiosyncratic interaction styles, and subtle emotional expressions). The article discusses the EAR method conceptually and methodologically, reviews prior research with it, and identifies three concrete ways in which it can enrich psychosomatic research. Specifically, it can (a) calibrate psychosocial effects on health against frequencies of real-world behavior, (b) provide ecological, observational measures of health-related social processes that are independent of self-report, and (c) help with the assessment of subtle and habitual social behaviors that evade self-report but have important health implications. An important avenue for future research lies in merging traditional, self-report based ambulatory monitoring methods with observational approaches such as the EAR to allow for the simultaneous yet methodologically independent assessment of inner, experiential (e.g., loneliness) and outer, observable aspects (e.g., social isolation) of real-world social processes to reveal their unique effects on health. PMID:22582338

Naturalistic observation of health-relevant social processes: the electronically activated recorder methodology in psychosomatics.

PubMed

Mehl, Matthias R; Robbins, Megan L; Deters, Fenne Große

2012-05-01

This article introduces a novel observational ambulatory monitoring method called the electronically activated recorder (EAR). The EAR is a digital audio recorder that runs on a handheld computer and periodically and unobtrusively records snippets of ambient sounds from participants' momentary environments. In tracking moment-to-moment ambient sounds, it yields acoustic logs of people's days as they naturally unfold. In sampling only a fraction of the time, it protects participants' privacy and makes large observational studies feasible. As a naturalistic observation method, it provides an observer's account of daily life and is optimized for the objective assessment of audible aspects of social environments, behaviors, and interactions (e.g., habitual preferences for social settings, idiosyncratic interaction styles, subtle emotional expressions). This article discusses the EAR method conceptually and methodologically, reviews prior research with it, and identifies three concrete ways in which it can enrich psychosomatic research. Specifically, it can (a) calibrate psychosocial effects on health against frequencies of real-world behavior; (b) provide ecological observational measures of health-related social processes that are independent of self-report; and (c) help with the assessment of subtle and habitual social behaviors that evade self-report but have important health implications. An important avenue for future research lies in merging traditional self-report-based ambulatory monitoring methods with observational approaches such as the EAR to allow for the simultaneous yet methodologically independent assessment of inner, experiential aspects (e.g., loneliness) and outer, observable aspects (e.g., social isolation) of real-world social processes to reveal their unique effects on health.

Optimal race strategy for a 200-m flying sprint in a human-powered vehicle: A case study of a world-record attempt.

PubMed

de Koning, Jos J; van der Zweep, Cees-Jan; Cornelissen, Jesper; Kuiper, Bouke

2013-03-01

Optimal pacing strategy was determined for breaking the world speed record on a human-powered vehicle (HPV) using an energy-flow model in which the rider's physical capacities, the vehicle's properties, and the environmental conditions were included. Power data from world-record attempts were compared with data from the model, and race protocols were adjusted to the results from the model. HPV performance can be improved by using an energy-flow model for optimizing race strategy. A biphased in-run followed by a sprint gave best results.

The Global Historical Climatology Network: Long-Term Monthly Temperature, Precipitation, Sea Level Pressure, and Station Pressure Data (NDP-041)

DOE Data Explorer

Vose, Russell S. [Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC),; Schmoyer, Richard L.; Steurer, Peter M. [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, NC (USA); Peterson, Thomas C. [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, NC (USA); Heim, Richard [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, NC (USA); Karl, Thomas R. [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, NC (USA); Eischeid, Jon K. [Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Boulder, CO (USA)

1992-01-01

The GHCN data base contains mean monthly temperature data (in tenths of degrees celsius) for 6039 stations throughout the world. The majority (61%) have records for fewer than 50 years, but a significant proportion (10%) have records in excess of 100 years. It also contains total monthly precipitation data (in tenths of millimeters) for 7533 stations throughout the world. A slight majority (55%) have records in excess of 50 years, and a significant proportion (13%) have records in excess of 100 years. Also in this content is mean monthly sea level pressure data (in tenths of millibars) for 1883 stations throughout the world. The monthly station pressure data from those stations is also available here.

Data driven discrete-time parsimonious identification of a nonlinear state-space model for a weakly nonlinear system with short data record

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Relan, Rishi; Tiels, Koen; Marconato, Anna; Dreesen, Philippe; Schoukens, Johan

2018-05-01

Many real world systems exhibit a quasi linear or weakly nonlinear behavior during normal operation, and a hard saturation effect for high peaks of the input signal. In this paper, a methodology to identify a parsimonious discrete-time nonlinear state space model (NLSS) for the nonlinear dynamical system with relatively short data record is proposed. The capability of the NLSS model structure is demonstrated by introducing two different initialisation schemes, one of them using multivariate polynomials. In addition, a method using first-order information of the multivariate polynomials and tensor decomposition is employed to obtain the parsimonious decoupled representation of the set of multivariate real polynomials estimated during the identification of NLSS model. Finally, the experimental verification of the model structure is done on the cascaded water-benchmark identification problem.

An annotated checklist of the chondrichthyans of Papua New Guinea.

PubMed

White, William T; Ko'ou, Alfred

2018-04-19

An annotated checklist of the chondrichthyan fishes (sharks, rays, and chimaeras) of Papua New Guinean waters is herein presented. The checklist is the result of a large biodiversity study on the chondrichthyan fauna of Papua New Guinea between 2013 and 2017. The chondrichthyan fauna of Papua New Guinea has historically been very poorly known due to a lack of baseline information and limited deepwater exploration. A total of 131 species, comprising 36 families and 68 genera, were recorded. The most speciose families are the Carcharhinidae with 29 species and the Dasyatidae with 23 species. Verified voucher material from various biological collections around the world are provided, with a total of 687 lots recorded comprising 574 whole specimens, 128 sets of jaws and 21 sawfish rostra. This represents the first detailed, verified checklist of chondrichthyans from Papua New Guinean waters.

Data set of world phosphate mines, deposits, and occurrences: Part A. geologic data; Part B. location and mineral economic data

USGS Publications Warehouse

Chernoff, Carlotta B.; Orris, G.J.

2002-01-01

An inventory of more than 1,600 world phosphate mines, deposits, and occurrences was compiled from smaller data sets collected as part of multiple research efforts by Carlotta Chernoff, University of Arizona, and Greta Orris, U.S. Geological Survey. These data have been utilized during studies of black shale depositional environments and to construct phosphate deposit models. The compiled data have been edited for consistency and additional location information has been added where possible. The database of compiled phosphate information is being released in two sections; the geologic data in one section and the location and mineral economic data in the second. This report, U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 02–156–A, contains the geologic data and is best used with the complimentary data contained in Open-File Report 02–156–B. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 02–156–B contains commodity data, location and analytical data, a variety of mineral economic data, reference information, and pointers to related records in the U.S. Geological Survey National mineral databases—MASMILS and MRDS.

Preventing Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV in Resource-Limited Settings: The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation Experience

PubMed Central

Sripipatana, Tabitha; Turner, Abigail Norris; Hoblitzelle, Chuck; Robinson, Joanna; Wilfert, Catherine

2009-01-01

Objectives. In September 1999, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation initiated a multicountry, service-based programmatic effort in the developing world to reduce perinatally acquired HIV infection. We review 6½ years of one of the world's largest programs for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV. Methods. Each PMTCT facility records patient data in antenatal clinics and labor and delivery settings about counseling, testing, HIV status, and antiretroviral prophylaxis and submits the data to foundation staff. Results. More than 2.6 million women have accessed foundation-affiliated services through June 2006. Overall, 92.9% of women who received antenatal care or were eligible for PMTCT services in labor and delivery have been counseled, and 82.8% of those counseled accepted testing. Among women identified as HIV positive, 75.0% received antiretroviral prophylaxis (most a single dose of nevirapine), as did 45.6% of their infants. Conclusions. The foundation's experience has demonstrated that opt-out testing, supplying mothers with medication at time of diagnosis, and providing the infant dose early have measurably improved program efficiency. PMTCT should be viewed as an achievable paradigm and an essential part of the continuum of care. PMID:18703458

Using the Virtual Reality World of Second Life to Promote Patient Engagement

PubMed Central

WEINER, Elizabeth; TRANGENSTEIN, Patricia; MCNEW, Ryan; GORDON, Jeffry

2017-01-01

Patients have typically been passive participants in their own healthcare. However, with a change in philosophy towards outcomes driven care, it has become necessary to make sure that patients mutually set their healthcare goals with their providers Both eHealth and mobile health applications have required patient participation in ways never before valued. The virtual reality world of Second Life offers one eHealth solution that requires computer literate patients to participate via avatars in synchronous healthcare visits and support groups, as well as explore online resources asynchronously. This paper describes the development of a Second Life environment that served as a platform for nurse practitioner driven care supplemented by a patient portal as well as the institutional electronic health record. In addition, the use of Second Life is described as an active exercise to expose students in a Consumer Health course to support groups and resources available to actively engage patients. PMID:27332190

Subauditory Speech Recognition based on EMG/EPG Signals

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jorgensen, Charles; Lee, Diana Dee; Agabon, Shane; Lau, Sonie (Technical Monitor)

2003-01-01

Sub-vocal electromyogram/electro palatogram (EMG/EPG) signal classification is demonstrated as a method for silent speech recognition. Recorded electrode signals from the larynx and sublingual areas below the jaw are noise filtered and transformed into features using complex dual quad tree wavelet transforms. Feature sets for six sub-vocally pronounced words are trained using a trust region scaled conjugate gradient neural network. Real time signals for previously unseen patterns are classified into categories suitable for primitive control of graphic objects. Feature construction, recognition accuracy and an approach for extension of the technique to a variety of real world application areas are presented.

Famine and war.

PubMed

Tamas, R

2008-01-01

History records that mankind has suffered at intervals from great famines. As recently as 1943, at least a million people died of famine in Bengal. In January 1943, a lot of soldiers of the Royal Hungarian Army died in Russia, at the River Don, because of the lack of food supply and insufficient healthcare. The enormous advances of science in this century have made the prevention and relief of famine technically easier. Subsequently, in many parts of the world, famine conditions have arisen, but fortunately on a smaller scale. In this work an attempt is made to set out a few general principles of famine.

Psychophysiological measures of cognitive workload in laboratory and flight

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilson, Glenn F.; Badeau, Albert

1993-01-01

Psychophysiological data have been recorded during different levels of cognitive workload in laboratory and flight settings. Cardiac, eye blink, and brain data have shown meaningful changes as a function of the levels of mental workload. Increased cognitive workload is generally associated with increased heart rates, decreased blink rates and eye closures, and decreased evoked potential amplitudes. However, comparisons of laboratory and flight data show that direct transference of laboratory findings to the flight environment is not possible in many cases. While the laboratory data are valuable, a data base from flight is required so that 'real world' data can be properly interpreted.

Science behind the scenes during Fossett's recent around-the-world ballooning effort

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Showstack, Randy

“In my mind, there's no question. If you eliminate that one temporary setback, he completes the global,” Bob Rice said on August 17, exhausted after having slept little during the previous 8 ½ days of intensive weather forecasting and emotional roller coaster riding.As chief meteorologist for the Solo Spirit balloon trip, Rice helped to navigate 54-yearold balloonist and businessman Steve Fossett on his fourth attempt to circle the globe nonstop. During that effort, which began at 23:30 UTC on August 7 from Mendoza, Argentina, Fossett had floated 24,460 km—63% of the way around the world longitudinally-surpassing his previous world distance record of 16,674 km set in January 1997. His “roziere” balloon, a combination of gas and hot air, had risen or descended to avoid violent weather systems and winds that would blow him in the wrong direction, and to catch air currents that would push his vessel along. With the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and Australia behind him, only the wide Pacific Ocean lay in Fossett's path.

Pathfinder ground preparations prior to altitude record setting flight of 71,500 feet

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1997-01-01

Technicians make final adjustments on the solar-powered Pathfinder remotely piloted research aircraft prior to the craft's taking off on a flight which established a new unofficial world's altitude record for both propellor-driven and solar-powered aircraft. The new record of more than 71,500 feet was set during a 14 1/2-hour flight July 7, 1997, from the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) at Barking Sands, Kauai, Hawaii. The new altitude record is subject to verification by the National Aeronautics Association. The Pathfinder took off at 8:34 a.m. HDT, passed its previous record altitude of 67,350 feet about 2:45 p.m., and then reached its new mark at about 4 p.m. Controllers on the ground then initiated a slow decent, and Pathfinder landed seven hours later at 11:05 p.m. HDT. The experimental Boeing Condor remotely-piloted aircraft had held the previous record for propellor-driven craft of 67,028 feet. The Pathfinder had exceeded that height on a previous flight on June 9, 1997, but not by a large enough margin to be considered a new record. Pathfinder was a lightweight, solar-powered, remotely piloted flying wing aircraft used to demonstrate the use of solar power for long-duration, high-altitude flight. Its name denotes its mission as the 'Pathfinder' or first in a series of solar-powered aircraft that will be able to remain airborne for weeks or months on scientific sampling and imaging missions. Solar arrays covered most of the upper wing surface of the Pathfinder aircraft. These arrays provided up to 8,000 watts of power at high noon on a clear summer day. That power fed the aircraft's six electric motors as well as its avionics, communications, and other electrical systems. Pathfinder also had a backup battery system that could provide power for two to five hours, allowing for limited-duration flight after dark. Pathfinder flew at airspeeds of only 15 to 20 mph. Pitch control was maintained by using tiny elevators on the trailing edge of the wing while turns and yaw control were accomplished by slowing down or speeding up the motors on the outboard sections of the wing. On September 11, 1995, Pathfinder set a new altitude record for solar-powered aircraft of 50,567 feet above Edwards Air Force Base, California, on a 12-hour flight. On July 7, 1997, it set another, unofficial record of 71,500 feet at the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Kauai, Hawaii. In 1998, Pathfinder was modified into the longer-winged Pathfinder Plus configuration. (See the Pathfinder Plus photos and project description.)

New insights from DEM's into form, process and causality in Distributive Fluvial Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scuderi, Louis; Weissmann, Gary; Hartley, Adrian; Kindilien, Peter

2014-05-01

Recent developments in platforms and sensors, as well as advances in our ability to access these rich data sources in near real time presents geoscientists with both opportunities and problems. We currently record raster and point cloud data about the physical world at unprecedented rates with extremely high spatial and spectral resolution. Yet the ability to extract scientifically useful knowledge from such immense data sets has lagged considerably. The interrelated fields of database creation, data mining and modern geostatistics all focus on such interdisciplinary data analysis problems. In recent years these fields have made great advances in analyzing the complex real-world data such as that captured in Digital Elevation Models (DEM's) and satellite imagery and by LIDAR and other geospatially referenced data sets. However, even considering the vast increase in the use of these data sets in the past decade these methods have enjoyed only a relatively modest penetration into the geosciences when compared to data analysis in other scientific disciplines. In part, a great deal of the current research weakness is due to the lack of a unifying conceptual approach and the failure to appreciate the value of highly structured and synthesized compilations of data, organized in user-friendly formats. We report on the application of these new technologies and database approaches to global scale parameterization of Distributive Fluvial Systems (DFS) within continental sedimentary basins and illustrate the value of well-constructed databases and tool-rich analysis environments for understanding form, process and causality in these systems. We analyzed the characteristics of aggradational fluvial systems in more than 700 modern continental sedimentary basins and the links between DFS within these systems and their contributing drainage basins. Our studies show that in sedimentary basins, distributive fluvial and alluvial systems dominate the depositional environment. Consequently, we have found that studies of modern tributary drainage systems in degradational settings are likely insufficient for understanding the geomorphology expressed within these basins and ultimately for understanding the basin-scale architecture of dominantly distributive fluvial deposits preserved in the rock record.

Barriers in implementing evidence-informed health decisions in rural rehabilitation settings: a mixed methods pilot study.

PubMed

Prakash, V; Hariohm, K; Balaganapathy, M

2014-08-01

Literature on the barriers to implementing research findings into physiotherapy practice are often urban centric, using self report based on the hypothetical patient scenario. The objective of this study was to investigate the occurrence of barriers, encountered by evidence informed practice-trained physiotherapists in the management of "real world" patients in rural rehabilitation settings. A mixed-methods research design was used. Physiotherapists working in rural outpatient rehabilitation settings participated in the study. In the first phase, we asked all participants (N = 5) to maintain a log book for a 4-week period to record questions that arose during their routine clinical encounters and asked them also to follow first four of the five steps of evidence-informed practice (ask, access, appraise and apply). In the second phase (after 4 weeks), we conducted a semistructured, direct interviews with the participants exploring their experiences involved in the process of implementing evidence-informed clinical decisions made during the study period. At the end of 4 weeks, 30 questions were recorded. For 17 questions, the participants found evidence but applied that evidence into their practice only in 9 instances. Being generalist practitioners, lack of outcomes specific to the patients were reported as barriers more so than time constraints in implementing evidence-informed practice. Practice setting, lack of patient-centered research and evidence-informed practice competency of physiotherapists can be significant barriers to implementing evidence-informed health decisions in rural rehabilitation setting. © 2014 Chinese Cochrane Center, West China Hospital of Sichuan University and Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

Development and validation of a set of six adaptable prognosis prediction (SAP) models based on time-series real-world big data analysis for patients with cancer receiving chemotherapy: A multicenter case crossover study

PubMed Central

Kanai, Masashi; Okamoto, Kazuya; Yamamoto, Yosuke; Yoshioka, Akira; Hiramoto, Shuji; Nozaki, Akira; Nishikawa, Yoshitaka; Yamaguchi, Daisuke; Tomono, Teruko; Nakatsui, Masahiko; Baba, Mika; Morita, Tatsuya; Matsumoto, Shigemi; Kuroda, Tomohiro; Okuno, Yasushi; Muto, Manabu

2017-01-01

Background We aimed to develop an adaptable prognosis prediction model that could be applied at any time point during the treatment course for patients with cancer receiving chemotherapy, by applying time-series real-world big data. Methods Between April 2004 and September 2014, 4,997 patients with cancer who had received systemic chemotherapy were registered in a prospective cohort database at the Kyoto University Hospital. Of these, 2,693 patients with a death record were eligible for inclusion and divided into training (n = 1,341) and test (n = 1,352) cohorts. In total, 3,471,521 laboratory data at 115,738 time points, representing 40 laboratory items [e.g., white blood cell counts and albumin (Alb) levels] that were monitored for 1 year before the death event were applied for constructing prognosis prediction models. All possible prediction models comprising three different items from 40 laboratory items (40C3 = 9,880) were generated in the training cohort, and the model selection was performed in the test cohort. The fitness of the selected models was externally validated in the validation cohort from three independent settings. Results A prognosis prediction model utilizing Alb, lactate dehydrogenase, and neutrophils was selected based on a strong ability to predict death events within 1–6 months and a set of six prediction models corresponding to 1,2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 months was developed. The area under the curve (AUC) ranged from 0.852 for the 1 month model to 0.713 for the 6 month model. External validation supported the performance of these models. Conclusion By applying time-series real-world big data, we successfully developed a set of six adaptable prognosis prediction models for patients with cancer receiving chemotherapy. PMID:28837592

Preliminary map of peak horizontal ground acceleration for the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake of January 17, 1995, Japan - Description of Mapped Data Sets

USGS Publications Warehouse

Borcherdt, R.D.; Mark, R.K.

1995-01-01

The Hanshin-Awaji earthquake (also known as the Hyogo-ken Nanbu and the Great Hanshin earthquake) provided an unprecedented set of measurements of strong ground shaking. The measurements constitute the most comprehensive set of strong- motion recordings yet obtained for sites underlain by soft soil deposits of Holocene age within a few kilometers of the crustal rupture zone. The recordings, obtained on or near many important structures, provide an important new empirical data set for evaluating input ground motion levels and site amplification factors for codes and site-specific design procedures world wide. This report describes the data used to prepare a preliminary map summarizing the strong motion data in relation to seismicity and underlying geology (Wentworth, Borcherdt, and Mark., 1995; Figure 1, hereafter referred to as Figure 1/I). The map shows station locations, peak acceleration values, and generalized acceleration contours superimposed on pertinent seismicity and the geologic map of Japan. The map (Figure 1/I) indicates a zone of high acceleration with ground motions throughout the zone greater than 400 gal and locally greater than 800 gal. This zone encompasses the area of most intense damage mapped as JMA intensity level 7, which extends through Kobe City. The zone of most intense damage is parallel, but displaced slightly from the surface projection of the crustal rupture zone implied by aftershock locations. The zone is underlain by soft-soil deposits of Holocene age.

Searching for the Beginning of the Ozone Turnaround Using a 22-Year Merged Satellite Data Set

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stolarski, Richard S.; Meeson, Blanche W. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

We have used the data from six satellite instruments that measure the total column amount of ozone to construct a consistent merged data set extending from late 1978 into 2000. The keys to constructing a merged data set are to minimize potential drift of individual instruments and to accurately establish instrument-to-instrument offsets. We have used the short-wavelength D-pair measurements (306nm-313nm) of the SBUV and SBUV/2 instruments near the equator to establish a relatively drift-free record for these instruments. We have then used their overlap with the Nimbus 7 and EP TOMS instruments to establish the relative calibration of the various instruments. We have evaluated the drift uncertainty in our merged ozone data (MOD) set by examining both the individual instrument drift uncertainty and the uncertainty in establishing the instrument- to-instrument differences. We conclude that the instrumental drift uncertainty over the 22-year data record is 0.9 %/decade (2-sigma). We have compared our MOD record with 37 ground stations that have a continuous record over that time period. We have a mean drift with respect to the stations of +0.3 %/decade which is within 1-sigma of our uncertainty estimate. Using the satellite record as a transfer standard, we can estimate the capability of the ground instruments to establish satellite calibration. Adding the statistical variability of the station drifts with respect to the satellite to an estimate of the overall drift uncertainty of the world standard instrument, we conclude that the stations should be able to be used to establish the drift of the satellite data record to within and uncertainty of 0.6 %/decade (2-sigma). Adding to this an uncertainty due to the-incomplete global coverage of the stations, we conclude that the station data should be able to establish the global trend with an uncertainty of about 0.7 %/decade, slightly better than for the satellite record. We conclude that merging the two records together gives only a slight improvement in the uncertainty. Keeping them separate gives the greater confidence of two independent measures of the ozone trend and potential recovery. We fit the trend in our MOD record through May of 1991 and then extrapolated forward to see if the data at the end of the record was above the statistical model as a measure of ozone recovery as was done in the last WMO/UNEP assessment report. Because our data set drifts with respect to the ground-stations through May of 1991, we calculated a smaller global trend (-1.1 %/decade) than in the WMO/UNEP report. Our data in 1998 and 1999 was, on average 2 DU above the extrapolated statistical model with a 2-sigma uncertainty of 6 DU. For the combined mid-latitudes of the northern and southern hemispheres, the data was 5 DU above the extrapolated statistical model with a 2-sigma uncertainty of 10 DU. These may be signs of recovery, but they are still statistically insignificant.

Integrating Real World Entities into an Academic Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tompkins, Terrance; Schlesinger, Marc

2010-01-01

This research will demonstrate how an experiential learning practicum can be successfully implemented into an academic curriculum, using Drexel University's (Philadelphia, PA) award-winning student-run record label, MAD Dragon Records, as a case study. It will describe the components necessary to implement and operate a real-world entity within…

What Is Real-World Data? A Review of Definitions Based on Literature and Stakeholder Interviews.

PubMed

Makady, Amr; de Boer, Anthonius; Hillege, Hans; Klungel, Olaf; Goettsch, Wim

Despite increasing recognition of the value of real-world data (RWD), consensus on the definition of RWD is lacking. To review definitions publicly available for RWD to shed light on similarities and differences between them. A literature review and stakeholder interviews were used to compile data from eight groups of stakeholders. Data from documents and interviews were subjected to coding analysis. Definitions identified were classified into four categories: 1) data collected in a non-randomized controlled trial setting, 2) data collected in a non-interventional/non-controlled setting, 3) data collected in a non-experimental setting, and 4) others (i.e., data that do not fit into the other three categories). The frequency of definitions identified per category was recorded. Fifty-three documents and 20 interviews were assessed. Thirty-eight definitions were identified: 20 out of 38 definitions (53%) were category 1 definitions, 9 (24%) were category 2 definitions, 5 (13%) were category 3 definitions, and 4 (11%) were category 4 definitions. Differences were identified between, and within, definition categories. For example, opinions differed on the aspects of intervention with which non-interventional/non-controlled settings should abide. No definitions were provided in two interviews or identified in 33 documents. Most of the definitions defined RWD as data collected in a non-randomized controlled trial setting. A considerable number of definitions, however, diverged from this concept. Moreover, a significant number of authors and stakeholders did not have an official, institutional definition for RWD. Persisting variability in stakeholder definitions of RWD may lead to disparities among different stakeholders when discussing RWD use in decision making. Copyright © 2017 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Rapid warming accelerates tree growth decline in semi-arid forests of Inner Asia.

PubMed

Liu, Hongyan; Park Williams, A; Allen, Craig D; Guo, Dali; Wu, Xiuchen; Anenkhonov, Oleg A; Liang, Eryuan; Sandanov, Denis V; Yin, Yi; Qi, Zhaohuan; Badmaeva, Natalya K

2013-08-01

Forests around the world are subject to risk of high rates of tree growth decline and increased tree mortality from combinations of climate warming and drought, notably in semi-arid settings. Here, we assess how climate warming has affected tree growth in one of the world's most extensive zones of semi-arid forests, in Inner Asia, a region where lack of data limits our understanding of how climate change may impact forests. We show that pervasive tree growth declines since 1994 in Inner Asia have been confined to semi-arid forests, where growing season water stress has been rising due to warming-induced increases in atmospheric moisture demand. A causal link between increasing drought and declining growth at semi-arid sites is corroborated by correlation analyses comparing annual climate data to records of tree-ring widths. These ring-width records tend to be substantially more sensitive to drought variability at semi-arid sites than at semi-humid sites. Fire occurrence and insect/pathogen attacks have increased in tandem with the most recent (2007-2009) documented episode of tree mortality. If warming in Inner Asia continues, further increases in forest stress and tree mortality could be expected, potentially driving the eventual regional loss of current semi-arid forests. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Implementation of a smartphone wireless accelerometer platform for establishing deep brain stimulation treatment efficacy of essential tremor with machine learning.

PubMed

LeMoyne, Robert; Tomycz, Nestor; Mastroianni, Timothy; McCandless, Cyrus; Cozza, Michael; Peduto, David

2015-01-01

Essential tremor (ET) is a highly prevalent movement disorder. Patients with ET exhibit a complex progressive and disabling tremor, and medical management often fails. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has been successfully applied to this disorder, however there has been no quantifiable way to measure tremor severity or treatment efficacy in this patient population. The quantified amelioration of kinetic tremor via DBS is herein demonstrated through the application of a smartphone (iPhone) as a wireless accelerometer platform. The recorded acceleration signal can be obtained at a setting of the subject's convenience and conveyed by wireless transmission through the Internet for post-processing anywhere in the world. Further post-processing of the acceleration signal can be classified through a machine learning application, such as the support vector machine. Preliminary application of deep brain stimulation with a smartphone for acquisition of a feature set and machine learning for classification has been successfully applied. The support vector machine achieved 100% classification between deep brain stimulation in `on' and `off' mode based on the recording of an accelerometer signal through a smartphone as a wireless accelerometer platform.

Treatment of pediatric obesity using a parent-only approach: a case example.

PubMed

Janicke, David M

2013-03-01

There is a great need for solution-oriented studies and descriptions of interventions for pediatric obesity in real-world settings. This report describes a group-based behavioral parent-only intervention to promote healthier lifestyle habits and reduce weight status in an obese 12-year-old female participant. The behavioral parent-only intervention program described was part of a randomized controlled trial that evaluated the impact of 2 behavioral interventions that addressed dietary intake, physical activity, and weight status in overweight and obese youth living in rural settings. Both the child and parent were targeted for behavior change. The intervention included 12 group sessions over 4 months. Behavioral strategies, including self-monitoring, goal setting, performance feedback, reinforcement, stimulus control, and instruction in behavioral parenting strategies were flexibly applied to meet the needs of the family. Assessments were completed at baseline, month-4 posttreatment, and month-10 follow-up. The parent attended 10 of 12 treatment sessions. At follow-up the child had lost 17 pounds and grew 1.7 in. in height. The child also experienced improved quality of dietary intake and a drop in the number of self-reported unhealthy weight control behaviors. The parent experienced no notable decrease or increase in BMI. The report describes the successful application of a behavioral intervention to address pediatric obesity that uses a parent-only approach. It is hoped that this presentation will facilitate discussion and help encourage further presentations of how the flexible application of evidenced-based interventions can be applied in real-world settings. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

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

Munger, J. William; Foster, David R.; Richardson, Andrew D.

This report summarizes work to improve quantitative understanding of the terrestrial ecosystem processes that control carbon sequestration in unmanaged forests It builds upon the comprehensive long-term observations of CO2 fluxes, climate and forest structure and function at the Harvard Forest in Petersham, MA. This record includes the longest CO2 flux time series in the world. The site is a keystone for the AmeriFlux network. Project Description The project synthesizes observations made at the Harvard Forest HFEMS and Hemlock towers, which represent the dominant mixed deciduous and coniferous forest types in the northeastern United States. The 20+ year record of carbonmore » uptake at Harvard Forest and the associated comprehensive meteorological and biometric data, comprise one of the best data sets to challenge ecosystem models on time scales spanning hourly, daily, monthly, interannual and multi-decadal intervals, as needed to understand ecosystem change and climate feedbacks.« less

Predicting reading and mathematics from neural activity for feedback learning.

PubMed

Peters, Sabine; Van der Meulen, Mara; Zanolie, Kiki; Crone, Eveline A

2017-01-01

Although many studies use feedback learning paradigms to study the process of learning in laboratory settings, little is known about their relevance for real-world learning settings such as school. In a large developmental sample (N = 228, 8-25 years), we investigated whether performance and neural activity during a feedback learning task predicted reading and mathematics performance 2 years later. The results indicated that feedback learning performance predicted both reading and mathematics performance. Activity during feedback learning in left superior dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) predicted reading performance, whereas activity in presupplementary motor area/anterior cingulate cortex (pre-SMA/ACC) predicted mathematical performance. Moreover, left superior DLPFC and pre-SMA/ACC activity predicted unique variance in reading and mathematics ability over behavioral testing of feedback learning performance alone. These results provide valuable insights into the relationship between laboratory-based learning tasks and learning in school settings, and the value of neural assessments for prediction of school performance over behavioral testing alone. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Comparative Effectiveness of a Bioengineered Living Cellular Construct and Cryopreserved Cadaveric Skin Allograft for the Treatment of Venous Leg Ulcers in a Real-World Setting

PubMed Central

Treadwell, Terry; Sabolinski, Michael L.; Skornicki, Michelle; Parsons, Nathan B.

2018-01-01

Objective: A variety of advanced biological therapies are available for the treatment of chronic wounds such as venous leg ulcers (VLUs), but real-world comparative effectiveness data that can help guide decisions around treatments are currently lacking. Approach: This analysis was designed to compare the effectiveness of a bioengineered living cellular construct (BLCC) to a cryopreserved cadaveric skin allograft (CCSA) for the treatment of VLUs. Treatment records were collected from a large wound care-specific electronic medical record database on 717 patients (799 VLUs) receiving treatment at 177 wound care centers. Ulcers ≥28 days duration, between ≥1 and < 40 cm2 that closed ≤40% within the 28 days before treatment were included. Results: Patient baseline demographics and wound characteristics were comparable between groups. The median time to wound closure was 52% faster with BLCC compared with CCSA (15 weeks vs. 31 weeks). In addition, the proportion of wounds healed were significantly higher for BLCC by 12 weeks (42% vs. 24%) and 24 weeks (65% vs. 41%) (p = 0.0002). Treatment with BLCC increased the probability of healing by 97% compared with CCSA (hazard ratio = 1.97 [95% confidence interval 1.39–2.79], p = 0.0002). Innovation: This is the first real-world comparative effectiveness analysis to evaluate BLCC and CCSA for the treatment of VLUs. Conclusion: Treatment with a bioengineered cellular technology significantly improved the incidence and speed of wound closure compared with a CCSA. PMID:29644144

Past, present, and future of sublimation transfer imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akada, Masanori

1990-07-01

SONY's announcement of tlavica system shaked the world in 1981. In the new nonphotographic imaging system, image is acquired with CCD to be converted into electric image-signal, stored in magnetic recording media,displayed on a CR1 and printed on a special sheet. To get a hard copy, Sublimation Transfer technology was developed. That announcement brought about world-wide R&D of competitive color imaging systems: Ink-jet, Wax transfer,. Sublimation Transfer(ST) and Electrophotography. In spite of much effort,most of those were insufficient for getting a good hard copy. Developing sufficient ST recording media, Dai Nippon Printing started ST recording media business in 1986. It was the first manufacturing scale production and sale of ST recording media in the world. Nowadays ST technology is known for its advantages: high image quality, consistency from copy to copy, smooth tone-reproduction from high-light to maximum density, and easiness to use. In the following paper progress of ST recording media and the present situation and future markets of the media will be presented.

6 CFR 5.21 - Requests for access to records.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... accessed electronically at the Government Printing Office's World Wide Web site (which can be found at http... Printing Office's World Wide Web site (which can be found at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs). (c... requested records, you may also, at your option, include your social security number. (e) Verification of...

28 CFR 16.41 - Requests for access to records.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... the Government Printing Office's World Wide Web site (which can be found at http://www.access.gpo.gov... accessed electronically at the Government Printing Office's World Wide Web site (which can be found at http... requested records, you may also, at your option, include your social security number. (e) Verification of...

6 CFR 5.21 - Requests for access to records.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... accessed electronically at the Government Printing Office's World Wide Web site (which can be found at http... Printing Office's World Wide Web site (which can be found at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs). (c... requested records, you may also, at your option, include your social security number. (e) Verification of...

28 CFR 16.41 - Requests for access to records.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... the Government Printing Office's World Wide Web site (which can be found at http://www.access.gpo.gov... accessed electronically at the Government Printing Office's World Wide Web site (which can be found at http... requested records, you may also, at your option, include your social security number. (e) Verification of...

Fire-Walking

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Willey, David

2010-01-01

This article gives a brief history of fire-walking and then deals with the physics behind fire-walking. The author has performed approximately 50 fire-walks, took the data for the world's hottest fire-walk and was, at one time, a world record holder for the longest fire-walk (www.dwilley.com/HDATLTW/Record_Making_Firewalks.html). He currently…

World Myths & Legends in Art.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

2002

Myths are stories that explain why the world is the way it is. All cultures have them. Throughout history, artists have been inspired by myths and legends and have given them visual form. Sometimes these works of art are the only surviving record of what particular cultures believed and valued. But even where written records or oral traditions…

Sex differences in elite swimming with advanced age are less than marathon running.

PubMed

Senefeld, J; Joyner, M J; Stevens, A; Hunter, S K

2016-01-01

The sex difference in marathon performance increases with finishing place and age of the runner but whether this occurs among swimmers is unknown. The purpose was to compare sex differences in swimming velocity across world record place (1st-10th), age group (25-89 years), and event distance. We also compared sex differences between freestyle swimming and marathon running. The world's top 10 swimming times of both sexes for World Championship freestyle stroke, backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events and the world's top 10 marathon times in 5-year age groups were obtained. Men were faster than women for freestyle (12.4 ± 4.2%), backstroke (12.8 ± 3.0%), and breaststroke (14.5 ± 3.2%), with the greatest sex differences for butterfly (16.7 ± 5.5%). The sex difference in swimming velocity increased across world record place for freestyle (P < 0.001), breaststroke, and butterfly for all age groups and distances (P < 0.001) because of a greater relative drop-off between first and 10th place for women. The sex difference in marathon running increased with the world record place and the sex difference for marathon running was greater than for swimming (P < 0.001). The sex difference in swimming increased with world record place and age, but was less than for marathon running. Collectively, these results suggest more depth in women's swimming than marathon running. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Daedalus - Last Dryden flight

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1988-01-01

The Daedalus 88, with Glenn Tremml piloting, is seen here on its last flight for the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. The Light Eagle and Daedalus human powered aircraft were testbeds for flight research conducted at Dryden between January 1987 and March 1988. These unique aircraft were designed and constructed by a group of students, professors, and alumni of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology within the context of the Daedalus project. The construction of the Light Eagle and Daedalus aircraft was funded primarily by the Anheuser Busch and United Technologies Corporations, respectively, with additional support from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, MIT, and a number of other sponsors. To celebrate the Greek myth of Daedalus, the man who constructed wings of wax and feathers to escape King Minos, the Daedalus project began with the goal of designing, building and testing a human-powered aircraft that could fly the mythical distance, 115 km. To achieve this goal, three aircraft were constructed. The Light Eagle was the prototype aircraft, weighing 92 pounds. On January 22, 1987, it set a closed course distance record of 59 km, which still stands. Also in January of 1987, the Light Eagle was powered by Lois McCallin to set the straight distance, the distance around a closed circuit, and the duration world records for the female division in human powered vehicles. Following this success, two more aircraft were built, the Daedalus 87 and Daedalus 88. Each aircraft weighed approximately 69 pounds. The Daedalus 88 aircraft was the ship that flew the 199 km from the Iraklion Air Force Base on Crete in the Mediterranean Sea, to the island of Santorini in 3 hours, 54 minutes. In the process, the aircraft set new records in distance and endurance for a human powered aircraft. The specific areas of flight research conducted at Dryden included characterizing the rigid body and flexible dynamics of the Light Eagle, investigating sensors for an autopilot that could be used on high altitude or human powered aircraft, and determining the power required to fly the Daedalus aircraft. The research flights began in late December 1987 with a shake-down of the Light Eagle instrumentation and data transfer links. The first flight of the Daedalus 87 also occurred during this time. On February 7, 1988, the Daedalus 87 aircraft crashed on Rogers Dry Lakebed. The Daedalus 88, which later set the world record, was then shipped from MIT to replace the 87's research flights, and for general checkout procedures. Due to the accident, flight testing was extended four weeks and thus ended in mid-March 1988 after having achieved the major goals of the program; exploring the dynamics of low Reynolds number aircraft, and investigating the aeroelastic behavior of lightweight aircraft. The information obtained from this program had direct applications to the later design of many high-altitude, long endurance aircraft.

Daedalus Project's Light Eagle - Human powered aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1987-01-01

The Michelob Light Eagle is seen here in flight over Rogers Dry Lake at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. The Light Eagle and Daedalus human powered aircraft were testbeds for flight research conducted at Dryden between January 1987 and March 1988. These unique aircraft were designed and constructed by a group of students, professors, and alumni of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology within the context of the Daedalus project. The construction of the Light Eagle and Daedalus aircraft was funded primarily by the Anheuser Busch and United Technologies Corporations, respectively, with additional support from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, MIT, and a number of other sponsors. To celebrate the Greek myth of Daedalus, the man who constructed wings of wax and feathers to escape King Minos, the Daedalus project began with the goal of designing, building and testing a human-powered aircraft that could fly the mythical distance, 115 km. To achieve this goal, three aircraft were constructed. The Light Eagle was the prototype aircraft, weighing 92 pounds. On January 22, 1987, it set a closed course distance record of 59 km, which still stands. Also in January of 1987, the Light Eagle was powered by Lois McCallin to set the straight distance, the distance around a closed circuit, and the duration world records for the female division in human powered vehicles. Following this success, two more aircraft were built, the Daedalus 87 and Daedalus 88. Each aircraft weighed approximately 69 pounds. The Daedalus 88 aircraft was the ship that flew the 199 km from the Iraklion Air Force Base on Crete in the Mediterranean Sea, to the island of Santorini in 3 hours, 54 minutes. In the process, the aircraft set new records in distance and endurance for a human powered aircraft. The specific areas of flight research conducted at Dryden included characterizing the rigid body and flexible dynamics of the Light Eagle, investigating sensors for an autopilot that could be used on high altitude or human powered aircraft, and determining the power required to fly the Daedalus aircraft. The research flights began in late December 1987 with a shake-down of the Light Eagle instrumentation and data transfer links. The first flight of the Daedalus 87 also occurred during this time. On February 7, 1988, the Daedalus 87 aircraft crashed on Rogers Dry Lakebed. The Daedalus 88, which later set the world record, was then shipped from MIT to replace the 87's research flights, and for general checkout procedures. Due to the accident, flight testing was extended four weeks and thus ended in mid-March 1988 after having achieved the major goals of the program; exploring the dynamics of low Reynolds number aircraft, and investigating the aeroelastic behavior of lightweight aircraft. The information obtained from this program had direct applications to the later design of many high-altitude, long endurance aircraft.

Are Tide Gauges Useful Recorders of Relative Sea-Level Rise in Large Deltaic Settings?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tornqvist, T. E.; Keogh, M.; Jankowski, K. L.; Fernandes, A. M.

2016-12-01

It has long been recognized that the world's largest deltas that often host major population centers are particularly vulnerable to accelerating rates of relative sea-level rise (RSLR). Traditionally, tide-gauge records are used to obtain quantitative data on rates of RSLR, given that they are perceived to capture the rise of the sea surface as well as land subsidence which is often substantial in deltaic settings. We argue here that tide gauges in such settings often provide ambiguous data because they ultimately measure RSLR with respect to a benchmark that is typically anchored tens of meters below the land surface. This is problematic because the prime target of interest is usually the rate of RSLR with respect to the delta top. We illustrate this problem with newly obtained rod surface elevation table - marker horizon (RSET-MH) data from the Mississippi Delta (n=185) that show that total subsidence is dominated by shallow subsidence in the uppermost 5-10 m. Since benchmarks in this region are anchored at 20 m depth on average, tide-gauge records by definition do not capture this important (and often even dominant) component of total subsidence, and thus underestimate RSLR by a considerable amount. We show how RSET-MH data, combined with GPS and satellite altimetry data, enable us to bypass this problem. Present-day rates of RSLR in the Mississippi Delta are 13±9 mm/yr, considerably higher than numbers reported in recent studies based on tide-gauge analysis. It seems unlikely that this problem is unique to the Mississippi Delta, so we argue that the approach to RSLR measurements in large deltas across the planet needs rethinking.

Electronic health record meets digital library: a new environment for achieving an old goal.

PubMed

Humphreys, B L

2000-01-01

Linking the electronic health record to the digital library is a Web-era reformulation of the long-standing informatics goal of seamless integration of automated clinical data and relevant knowledge-based information to support informed decisions. The spread of the Internet, the development of the World Wide Web, and converging format standards for electronic health data and digital publications make effective linking increasingly feasible. Some existing systems link electronic health data and knowledge-based information in limited settings or limited ways. Yet many challenging informatics research problems remain to be solved before flexible and seamless linking becomes a reality and before systems become capable of delivering the specific piece of information needed at the time and place a decision must be made. Connecting the electronic health record to the digital library also requires positive resolution of important policy issues, including health data privacy, government encouragement of high-speed communications, electronic intellectual property rights, and standards for health data and for digital libraries. Both the research problems and the policy issues should be important priorities for the field of medical informatics.

Electronic Health Record Meets Digital Library

PubMed Central

Humphreys, Betsy L.

2000-01-01

Linking the electronic health record to the digital library is a Web-era reformulation of the long-standing informatics goal of seamless integration of automated clinical data and relevant knowledge-based information to support informed decisions. The spread of the Internet, the development of the World Wide Web, and converging format standards for electronic health data and digital publications make effective linking increasingly feasible. Some existing systems link electronic health data and knowledge-based information in limited settings or limited ways. Yet many challenging informatics research problems remain to be solved before flexible and seamless linking becomes a reality and before systems become capable of delivering the specific piece of information needed at the time and place a decision must be made. Connecting the electronic health record to the digital library also requires positive resolution of important policy issues, including health data privacy, government envouragement of high-speed communications, electronic intellectual property rights, and standards for health data and for digital libraries. Both the research problems and the policy issues should be important priorities for the field of medical informatics. PMID:10984463

Real-world evaluation of Hba1c, blood pressure, and weight loss among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus treated with canagliflozin: an analysis of electronic medical records from a network of hospitals in Florida.

PubMed

Tanton, Damon; Duh, Mei Sheng; Lafeuille, Marie-Hélène; Lefebvre, Patrick; Pilon, Dominic; Zhdanava, Maryia; Emond, Bruno; Inman, Doreen; Bailey, Robert A

2018-06-01

Clinical trials and real-world studies reported that canagliflozin (CANA) improved HbA1c, blood pressure (BP), and weight in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This study examines if previous results hold regionally and within specific patient sub-groups. Adults with T2DM and ≥12 months of clinical activity before the first CANA prescription (index) were identified in electronic medical records (January 1, 2012-February 15, 2017) from a network of hospitals in Florida. Quality measures were described at baseline and 3, 6, 9, and 12 months post-index. Selected thresholds were HbA1c < 7%, BP < 140/90 mmHg, and weight loss ≥5%. Sub-groups included patients ≥65 years old, with African American race, with CANA dose increase, initiating CANA in an endocrinology setting, and initiating CANA in a primary care setting. Overall, 1,259 patients (mean age = 56.7 years; 51.2% female, 70.4% White) were identified. Among patients with a baseline HbA1c ≥ 7%, 16.1% had an HbA1c < 7% 3 months following CANA initiation, and the mean HbA1c decreased from 8.8% to 8.1%. Among patients with a baseline systolic BP ≥140 mmHg or diastolic BP ≥ 90 mmHg, 59.3% attained a systolic BP < 140 mmHg and 77.3% a diastolic BP < 90 mmHg after 3 months. HbA1c and BP responses were sustained through 12 months. The proportion of patients with a weight loss from baseline ≥5% increased from 17.0% at 3 months to 31.1% at 12 months. Consistent trends were observed for all sub-groups. In CANA-treated patients and patient sub-groups from a network of Florida hospitals, improvements in quality measures and response durability were similar to clinical trials and other real-world studies.

Incentive Mechanisms for Mobile Music Distribution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Furini, Marco; Montangero, Manuela

The mobile digital world is seen as an important business opportunity for two main reasons: the widespread usage of cellphones (more than two billions [30], most of them with sound features) and the pervasiveness of mobile technologies. As a result, music industry and telecoms are bringing the successful Internet-based music market strategy into the mobile scenario: record labels are setting up agreements with cellphone network providers (Sprint, Verizon, Vodafone, Orange just to name a few) to offer a download music service also in the mobile scenario. The strategy is to use wireless channels to distribute music contents in the attempt of replicating the success of the Internet-based download scenario.

Climate change lessons from a warm world

USGS Publications Warehouse

Dowsett, Harry J.

2010-01-01

In the early 1970’s to early 1980’s Soviet climatologists were making comparisons to past intervals of warmth in the geologic record and suggesting that these intervals could be possible analogs for 21st century “greenhouse” conditions. Some saw regional warming as a benefit to the Soviet Union and made comments along the lines of “Set fire to the coal mines!” These sentiments were alarming to some, and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) leadership thought they could provide a more quantitative analysis of the data the Soviets were using for the most recent of these warm intervals, the Early Pliocene.

Opportunities for Enhanced Strategic Use of Surveys, Medical Records, and Program Data for HIV Surveillance of Key Populations: Scoping Review

PubMed Central

Baral, Stefan D; Edwards, Jessie K; Zadrozny, Sabrina; Hargreaves, James; Zhao, Jinkou; Sabin, Keith

2018-01-01

Background Normative guidelines from the World Health Organization recommend tracking strategic information indicators among key populations. Monitoring progress in the global response to the HIV epidemic uses indicators put forward by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. These include the 90-90-90 targets that require a realignment of surveillance data, routinely collected program data, and medical record data, which historically have developed separately. Objective The aim of this study was to describe current challenges for monitoring HIV-related strategic information indicators among key populations ((men who have sex with men [MSM], people in prisons and other closed settings, people who inject drugs, sex workers, and transgender people) and identify future opportunities to enhance the use of surveillance data, programmatic data, and medical record data to describe the HIV epidemic among key populations and measure the coverage of HIV prevention, care, and treatment programs. Methods To provide a historical perspective, we completed a scoping review of the expansion of HIV surveillance among key populations over the past three decades. To describe current efforts, we conducted a review of the literature to identify published examples of SI indicator estimates among key populations. To describe anticipated challenges and future opportunities to improve measurement of strategic information indicators, particularly from routine program and health data, we consulted participants of the Third Global HIV Surveillance Meeting in Bangkok, where the 2015 World Health Organization strategic information guidelines were launched. Results There remains suboptimal alignment of surveillance and programmatic data, as well as routinely collected medical records to facilitate the reporting of the 90-90-90 indicators for HIV among key populations. Studies (n=3) with estimates of all three 90-90-90 indicators rely on cross-sectional survey data. Programmatic data and medical record data continue to be insufficiently robust to provide estimates of the 90-90-90 targets for key populations. Conclusions Current reliance on more active data collection processes, including key population-specific surveys, remains warranted until the quality and validity of passively collected routine program and medical record data for key populations is optimized. PMID:29789279

The impact of the World Health Organization 8-steps in wheelchair service provision in wheelchair users in a less resourced setting: a cohort study in Indonesia.

PubMed

Toro, Maria L; Eke, Chika; Pearlman, Jonathan

2016-01-22

For people who have a mobility impairment, access to an appropriate wheelchair is an important step towards social inclusion and participation. The World Health Organization Guidelines for the Provision of Manual Wheelchairs in Less Resourced Settings emphasize the eight critical steps for appropriate wheelchair services, which include: referral, assessment, prescription, funding and ordering, product preparation,fitting and adjusting, user training, and follow-up and maintenance/repairs. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the provision of wheelchairs according to the World Health Organization's service provision process by United Cerebral Palsy Wheels for Humanity in Indonesia affects wheelchair recipients compared to wait-listed controls. This study used a convenience sample (N = 344) of Children, Children with proxies, Adults, and Adults with proxies who were on a waiting list to receive a wheelchair as well as those who received one. Interviews were conducted at baseline and a 6 month follow-up to collect the following data: Demographics and wheelchair use questions, the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF, Functional Mobility Assessment, Craig Handicap Assessment Recording Technique Short Form. The Wheelchair Assessment Checklist and Wheelchair Skills Test Questionnaire were administered at follow up only. 167 participants were on the waiting list and 142 received a wheelchair. Physical health domain in the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF improved significantly for women who received a wheelchair (p = 0.044) and environmental health improved significantly for women and men who received a wheelchair as compared to those on the waiting list (p < 0.017). Satisfaction with the mobility device improved significantly for Adults with proxies and Children with proxies as compared to the waiting list (p < 0.022). Only 11 % of Adults who received a wheelchair reported being able to perform a "wheelie". The condition of Roughrider wheelchairs was significantly better than the condition of kids wheelchairs for Children with proxies as measured by the Wheelchair Assessment Checklist (p = 0.019). Wheelchair provision according to World Health Organization's 8-Steps in a less-resourced setting has a range of positive outcomes including increased satisfaction with the mobility device and better quality of life. Wheelchair provision service could be improved by providing more hours of wheelchair skills training. There is a need for outcome measures that are validated across cultures and languages.

Signal classification using global dynamical models, Part II: SONAR data analysis

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

Kremliovsky, M.; Kadtke, J.

1996-06-01

In Part I of this paper, we described a numerical method for nonlinear signal detection and classification which made use of techniques borrowed from dynamical systems theory. Here in Part II of the paper, we will describe an example of data analysis using this method, for data consisting of open ocean acoustic (SONAR) recordings of marine mammal transients, supplied from NUWC sources. The purpose here is two-fold: first to give a more operational description of the technique and provide rules-of-thumb for parameter choices; and second to discuss some new issues raised by the analysis of non-ideal (real-world) data sets. Themore » particular data set considered here is quite non-stationary, relatively noisy, is not clearly localized in the background, and as such provides a difficult challenge for most detection/classification schemes. {copyright} {ital 1996 American Institute of Physics.}« less

Applying theory across settings, behaviors, and populations: translational challenges and opportunities.

PubMed

Mermelstein, Robin J; Revenson, Tracey A

2013-05-01

Basic social psychological theories have much to contribute to our understanding of health problems and health-related behaviors and may provide potential avenues for intervention development. However, for these theories to have broader reach and applicability to the field of health psychology, more work needs to be done in integrating contexts into these theories and addressing more specifically their application across settings, behaviors, and populations. We argue that integration of these theories into a broader multidisciplinary and multilevel ecological framework is needed to enhance their translation into real-world applications. To enhance this translation, we make several recommendations, including breaking down silos between disciplinary perspectives and enhancing bidirectional communication and translation; analyzing boundary conditions of theories; expanding research approaches to move outside the laboratory and maintain a focus on external validity; and conducting efficacy testing of theories with meaningful, relevant endpoints. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Distribution of subtidal sedimentary bedforms in a macrotidal setting: The Bay of Fundy, Atlantic Canada

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Todd, Brian J.; Shaw, John; Li, Michael Z.; Kostylev, Vladimir E.; Wu, Yongsheng

2014-07-01

The Bay of Fundy, Canada, a large macrotidal embayment with the World's highest recorded tides, was mapped using multibeam sonar systems. High-resolution imagery of seafloor terrain and backscatter strength, combined with geophysical and sampling data, reveal for the first time the morphology, architecture, and spatial relationships of a spectrum of bedforms: (1) flow-transverse bedforms occur as both discrete large two-dimensional dunes and as three-dimensional dunes in sand sheets; (2) flow-parallel bedforms are numerous straight ridges described by others as horse mussel bioherms; (3) sets of banner banks that flank prominent headlands and major shoals. The suite of bedforms developed during the Holocene, as tidal energy increased due to the bay approaching resonance. We consider the evolution of these bedforms, their migration potential and how they may place limitations on future in-stream tidal power development in the Bay of Fundy.

Validation of a Novel Electronic Health Record Patient Portal Advance Care Planning Delivery System.

PubMed

Bose-Brill, Seuli; Feeney, Michelle; Prater, Laura; Miles, Laura; Corbett, Angela; Koesters, Stephen

2018-06-26

Advance care planning allows patients to articulate their future care preferences should they no longer be able to make decisions on their own. Early advance care planning in outpatient settings provides benefits such as less aggressive care and fewer hospitalizations, yet it is underutilized due to barriers such as provider time constraints and communication complexity. Novel methods, such as patient portals, provide a unique opportunity to conduct advance care planning previsit planning for outpatient care. This follow-up to our pilot study aimed to conduct pragmatic testing of a novel electronic health record-tethered framework and its effects on advance care planning delivery in a real-world primary care setting. Our intervention tested a previsit advance care planning workflow centered around a framework sent via secure electronic health record-linked patient portal in a real-world clinical setting. The primary objective of this study was to determine its impact on frequency and quality of advance care planning documentation. We conducted a pragmatic trial including 2 sister clinical sites, one site implementing the intervention and the other continuing standard care. A total of 419 patients aged between 50 and 93 years with active portal accounts received intervention (n=200) or standard care (n=219). Chart review analyzed the presence of advance care planning and its quality and was graded with previously established scoring criteria based on advance care planning best practice guidelines from multiple nations. A total of 19.5% (39/200) of patients who received previsit planning responded to the framework. We found that the intervention site had statistically significant improvement in new advance care planning documentation rates (P<.01) and quality (P<.01) among all eligible patients. Advance care planning documentation rates increased by 105% (19/39 to 39/39) and quality improved among all patients who engaged in the previsit planning framework (n=39). Among eligible patients aged between 50 and 60 years at the intervention site, advance care planning documentation rates increased by 37% (27/96 to 37/96). Advance care planning documentation rates increased 34% among high users (27/67 to 36/67). Advance care planning previsit planning using a secure electronic health record-supported patient portal framework yielded improvement in the presence of advance care planning documentation, with highest improvement in active patient portal users and patients aged between 50 and 60 years. Targeted previsit patient portal advance care planning delivery in these populations can potentially improve the quality of care in these populations. ©Seuli Bose-Brill, Michelle Feeney, Laura Prater, Laura Miles, Angela Corbett, Stephen Koesters. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 26.06.2018.

Mixed method evaluation of a community-based physical activity program using the RE-AIM framework: practical application in a real-world setting.

PubMed

Koorts, Harriet; Gillison, Fiona

2015-11-06

Communities are a pivotal setting in which to promote increases in child and adolescent physical activity behaviours. Interventions implemented in these settings require effective evaluation to facilitate translation of findings to wider settings. The aims of this paper are to i) present findings from a RE-AIM evaluation of a community-based physical activity program, and ii) review the methodological challenges faced when applying RE-AIM in practice. A single mixed-methods case study was conducted based on a concurrent triangulation design. Five sources of data were collected via interviews, questionnaires, archival records, documentation and field notes. Evidence was triangulated within RE-AIM to assess individual and organisational-level program outcomes. Inconsistent availability of data and a lack of robust reporting challenged assessment of all five dimensions. Reach, Implementation and setting-level Adoption were less successful, Effectiveness and Maintenance at an individual and organisational level were moderately successful. Only community-level Adoption was highly successful, reflecting the key program goal to provide community-wide participation in sport and physical activity. This research highlighted important methodological constraints associated with the use of RE-AIM in practice settings. Future evaluators wishing to use RE-AIM may benefit from a mixed-method triangulation approach to offset challenges with data availability and reliability.

Cultural shift in mental illness: a comparison of stress responses in World War I and the Vietnam War.

PubMed

Skinner, Rasjid; Kaplick, Paul M

2017-12-01

Post-traumatic stress disorder is an established diagnostic category. In particular, over the past 20 years, there has been an interest in culture as a fundamental factor in post-traumatic stress disorder symptom manifestation. However, only a very limited portion of this literature studies the historical variability of post-traumatic stress within a particular culture. Therefore, this study examines whether stress responses to violence associated with armed conflicts have been a culturally stable reaction in Western troops. We have compared historical records from World War I to those of the Vietnam War. Reference is also made to observations of combat trauma reactions in pre-World War I conflicts, World War II, the Korean War, the Falklands War, and the First Gulf War. The data set consisted of literature that was published during and after these armed conflicts. Accounts of World War I Shell Shock that describe symptom presentation, incidence (both acute and delayed), and prognosis were compared to the observations made of Vietnam War post-traumatic stress disorder victims. Results suggest that the conditions observed in Vietnam veterans were not the same as those which were observed in World War I trauma victims. The paper argues that the concept of post-traumatic stress disorder cannot be stretched to cover the typical battle trauma reactions of World War I. It is suggested that relatively subtle changes in culture, over little more than a generation, have had a profound effect on how mental illness forms, manifests itself, and is effectively treated. We add new evidence to the argument that post-traumatic stress disorder in its current conceptualisation does not adequately account, not only for ethnocultural variation but also for historical variation in stress responses within the same culture.

Earthscape: Transitions toward World Order. The Whole Earth Papers, No. 12.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mische, Patricia; And Others

The five articles in this booklet focus on positive social, political, and economic responses to world problems. The first article, "Earthscape: Transitions Toward World Order," by Patricia Mische, outlines major biological, historical, and cultural transformations which the world has undergone since the beginnings of recorded history and…

Accomplishments and Compromises in Prediction Research for World Records and Best Performances in Track and Field and Swimming

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Yuanlong; Paul, Stanley; Fu, Frank H.

2012-01-01

The conductors of this study reviewed prediction research and studied the accomplishments and compromises in predicting world records and best performances in track and field and swimming. The results of the study showed that prediction research only promises to describe the historical trends in track and field and swimming performances, to study…

Tobacco control advocacy in Australia: reflections on 30 years of progress.

PubMed

Chapman, S; Wakefield, M

2001-06-01

Australia has one of the world's most successful records on tobacco control. The role of public health advocacy in securing public and political support for tobacco control legislation and policy and program support is widely acknowledged and enshrined in World Health Organization policy documents yet is seldom the subject of analysis in the public health policy research literature. Australian public health advocates tend to not work in settings where evaluation and systematic planning are valued. However, their day-to-day strategies reveal considerable method and grounding in framing theory. The nature of media advocacy is explored, with differences between the conceptualization of routine "programmatic" public health interventions and the modus operandi of media advocacy highlighted. Two case studies on securing smoke-free indoor air and banning all tobacco advertising are used to illustrate advocacy strategies that have been used in Australia. Finally, the argument that advocacy should emanate from communities and be driven by them is considered.

The social perception of emotional abilities: expanding what we know about observer ratings of emotional intelligence.

PubMed

Elfenbein, Hillary Anger; Barsade, Sigal G; Eisenkraft, Noah

2015-02-01

We examine the social perception of emotional intelligence (EI) through the use of observer ratings. Individuals frequently judge others' emotional abilities in real-world settings, yet we know little about the properties of such ratings. This article examines the social perception of EI and expands the evidence to evaluate its reliability and cross-judge agreement, as well as its convergent, divergent, and predictive validity. Three studies use real-world colleagues as observers and data from 2,521 participants. Results indicate significant consensus across observers about targets' EI, moderate but significant self-observer agreement, and modest but relatively consistent discriminant validity across the components of EI. Observer ratings significantly predicted interdependent task performance, even after controlling for numerous factors. Notably, predictive validity was greater for observer-rated than for self-rated or ability-tested EI. We discuss the minimal associations of observer ratings with ability-tested EI, study limitations, future directions, and practical implications. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

Adverse events associated with apremilast use and withdrawal for psoriasis in a real-world setting.

PubMed

Lee, Erica B; Amin, Mina; Egeberg, Alexander; Wu, Jashin J

2018-05-06

Apremilast, a phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitor, is an oral therapy for treatment of psoriasis. Its safety profile is favorable, with side effects including diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, depression, and weight decrease, primarily based on clinical trial data. However, limited research exists on the side effect frequency and subsequent adverse events (AEs) in real-world practice. This retrospective chart review included patients who presented to the dermatology clinic at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center and were treated with apremilast at any time between January 1, 2015 and January 11, 2018. Patients were not included if they did not have at least one follow-up by clinic visit, telephone, or email correspondence after being prescribed apremilast. A total of 77 patients were included. AEs and withdrawal due to AEs were assessed throughout the treatment period from each patient's respective medical record. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

A review of uncertainty in in situ measurements and data sets of sea surface temperature

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kennedy, John J.

2014-03-01

Archives of in situ sea surface temperature (SST) measurements extend back more than 160 years. Quality of the measurements is variable, and the area of the oceans they sample is limited, especially early in the record and during the two world wars. Measurements of SST and the gridded data sets that are based on them are used in many applications so understanding and estimating the uncertainties are vital. The aim of this review is to give an overview of the various components that contribute to the overall uncertainty of SST measurements made in situ and of the data sets that are derived from them. In doing so, it also aims to identify current gaps in understanding. Uncertainties arise at the level of individual measurements with both systematic and random effects and, although these have been extensively studied, refinement of the error models continues. Recent improvements have been made in the understanding of the pervasive systematic errors that affect the assessment of long-term trends and variability. However, the adjustments applied to minimize these systematic errors are uncertain and these uncertainties are higher before the 1970s and particularly large in the period surrounding the Second World War owing to a lack of reliable metadata. The uncertainties associated with the choice of statistical methods used to create globally complete SST data sets have been explored using different analysis techniques, but they do not incorporate the latest understanding of measurement errors, and they want for a fair benchmark against which their skill can be objectively assessed. These problems can be addressed by the creation of new end-to-end SST analyses and by the recovery and digitization of data and metadata from ship log books and other contemporary literature.

Evaluating the Small-World-Ness of a Sampled Network: Functional Connectivity of Entorhinal-Hippocampal Circuitry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

She, Qi; Chen, Guanrong; Chan, Rosa H. M.

2016-02-01

The amount of publicly accessible experimental data has gradually increased in recent years, which makes it possible to reconsider many longstanding questions in neuroscience. In this paper, an efficient framework is presented for reconstructing functional connectivity using experimental spike-train data. A modified generalized linear model (GLM) with L1-norm penalty was used to investigate 10 datasets. These datasets contain spike-train data collected from the entorhinal-hippocampal region in the brains of rats performing different tasks. The analysis shows that entorhinal-hippocampal network of well-trained rats demonstrated significant small-world features. It is found that the connectivity structure generated by distance-dependent models is responsible for the observed small-world features of the reconstructed networks. The models are utilized to simulate a subset of units recorded from a large biological neural network using multiple electrodes. Two metrics for quantifying the small-world-ness both suggest that the reconstructed network from the sampled nodes estimates a more prominent small-world-ness feature than that of the original unknown network when the number of recorded neurons is small. Finally, this study shows that it is feasible to adjust the estimated small-world-ness results based on the number of neurons recorded to provide a more accurate reference of the network property.

Systematic review on tuberculosis transmission on aircraft and update of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control risk assessment guidelines for tuberculosis transmitted on aircraft (RAGIDA-TB).

PubMed

Kotila, Saara M; Payne Hallström, Lara; Jansen, Niesje; Helbling, Peter; Abubakar, Ibrahim

2016-01-01

As a setting for potential tuberculosis (TB) transmission and contact tracing, aircraft pose specific challenges. Evidence-based guidelines are needed to support the related-risk assessment and contact-tracing efforts. In this study evidence of TB transmission on aircraft was identified to update the Risk Assessment Guidelines for TB Transmitted on Aircraft (RAGIDA-TB) of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Electronic searches were undertaken from Medline (Pubmed), Embase and Cochrane Library until 19 July 2013. Eligible records were identified by a two-stage screening process and data on flight and index case characteristics as well as contact tracing strategies extracted. The systematic literature review retrieved 21 records. Ten of these records were available only after the previous version of the RAGIDA guidelines (2009) and World Health Organization guidelines on TB and air travel (2008) were published. Seven of the 21 records presented some evidence of possible in-flight transmission, but only one record provided substantial evidence of TB transmission on an aircraft. The data indicate that overall risk of TB transmission on aircraft is very low. The updated ECDC guidelines for TB transmission on aircraft have global implications due to inevitable need for international collaboration in contract tracing and risk assessment.

The accuracy of SST retrievals from AATSR: An initial assessment through geophysical validation against in situ radiometers, buoys and other SST data sets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Corlett, G. K.; Barton, I. J.; Donlon, C. J.; Edwards, M. C.; Good, S. A.; Horrocks, L. A.; Llewellyn-Jones, D. T.; Merchant, C. J.; Minnett, P. J.; Nightingale, T. J.; Noyes, E. J.; O'Carroll, A. G.; Remedios, J. J.; Robinson, I. S.; Saunders, R. W.; Watts, J. G.

The Advanced Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) was launched on Envisat in March 2002. The AATSR instrument is designed to retrieve precise and accurate global sea surface temperature (SST) that, combined with the large data set collected from its predecessors, ATSR and ATSR-2, will provide a long term record of SST data that is greater than 15 years. This record can be used for independent monitoring and detection of climate change. The AATSR validation programme has successfully completed its initial phase. The programme involves validation of the AATSR derived SST values using in situ radiometers, in situ buoys and global SST fields from other data sets. The results of the initial programme presented here will demonstrate that the AATSR instrument is currently close to meeting its scientific objectives of determining global SST to an accuracy of 0.3 K (one sigma). For night time data, the analysis gives a warm bias of between +0.04 K (0.28 K) for buoys to +0.06 K (0.20 K) for radiometers, with slightly higher errors observed for day time data, showing warm biases of between +0.02 (0.39 K) for buoys to +0.11 K (0.33 K) for radiometers. They show that the ATSR series of instruments continues to be the world leader in delivering accurate space-based observations of SST, which is a key climate parameter.

Real-world persistence with fingolimod for the treatment of multiple sclerosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

PubMed

Kantor, Daniel; Johnson, Kristen; Vieira, Maria Cecilia; Signorovitch, James; Li, Nanxin; Gao, Wei; Koo, Valerie; Duchesneau, Emilie; Herrera, Vivian

2018-05-15

To systematically review reports of fingolimod persistence in the treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) across data sources and practice settings, and to develop a consensus estimate of the 1-year real-world persistence rate. A systematic literature review was conducted (MEDLINE, EMBASE, and abstracts from selected conferences [2013-2015]) to identify observational studies reporting 1-year fingolimod persistence among adult patients with RRMS (sample size ≥50). A random-effects meta-analysis was performed to estimate a synthesized 1-year persistence rate and to assess heterogeneity across studies. Of 527 publications identified, 25 real-world studies reporting 1-year fingolimod persistence rates were included. The studies included patients from different data sources (e.g., administrative claims, electronic medical records, or registries), used different definitions of persistence (e.g., based on prescriptions refills, patient report, or prescription orders), and spanned multiple geographic regions. Reported 1-year persistence rates ranged from 72%-100%, and exhibited statistical evidence of heterogeneity (I 2  = 93% of the variability due to heterogeneity across studies). The consensus estimate of the 1-year persistence rate was 82% (95% confidence interval: 79%-85%). Across heterogeneous study designs and patient populations found in real-world studies, the consensus 1-year fingolimod persistence rate exceeded 80%, consistent with persistence rates identified in the recently-completed trial, PREFERMS. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

The Invasive Liriomyza huidobrensis (Diptera: Agromyzidae): Understanding Its Pest Status and Management Globally

PubMed Central

Scheffer, Sonja J.; Visser, Diedrich; Valladares, Graciela; Soares Correa, Alberto; Shepard, B. Merle; Rauf, Aunu; Murphy, Sean T.; Mujica, Norma; MacVean, Charles; Kroschel, Jürgen; Kishinevsky, Miriam; Joshi, Ravindra C.; Johansen, Nina S.; Hallett, Rebecca H.; Civelek, Hasan S.; Chen, Bing; Metzler, Helga Blanco

2017-01-01

Liriomyza huidobrensis (Blanchard) is native to South America but has expanded its range and invaded many regions of the world, primarily on flowers and to a lesser extent on horticultural product shipments. As a result of initial invasion into an area, damage caused is usually significant but not necessarily sustained. Currently, it is an economic pest in selected native and invaded regions of the world. Adults cause damage by puncturing abaxial and adaxial leaf surfaces for feeding and egg laying sites. Larvae mine the leaf parenchyma tissues which can lead to leaves drying and wilting. We have recorded 365 host plant species from 49 families and more than 106 parasitoid species. In a subset of the Argentinian data, we found that parasitoid community composition attacking L. huidobrensis differs significantly in cultivated and uncultivated plants. No such effect was found at the world level, probably due to differences in collection methods in the different references. We review the existing knowledge as a means of setting the context for new and unpublished data. The main objective is to provide an update of widely dispersed and until now unpublished data, evaluate dispersion of the leafminer and management strategies in different regions of the world, and highlight the need to consider the possible effects of climate change on further regional invasions or expansions. PMID:28423426

77 FR 22576 - Possible Revocation of Ocean Transportation Intermediary License No. 021899-Trans World Logistics...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-04-16

... FEDERAL MARITIME COMMISSION [Docket No. 12-04] Possible Revocation of Ocean Transportation Intermediary License No. 021899--Trans World Logistics Corporation; Order To Show Cause Trans World Logistics Corporation (Trans World Logistics) is an Indiana corporation, incorporated in October 2006. Records maintained by the Commission's Bureau of...

Onset of snowmelt and streamflow in 2004 in the Western Unites States: How shading may affect spring streamflow timing in a warmer world

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lundquist, J.D.; Flint, A.L.

2006-01-01

Historic streamflow records show that the onset of snowfed streamflow in the western United States has shifted earlier over the past 50 yr, and March 2004 was one of the earliest onsets on record. Record high temperatures occurred throughout the western United States during the second week of March, and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) stream gauges throughout the area recorded early onsets of streamflow at this time. However, a set of nested subbasins in Yosemite National Park, California, told a more complicated story. In spite of high air temperatures, many streams draining high-elevation basins did not start flowing until later in the spring. Temperatures during early March 2004 were as high as temperatures in late March 2002, when streams at all of the monitored Yosemite basins began flowing at the same time. However, the March 2004 onset occurred before the spring equinox, when the sun was lower in the sky. Thus, shading and solar radiation differences played a much more important role in 2004, leading to differences in streamflow timing. These results suggest that as temperatures warm and spring melt shifts earlier in the season, topographic effects will play an even more important role than at present in determining snowmelt timing. ?? 2006 American Meteorological Society.

Linking Data for Mothers and Babies in De-Identified Electronic Health Data

PubMed Central

Gilbert, Ruth; Cromwell, David; van der Meulen, Jan

2016-01-01

Objective Linkage of longitudinal administrative data for mothers and babies supports research and service evaluation in several populations around the world. We established a linked mother-baby cohort using pseudonymised, population-level data for England. Design and Setting Retrospective linkage study using electronic hospital records of mothers and babies admitted to NHS hospitals in England, captured in Hospital Episode Statistics between April 2001 and March 2013. Results Of 672,955 baby records in 2012/13, 280,470 (42%) linked deterministically to a maternal record using hospital, GP practice, maternal age, birthweight, gestation, birth order and sex. A further 380,164 (56%) records linked using probabilistic methods incorporating additional variables that could differ between mother/baby records (admission dates, ethnicity, 3/4-character postcode district) or that include missing values (delivery variables). The false-match rate was estimated at 0.15% using synthetic data. Data quality improved over time: for 2001/02, 91% of baby records were linked (holding the estimated false-match rate at 0.15%). The linked cohort was representative of national distributions of gender, gestation, birth weight and maternal age, and captured approximately 97% of births in England. Conclusion Probabilistic linkage of maternal and baby healthcare characteristics offers an efficient way to enrich maternity data, improve data quality, and create longitudinal cohorts for research and service evaluation. This approach could be extended to linkage of other datasets that have non-disclosive characteristics in common. PMID:27764135

Artificial Intelligence Controls Tape-Recording Sequence

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schwuttke, Ursula M.; Otamura, Roy M.; Zottarelli, Lawrence J.

1989-01-01

Developmental expert-system computer program intended to schedule recording of large amounts of data on limited amount of magnetic tape. Schedules recording using two sets of rules. First set incorporates knowledge of locations for recording of new data. Second set incorporates knowledge about issuing commands to recorder. Designed primarily for use on Voyager Spacecraft, also applicable to planning and sequencing in industry.

Harnessing electronic healthcare data for wound care research: Standards for reporting observational registry data obtained directly from electronic health records.

PubMed

Fife, Caroline E; Eckert, Kristen A

2017-04-01

The United States Food and Drug Administration will consider the expansion of coverage indications for some drugs and devices based on real-world data. Real-world data accrual in patient registries has historically been via manual data entry from the medical chart at a time distant from patient care, which is fraught with systematic error. The efficient automated transmission of data directly from electronic health records is replacing this labor-intensive paradigm. However, real-world data collection is unfamiliar. The potential sources of bias arising from the source of data and data accrual, documentation, and aggregation have not been well defined. Furthermore, the technological aspects of data acquisition and transmission are less transparent. We explore opportunities for harnessing direct-from-electronic health record registry reporting and propose the ABCs of Registries (Analysis of Bias Criteria of Registries), which are an evaluation framework for publications to minimize potential bias of real-world data obtained directly from an electronic health record method. These standards are based on a point-of-care data documentation process using a common definitional framework and data dictionaries. By way of example, we describe a wound registry obtained directly from electronic health records. This qualified clinical data registry minimizes bias by ensuring complete and accurate point-of-care data capture, standardizes usual care linked to quality reporting, and prevents post-hoc vetting of outcomes. The resulting data are of high quality and integrity and can be used for comparative effectiveness research in wound care. In this way, the effort needed to succeed with the Quality Payment Program is leveraged to obtain the real-world data needed for comparative effectiveness research. © 2017 by the Wound Healing Society.

Compliant flooring to prevent fall-related injuries in older adults: A scoping review of biomechanical efficacy, clinical effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and workplace safety.

PubMed

Lachance, Chantelle C; Jurkowski, Michal P; Dymarz, Ania C; Robinovitch, Stephen N; Feldman, Fabio; Laing, Andrew C; Mackey, Dawn C

2017-01-01

Compliant flooring, broadly defined as flooring systems or floor coverings with some level of shock absorbency, may reduce the incidence and severity of fall-related injuries in older adults; however, a lack of synthesized evidence may be limiting widespread uptake. Informed by the Arksey and O'Malley framework and guided by a Research Advisory Panel of knowledge users, we conducted a scoping review to answer: what is presented about the biomechanical efficacy, clinical effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and workplace safety associated with compliant flooring systems that aim to prevent fall-related injuries in healthcare settings? We searched academic and grey literature databases. Any record that discussed a compliant flooring system and at least one of biomechanical efficacy, clinical effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, or workplace safety was eligible for inclusion. Two independent reviewers screened and abstracted records, charted data, and summarized results. After screening 3611 titles and abstracts and 166 full-text articles, we included 84 records plus 56 companion (supplementary) reports. Biomechanical efficacy records (n = 50) demonstrate compliant flooring can reduce fall-related impact forces with minimal effects on standing and walking balance. Clinical effectiveness records (n = 20) suggest that compliant flooring may reduce injuries, but may increase risk for falls. Preliminary evidence suggests that compliant flooring may be a cost-effective strategy (n = 12), but may also result in increased physical demands for healthcare workers (n = 17). In summary, compliant flooring is a promising strategy for preventing fall-related injuries from a biomechanical perspective. Additional research is warranted to confirm whether compliant flooring (i) prevents fall-related injuries in real-world settings, (ii) is a cost-effective intervention strategy, and (iii) can be installed without negatively impacting workplace safety. Avenues for future research are provided, which will help to determine whether compliant flooring is recommended in healthcare environments.

Compliant flooring to prevent fall-related injuries in older adults: A scoping review of biomechanical efficacy, clinical effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and workplace safety

PubMed Central

Jurkowski, Michal P.; Dymarz, Ania C.; Robinovitch, Stephen N.; Feldman, Fabio; Laing, Andrew C.; Mackey, Dawn C.

2017-01-01

Background Compliant flooring, broadly defined as flooring systems or floor coverings with some level of shock absorbency, may reduce the incidence and severity of fall-related injuries in older adults; however, a lack of synthesized evidence may be limiting widespread uptake. Methods Informed by the Arksey and O’Malley framework and guided by a Research Advisory Panel of knowledge users, we conducted a scoping review to answer: what is presented about the biomechanical efficacy, clinical effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and workplace safety associated with compliant flooring systems that aim to prevent fall-related injuries in healthcare settings? We searched academic and grey literature databases. Any record that discussed a compliant flooring system and at least one of biomechanical efficacy, clinical effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, or workplace safety was eligible for inclusion. Two independent reviewers screened and abstracted records, charted data, and summarized results. Results After screening 3611 titles and abstracts and 166 full-text articles, we included 84 records plus 56 companion (supplementary) reports. Biomechanical efficacy records (n = 50) demonstrate compliant flooring can reduce fall-related impact forces with minimal effects on standing and walking balance. Clinical effectiveness records (n = 20) suggest that compliant flooring may reduce injuries, but may increase risk for falls. Preliminary evidence suggests that compliant flooring may be a cost-effective strategy (n = 12), but may also result in increased physical demands for healthcare workers (n = 17). Conclusions In summary, compliant flooring is a promising strategy for preventing fall-related injuries from a biomechanical perspective. Additional research is warranted to confirm whether compliant flooring (i) prevents fall-related injuries in real-world settings, (ii) is a cost-effective intervention strategy, and (iii) can be installed without negatively impacting workplace safety. Avenues for future research are provided, which will help to determine whether compliant flooring is recommended in healthcare environments. PMID:28166265

NOAA's Scientific Data Stewardship Program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bates, J. J.

2004-12-01

The NOAA mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment and conserve and manage coastal and marine resources to meet the Nation's economic, social and environmental needs. NOAA has responsibility for long-term archiving of the United States environmental data and has recently integrated several data management functions into a concept called Scientific Data Stewardship. Scientific Data Stewardship a new paradigm in data management consisting of an integrated suite of functions to preserve and exploit the full scientific value of NOAA's, and the world's, environmental data These functions include careful monitoring of observing system performance for long-term applications, the generation of authoritative long-term climate records from multiple observing platforms, and the proper archival of and timely access to data and metadata. NOAA has developed a conceptual framework to implement the functions of scientific data stewardship. This framework has five objectives: 1) develop real-time monitoring of all satellite observing systems for climate applications, 2) process large volumes of satellite data extending up to decades in length to account for systematic errors and to eliminate artifacts in the raw data (referred to as fundamental climate data records, FCDRs), 3) generate retrieved geophysical parameters from the FCDRs (referred to as thematic climate data records TCDRs) including combining observations from all sources, 4) conduct monitoring and research by analyzing data sets to uncover climate trends and to provide evaluation and feedback for steps 2) and 3), and 5) provide archives of metadata, FCDRs, and TCDRs, and facilitate distribution of these data to the user community. The term `climate data record' and related terms, such as climate data set, have been used for some time, but the climate community has yet to settle on a concensus definition. A recent United States National Academy of Sciences report recommends using the following definition: a climate data record (CDR) is a time series of measurements of sufficient length, consistency, and continuity to determine climate variability and change.

What Time is Your Sunset? Accounting for Refraction in Sunrise/set Prediction Models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilson, Teresa; Bartlett, Jennifer Lynn; Chizek Frouard, Malynda; Hilton, James; Phlips, Alan; Edgar, Roman

2018-01-01

Algorithms that predict sunrise and sunset times currently have an uncertainty of one to four minutes at mid-latitudes (0° - 55° N/S) due to limitations in the atmospheric models they incorporate. At higher latitudes, slight changes in refraction can cause significant discrepancies, including difficulties determining whether the Sun appears to rise or set. While different components of refraction are known, how they affect predictions of sunrise/set has not yet been quantified. A better understanding of the contributions from temperature profile, pressure, humidity, and aerosols could significantly improve the standard prediction.We present a sunrise/set calculator that interchanges the refraction component by varying the refraction model. We, then, compared these predictions with data sets of observed rise/set times taken from Mount Wilson Observatory in California, University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, and onboard the SS James Franco in the Atlantic. A thorough investigation of the problem requires a more substantial data set of observed rise/set times and corresponding meteorological data from around the world.We have developed a mobile application, Sunrise & Sunset Observer, so that anyone can capture this astronomical and meteorological data using their smartphone video recorder as part of a citizen science project. The Android app for this project is available in the Google Play store. Videos can also be submitted through the project website (riseset.phy.mtu.edu). Data analysis will lead to more complete models that will provide higher accuracy rise/set predictions to benefit astronomers, navigators, and outdoorsmen everywhere.

An inventory of undiscovered Canadian mineral resources

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Labovitz, M. L.; Griffiths, J. C.

1982-01-01

Unit regional value (URV) and unit regional weight are area standardized measures of the expected value and quantity, respectively, of the mineral resources of a region. Estimation and manipulation of the URV statistic is the basis of an approach to mineral resource evaluation. Estimates of the kind and value of exploitable mineral resources yet to be discovered in the provinces of Canada are used as an illustration of the procedure. The URV statistic is set within a previously developed model wherein geology, as measured by point counting geologic maps, is related to the historical record of mineral resource production of well-developed regions of the world, such as the 50 states of the U.S.A.; these may be considered the training set. The Canadian provinces are related to this training set using geological information obtained in the same way from geologic maps of the provinces. The desired predictions of yet to be discovered mineral resources in the Canadian provinces arise as a consequence. The implicit assumption is that regions of similar geology, if equally well developed, will produce similar weights and values of mineral resources.

Inferring the nature of anthropogenic threats from long-term abundance records.

PubMed

Shoemaker, Kevin T; Akçakaya, H Resit

2015-02-01

Diagnosing the processes that threaten species persistence is critical for recovery planning and risk forecasting. Dominant threats are typically inferred by experts on the basis of a patchwork of informal methods. Transparent, quantitative diagnostic tools would contribute much-needed consistency, objectivity, and rigor to the process of diagnosing anthropogenic threats. Long-term census records, available for an increasingly large and diverse set of taxa, may exhibit characteristic signatures of specific threatening processes and thereby provide information for threat diagnosis. We developed a flexible Bayesian framework for diagnosing threats on the basis of long-term census records and diverse ancillary sources of information. We tested this framework with simulated data from artificial populations subjected to varying degrees of exploitation and habitat loss and several real-world abundance time series for which threatening processes are relatively well understood: bluefin tuna (Thunnus maccoyii) and Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) (exploitation) and Red Grouse (Lagopus lagopus scotica) and Eurasian Skylark (Alauda arvensis) (habitat loss). Our method correctly identified the process driving population decline for over 90% of time series simulated under moderate to severe threat scenarios. Successful identification of threats approached 100% for severe exploitation and habitat loss scenarios. Our method identified threats less successfully when threatening processes were weak and when populations were simultaneously affected by multiple threats. Our method selected the presumed true threat model for all real-world case studies, although results were somewhat ambiguous in the case of the Eurasian Skylark. In the latter case, incorporation of an ancillary source of information (records of land-use change) increased the weight assigned to the presumed true model from 70% to 92%, illustrating the value of the proposed framework in bringing diverse sources of information into a common rigorous framework. Ultimately, our framework may greatly assist conservation organizations in documenting threatening processes and planning species recovery. © 2014 Society for Conservation Biology.

Atomically Precise Surface Engineering for Producing Imagers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nikzad, Shouleh (Inventor); Hoenk, Michael E. (Inventor); Greer, Frank (Inventor); Jones, Todd J. (Inventor)

2015-01-01

High-quality surface coatings, and techniques combining the atomic precision of molecular beam epitaxy and atomic layer deposition, to fabricate such high-quality surface coatings are provided. The coatings made in accordance with the techniques set forth by the invention are shown to be capable of forming silicon CCD detectors that demonstrate world record detector quantum efficiency (>50%) in the near and far ultraviolet (155 nm-300 nm). The surface engineering approaches used demonstrate the robustness of detector performance that is obtained by achieving atomic level precision at all steps in the coating fabrication process. As proof of concept, the characterization, materials, and exemplary devices produced are presented along with a comparison to other approaches.

Using response evaluation criteria in solid tumors in real-world evidence cancer research.

PubMed

Feinberg, Bruce A; Bharmal, Murtuza; Klink, Andrew J; Nabhan, Chadi; Phatak, Hemant

2018-05-31

Real-world evidence of charted treatment responses to cancer drug therapy was compared with medical record derived radiographic measurements of target lesions per Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST). 15 physicians treating 59 metastatic Merkel cell cancer (mMCC) patients contributed patient-level data. A comparison of medical record reported best response with radiographic measurements per RECIST of pre- and post-treatment target lesions. RECIST response rates were significantly lower compared with medical record reported with a concordance of 43.2% (95% CI: 28.0-58.4%). Subjective assessment of tumor response collected via traditional chart abstraction may overestimate benefit and limit the potential role of real-world evidence in value-based care research. The use of target lesion measurements presents an attractive alternative that better aligns with trial results.

On the compatibility of Brewer total column ozone measurements in two adjacent valleys (Arosa and Davos) in the Swiss Alps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stübi, René; Schill, Herbert; Klausen, Jörg; Vuilleumier, Laurent; Gröbner, Julian; Egli, Luca; Ruffieux, Dominique

2017-11-01

The Arosa site is well known in the ozone community for its continuous total ozone column observations that have been recorded since 1926. Originally based on Dobson sun spectrophotometers, the site has been gradually complemented by three automatic Brewer instruments, in operation since 1998. To secure the long-term ozone monitoring in this Alpine region and to benefit from synergies with the World Radiation Center, the feasibility of moving this activity to the nearby site at Davos (aerial distance of 13 km) has been explored. Concerns about a possible rupture of the 90-year-long record has motivated a careful comparison of the two sites, since great attention to the data continuity and quality has always been central to the operations of the observatory at Arosa. To this end, one element of the Arosa Brewer triad has been set up at the Davos site since November 2011 to realize a campaign of parallel measurements and to study the deviations between the three Brewer instruments. The analysis of the coincident measurement shows that the differences between Arosa and Davos remain within the range of the long-term stability of the Brewer instruments. A nonsignificant seasonal cycle is observed, which could possibly be induced by a stray-light bias and the altitude difference between the two sites. These differences are shown to be lower than the short-term variability of the time series and the overall uncertainty from individual Brewer instruments and therefore are not statistically significant. It is therefore concluded that the world's longest time series of the total ozone column obtained at Arosa site could be safely extended and continued with measurements taken from instruments located at the nearby Davos site without introducing a bias to this unique record.

Learner-centred teaching in a non-learner-centred world: An interpretive phenomenological study of the lived experience of clinical nursing faculty.

PubMed

Oyelana, Olabisi; Martin, Donna; Scanlan, Judith; Temple, Beverley

2018-08-01

With the growing complexities in the contemporary health care system, there is a challenge of preparing nurses for the practice demands. To this end, learner-centred teaching has emerged in many nursing curricula in Canada and evidence indicates its effectiveness in developing the essential practice skills in nursing students. It is important to examine the experience of the clinical faculty members who implement learner-centred teaching, as doing so would provide an insight to the factors that may hinder the implementation of learner-centred teaching in the practice settings. This phenomenological study aimed to address two research questions: what does learner-centred teaching mean to clinical nurse faculty? What is the lived experience of clinical nursing faculty who incorporate learner-centred teaching? Ten clinical nurse faculty members who had at least two years of clinical teaching experience volunteered to participate in the study. Data were collected using a semi-structured interview guide and audio recorder. Additional data sources included a demographic survey and a reflective journal. Multiple sub-themes emerged from this study from which three significant themes were consolidated: diversity of meanings, facilitators of LCT, and barriers to LCT. However, an overarching theme of "learner-centred teaching in a non-learner-centred world" was coined from participants' accounts of their experiences of barriers in incorporating LCT in the practice settings. A collaborative effort between faculty and the stakeholders is paramount to a successful implementation of learner-centred teaching in practice settings. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Developing global indicators for quality of maternal and newborn care: a feasibility assessment

PubMed Central

Smith, Helen; Mathai, Matthews; Roos, Nathalie; van den Broek, Nynke

2017-01-01

Abstract Objective To assess the feasibility of applying the World Health Organization’s proposed 15 indicators of quality of care for maternal and newborn health at health-facility level in low- and middle-income settings. Methods Six of the indicators are about maternal health, five are for newborn health and four are general cross-cutting indicators. We used data collected routinely in facility registers and obtained as part of facility assessments from 963 health-care facilities specializing in maternity services in 10 countries in Africa and Asia. We made a feasibility assessment of the availability of data and the clarity of indicator definitions and identified additional information and data collection processes needed to apply the proposed indicators in real-life settings. Findings Of the indicators evaluated, 10 were clearly defined, of which four could be applied directly in the field and six would require revisions to operationalize them. The other five indicators require further development, with one of them being ready for implementation by using information readily available in registers and four requiring further information before deployment. For indicators that measure coverage of care or availability of services or products, there is a need to further strengthen measurement. Information on emergency obstetric complications was not recorded in a standard manner, thus limiting the reliability of the information. Conclusion While some of the proposed indicators can already be applied, other indicators need to be refined or will need additional sources and methods of data collection to be applied in real-world settings. PMID:28603311

Modeling of Women's 100-M Dash World Record: Wind-Aided or Not?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hazelrigg, Conner; Waibel, Bryson; Baker, Blane

2015-01-01

On July 16, 1988, Florence Griffith Joyner (FGJ) shattered the women's 100-m dash world record (WR) with a time of 10.49 s, breaking the previous mark by an astonishing 0.27 s. By all accounts FGJ dominated the race that day, securing her place as the premiere female sprinter of that era, and possibly all time. In the aftermath of such an…

Prioritized Contact Transport Stream

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hunt, Walter Lee, Jr. (Inventor)

2015-01-01

A detection process, contact recognition process, classification process, and identification process are applied to raw sensor data to produce an identified contact record set containing one or more identified contact records. A prioritization process is applied to the identified contact record set to assign a contact priority to each contact record in the identified contact record set. Data are removed from the contact records in the identified contact record set based on the contact priorities assigned to those contact records. A first contact stream is produced from the resulting contact records. The first contact stream is streamed in a contact transport stream. The contact transport stream may include and stream additional contact streams. The contact transport stream may be varied dynamically over time based on parameters such as available bandwidth, contact priority, presence/absence of contacts, system state, and configuration parameters.

What do data used to develop ground-motion prediction equations tell us about motions near faults?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Boore, David M.

2014-01-01

A large database of ground motions from shallow earthquakes occurring in active tectonic regions around the world, recently developed in the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Center’s NGA-West2 project, has been used to investigate what such a database can say about the properties and processes of crustal fault zones. There are a relatively small number of near-rupture records, implying that few recordings in the database are within crustal fault zones, but the records that do exist emphasize the complexity of ground-motion amplitudes and polarization close to individual faults. On average over the whole data set, however, the scaling of ground motions with magnitude at a fixed distance, and the distance dependence of the ground motions, seem to be largely consistent with simple seismological models of source scaling, path propagation effects, and local site amplification. The data show that ground motions close to large faults, as measured by elastic response spectra, tend to saturate and become essentially constant for short periods. This saturation seems to be primarily a geometrical effect, due to the increasing size of the rupture surface with magnitude, and not due to a breakdown in self similarity.

What Do Data Used to Develop Ground-Motion Prediction Equations Tell Us About Motions Near Faults?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boore, David M.

2014-11-01

A large database of ground motions from shallow earthquakes occurring in active tectonic regions around the world, recently developed in the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Center's NGA-West2 project, has been used to investigate what such a database can say about the properties and processes of crustal fault zones. There are a relatively small number of near-rupture records, implying that few recordings in the database are within crustal fault zones, but the records that do exist emphasize the complexity of ground-motion amplitudes and polarization close to individual faults. On average over the whole data set, however, the scaling of ground motions with magnitude at a fixed distance, and the distance dependence of the ground motions, seem to be largely consistent with simple seismological models of source scaling, path propagation effects, and local site amplification. The data show that ground motions close to large faults, as measured by elastic response spectra, tend to saturate and become essentially constant for short periods. This saturation seems to be primarily a geometrical effect, due to the increasing size of the rupture surface with magnitude, and not due to a breakdown in self similarity.

Correlations between prefrontal neurons form a small-world network that optimizes the generation of multineuron sequences of activity

PubMed Central

Luongo, Francisco J.; Zimmerman, Chris A.; Horn, Meryl E.

2016-01-01

Sequential patterns of prefrontal activity are believed to mediate important behaviors, e.g., working memory, but it remains unclear exactly how they are generated. In accordance with previous studies of cortical circuits, we found that prefrontal microcircuits in young adult mice spontaneously generate many more stereotyped sequences of activity than expected by chance. However, the key question of whether these sequences depend on a specific functional organization within the cortical microcircuit, or emerge simply as a by-product of random interactions between neurons, remains unanswered. We observed that correlations between prefrontal neurons do follow a specific functional organization—they have a small-world topology. However, until now it has not been possible to directly link small-world topologies to specific circuit functions, e.g., sequence generation. Therefore, we developed a novel analysis to address this issue. Specifically, we constructed surrogate data sets that have identical levels of network activity at every point in time but nevertheless represent various network topologies. We call this method shuffling activity to rearrange correlations (SHARC). We found that only surrogate data sets based on the actual small-world functional organization of prefrontal microcircuits were able to reproduce the levels of sequences observed in actual data. As expected, small-world data sets contained many more sequences than surrogate data sets with randomly arranged correlations. Surprisingly, small-world data sets also outperformed data sets in which correlations were maximally clustered. Thus the small-world functional organization of cortical microcircuits, which effectively balances the random and maximally clustered regimes, is optimal for producing stereotyped sequential patterns of activity. PMID:26888108

World Music Resources

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beegle, Amy C.

2012-01-01

Access to world music resources such as videos and sound recordings have increased with the advent of YouTube and the efforts of music educators working closely with ethnomusicologists to provide more detailed visual and audio information about various musical practices. This column discusses some world music resources available for music…

Desert wetlands in the geologic record

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pigati, Jeff S.; Rech, Jason A.; Quade, Jay; Bright, Jordon; Edwards, L.; Springer, A.

2014-01-01

Desert wetlands support flora and fauna in a variety of hydrologic settings, including seeps, springs, marshes, wet meadows, ponds, and spring pools. Over time, eolian, alluvial, and fluvial sediments become trapped in these settings by a combination of wet ground conditions and dense plant cover. The result is a unique combination of clastic sediments, chemical precipitates, and organic matter that is preserved in the geologic record as ground-water discharge (GWD) deposits. GWD deposits contain information on the timing and magnitude of past changes in water-table levels and, therefore, are a potential source of paleohydrologic and paleoclimatic information. In addition, they can be important archeological and paleontological archives because desert wetlands provide reliable sources of fresh water, and thus act as focal points for human and faunal activities, in some of the world's harshest and driest lands. Here, we review some of the physical, sedimentological, and geochemical characteristics common to GWD deposits, and provide a contextual framework that researchers can use to identify and interpret geologic deposits associated with desert wetlands. We discuss several lines of evidence used to differentiate GWD deposits from lake deposits (they are commonly confused), and examine how various types of microbiota and depositional facies aid in reconstructing past environmental and hydrologic conditions. We also review how late Quaternary GWD deposits are dated, as well as methods used to investigate desert wetlands deeper in geologic time. We end by evaluating the strengths and limitations of hydrologic and climatic records derived from GWD deposits, and suggest several avenues of potential future research to further develop and utilize these unique and complex systems.

GEOS seismograms recorded for aftershocks of the earthquakes of December 7, 1988, near Spitak, Armenia SSR, during the time period 26 December 1988 14:00 through 29 December 1988 (UTC)

USGS Publications Warehouse

Borcherdt, R.D.; Glassmoyer, Gary; Cranswick, Edward

1989-01-01

The earthquakes of December 7, 1988, near Spitak, Armenia SSR, serve as another grim reminder of the serious hazard that earthquakes pose throughout the world. We extend our heartfelt sympathies to the families of the earthquake victims and intend that our cooperative scientific endeavours will help reduce losses in future earthquakes. Only through a better understanding of earthquake hazards can earthquake losses be reduced for all peoples in seismically active regions of the world.The tragic consequences of these earthquakes remind scientists and public officials alike of their urgent responsibilities to understand and mitigate the effects of earthquakes. On behalf of the U.S. Geological Survey, I would like to express appreciation to our Soviet colleagues for their kind invitation to participate in joint scientific and engineering studies. Without their cooperation and generous assistance, the conduct of these studies would not have been possible.This report provides seismologic and geologic data collected during the time period December 21, 1988, through February 2, 1989. These data are presented in their entirety to expedite analysis of the data set for inferences regarding hazard mitigation actions, applicable not only in Armenia but other regions of the world exposed to high seismic risk.

GEOS seismograms recorded for aftershocks of the earthquakes of December 7, 1988, near Spitak, Armenia SSR, during the time period 3 January 1989 through 2 February 1988 (UTC)

USGS Publications Warehouse

Borcherdt, R.D.; Glassmoyer, Gary; Cranswick, Edward

1989-01-01

The earthquakes of December 7, 1988, near Spitak, Armenia SSR, serve as another grim reminder of the serious hazard that earthquakes pose throughout the world. We extend our heartfelt sympathies to the families of the earthquake victims and intend that our cooperative scientific endeavours will help reduce losses in future earthquakes. Only through a better understanding of earthquake hazards can earthquake losses be reduced for all peoples in seismically active regions of the world.The tragic consequences of these earthquakes remind scientists and public officials alike of their urgent responsibilities to understand and mitigate the effects of earthquakes. On behalf of the U.S. Geological Survey, I would like to express appreciation to our Soviet colleagues for their kind invitation to participate in joint scientific and engineering studies. Without their cooperation and generous assistance, the conduct of these studies would not have been possible.This report provides seismologic and geologic data collected during the time period December 21, 1988, through February 2, 1989. These data are presented in their entirety to expedite analysis of the data set for inferences regarding hazard mitigation actions, applicable not only in Armenia but other regions of the world exposed to high seismic risk

Fall detection algorithms for real-world falls harvested from lumbar sensors in the elderly population: a machine learning approach.

PubMed

Bourke, Alan K; Klenk, Jochen; Schwickert, Lars; Aminian, Kamiar; Ihlen, Espen A F; Mellone, Sabato; Helbostad, Jorunn L; Chiari, Lorenzo; Becker, Clemens

2016-08-01

Automatic fall detection will promote independent living and reduce the consequences of falls in the elderly by ensuring people can confidently live safely at home for linger. In laboratory studies inertial sensor technology has been shown capable of distinguishing falls from normal activities. However less than 7% of fall-detection algorithm studies have used fall data recorded from elderly people in real life. The FARSEEING project has compiled a database of real life falls from elderly people, to gain new knowledge about fall events and to develop fall detection algorithms to combat the problems associated with falls. We have extracted 12 different kinematic, temporal and kinetic related features from a data-set of 89 real-world falls and 368 activities of daily living. Using the extracted features we applied machine learning techniques and produced a selection of algorithms based on different feature combinations. The best algorithm employs 10 different features and produced a sensitivity of 0.88 and a specificity of 0.87 in classifying falls correctly. This algorithm can be used distinguish real-world falls from normal activities of daily living in a sensor consisting of a tri-axial accelerometer and tri-axial gyroscope located at L5.

Research Fellows | NREL

Science.gov Websites

years and has contributed greatly to world-record efficiencies in various photovoltaic technologies is a world-renowned expert in the fields of multijunction PV, concentrator PV, and PV reliability Publications Photo of Mark O'Malley Mark O'Malley SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW Mark O'Malley is a world authority on

Spatial and temporal corroboration of a fire-scar-based fire history in a frequently burned ponderosa pine forest.

PubMed

Farris, Calvin A; Baisan, Christopher H; Falk, Donald A; Yool, Stephen R; Swetnam, Thomas W

2010-09-01

Fire scars are used widely to reconstruct historical fire regime parameters in forests around the world. Because fire scars provide incomplete records of past fire occurrence at discrete points in space, inferences must be made to reconstruct fire frequency and extent across landscapes using spatial networks of fire-scar samples. Assessing the relative accuracy of fire-scar fire history reconstructions has been hampered due to a lack of empirical comparisons with independent fire history data sources. We carried out such a comparison in a 2780-ha ponderosa pine forest on Mica Mountain in southern Arizona (USA) for the time period 1937-2000. Using documentary records of fire perimeter maps and ignition locations, we compared reconstructions of key spatial and temporal fire regime parameters developed from documentary fire maps and independently collected fire-scar data (n = 60 plots). We found that fire-scar data provided spatially representative and complete inventories of all major fire years (> 100 ha) in the study area but failed to detect most small fires. There was a strong linear relationship between the percentage of samples recording fire scars in a given year (i.e., fire-scar synchrony) and total area burned for that year (y = 0.0003x + 0.0087, r2 = 0.96). There was also strong spatial coherence between cumulative fire frequency maps interpolated from fire-scar data and ground-mapped fire perimeters. Widely reported fire frequency summary statistics varied little between fire history data sets: fire-scar natural fire rotations (NFR) differed by < 3 yr from documentary records (29.6 yr); mean fire return intervals (MFI) for large-fire years (i.e., > or = 25% of study area burned) were identical between data sets (25.5 yr); fire-scar MFIs for all fire years differed by 1.2 yr from documentary records. The known seasonal timing of past fires based on documentary records was furthermore reconstructed accurately by observing intra-annual ring position of fire scars and using knowledge of tree-ring growth phenology in the Southwest. Our results demonstrate clearly that representative landscape-scale fire histories can be reconstructed accurately from spatially distributed fire-scar samples.

Specimens as records: scientific practice and recordkeeping in natural history research.

PubMed

Ilerbaig, Juan

2010-01-01

For the past two decades, scholars in archival science have begun to question traditional assumptions about the nature of the record. Drawing on theories from fields such as sociology, organization theory, and science studies, and on their own ethnographic studies, they propose more inclusive definitions and widening the contexts of analysis of record making and recordkeeping. This paper continues this critical consideration of the concept of record by examining the nature of nonprototypical records in the scientific world. The paper focuses on the system of specimens and field notes established by biologist Joseph Grinnell at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (University of California, Berkeley) as a means of examining several aspects of the nature of the scientific record: materiality, representation, and the triad evidence/memory/accountability. Focusing on the creation and management of these scientific records, the paper argues that further analyses of scientific record making and recordkeeping are bound to benefit both scientific work, which depends more and more on databases and archives, as well as archival science, which is becoming more relevant beyond its traditional realm of the legal/business/administrative world.

Activity-based costs of plasma transfusions in medical and surgical inpatients at a US hospital.

PubMed

Shander, A; Ozawa, S; Hofmann, A

2016-07-01

Fresh frozen plasma (FFP) usage has significantly increased over the last decade leading to elevated healthcare costs. Although FFP is used in several clinical settings, it is often inappropriately transfused and evidence for its clinical efficacy is poor. Here, we describe plasma usage and transfusion costs in a real-world US inpatient setting to determine the cost-effectiveness of FFP transfusion and for comparison to various patient blood management (PBM) options to treat coagulopathies. All activities related to plasma transfusion recorded at a single US hospital over one calendar year were collected in a stepwise manner using an activity-based costing (ABC) methodology. This model maps all technical, administrative and clinical processes inherent to the cost of plasma. Of 18 200 inpatients recorded, 849 were charged for blood products. In total, 136 medical and surgical inpatients were charged for 577 units of FFP, receiving a total of 534 units; 43 units were charged but not transfused. The total cost per unit of FFP transfused was $409·62 and $1,608·37 per patient transfused with FFP. Wasted products, in-hospital processes and overhead costs were found to account for 89·8% of the total cost of FFP transfusions. This study is the first to use ABC methodology to determine the full cost of plasma transfusion in a US inpatient setting. These data reveal the true cost of plasma, providing a useful reference point to compare with the cost of other PBM options to manage coagulation disorders. © 2016 International Society of Blood Transfusion.

Real-world Outcomes of Multiple Myeloma: Retrospective Analysis of the Czech Registry of Monoclonal Gammopathies.

PubMed

Hájek, Roman; Jarkovsky, Jiri; Maisnar, Vladimír; Pour, Ludek; Špička, Ivan; Minařík, Jiri; Gregora, Evžen; Kessler, Petr; Sýkora, Michal; Fraňková, Hana; Campioni, Marco; DeCosta, Lucy; Treur, Maarten; Gonzalez-McQuire, Sebastian; Bouwmeester, Walter

2018-06-01

Real-world data on patient outcomes and treatment patterns in multiple myeloma (MM) are limited. The present noninterventional, observational, retrospective analysis of prospectively collected Czech patient medical record data from the Registry of Monoclonal Gammopathies estimated real-world outcomes in adults with a diagnosis of symptomatic MM made between May 2007 and June 2014. In total, 2446 patients had initiated first-line treatment. The median overall survival since the diagnosis (primary endpoint) was 50.3 months (95% confidence interval, 46.1-54.5 months) and decreased with each successive treatment line. A similar trend was observed for progression-free survival and the depth of response. In line with European guidelines and clinical practice, bortezomib-, thalidomide-, and lenalidomide-based regimens were most commonly used across all treatment lines (42.3%, 28.9%, and 18.4%, respectively). In the first line, bortezomib and thalidomide were used most often, with lenalidomide the most commonly used agent in the relapse setting (second to fourth lines). Exploratory analyses revealed that younger age (≤ 65 years), lower international staging system stage, and previous stem cell transplantation were associated with significant improvements in overall and progression-free survival, especially in the early treatment lines. The present study is the first analysis of Czech data from the Registry of Monoclonal Gammopathies, and it provides important insights into the real-world management of MM for physicians and healthcare providers. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Comparison of real-world effectiveness between valsartan and non-RAS inhibitor monotherapy on the incidence of new diabetes in Chinese hypertensive patients: An electronic health recording system based study.

PubMed

Shen, Tian; Wang, Jiwei; Yu, Yingjun; Yu, Jinming

2018-05-21

This study aimed to compare the real-world effectiveness of valsartan and non renin-angiotensin system (non-RAS) agent monotherapy on the incidence of new on-set diabetes (NOD) in Chinese hypertensive patients. It was based on an electronic Health Recording System database from Minhang District of Shanghai. Hypertensive patients aged ≥18 years continuously taking either valsartan or non-RAS agent monotherapy for >12 months were included. Hazard ratios (HR) of NOD events were estimated using propensity score matching method and multivariate regression. Of 29295 patients, there were 2107 in valsartan group, 21397 in CCB group, 4094 in β-blockers group and 1697 in diuretics group. Two-year follow-up revealed NOD rates of 11.09 and 14.22 per 100 persons per year in valsartan and non-RAS inhibitor groups (HR = 0.77, 95% confidence interval 0.65-0.93, P = 0.006), respectively. Among non-RAS agents, CCB group had the highest incidence of NOD (21.72 per 100 persons per year). Comparisons between CCB sub-groups revealed the highest NOD incidence for nifedipine, followed by amlodipine and felodipine. NOD incidences in β-blockers and diuretics groups (11.70 and 10.50 per 100 persons per year, respectively) were not significantly different from valsartan group. Compared with non-RAS inhibitors, particularly CCBs, valsartan could significantly reduce the incidence of NOD.

Do regional methods really help reduce uncertainties in flood frequency analyses?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cong Nguyen, Chi; Payrastre, Olivier; Gaume, Eric

2013-04-01

Flood frequency analyses are often based on continuous measured series at gauge sites. However, the length of the available data sets is usually too short to provide reliable estimates of extreme design floods. To reduce the estimation uncertainties, the analyzed data sets have to be extended either in time, making use of historical and paleoflood data, or in space, merging data sets considered as statistically homogeneous to build large regional data samples. Nevertheless, the advantage of the regional analyses, the important increase of the size of the studied data sets, may be counterbalanced by the possible heterogeneities of the merged sets. The application and comparison of four different flood frequency analysis methods to two regions affected by flash floods in the south of France (Ardèche and Var) illustrates how this balance between the number of records and possible heterogeneities plays in real-world applications. The four tested methods are: (1) a local statistical analysis based on the existing series of measured discharges, (2) a local analysis valuating the existing information on historical floods, (3) a standard regional flood frequency analysis based on existing measured series at gauged sites and (4) a modified regional analysis including estimated extreme peak discharges at ungauged sites. Monte Carlo simulations are conducted to simulate a large number of discharge series with characteristics similar to the observed ones (type of statistical distributions, number of sites and records) to evaluate to which extent the results obtained on these case studies can be generalized. These two case studies indicate that even small statistical heterogeneities, which are not detected by the standard homogeneity tests implemented in regional flood frequency studies, may drastically limit the usefulness of such approaches. On the other hand, these result show that the valuation of information on extreme events, either historical flood events at gauged sites or estimated extremes at ungauged sites in the considered region, is an efficient way to reduce uncertainties in flood frequency studies.

The 1 km resolution global data set: needs of the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme

USGS Publications Warehouse

Townshend, J.R.G.; Justice, C.O.; Skole, D.; Malingreau, J.-P.; Cihlar, J.; Teillet, P.; Sadowski, F.; Ruttenberg, S.

1994-01-01

Examination of the scientific priorities for the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme (IGBP) reveals a requirement for global land data sets in several of its Core Projects. These data sets need to be at several space and time scales. Requirements are demonstrated for the regular acquisition of data at spatial resolutions of 1 km and finer and at high temporal frequencies. Global daily data at a resolution of approximately 1 km are sensed by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), but they have not been available in a single archive. It is proposed, that a global data set of the land surface is created from remotely sensed data from the AVHRR to support a number of IGBP's projects. This data set should have a spatial resolution of 1 km and should be generated at least once every 10 days for the entire globe. The minimum length of record should be a year, and ideally a system should be put in place which leads to the continuous acquisition of 1 km data to provide a base line data set prior to the Earth Observing System (EOS) towards the end of the decade. Because of the high cloud cover in many parts of the world, it is necessary to plan for the collection of data from every orbit. Substantial effort will be required in the preprocessing of the data set involving radiometric calibration, atmospheric correction, geometric correction and temporal compositing, to make it suitable for the extraction of information.

Rattlesnake envenomation in 12 New World camelids.

PubMed

Dykgraaf, Susanne; Pusterla, Nicola; Van Hoogmoed, Linda M

2006-01-01

Rattlesnake envenomation of New World camelids is a seasonal problem with often dramatic clinical signs. The purpose of this study was to identify the clinical signs, laboratory results, treatment methods, and outcome for rattlesnake envenomation in New World camelids. Medical records from 1988 to 2004 were searched for New World camelids presented for rattlesnake bite or clinical signs suspected to be related to recent envenomation. Twelve records were identified. From these records a retrospective study was performed. Nine camelids presented for acute disease (2/9 arrived dead), whereas 3 presented for subacute onset of disease. Swelling of the lips, head and neck, tachypnea, dyspnea, tachycardia, and lethargy were the most common presenting signs. Snake bites were most commonly located to the muzzle (10/12). Common complete blood count (CBC) and serum biochemical abnormalities were neutrophilia, lymphopenia, increased muscle enzyme activity, hypoalbuminemia, hyperglycemia, hypokalemia, and thrombocytopenia. Treatment included combinations of intravenous fluid therapy, antimicrobials, anti-inflammatory drugs, tetanus prophylaxis, tracheostomy, supplemental oxygen, antivenom, total parenteral nutrition, and nursing care. Five of the 10 animals with acute onset of clinical signs survived, and all animals with subacute presentation died. The mortality rate for New World camelids with severe local tissue reaction and systemic signs of envenomation was 58%. New World camelids that sustain rattlesnake envenomation and severe facial swelling precluding prehension and mastication have a guarded prognosis for survival. Aggressive treatment is recommended to optimize the chances of survival. Animals with less severe local tissue reaction and absence of systemic signs have a better prognosis.

Classroom-sized geophysical experiments: magnetic surveying using modern smartphone devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tronicke, Jens; Trauth, Martin H.

2018-05-01

Modern mobile devices (i.e. smartphones and tablet computers) are widespread, everyday tools, which are equipped with a variety of sensors including three-axis magnetometers. Here, we investigate the feasibility and the potential of using such mobile devices to mimic geophysical experiments in the classroom in a table-top setup. We focus on magnetic surveying and present a basic setup of a table-top experiment for collecting three-component magnetic data across well-defined source bodies and structures. Our results demonstrate that the quality of the recorded data is sufficient to address a number of important basic concepts in the magnetic method. The shown examples cover the analysis of magnetic data recorded across different kinds of dipole sources, thus illustrating the complexity of magnetic anomalies. In addition, we analyze the horizontal resolution capabilities using a pair of dipole sources placed at different horizontal distances to each other. Furthermore, we demonstrate that magnetic data recorded with a mobile device can even be used to introduce filtering, transformation, and inversion approaches as they are typically used when processing magnetic data sets recorded for real-world field applications. Thus, we conclude that such table-top experiments represent an easy-to-implement experimental procedure (as student exercise or classroom demonstration) and can provide first hands-on experience in the basic principles of magnetic surveying including the fundamentals of data acquisition, analysis and processing, as well as data evaluation and interpretation.

New opportunities of real-world data from clinical routine settings in life-cycle management of drugs: example of an integrative approach in multiple sclerosis.

PubMed

Rothenbacher, Dietrich; Capkun, Gorana; Uenal, Hatice; Tumani, Hayrettin; Geissbühler, Yvonne; Tilson, Hugh

2015-05-01

The assessment and demonstration of a positive benefit-risk balance of a drug is a life-long process and includes specific data from preclinical, clinical development and post-launch experience. However, new integrative approaches are needed to enrich evidence from clinical trials and sponsor-initiated observational studies with information from multiple additional sources, including registry information and other existing observational data and, more recently, health-related administrative claims and medical records databases. To illustrate the value of this approach, this paper exemplifies such a cross-package approach to the area of multiple sclerosis, exploring also possible analytic strategies when using these multiple sources of information.

Symplectic geometry spectrum regression for prediction of noisy time series

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xie, Hong-Bo; Dokos, Socrates; Sivakumar, Bellie; Mengersen, Kerrie

2016-05-01

We present the symplectic geometry spectrum regression (SGSR) technique as well as a regularized method based on SGSR for prediction of nonlinear time series. The main tool of analysis is the symplectic geometry spectrum analysis, which decomposes a time series into the sum of a small number of independent and interpretable components. The key to successful regularization is to damp higher order symplectic geometry spectrum components. The effectiveness of SGSR and its superiority over local approximation using ordinary least squares are demonstrated through prediction of two noisy synthetic chaotic time series (Lorenz and Rössler series), and then tested for prediction of three real-world data sets (Mississippi River flow data and electromyographic and mechanomyographic signal recorded from human body).

Foundations of teamwork and collaboration.

PubMed

Driskell, James E; Salas, Eduardo; Driskell, Tripp

2018-01-01

The term teamwork has graced countless motivational posters and office walls. However, although teamwork is often easy to observe, it is somewhat more difficult to describe and yet more difficult to produce. At a broad level, teamwork is the process through which team members collaborate to achieve task goals. Teamwork refers to the activities through which team inputs translate into team outputs such as team effectiveness and satisfaction. In this article, we describe foundational research underlying current research on teamwork. We examine the evolution of team process models and outline primary teamwork dimensions. We discuss selection, training, and design approaches to enhancing teamwork, and note current applications of teamwork research in real-world settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Setting the Record Straight. The Truth About Fad Diets.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wheat Foods Council, Parker, CO.

The Setting the Record Straight information packet presents facts to set the record straight about nutrition and debunk fad diets. The kit features materials designed to communicate the importance of balanced eating. Materials include: a time line of fad diets; four reproducible fad diet book review handouts that show the misleading claims rampant…

In-World Behaviors and Learning in a Virtual World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nadolny, Larysa; Childs, Mark

2014-01-01

Educational virtual worlds can give students opportunities that would not otherwise be possible in face-to-face settings. The SciEthics Interactive simulations allow learners to conduct scientific research and practice ethical decision-making within a virtual world. This study examined the in-world behaviors that identify students who perceive…

Bridging the gap between the randomised clinical trial world and the real world by combination of population-based registry and electronic health record data: A case study in haemato-oncology.

PubMed

Kibbelaar, R E; Oortgiesen, B E; van der Wal-Oost, A M; Boslooper, K; Coebergh, J W; Veeger, N J G M; Joosten, P; Storm, H; van Roon, E N; Hoogendoorn, M

2017-11-01

Randomised clinical trials (RCTs) are considered the basis of evidence-based medicine. It is recognised more and more that application of RCT results in daily practice of clinical decision-making is limited because the RCT world does not correspond with the clinical real world. Recent strategies aiming at substitution of RCT databases by improved population-based registries (PBRs) or by improved electronic health record (EHR) systems to provide significant data for clinical science are discussed. A novel approach exemplified by the HemoBase haemato-oncology project is presented. In this approach, a PBR is combined with an advanced EHR, providing high-quality data for observational studies and support of best practice development. This PBR + EHR approach opens a perspective on randomised registry trials. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

HBA1C CONTROL AND COST-EFFECTIVENESS IN PATIENTS WITH TYPE 2 DIABETES MELLITUS INITIATED ON CANAGLIFLOZIN OR A GLUCAGON-LIKE PEPTIDE 1 RECEPTOR AGONIST IN A REAL-WORLD SETTING.

PubMed

Wysham, Carol H; Pilon, Dominic; Ingham, Mike; Lafeuille, Marie-Hélène; Emond, Bruno; Kamstra, Rhiannon; Pfeifer, Michael; Lefebvre, Patrick

2018-03-01

To compare glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) control and medication costs between patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) treated with canagliflozin 300 mg (CANA) or a glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) in a real-world setting. Adults with T2DM newly initiated on CANA or a GLP-1 RA (index date) were identified from IQVIA ™ Real-World Data Electronic Medical Records U.S. database (March 29, 2012-April 30, 2016). Inverse probability of treatment weighting accounted for differences in baseline characteristics. HbA1c levels at 3-month intervals were compared using generalized estimating equations. Medication costs used wholesale acquisition costs. For both cohorts (CANA: n = 11,435; GLP-1 RA: n = 11,582), HbA1c levels decreased at 3 months postindex and remained lower through 30 months. Absolute changes in mean HbA1c from index to 3 months postindex for CANA and GLP-1 RA were -1.16% and -1.21% (patients with baseline HbA1c ≥7% [53 mmol/mol]); -1.54% and -1.51% (patients with baseline HbA1c ≥8% [64 mmol/mol]); and -2.13% and -1.99% (patients with baseline HbA1c ≥9% [75 mmol/mol]), respectively. Postindex, CANA patients with baseline HbA1c ≥7% had similar HbA1c levels at each interval versus GLP-1 RA patients, except 9 months (mean HbA1c, 7.75% [61 mmol/mol] vs. 7.86% [62 mmol/mol]; P = .0305). CANA patients with baseline HbA1c ≥8% and ≥9% had consistently lower HbA1c numerically versus GLP-1 RA patients and statistically lower HbA1c at 9 (baseline HbA1c ≥8% or ≥9%), 27, and 30 months (baseline HbA1c ≥9%). Continuous 12-month medication cost $3,326 less for CANA versus GLP-1 RA. This retrospective study demonstrated a similar evolution of HbA1c levels among CANA and GLP-1 RA patients in a real-world setting. Lower medication costs suggest CANA is economically dominant over GLP-1 RA (similar effectiveness, lower cost). AHA = antihyperglycemic agent BMI = body mass index CANA = canagliflozin 300 mg DCSI = diabetes complications severity index eGFR = estimated glomerular filtration rate EMR = electronic medical record GLP-1 RA = glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist HbA1c = glycated hemoglobin ICD-9-CM = International Classification of Diseases-Ninth Revision-Clinical Modification ICD-10-CM = International Classification of Diseases-Tenth Revision-Clinical Modification IPTW = inverse probability of treatment weighting ITT = intent-to-treat MPR = medication possession ratio PDC = proportion of days covered PS = propensity score PSM = propensity score matching Quan-CCI = Quan-Charlson comorbidity index SGLT2 = sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 T2DM = type 2 diabetes mellitus WAC = wholesale acquisition cost.

Investigation of microbubble response to long pulses used in ultrasound-enhanced drug delivery.

PubMed

Mannaris, Christophoros; Averkiou, Michalakis A

2012-04-01

In current drug delivery approaches, microbubbles and drugs can be co-administered while ultrasound is applied. The mechanism of microbubble interaction with ultrasound, the drug and the cells is not fully understood. The aim of this study was to investigate microbubble response to long ultrasonic pulses used in drug delivery approaches. Two different in vitro set-ups were considered: with the microbubbles diluted in an enclosure and with the microbubbles flowing in a capillary tube. Acoustic streaming, which influences the observed bubble response, was observed in "typical" drug delivery conditions in the first set-up. With the capillary set-up, streaming effects were avoided and accurate bubble responses were recorded. The diffraction pattern of the source greatly influences the bubble response and in different locations of the field different bubble responses are observed. At low nondestructive pressures, microbubbles can oscillate for thousands of cycles repeatedly. At high acoustic pressures (at 1 MHz), most bubble activity disappeared within about 100 μs despite the length of the pulse, mainly due to violent bubble destruction and subsequent accelerated diffusion. Copyright © 2012 World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Opportunities at the Intersection of Bioinformatics and Health Informatics

PubMed Central

Miller, Perry L.

2000-01-01

This paper provides a “viewpoint discussion” based on a presentation made to the 2000 Symposium of the American College of Medical Informatics. It discusses potential opportunities for researchers in health informatics to become involved in the rapidly growing field of bioinformatics, using the activities of the Yale Center for Medical Informatics as a case study. One set of opportunities occurs where bioinformatics research itself intersects with the clinical world. Examples include the correlations between individual genetic variation with clinical risk factors, disease presentation, and differential response to treatment; and the implications of including genetic test results in the patient record, which raises clinical decision support issues as well as legal and ethical issues. A second set of opportunities occurs where bioinformatics research can benefit from the technologic expertise and approaches that informaticians have used extensively in the clinical arena. Examples include database organization and knowledge representation, data mining, and modeling and simulation. Microarray technology is discussed as a specific potential area for collaboration. Related questions concern how best to establish collaborations with bioscientists so that the interests and needs of both sets of researchers can be met in a synergistic fashion, and the most appropriate home for bioinformatics in an academic medical center. PMID:10984461

True Randomness from Big Data.

PubMed

Papakonstantinou, Periklis A; Woodruff, David P; Yang, Guang

2016-09-26

Generating random bits is a difficult task, which is important for physical systems simulation, cryptography, and many applications that rely on high-quality random bits. Our contribution is to show how to generate provably random bits from uncertain events whose outcomes are routinely recorded in the form of massive data sets. These include scientific data sets, such as in astronomics, genomics, as well as data produced by individuals, such as internet search logs, sensor networks, and social network feeds. We view the generation of such data as the sampling process from a big source, which is a random variable of size at least a few gigabytes. Our view initiates the study of big sources in the randomness extraction literature. Previous approaches for big sources rely on statistical assumptions about the samples. We introduce a general method that provably extracts almost-uniform random bits from big sources and extensively validate it empirically on real data sets. The experimental findings indicate that our method is efficient enough to handle large enough sources, while previous extractor constructions are not efficient enough to be practical. Quality-wise, our method at least matches quantum randomness expanders and classical world empirical extractors as measured by standardized tests.

True Randomness from Big Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Papakonstantinou, Periklis A.; Woodruff, David P.; Yang, Guang

2016-09-01

Generating random bits is a difficult task, which is important for physical systems simulation, cryptography, and many applications that rely on high-quality random bits. Our contribution is to show how to generate provably random bits from uncertain events whose outcomes are routinely recorded in the form of massive data sets. These include scientific data sets, such as in astronomics, genomics, as well as data produced by individuals, such as internet search logs, sensor networks, and social network feeds. We view the generation of such data as the sampling process from a big source, which is a random variable of size at least a few gigabytes. Our view initiates the study of big sources in the randomness extraction literature. Previous approaches for big sources rely on statistical assumptions about the samples. We introduce a general method that provably extracts almost-uniform random bits from big sources and extensively validate it empirically on real data sets. The experimental findings indicate that our method is efficient enough to handle large enough sources, while previous extractor constructions are not efficient enough to be practical. Quality-wise, our method at least matches quantum randomness expanders and classical world empirical extractors as measured by standardized tests.

True Randomness from Big Data

PubMed Central

Papakonstantinou, Periklis A.; Woodruff, David P.; Yang, Guang

2016-01-01

Generating random bits is a difficult task, which is important for physical systems simulation, cryptography, and many applications that rely on high-quality random bits. Our contribution is to show how to generate provably random bits from uncertain events whose outcomes are routinely recorded in the form of massive data sets. These include scientific data sets, such as in astronomics, genomics, as well as data produced by individuals, such as internet search logs, sensor networks, and social network feeds. We view the generation of such data as the sampling process from a big source, which is a random variable of size at least a few gigabytes. Our view initiates the study of big sources in the randomness extraction literature. Previous approaches for big sources rely on statistical assumptions about the samples. We introduce a general method that provably extracts almost-uniform random bits from big sources and extensively validate it empirically on real data sets. The experimental findings indicate that our method is efficient enough to handle large enough sources, while previous extractor constructions are not efficient enough to be practical. Quality-wise, our method at least matches quantum randomness expanders and classical world empirical extractors as measured by standardized tests. PMID:27666514

Effectiveness, safety and clinical outcomes of direct-acting antiviral therapy in HCV genotype 1 infection: Results from a Spanish real-world cohort.

PubMed

Calleja, Jose Luis; Crespo, Javier; Rincón, Diego; Ruiz-Antorán, Belén; Fernandez, Inmaculada; Perelló, Christie; Gea, Francisco; Lens, Sabela; García-Samaniego, Javier; Sacristán, Begoña; García-Eliz, María; Llerena, Susana; Pascasio, Juan Manuel; Turnes, Juan; Torras, Xavier; Morillas, Rosa Maria; Llaneras, Jordi; Serra, Miguel A; Diago, Moises; Rodriguez, Conrado Fernández; Ampuero, Javier; Jorquera, Francisco; Simon, Miguel A; Arenas, Juan; Navascues, Carmen Alvarez; Bañares, Rafael; Muñoz, Raquel; Albillos, Agustin; Mariño, Zoe

2017-06-01

Clinical trials evaluating second-generation direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) have shown excellent rates of sustained virologic response (SVR) and good safety profiles in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1 infection. We aimed to investigate the effectiveness and safety of two oral DAA combination regimens, ombitasvir/paritaprevir/ritonavir plus dasabuvir (OMV/PTV/r+DSV) and ledipasvir/sofosbuvir (LDV/SOF), in a real-world clinical practice. Data from HCV genotype 1 patients treated with either OMV/PTV/r+DSV±ribavirin (RBV) (n=1567) or LDV/SOF±RBV (n=1758) in 35 centers across Spain between April 1, 2015 and February 28, 2016 were recorded in a large national database. Demographic, clinical and virological data were analyzed. Details of serious adverse events (SAEs) were recorded. The two cohorts were not matched with respect to baseline characteristics and could not be compared directly. The SVR12 rate was 96.8% with OMV/PTVr/DSV±RBV and 95.8% with LDV/SOF±RBV. No significant differences were observed in SVR according to HCV subgenotype (p=0.321 [OMV/PTV/r+DSV±RBV] and p=0.174 [LDV/SOF]) or degree of fibrosis (c0.548 [OMV/PTV/r/DSV±RBV] and p=0.085 [LDV/SOF]). Only baseline albumin level was significantly associated with failure to achieve SVR (p<0.05) on multivariate analysis. Rates of SAEs and SAE-associated treatment discontinuation were 5.4% and 1.7%, in the OMV/PTV/r+DSV subcohort and 5.5% and 1.5% in the LDV/SOF subcohort, respectively. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) recurred in 30% of patients with a complete response to therapy for previous HCC. Incident HCC was reported in 0.93%. In this large cohort of patients managed in the real-world setting in Spain, OMV/PTV/r+DSV and LDV/SOF achieved high rates of SVR12, comparable to those observed in randomized controlled trials, with similarly good safety profiles. In clinical trials, second-generation direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) have been shown to cure over 90% of patients chronically infected with the genotype 1 hepatitis C virus and have been better tolerated than previous treatment regimens. However, patients enrolled in clinical trials do not reflect the real patient population encountered in routine practice. The current study, which includes almost 4,000 patients, demonstrates comparable rates of cure with two increasingly used DAA combinations as those observed in the clinical trial environment, confirming that clinical trial findings with DAAs translate into the real-world setting, where patient populations are more diverse and complex. Copyright © 2017 European Association for the Study of the Liver. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

First direct observations linking confined supercritical turbidity currents to their depositional architecture and facies characteristics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hage, S.; Cartigny, M.; Hughes Clarke, J. E.; Clare, M. A.; Sumner, E.; Hubbard, S. M.; Talling, P.; Lintern, G.; Stacey, C.; Vardy, M. E.; Hunt, J.; Vendettuoli, D.; Yokokawa, M.; Hizzett, J. L.; Vellinga, A. J.; Azpiroz, M.

2017-12-01

Turbidity currents transfer globally significant amounts of sediment via submarine channels from the continental margin to deep submarine fans. Submarine channel inception is thought to result from erosive, supercritical turbidity currents that are common in proximal settings of the marine realm. Recent monitoring of submarine processes have provided the first measurements of supercritical turbidity currents (Hughes Clarke, 2016), demonstrating that they drive the upstream migration of crescentic bedforms in confined submarine channels. Although upstream-migrating bedforms are common in confined channels across the world's oceans, there is considerable debate over the type of deposits that they produce. It is important to understand what types of deposit record these supercritical bedforms to potentially identify them from geological archives. For the first time, we combine direct measurements from supercritical field-scale turbidity currents with the facies and depositional architecture resulting from such flows. We show how the subsurface architecture evolves in a highly active channel at Squamish submarine delta, British Columbia, Canada. Repeated upstream migration of bedforms is found to create two main deposit geometries. First, regular back-stepping beds result from flow deceleration on the slightly-inclined sides of the bedforms. Second, lens-shaped scour fills composed of massive deposits result from erosion of the back-stepping beds by subsequent turbidity currents. We relate our findings to a range of ancient outcrop studies to demonstrate that supercritical flows are common in proximal settings through the geological record. This study provides the first direct observation-based model to identify confined supercritical turbidity currents and their associated upslope-migrating bedforms in the sedimentary record. This is important for correctly identifying the proximal sites of ancient submarine channels that served as past conduits for globally significant quantities of sediment to reach the deep sea.

Nonlinear Synergistic Emergence and Predictability in Complex Systems: Theory and Hydro-Climatic Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perdigão, Rui A. P.; Hall, Julia; Pires, Carlos A. L.; Blöschl, Günter

2017-04-01

Classical and stochastic dynamical system theories assume structural coherence and dynamic recurrence with invariants of motion that are not necessarily so. These are grounded on the unproven assumption of universality in the dynamic laws derived from statistical kinematic evaluation of non-representative empirical records. As a consequence, the associated formulations revolve around a restrictive set of configurations and intermittencies e.g. in an ergodic setting, beyond which any predictability is essentially elusive. Moreover, dynamical systems are fundamentally framed around dynamic codependence among intervening processes, i.e. entail essentially redundant interactions such as couplings and feedbacks. That precludes synergistic cooperation among processes that, whilst independent from each other, jointly produce emerging dynamic behaviour not present in any of the intervening parties. In order to overcome these fundamental limitations, we introduce a broad class of non-recursive dynamical systems that formulate dynamic emergence of unprecedented states in a fundamental synergistic manner, with fundamental principles in mind. The overall theory enables innovations to be predicted from the internal system dynamics before any a priori information is provided about the associated dynamical properties. The theory is then illustrated to anticipate, from non-emergent records, the spatiotemporal emergence of multiscale hyper chaotic regimes, critical transitions and structural coevolutionary changes in synthetic and real-world complex systems. Example applications are provided within the hydro-climatic context, formulating and dynamically forecasting evolving hydro-climatic distributions, including the emergence of extreme precipitation and flooding in a structurally changing hydro-climate system. Validation is then conducted with a posteriori verification of the simulated dynamics against observational records. Agreement between simulations and observations is confirmed with robust nonlinear information diagnostics.

Recording A Sunrise: A Citizen Science Project to Enhance Sunrise/set Prediction Times

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilson, Teresa; Chizek Frouard, Malynda; Bartlett, Jennifer L.

2017-01-01

Smartphones, with their ever increasing capabilities, are becoming quite instrumental for data acquisition in a number of fields. Understanding refraction and how it affects what we see on the horizon is no exception. Current algorithms that predict sunrise and sunset times have an error of one to four minutes at mid-latitudes (0° - 55° N/S) due to limitations in the atmospheric models they incorporate. At higher latitudes, slight changes in refraction can cause significant discrepancies, even including difficulties determining when the Sun appears to rise or set. A thorough investigation of the problem requires a substantial data set of observed rise/set times and corresponding meteorological data from around the world, which is currently lacking. We have developed a mobile application so that this data can be taken using smartphones as part of a citizen science project. The app allows the viewer to submit a video of sunrise/set and attaches geographic location along with meteorological data taken from a local weather station. The project will help increase scientific awareness in the public by allowing members of the community to participate in the data-taking process, and give them a greater awareness of the scientific significance of phenomenon they witness every day. The data from the observations will lead to more complete rise/set models that will provide more accurate times to the benefit of astronomers, navigators, and outdoorsmen. The app will be available on the Google Play Store.

ATLANTIC BIRDS: a data set of bird species from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.

PubMed

Hasui, Érica; Metzger, Jean Paul; Pimentel, Rafael G; Silveira, Luís Fábio; Bovo, Alex A D A; Martensen, Alexandre C; Uezu, Alexandre; Regolin, André L; Bispo de Oliveira, Arthur Â; Gatto, Cassiano A F R; Duca, Charles; Andretti, Christian B; Banks-Leite, Cristina; Luz, Daniela; Mariz, Daniele; Alexandrino, Eduardo R; de Barros, Fabio M; Martello, Felipe; Pereira, Iolanda M D S; da Silva, José N; Ferraz, Katia M P M D B; Naka, Luciano N; Dos Anjos, Luiz; Efe, Márcio A; Pizo, Marco Aurélio; Pichorim, Mauro; Gonçalves, Maycon Sanyvan S; Cordeiro, Paulo Henrique Chaves; Dias, Rafael A; Muylaert, Renata D L; Rodrigues, Rodolpho C; da Costa, Thiago V V; Cavarzere, Vagner; Tonetti, Vinicius R; Silva, Wesley R; Jenkins, Clinton N; Galetti, Mauro; Ribeiro, Milton C

2018-02-01

South America holds 30% of the world's avifauna, with the Atlantic Forest representing one of the richest regions of the Neotropics. Here we have compiled a data set on Brazilian Atlantic Forest bird occurrence (150,423) and abundance samples (N = 832 bird species; 33,119 bird individuals) using multiple methods, including qualitative surveys, mist nets, point counts, and line transects). We used four main sources of data: museum collections, on-line databases, literature sources, and unpublished reports. The data set comprises 4,122 localities and data from 1815 to 2017. Most studies were conducted in the Florestas de Interior (1,510 localities) and Serra do Mar (1,280 localities) biogeographic sub-regions. Considering the three main quantitative methods (mist net, point count, and line transect), we compiled abundance data for 745 species in 576 communities. In the data set, the most frequent species were Basileuterus culicivorus, Cyclaris gujanensis, and Conophaga lineata. There were 71 singletons, such as Lipaugus conditus and Calyptura cristata. We suggest that this small number of records reinforces the critical situation of these taxa in the Atlantic Forest. The information provided in this data set can be used for macroecological studies and to foster conservation strategies in this biodiversity hotspot. No copyright restrictions are associated with the data set. Please cite this Data Paper if data are used in publications and teaching events. © 2017 by the Ecological Society of America.

Improved Glycemic Control Achieved by Switching to Insulin Degludec in Insulin-Treated Patients with Type 2 Diabetes in a Real-World Setting: a Non-interventional, Retrospective Cohort Study.

PubMed

Melzer Cohen, Cheli; Thorsted, Brian Larsen; Wolden, Michael Lyng; Chodick, Gabriel; Karasik, Avraham

2017-10-01

Retrospective cohort study evaluating the clinical effectiveness of insulin degludec (IDeg) in insulin-treated patients with type 2 diabetes switching from other insulins to IDeg in a real-world setting. Data were drawn from the Maccabi Health Management Organization in Israel and included patients treated with IDeg between 1 September 2014 and 29 February 2016. Main inclusion criteria were age ≥18 years, diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, and treated with insulin for at least 1 year prior to IDeg initiation. HbA1c, insulin dose, body weight, and body mass index were recorded before and 90 and 180 days post-switch. Of 211 eligible patients, 57% were male, mean age ± SD 62.2 ± 12.1 years, and diabetes duration >10 years. Switching to IDeg decreased HbA1c from a mean 8.8 ± 1.5% (73.0 ± 16.4 mmol/mol) baseline by 0.58 ± 1.0% (6.3 ± 10.9 mmol/mol) (p < 0.001). Baseline HbA1c of >8.5% (69.0 mmol/mol) and daily insulin dose of ≥50 U were associated with a greater reduction in HbA1c [1.0 ± 1.1% (10.9 ± 12.0 mmol/mol) and 1.2 ± 1.1% (13.1 ± 12.0 mmol/mol), respectively] compared with the total population. At 180 days post-switch, the mean daily basal insulin dose increased by 2 U compared with pre-switch. There was no significant change in body weight post-switch. In a real-world setting, switching from another insulin to IDeg significantly improved glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes, without significant weight gain and with only a modest increase in insulin dose after IDeg initiation. Novo Nordisk.

LAMMR world data base documentation support and demonstrations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chin, R.; Beaudet, P.

1980-01-01

The primary purpose of the World Surface Map is to provide the LAMMR subsystem with world surface type classifications that are used to set up LAMMR LEVEL II process control. This data base will be accessed solely by the LAMMR subsystem. The SCATT and ALT subsystems will access the data base indirectly through the T sub b (Brightness Temperature) Data Bank, where the surface types were updated from a priori to current classification, and where the surface types were organized on an orbital subtrack basis. The single most important factor in the design of the World Surface Maps is the ease of access to the information while the complexity of generating these maps is of lesser importance because their generation is a one-time, off-line process. The World Surface Map provides storage of information with a resolution of 7 km necessary to set flags concerning the earth's features with a different set of maps for each month of the year.

Considering body mass differences, who are the world's strongest women?

PubMed

Vanderburgh, P M; Dooman, C

2000-01-01

Allometric modeling (AM) has been used to determine the world's strongest body mass-adjusted man. Recently, however, AM was shown to demonstrate body mass bias in elite Olympic weightlifting performance. A second order polynomial (2OP) provided a better fit than AM with no body mass bias for men and women. The purpose of this study was to apply both AM and 2OP models to women's world powerlifting records (more a function of pure strength and less power than Olympic lifts) to determine the optimal model approach as well as the strongest body mass-adjusted woman in each event. Subjects were the 36 (9 per event) current women world record holders (as of Nov., 1997) for bench press (BP), deadlift (DL), squat (SQ), and total (TOT) lift (BP + DL + SQ) according to the International Powerlifting Federation (IPF). The 2OP model demonstrated the superior fit and no body mass bias as indicated by the coefficient of variation and residuals scatterplot inspection, respectively, for DL, SQ, and TOT. The AM for these three lifts, however, showed favorable bias toward the middle weight classes. The 2OP and AM yielded an essentially identical fit for BP. Although body mass-adjusted world records were dependent on the model used, Carrie Boudreau (U.S., 56-kg weight class), who received top scores in TOT and DL with both models, is arguably the world's strongest woman overall. Furthermore, although the 2OP model provides a better fit than AM for this elite population, a case can still be made for AM use, particularly in light of theoretical superiority.

Mathematics of Web science: structure, dynamics and incentives.

PubMed

Chayes, Jennifer

2013-03-28

Dr Chayes' talk described how, to a discrete mathematician, 'all the world's a graph, and all the people and domains merely vertices'. A graph is represented as a set of vertices V and a set of edges E, so that, for instance, in the World Wide Web, V is the set of pages and E the directed hyperlinks; in a social network, V is the people and E the set of relationships; and in the autonomous system Internet, V is the set of autonomous systems (such as AOL, Yahoo! and MSN) and E the set of connections. This means that mathematics can be used to study the Web (and other large graphs in the online world) in the following way: first, we can model online networks as large finite graphs; second, we can sample pieces of these graphs; third, we can understand and then control processes on these graphs; and fourth, we can develop algorithms for these graphs and apply them to improve the online experience.

Building a structured monitoring and evaluating system of postmarketing drug use in Shanghai.

PubMed

Du, Wenmin; Levine, Mitchell; Wang, Longxing; Zhang, Yaohua; Yi, Chengdong; Wang, Hongmin; Wang, Xiaoyu; Xie, Hongjuan; Xu, Jianglong; Jin, Huilin; Wang, Tongchun; Huang, Gan; Wu, Ye

2007-01-01

In order to understand a drug's full profile in the post-marketing environment, information is needed regarding utilization patterns, beneficial effects, ADRs and economic value. China, the most populated country in the world, has the largest number of people who are taking medications. To begin to appreciate the impact of these medications, a multifunctional evaluation and surveillance system was developed, the Shanghai Drug Monitoring and Evaluative System (SDMES). Set up by the Shanghai Center for Adverse Drug Reaction Monitoring in 2001, the SDMES contains three databases: a population health data base of middle aged and elderly persons; hospital patient medical records; and a spontaneous ADR reporting database. Each person has a unique identification and Medicare number, which permits record-linkage within and between these three databases. After more than three years in development, the population health database has comprehensive data for more than 320,000 residents. The hospital database has two years of inpatient medical records from five major hospitals, and will be increasing to 10 hospitals in 2007. The spontaneous reporting ADR database has collected 20,205 cases since 2001 from approximately 295 sources, including hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, drug wholesalers and pharmacies. The SDMES has the potential to become an important national and international pharmacoepidemiology resource for drug evaluation.

The Creation of the world and the birth of chronology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Richet, Pascal

2017-09-01

The eternity of the world and, correlatively, the cyclical nature of time were agreed upon by all Greek philosophical schools except the Platonists. As for matter, all of them posited that it was eternal so that the idea that something could be made from nothing was considered as pure absurdity. With the advent of Christianity, however, a matter coeternal with God raised fundamental theological difficulties. Toward the end of the second century, apologists such as Tatian the Assyrian, Theophilus of Antioch, Irenaeus of Lyons or Tertullian thus emphasized God's absolute freedom and power by claiming that Creation had been made from nothing. Along with the Passion of Christ and the Last Judgment, the initial moment defined by the Creation then conferred to time an irreversible, linear orientation and to history both a new sense and an obsessing concern for chronology. Unambiguously, the Creation became the reference point for the world's history. From Scripture analyses, one determined that it took place about 5500 years earlier within a framework where the History of man and that of the earth were not distinct. Having designed a consistent, universal time scale from chronological data recorded for all ancient peoples, Eusebius of Caesarea could thus attribute to the Great Flood the fossils found on the top of Mount Lebanon. The short Mosaic chronologies were eventually rejected during the 18th century, but Eusebius' chronological procedure was unknowingly transposed when a relative geological timescale was then set up from the fossil record. The close association of Creation with Christian dogma in turn induced some circles to reject the second law of thermodynamics at the end of the 19th century and, a few decades later, the thesis of an expanding universe. In both cases, the reason was that continuously increasing entropy would imply some low-entropy initial state akin to a Creation.

Real-world clinical responses in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus adding exenatide BID (EBID) or mealtime insulin to basal insulin: a retrospective study using electronic medical record data.

PubMed

Lang, Kathleen; Nguyen, Hiep; Huang, Huan; Bauer, Elise; Levin, Philip

2018-06-01

Exenatide twice daily (EBID) and mealtime insulin are effective add-on therapies to basal insulin for type 2 diabetes patients in clinical trials. This study used electronic medical record (EMR) data to evaluate analogous real-world clinical responses. Adult patients initiating EBID or mealtime insulin as add-on to basal insulin during January 2008-March 2013 were identified in a US EMR database. EBID patients were propensity score matched 1:1 to mealtime insulin patients. Cohorts were followed for 12 months before (baseline) and 6 months after the index. A1C, hypoglycemic events, change in weight, and other clinical measures were evaluated by A1C attainment level (<6.5, < 7, < 7.5, <8, <9%) and baseline A1C. In total, 1249 EBID patients were matched to 1249 mealtime insulin patients. During follow-up, the percentage reaching A1C levels was similar for EBID vs mealtime insulin cohorts for all attainment levels (<7%: 27.8% vs 24.2%; < 9%: 79.7% vs 79.2%; p = NS). The percentage reaching A1C < 7% was similar for both cohorts with different baseline A1C. EBID patients had less hypoglycemia at all attainment levels (3.1% vs 11.1% [<6.5%]; 2.5% vs 4.7% [<9%]; all p < .03) and more weight loss (-9.0 vs -3.2 lb [<6.5%]; -3.4 vs +0.8 lb [<9%]; all p < .01). EBID added to basal insulin was as effective in a real-world setting as mealtime insulin added to basal insulin in reducing A1C, with less weight gain and less hypoglycemia for a wide range of A1C attainment levels and baseline values.

A document-based 318-year record of tropical cyclones in the Lesser Antilles, 1690-2007

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chenoweth, Michael; Divine, Dmitry

2008-08-01

The most comprehensive and longest document-based time series of tropical cyclone activity for any area of the world is presented for the Atlantic and Caribbean region of the Lesser Antilles for the years 1690-2007. Newspaper accounts, ships' logbooks, meteorological journals, and other document sources were used to create this new data set, and a new methodology was applied for classifying historical tropical cyclone intensity. This compilation estimates the position and intensity of each tropical cyclone that passes through the 61.5°W meridian from the coast of South America northward through 25.0°N. The additional resources used here fills in gaps in the HURDAT record, which undercounts tropical storms and hurricanes by 28% (7%) in the years 1851-1898 (1899-1930) over populated islands from 12 to 18°N. The numbers of tropical cyclones show no trends that were significant at the 5% level. The time span 1968-1977 was probably the most inactive period since the islands were settled in the 1620s and 1630s.

Arctic Sea Ice in a 1.5°C Warmer World

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Niederdrenk, Anne Laura; Notz, Dirk

2018-02-01

We examine the seasonal cycle of Arctic sea ice in scenarios with limited future global warming. To do so, we analyze two sets of observational records that cover the observational uncertainty of Arctic sea ice loss per degree of global warming. The observations are combined with 100 simulations of historical and future climate evolution from the Max Planck Institute Earth System Model Grand Ensemble. Based on the high-sensitivity observations, we find that Arctic September sea ice is lost with low probability (P≈ 10%) for global warming of +1.5°C above preindustrial levels and with very high probability (P> 99%) for global warming of +2°C above preindustrial levels. For the low-sensitivity observations, September sea ice is extremely unlikely to disappear for +1.5°C warming (P≪ 1%) and has low likelihood (P≈ 10%) to disappear even for +2°C global warming. For March, both observational records suggest a loss of 15% to 20% of Arctic sea ice area for 1.5°C to 2°C global warming.

From Intensity Profile to Surface Normal: Photometric Stereo for Unknown Light Sources and Isotropic Reflectances.

PubMed

Lu, Feng; Matsushita, Yasuyuki; Sato, Imari; Okabe, Takahiro; Sato, Yoichi

2015-10-01

We propose an uncalibrated photometric stereo method that works with general and unknown isotropic reflectances. Our method uses a pixel intensity profile, which is a sequence of radiance intensities recorded at a pixel under unknown varying directional illumination. We show that for general isotropic materials and uniformly distributed light directions, the geodesic distance between intensity profiles is linearly related to the angular difference of their corresponding surface normals, and that the intensity distribution of the intensity profile reveals reflectance properties. Based on these observations, we develop two methods for surface normal estimation; one for a general setting that uses only the recorded intensity profiles, the other for the case where a BRDF database is available while the exact BRDF of the target scene is still unknown. Quantitative and qualitative evaluations are conducted using both synthetic and real-world scenes, which show the state-of-the-art accuracy of smaller than 10 degree without using reference data and 5 degree with reference data for all 100 materials in MERL database.

Data Literacy: Real-World Learning through Problem-Solving with Data Sets

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Erwin, Robin W., Jr.

2015-01-01

The achievement of deep learning by secondary students requires teaching approaches that draw students into task commitment, integrated curricula, and analytical thinking. By using real-world data sets in project based instructional units, teachers can guide students in analyzing, interpreting, and reporting quantitative data. Working with…

Real World Graph Connectivity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lind, Joy; Narayan, Darren

2009-01-01

We present the topic of graph connectivity along with a famous theorem of Menger in the real-world setting of the national computer network infrastructure of "National LambdaRail". We include a set of exercises where students reinforce their understanding of graph connectivity by analysing the "National LambdaRail" network. Finally, we give…

Learning in Global Settings: Developing Transitions for Meaning-Making

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Norden, Birgitta; Avery, Helen; Anderberg, Elsie

2012-01-01

Global teaching and learning for sustainable development reaches from the classroom to the world outside, and is therefore a particularly interesting setting for practising transition skills. The article suggests a number of features perceived as crucial in developing young people's capability to act in a changing world and under circumstances…

Viewing the World: Visual Inquiry in International Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Munn, Jean Correll

2012-01-01

This teaching note describes a course, Viewing the World: Visual Inquiry in International Settings, which the author taught in the Czech Republic in 2009. Five students successfully completed the course, which consisted of designing a project, collecting and analyzing visual data, presenting findings, and writing a final report of a qualitative…

Open WorldCat and Its Impact on Academic Libraries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

El-Sherbini, Magda

2007-01-01

This paper analyzes librarians' reactions to the Open OCLC WorldCat. A detailed survey was sent to ARL libraries to explore what, if anything, the libraries are currently doing to prepare for these changes and how they plan to cope with the probability of having all their records open to the whole world. Survey findings indicate that most of the…

Treating pre-instrumental data as "missing" data: using a tree-ring-based paleoclimate record and imputations to reconstruct streamflow in the Missouri River Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ho, M. W.; Lall, U.; Cook, E. R.

2015-12-01

Advances in paleoclimatology in the past few decades have provided opportunities to expand the temporal perspective of the hydrological and climatological variability across the world. The North American region is particularly fortunate in this respect where a relatively dense network of high resolution paleoclimate proxy records have been assembled. One such network is the annually-resolved Living Blended Drought Atlas (LBDA): a paleoclimate reconstruction of the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) that covers North America on a 0.5° × 0.5° grid based on tree-ring chronologies. However, the use of the LBDA to assess North American streamflow variability requires a model by which streamflow may be reconstructed. Paleoclimate reconstructions have typically used models that first seek to quantify the relationship between the paleoclimate variable and the environmental variable of interest before extrapolating the relationship back in time. In contrast, the pre-instrumental streamflow is here considered as "missing" data. A method of imputing the "missing" streamflow data, prior to the instrumental record, is applied through multiple imputation using chained equations for streamflow in the Missouri River Basin. In this method, the distribution of the instrumental streamflow and LBDA is used to estimate sets of plausible values for the "missing" streamflow data resulting in a ~600 year-long streamflow reconstruction. Past research into external climate forcings, oceanic-atmospheric variability and its teleconnections, and assessments of rare multi-centennial instrumental records demonstrate that large temporal oscillations in hydrological conditions are unlikely to be captured in most instrumental records. The reconstruction of multi-centennial records of streamflow will enable comprehensive assessments of current and future water resource infrastructure and operations under the existing scope of natural climate variability.

An open access database for the evaluation of heart sound algorithms.

PubMed

Liu, Chengyu; Springer, David; Li, Qiao; Moody, Benjamin; Juan, Ricardo Abad; Chorro, Francisco J; Castells, Francisco; Roig, José Millet; Silva, Ikaro; Johnson, Alistair E W; Syed, Zeeshan; Schmidt, Samuel E; Papadaniil, Chrysa D; Hadjileontiadis, Leontios; Naseri, Hosein; Moukadem, Ali; Dieterlen, Alain; Brandt, Christian; Tang, Hong; Samieinasab, Maryam; Samieinasab, Mohammad Reza; Sameni, Reza; Mark, Roger G; Clifford, Gari D

2016-12-01

In the past few decades, analysis of heart sound signals (i.e. the phonocardiogram or PCG), especially for automated heart sound segmentation and classification, has been widely studied and has been reported to have the potential value to detect pathology accurately in clinical applications. However, comparative analyses of algorithms in the literature have been hindered by the lack of high-quality, rigorously validated, and standardized open databases of heart sound recordings. This paper describes a public heart sound database, assembled for an international competition, the PhysioNet/Computing in Cardiology (CinC) Challenge 2016. The archive comprises nine different heart sound databases sourced from multiple research groups around the world. It includes 2435 heart sound recordings in total collected from 1297 healthy subjects and patients with a variety of conditions, including heart valve disease and coronary artery disease. The recordings were collected from a variety of clinical or nonclinical (such as in-home visits) environments and equipment. The length of recording varied from several seconds to several minutes. This article reports detailed information about the subjects/patients including demographics (number, age, gender), recordings (number, location, state and time length), associated synchronously recorded signals, sampling frequency and sensor type used. We also provide a brief summary of the commonly used heart sound segmentation and classification methods, including open source code provided concurrently for the Challenge. A description of the PhysioNet/CinC Challenge 2016, including the main aims, the training and test sets, the hand corrected annotations for different heart sound states, the scoring mechanism, and associated open source code are provided. In addition, several potential benefits from the public heart sound database are discussed.

Open Access Metadata, Catalogers, and Vendors: The Future of Cataloging Records

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flynn, Emily Alinder

2013-01-01

The open access (OA) movement is working to transform scholarly communication around the world, but this philosophy can also apply to metadata and cataloging records. While some notable, large academic libraries, such as Harvard University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Cambridge, released their cataloging records under OA…

Assessing the impact of drinking water and sanitation on diarrhoeal disease in low- and middle-income settings: systematic review and meta-regression.

PubMed

Wolf, Jennyfer; Prüss-Ustün, Annette; Cumming, Oliver; Bartram, Jamie; Bonjour, Sophie; Cairncross, Sandy; Clasen, Thomas; Colford, John M; Curtis, Valerie; De France, Jennifer; Fewtrell, Lorna; Freeman, Matthew C; Gordon, Bruce; Hunter, Paul R; Jeandron, Aurelie; Johnston, Richard B; Mäusezahl, Daniel; Mathers, Colin; Neira, Maria; Higgins, Julian P T

2014-08-01

To assess the impact of inadequate water and sanitation on diarrhoeal disease in low- and middle-income settings. The search strategy used Cochrane Library, MEDLINE & PubMed, Global Health, Embase and BIOSIS supplemented by screening of reference lists from previously published systematic reviews, to identify studies reporting on interventions examining the effect of drinking water and sanitation improvements in low- and middle-income settings published between 1970 and May 2013. Studies including randomised controlled trials, quasi-randomised trials with control group, observational studies using matching techniques and observational studies with a control group where the intervention was well defined were eligible. Risk of bias was assessed using a modified Ottawa-Newcastle scale. Study results were combined using meta-analysis and meta-regression to derive overall and intervention-specific risk estimates. Of 6819 records identified for drinking water, 61 studies met the inclusion criteria, and of 12,515 records identified for sanitation, 11 studies were included. Overall, improvements in drinking water and sanitation were associated with decreased risks of diarrhoea. Specific improvements, such as the use of water filters, provision of high-quality piped water and sewer connections, were associated with greater reductions in diarrhoea compared with other interventions. The results show that inadequate water and sanitation are associated with considerable risks of diarrhoeal disease and that there are notable differences in illness reduction according to the type of improved water and sanitation implemented. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd The World Health Organization retains copyright and all other rights in the manuscript of this article as submitted for publication.

Electronic medical records and the transgender patient: recommendations from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health EMR Working Group

PubMed Central

Deutsch, Madeline B; Green, Jamison; Keatley, JoAnne; Mayer, Gal; Hastings, Jennifer; Hall, Alexandra M

2013-01-01

Transgender patients have particular needs with respect to demographic information and health records; specifically, transgender patients may have a chosen name and gender identity that differs from their current legally designated name and sex. Additionally, sex-specific health information, for example, a man with a cervix or a woman with a prostate, requires special attention in electronic health record (EHR) systems. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) is an international multidisciplinary professional association that publishes recognized standards for the care of transgender and gender variant persons. In September 2011, the WPATH Executive Committee convened an Electronic Medical Records Working Group comprised of both expert clinicians and medical information technology specialists, to make recommendations for developers, vendors, and users of EHR systems with respect to transgender patients. These recommendations and supporting rationale are presented here. PMID:23631835

Introduction to Special Section: Paleoseismology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yeats, Robert S.; Prentice, Carol S.

1996-03-01

A proverb of Confucius states "Study the past if you would divine the future." If we could learn about the past history of earthquakes on a specific fault, then we could serve society well by better forecasting the future earthquake behavior of that fault. For most of the world, the period of historical records is short: about 200 years in California and less than that in New Zealand, Oregon, and other parts of the world. And even where the historical record is thousands of years long, such as in north central China or the eastern Mediterranean region, it is commonly difficult to correlate a major historical earthquake with a specific active fault. Even if this correlation could be made without ambiguity, the recurrence intervals for many faults are longer than even a historical record of several thousand years. For these reasons, the history of large earthquakes on faults must, for the most part, be learned from the geological record.

How do we use language? Shared patterns in the frequency of word use across 17 world languages

PubMed Central

Calude, Andreea S.; Pagel, Mark

2011-01-01

We present data from 17 languages on the frequency with which a common set of words is used in everyday language. The languages are drawn from six language families representing 65 per cent of the world's 7000 languages. Our data were collected from linguistic corpora that record frequencies of use for the 200 meanings in the widely used Swadesh fundamental vocabulary. Our interest is to assess evidence for shared patterns of language use around the world, and for the relationship of language use to rates of lexical replacement, defined as the replacement of a word by a new unrelated or non-cognate word. Frequencies of use for words in the Swadesh list range from just a few per million words of speech to 191 000 or more. The average inter-correlation among languages in the frequency of use across the 200 words is 0.73 (p < 0.0001). The first principal component of these data accounts for 70 per cent of the variance in frequency of use. Elsewhere, we have shown that frequently used words in the Indo-European languages tend to be more conserved, and that this relationship holds separately for different parts of speech. A regression model combining the principal factor loadings derived from the worldwide sample along with their part of speech predicts 46 per cent of the variance in the rates of lexical replacement in the Indo-European languages. This suggests that Indo-European lexical replacement rates might be broadly representative of worldwide rates of change. Evidence for this speculation comes from using the same factor loadings and part-of-speech categories to predict a word's position in a list of 110 words ranked from slowest to most rapidly evolving among 14 of the world's language families. This regression model accounts for 30 per cent of the variance. Our results point to a remarkable regularity in the way that human speakers use language, and hint that the words for a shared set of meanings have been slowly evolving and others more rapidly evolving throughout human history. PMID:21357232

Towards Open-World Person Re-Identification by One-Shot Group-Based Verification.

PubMed

Zheng, Wei-Shi; Gong, Shaogang; Xiang, Tao

2016-03-01

Solving the problem of matching people across non-overlapping multi-camera views, known as person re-identification (re-id), has received increasing interests in computer vision. In a real-world application scenario, a watch-list (gallery set) of a handful of known target people are provided with very few (in many cases only a single) image(s) (shots) per target. Existing re-id methods are largely unsuitable to address this open-world re-id challenge because they are designed for (1) a closed-world scenario where the gallery and probe sets are assumed to contain exactly the same people, (2) person-wise identification whereby the model attempts to verify exhaustively against each individual in the gallery set, and (3) learning a matching model using multi-shots. In this paper, a novel transfer local relative distance comparison (t-LRDC) model is formulated to address the open-world person re-identification problem by one-shot group-based verification. The model is designed to mine and transfer useful information from a labelled open-world non-target dataset. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed approach outperforms both non-transfer learning and existing transfer learning based re-id methods.

The Social Value of Knowledge and International Clinical Research.

PubMed

Wenner, Danielle M

2015-08-01

In light of the growth in the conduct of international clinical research in developing populations, this paper seeks to explore what is owed to developing world communities who host international clinical research. Although existing paradigms for assigning and assessing benefits to host communities offer valuable insight, I criticize their failure to distinguish between those benefits which can justify the conduct of research in a developing world setting and those which cannot. I argue that the justification for human subjects research is fundamentally grounded in the social value of knowledge, and that this value is context-dependent in a manner which should inform our ethical evaluation of the conduct of research in specific settings. I propose a new framework for the assessment of research benefits assigned to developing world host communities, a natural implication of which is to limit the types of research projects which may permissibly be conducted in developing world settings. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

World-systems analysis.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Evans, Amanda M.

2007-12-01

Jamaica sloops were vernacular watercraft designed, built, and utilized by Caribbean colonists beginning in the late-17th century. Despite their popularity, no design or construction records or even a specific definition of their form survive, and many sources simply describe them as an early version of the Bermuda sloop. Vernacular Jamaica sloops were a unique adaptation by English colonists to combat the effects of piracy, and their design was specific to the economic, geographic, and political circumstances of colonial Jamaica. This article proposes a set of characteristics that can be used to define vernacular Jamaica sloops, firstly to distinguish them from the eighteenth-century naval Jamaica-class sloops but also to better understand them as a social response to external stimuli within the complex relationship between maritime economy, piracy and colonial control executed through the navy.

Erupting Volcano Mount Etna

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2002-01-01

Expedition Five crew members aboard the International Space Station (ISS) captured this overhead look at the smoke and ash regurgitated from the erupting volcano Mt. Etna on the island of Sicily, Italy in October 2002. Triggered by a series of earthquakes on October 27, 2002, this eruption was one of Etna's most vigorous in years. This image shows the ash plume curving out toward the horizon. The lighter-colored plumes down slope and north of the summit seen in this frame are produced by forest fires set by flowing lava. At an elevation of 10,990 feet (3,350 m), the summit of the Mt. Etna volcano, one of the most active and most studied volcanoes in the world, has been active for a half-million years and has erupted hundreds of times in recorded history.

Earth Science

NASA Image and Video Library

2002-10-30

Expedition Five crew members aboard the International Space Station (ISS) captured this overhead look at the smoke and ash regurgitated from the erupting volcano Mt. Etna on the island of Sicily, Italy in October 2002. Triggered by a series of earthquakes on October 27, 2002, this eruption was one of Etna's most vigorous in years. This image shows the ash plume curving out toward the horizon. The lighter-colored plumes down slope and north of the summit seen in this frame are produced by forest fires set by flowing lava. At an elevation of 10,990 feet (3,350 m), the summit of the Mt. Etna volcano, one of the most active and most studied volcanoes in the world, has been active for a half-million years and has erupted hundreds of times in recorded history.

Daredevils and early birds: Belgian pioneers in automobile racing and aerial sports during the belle époque.

PubMed

Ameye, Thomas; Gils, Bieke; Delheye, Pascal

2011-01-01

During the belle époque, Belgium was a trend-setting nation in many domains, including motorised sports. Belgian automobile racers and pilots shattered world records and became international stars. Striking was the shift in sports. Indeed, around 1896, sporting members of the leisure class stepped from the bicycle into the automobile and, around 1908, from the automobile into the airplane. Although these motorised sports were extremely expensive, this article shows that sportsmen and sportswomen from the working class could achieve upward social mobility through their performances. The achievements of these motorised pioneers had a major impact and wide-ranging significance. They laid the foundations for the expansion of the automobile industry and the emergence of civilian and military aviation.

Search for supersymmetry with gauge-mediated breaking in diphoton events with missing transverse energy at CDF II.

PubMed

Aaltonen, T; Adelman, J; Alvarez González, B; Amerio, S; Amidei, D; Anastassov, A; Annovi, A; Antos, J; Apollinari, G; Apresyan, A; Arisawa, T; Artikov, A; Asaadi, J; Ashmanskas, W; Attal, A; Aurisano, A; Azfar, F; Badgett, W; Barbaro-Galtieri, A; Barnes, V E; Barnett, B A; Barria, P; Bartos, P; Bauer, G; Beauchemin, P-H; Bedeschi, F; Beecher, D; Behari, S; Bellettini, G; Bellinger, J; Benjamin, D; Beretvas, A; Bhatti, A; Binkley, M; Bisello, D; Bizjak, I; Blair, R E; Blocker, C; Blumenfeld, B; Bocci, A; Bodek, A; Boisvert, V; Bortoletto, D; Boudreau, J; Boveia, A; Brau, B; Bridgeman, A; Brigliadori, L; Bromberg, C; Brubaker, E; Budagov, J; Budd, H S; Budd, S; Burkett, K; Busetto, G; Bussey, P; Buzatu, A; Byrum, K L; Cabrera, S; Calancha, C; Camarda, S; Campanelli, M; Campbell, M; Canelli, F; Canepa, A; Carls, B; Carlsmith, D; Carosi, R; Carrillo, S; Carron, S; Casal, B; Casarsa, M; Castro, A; Catastini, P; Cauz, D; Cavaliere, V; Cavalli-Sforza, M; Cerri, A; Cerrito, L; Chang, S H; Chen, Y C; Chertok, M; Chiarelli, G; Chlachidze, G; Chlebana, F; Cho, K; Chokheli, D; Chou, J P; Choudalakis, G; Chung, K; Chung, W H; Chung, Y S; Chwalek, T; Ciobanu, C I; Ciocci, M A; Clark, A; Clark, D; Compostella, G; Convery, M E; Conway, J; Corbo, M; Cordelli, M; Cox, C A; Cox, D J; Crescioli, F; Cuenca Almenar, C; Cuevas, J; Culbertson, R; Cully, J C; Dagenhart, D; Datta, M; Davies, T; de Barbaro, P; De Cecco, S; Deisher, A; De Lorenzo, G; Dell'Orso, M; Deluca, C; Demortier, L; Deng, J; Deninno, M; d'Errico, M; Di Canto, A; di Giovanni, G P; Di Ruzza, B; Dittmann, J R; D'Onofrio, M; Donati, S; Dong, P; Dorigo, T; Dube, S; Ebina, K; Elagin, A; Erbacher, R; Errede, D; Errede, S; Ershaidat, N; Eusebi, R; Fang, H C; Farrington, S; Fedorko, W T; Feild, R G; Feindt, M; Fernandez, J P; Ferrazza, C; Field, R; Flanagan, G; Forrest, R; Frank, M J; Franklin, M; Freeman, J C; Furic, I; Gallinaro, M; Galyardt, J; Garberson, F; Garcia, J E; Garfinkel, A F; Garosi, P; Genser, K; Gerberich, H; Gerdes, D; Gessler, A; Giagu, S; Giakoumopoulou, V; Giannetti, P; Gibson, K; Gimmell, J L; Ginsburg, C M; Giokaris, N; Giordani, M; Giromini, P; Giunta, M; Giurgiu, G; Glagolev, V; Glenzinski, D; Gold, M; Goldschmidt, N; Golossanov, A; Gomez, G; Gomez-Ceballos, G; Goncharov, M; González, O; Gorelov, I; Goshaw, A T; Goulianos, K; Gresele, A; Grinstein, S; Grosso-Pilcher, C; Group, R C; Grundler, U; Guimaraes da Costa, J; Gunay-Unalan, Z; Haber, C; Hahn, K; Hahn, S R; Halkiadakis, E; Han, B-Y; Han, J Y; Happacher, F; Hara, K; Hare, D; Hare, M; Harr, R F; Hartz, M; Hatakeyama, K; Hays, C; Heck, M; Heinrich, J; Henderson, C; Herndon, M; Heuser, J; Hewamanage, S; Hidas, D; Hill, C S; Hirschbuehl, D; Hocker, A; Hou, S; Houlden, M; Hsu, S-C; Huffman, B T; Hughes, R E; Hurwitz, M; Husemann, U; Hussein, M; Huston, J; Incandela, J; Introzzi, G; Iori, M; Ivanov, A; James, E; Jang, D; Jayatilaka, B; Jeon, E J; Jha, M K; Jindariani, S; Johnson, W; Jones, M; Joo, K K; Jun, S Y; Jung, J E; Junk, T R; Kamon, T; Kar, D; Karchin, P E; Kato, Y; Kephart, R; Ketchum, W; Keung, J; Khotilovich, V; Kilminster, B; Kim, D H; Kim, H S; Kim, H W; Kim, J E; Kim, M J; Kim, S B; Kim, S H; Kim, Y K; Kimura, N; Kirsch, L; Klimenko, S; Knuteson, B; Kondo, K; Kong, D J; Konigsberg, J; Korytov, A; Kotwal, A V; Kreps, M; Kroll, J; Krop, D; Krumnack, N; Kruse, M; Krutelyov, V; Kuhr, T; Kulkarni, N P; Kurata, M; Kwang, S; Laasanen, A T; Lami, S; Lammel, S; Lancaster, M; Lander, R L; Lannon, K; Lath, A; Latino, G; Lazzizzera, I; LeCompte, T; Lee, E; Lee, H S; Lee, J S; Lee, S W; Leone, S; Lewis, J D; Lin, C-J; Linacre, J; Lindgren, M; Lipeles, E; Lister, A; Litvintsev, D O; Liu, C; Liu, T; Lockyer, N S; Loginov, A; Lovas, L; Lucchesi, D; Lueck, J; Lujan, P; Lukens, P; Lungu, G; Lys, J; Lysak, R; MacQueen, D; Madrak, R; Maeshima, K; Makhoul, K; Maksimovic, P; Malde, S; Malik, S; Manca, G; Manousakis-Katsikakis, A; Margaroli, F; Marino, C; Marino, C P; Martin, A; Martin, V; Martínez, M; Martínez-Ballarín, R; Mastrandrea, P; Mathis, M; Mattson, M E; Mazzanti, P; McFarland, K S; McIntyre, P; McNulty, R; Mehta, A; Mehtala, P; Menzione, A; Mesropian, C; Miao, T; Mietlicki, D; Miladinovic, N; Miller, R; Mills, C; Milnik, M; Mitra, A; Mitselmakher, G; Miyake, H; Moed, S; Moggi, N; Mondragon, M N; Moon, C S; Moore, R; Morello, M J; Morlock, J; Movilla Fernandez, P; Mülmenstädt, J; Mukherjee, A; Muller, Th; Murat, P; Mussini, M; Nachtman, J; Nagai, Y; Naganoma, J; Nakamura, K; Nakano, I; Napier, A; Nett, J; Neu, C; Neubauer, M S; Neubauer, S; Nielsen, J; Nodulman, L; Norman, M; Norniella, O; Nurse, E; Oakes, L; Oh, S H; Oh, Y D; Oksuzian, I; Okusawa, T; Orava, R; Osterberg, K; Pagan Griso, S; Pagliarone, C; Palencia, E; Papadimitriou, V; Papaikonomou, A; Paramanov, A A; Parks, B; Pashapour, S; Patrick, J; Pauletta, G; Paulini, M; Paus, C; Peiffer, T; Pellett, D E; Penzo, A; Phillips, T J; Piacentino, G; Pianori, E; Pinera, L; Pitts, K; Plager, C; Pondrom, L; Potamianos, K; Poukhov, O; Prokoshin, F; Pronko, A; Ptohos, F; Pueschel, E; Punzi, G; Pursley, J; Rademacker, J; Rahaman, A; Ramakrishnan, V; Ranjan, N; Redondo, I; Renton, P; Renz, M; Rescigno, M; Richter, S; Rimondi, F; Ristori, L; Robson, A; Rodrigo, T; Rodriguez, T; Rogers, E; Rolli, S; Roser, R; Rossi, M; Rossin, R; Roy, P; Ruiz, A; Russ, J; Rusu, V; Rutherford, B; Saarikko, H; Safonov, A; Sakumoto, W K; Santi, L; Sartori, L; Sato, K; Savoy-Navarro, A; Schlabach, P; Schmidt, A; Schmidt, E E; Schmidt, M A; Schmidt, M P; Schmitt, M; Schwarz, T; Scodellaro, L; Scribano, A; Scuri, F; Sedov, A; Seidel, S; Seiya, Y; Semenov, A; Sexton-Kennedy, L; Sforza, F; Sfyrla, A; Shalhout, S Z; Shears, T; Shepard, P F; Shimojima, M; Shiraishi, S; Shochet, M; Shon, Y; Shreyber, I; Simonenko, A; Sinervo, P; Sisakyan, A; Slaughter, A J; Slaunwhite, J; Sliwa, K; Smith, J R; Snider, F D; Snihur, R; Soha, A; Somalwar, S; Sorin, V; Spreitzer, T; Squillacioti, P; Stanitzki, M; St Denis, R; Stelzer, B; Stelzer-Chilton, O; Stentz, D; Strologas, J; Strycker, G L; Suh, J S; Sukhanov, A; Suslov, I; Taffard, A; Takashima, R; Takeuchi, Y; Tanaka, R; Tang, J; Tecchio, M; Teng, P K; Thom, J; Thome, J; Thompson, G A; Thomson, E; Tipton, P; Ttito-Guzmán, P; Tkaczyk, S; Toback, D; Tokar, S; Tollefson, K; Tomura, T; Tonelli, D; Torre, S; Torretta, D; Totaro, P; Tourneur, S; Trovato, M; Tsai, S-Y; Tu, Y; Turini, N; Ukegawa, F; Uozumi, S; van Remortel, N; Varganov, A; Vataga, E; Vázquez, F; Velev, G; Vellidis, C; Vidal, M; Vila, I; Vilar, R; Vogel, M; Volobouev, I; Volpi, G; Wagner, P; Wagner, R G; Wagner, R L; Wagner, W; Wagner-Kuhr, J; Wakisaka, T; Wallny, R; Wang, S M; Warburton, A; Waters, D; Weinberger, M; Weinelt, J; Wester, W C; Whitehouse, B; Whiteson, D; Wicklund, A B; Wicklund, E; Wilbur, S; Williams, G; Williams, H H; Wilson, P; Winer, B L; Wittich, P; Wolbers, S; Wolfe, C; Wolfe, H; Wright, T; Wu, X; Würthwein, F; Xie, S; Yagil, A; Yamamoto, K; Yamaoka, J; Yang, U K; Yang, Y C; Yao, W M; Yeh, G P; Yi, K; Yoh, J; Yorita, K; Yoshida, T; Yu, G B; Yu, I; Yu, S S; Yun, J C; Zanetti, A; Zeng, Y; Zhang, X; Zheng, Y; Zucchelli, S

2010-01-08

We present the results of a search for supersymmetry with gauge-mediated breaking and chi(1)(0) --> gammaG in the gammagamma + missing transverse energy final state. In 2.6+/-0.2 fb(-1) of pp collisions at square root(s) = 1.96 TeV recorded by the CDF II detector we observe no candidate events, consistent with a standard model background expectation of 1.4+/-0.4 events. We set limits on the cross section at the 95% C.L. and place the world's best limit of 149 GeV/c2 on the chi(1)(0) mass at tau(chi(1)(0)) < 1 ns. We also exclude regions in the chi(1)(0) mass-lifetime plane for tau(chi(1)(0)) approximately < 2 ns.

a Geographic Weighted Regression for Rural Highways Crashes Modelling Using the Gaussian and Tricube Kernels: a Case Study of USA Rural Highways

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aghayari, M.; Pahlavani, P.; Bigdeli, B.

2017-09-01

Based on world health organization (WHO) report, driving incidents are counted as one of the eight initial reasons for death in the world. The purpose of this paper is to develop a method for regression on effective parameters of highway crashes. In the traditional methods, it was assumed that the data are completely independent and environment is homogenous while the crashes are spatial events which are occurring in geographic space and crashes have spatial data. Spatial data have spatial features such as spatial autocorrelation and spatial non-stationarity in a way working with them is going to be a bit difficult. The proposed method has implemented on a set of records of fatal crashes that have been occurred in highways connecting eight east states of US. This data have been recorded between the years 2007 and 2009. In this study, we have used GWR method with two Gaussian and Tricube kernels. The Number of casualties has been considered as dependent variable and number of persons in crash, road alignment, number of lanes, pavement type, surface condition, road fence, light condition, vehicle type, weather, drunk driver, speed limitation, harmful event, road profile, and junction type have been considered as explanatory variables according to previous studies in using GWR method. We have compered the results of implementation with OLS method. Results showed that R2 for OLS method is 0.0654 and for the proposed method is 0.9196 that implies the proposed GWR is better method for regression in rural highway crashes.

Nursing care dependence in the experiences of advanced cancer inpatients.

PubMed

Piredda, Michela; Bartiromo, Chiara; Capuzzo, Maria Teresa; Matarese, Maria; De Marinis, Maria Grazia

2016-02-01

Increasing burden of cancer in Europe and socio-demographic trends imply that more cancer patients will face high levels of dependency. Care dependency is often perceived as a distressing experience by cancer patients who are concerned about becoming a burden to others. The experience of care dependence has been scarcely investigated in advanced cancer patients, especially in the hospital setting. This study aimed at describing advanced cancer patients' experiences of care dependence in hospital and of the factors perceived by them as contributing to decrease or increase this dependence. The study used a descriptive phenomenological approach based on Husserl's (1913) life world perspective. Data collection and analysis followed Giorgi's (1997) five basic methodological steps. Data were gathered by semi-structured interviews with thirteen advanced cancer adult inpatients of a teaching hospital. The interviews were audio-recorded and the recordings transcribed word for word. Three themes emerged: 'dependency discovers new meanings of life', 'active coping with dependency' and 'the care cures the dependent person'. The essential meaning of care dependency was the possibility to become aware of being a person as both an object and subject of care. Dependence appears as an experience with strong relational connotations, which enable patients to see differently their life, themselves, the world and others. Dependency is revealed as a natural experience, only partly in accordance with previous studies. Deeper insight into the meaning patients attach to care dependency can enable nurses to better meet the patient's needs, e.g. by improving caring relationships with patients. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Uptake of the World Health Organization’s trauma care guidelines: a systematic review

PubMed Central

Riggle, Kevin; Joshipura, Manjul; Quansah, Robert; Reynolds, Teri; Sherr, Kenneth; Mock, Charles

2016-01-01

Abstract Objective To understand the degree to which the trauma care guidelines released by the World Health Organization (WHO) between 2004 and 2009 have been used, and to identify priorities for the future implementation and dissemination of such guidelines. Methods We conducted a systematic review, across 19 databases, in which the titles of the three sets of guidelines – Guidelines for essential trauma care, Prehospital trauma care systems and Guidelines for trauma quality improvement programmes – were used as the search terms. Results were validated via citation analysis and expert consultation. Two authors independently reviewed each record of the guidelines’ implementation. Findings We identified 578 records that provided evidence of dissemination of WHO trauma care guidelines and 101 information sources that together described 140 implementation events. Implementation evidence could be found for 51 countries – 14 (40%) of the 35 low-income countries, 15 (32%) of the 47 lower-middle income, 15 (28%) of the 53 upper-middle-income and 7 (12%) of the 59 high-income. Of the 140 implementations, 63 (45%) could be categorized as needs assessments, 38 (27%) as endorsements by stakeholders, 20 (14%) as incorporations into policy and 19 (14%) as educational interventions. Conclusion Although WHO’s trauma care guidelines have been widely implemented, no evidence was identified of their implementation in 143 countries. More serial needs assessments for the ongoing monitoring of capacity for trauma care in health systems and more incorporation of the guidelines into both the formal education of health-care providers and health policy are needed. PMID:27516636

Knowledge discovery for Deep Phenotyping serious mental illness from Electronic Mental Health records.

PubMed

Jackson, Richard; Patel, Rashmi; Velupillai, Sumithra; Gkotsis, George; Hoyle, David; Stewart, Robert

2018-01-01

Background: Deep Phenotyping is the precise and comprehensive analysis of phenotypic features in which the individual components of the phenotype are observed and described. In UK mental health clinical practice, most clinically relevant information is recorded as free text in the Electronic Health Record, and offers a granularity of information beyond what is expressed in most medical knowledge bases. The SNOMED CT nomenclature potentially offers the means to model such information at scale, yet given a sufficiently large body of clinical text collected over many years, it is difficult to identify the language that clinicians favour to express concepts. Methods: By utilising a large corpus of healthcare data, we sought to make use of semantic modelling and clustering techniques to represent the relationship between the clinical vocabulary of internationally recognised SMI symptoms and the preferred language used by clinicians within a care setting. We explore how such models can be used for discovering novel vocabulary relevant to the task of phenotyping Serious Mental Illness (SMI) with only a small amount of prior knowledge.  Results: 20 403 terms were derived and curated via a two stage methodology. The list was reduced to 557 putative concepts based on eliminating redundant information content. These were then organised into 9 distinct categories pertaining to different aspects of psychiatric assessment. 235 concepts were found to be expressions of putative clinical significance. Of these, 53 were identified having novel synonymy with existing SNOMED CT concepts. 106 had no mapping to SNOMED CT. Conclusions: We demonstrate a scalable approach to discovering new concepts of SMI symptomatology based on real-world clinical observation. Such approaches may offer the opportunity to consider broader manifestations of SMI symptomatology than is typically assessed via current diagnostic frameworks, and create the potential for enhancing nomenclatures such as SNOMED CT based on real-world expressions.

The worldwide collapse caldera database (CCDB): A tool for studying and understanding caldera processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Geyer, Adelina; Marti, Joan

2015-04-01

Collapse calderas are one of the most important volcanic structures not only because of their hazard implications, but also because of their high geothermal energy potential and their association with mineral deposits of economic interest. In 2008 we presented a new general worldwide Collapse Caldera DataBase (CCDB), in order to provide a useful and accessible tool for studying and understanding caldera collapse processes. The principal aim of the CCDB is to update the current field based knowledge on calderas, merging together the existing databases and complementing them with new examples found in the bibliography, and leaving it open for the incorporation of new data from future studies. Currently, the database includes over 450 documented calderas around the world, trying to be representative enough to promote further studies and analyses. We have performed a comprehensive compilation of published field studies of collapse calderas including more than 500 references, and their information has been summarized in a database linked to a Geographical Information System (GIS) application. Thus, it is possible to visualize the selected calderas on a world map and to filter them according to different features recorded in the database (e.g. age, structure). The information recorded in the CCDB can be grouped in seven main information classes: caldera features, properties of the caldera-forming deposits, magmatic system, geodynamic setting, pre-caldera volcanism,caldera-forming eruption sequence and post-caldera activity. Additionally, we have added two extra classes. The first records the references consulted for each caldera. The second allows users to introduce comments on the caldera sample such as possible controversies concerning the caldera origin. During the last seven years, the database has been available on-line at http://www.gvb-csic.es/CCDB.htm previous registration. This year, the CCDB webpage will be updated and improved so the database content can be queried on-line. This research was partially funded by the research fellowship RYC-2012-11024.

Knowledge discovery for Deep Phenotyping serious mental illness from Electronic Mental Health records

PubMed Central

Jackson, Richard; Patel, Rashmi; Velupillai, Sumithra; Gkotsis, George; Hoyle, David; Stewart, Robert

2018-01-01

Background: Deep Phenotyping is the precise and comprehensive analysis of phenotypic features in which the individual components of the phenotype are observed and described. In UK mental health clinical practice, most clinically relevant information is recorded as free text in the Electronic Health Record, and offers a granularity of information beyond what is expressed in most medical knowledge bases. The SNOMED CT nomenclature potentially offers the means to model such information at scale, yet given a sufficiently large body of clinical text collected over many years, it is difficult to identify the language that clinicians favour to express concepts. Methods: By utilising a large corpus of healthcare data, we sought to make use of semantic modelling and clustering techniques to represent the relationship between the clinical vocabulary of internationally recognised SMI symptoms and the preferred language used by clinicians within a care setting. We explore how such models can be used for discovering novel vocabulary relevant to the task of phenotyping Serious Mental Illness (SMI) with only a small amount of prior knowledge.  Results: 20 403 terms were derived and curated via a two stage methodology. The list was reduced to 557 putative concepts based on eliminating redundant information content. These were then organised into 9 distinct categories pertaining to different aspects of psychiatric assessment. 235 concepts were found to be expressions of putative clinical significance. Of these, 53 were identified having novel synonymy with existing SNOMED CT concepts. 106 had no mapping to SNOMED CT. Conclusions: We demonstrate a scalable approach to discovering new concepts of SMI symptomatology based on real-world clinical observation. Such approaches may offer the opportunity to consider broader manifestations of SMI symptomatology than is typically assessed via current diagnostic frameworks, and create the potential for enhancing nomenclatures such as SNOMED CT based on real-world expressions. PMID:29899974

Target Detection Routine (TADER). User’s Guide.

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-09-01

o System range capability subset (one record - omitted for standoff SLAR and penetrating system) o System inherent detection probability subset ( IELT ...records, i.e., one per element type) * System capability modifier subset/A=1, E=1 ( IELT records) o System capability modifier subset/A=1, E=2 ( IELT ...records) s System capability modifier subset/A=2, E=1 ( IELT records) o System capability modifier subset/A=2, E=2 ( IELT records) Unit Data Set (one set

Documenting historical data and accessing it on the World Wide Web

Treesearch

Malchus B. Baker; Daniel P. Huebner; Peter F. Ffolliott

2000-01-01

New computer technologies facilitate the storage, retrieval, and summarization of watershed-based data sets on the World Wide Web. These data sets are used by researchers when testing and validating predictive models, managers when planning and implementing watershed management practices, educators when learning about hydrologic processes, and decisionmakers when...

Participatory methods for research prioritization in primary care: an analysis of the World Café approach in Ireland and the USA.

PubMed

MacFarlane, Anne; Galvin, Rose; O'Sullivan, Madeleine; McInerney, Chris; Meagher, Eoghan; Burke, Daniel; LeMaster, Joseph W

2017-06-01

There are increasing imperatives for patients and members of the public to engage as partners in identifying health research priorities. The use of participatory methods to engage stakeholders in health care in research prioritization is not commonly reported. This article analyses the use of World Cafés as a participatory method for research prioritization with marginalized communities in Ireland and the USA. The principles of purposeful and snowball sampling were followed in both settings and a diverse range of community and health care stakeholders participated (n = 63 Ireland and n = 55 USA). The principles for a classic World Café were employed but there were novel features in each setting as well. Stewart et al.'s (Patients' and clinicians' research priorities. Health Expect 2011; 14: 439-48, conceptual framework for patient engagement was adapted and used to comparatively analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the World Cafés, focusing on agenda setting, engagement with research processes, interactional features and outputs. Design principles for World Cafés were found to align with high-quality patient engagement for research prioritization in both settings. They served to facilitate meaningful collaboration among stakeholder groups in research prioritization (research agenda setting) and explored research priorities (engagement with research). The café ambience, emphasis on hospitality and self-facilitation created an environment for dialogues within and across participating groups (interactional features). There was a commitment to follow-up actions with reference to possible subsequent research (outputs). The World Café is a valuable, participatory, flexible method that can be used with community and health care stakeholders for research prioritization with marginalized communities. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.

Issues and Challenges of Teaching and Learning in 3D Virtual Worlds: Real Life Case Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pfeil, Ulrike; Ang, Chee Siang; Zaphiris, Panayiotis

2009-01-01

We aimed to study the characteristics and usage patterns of 3D virtual worlds in the context of teaching and learning. To achieve this, we organised a full-day workshop to explore, discuss and investigate the educational use of 3D virtual worlds. Thirty participants took part in the workshop. All conversations were recorded and transcribed for…

The World Report on Disability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bickenbach, Jerome

2011-01-01

The World Report on Disability, a joint endeavor of the World Health Organization and the World Bank, launched in June 2011, is an astonishing achievement that will set the standard for disability studies research for evidence-informed policy for years to come. The product of collaborative and participatory work between organizations of persons…

Real World, Pretend Universities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ericson, Jon

1993-01-01

Corruption in college athletics requires immediate attention through monitoring and publication of student-athletes' academic records. Privacy can be protected three ways: modification of federal law concerning student records; implementing voluntary disclosure; and exposing exploitation of African-American student athletes by examining their…

New scientific ocean drilling depth record extends study of subseafloor life

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Showstack, Randy

2012-09-01

The Japanese deep-sea drilling vessel Chikyu set a new depth record for scientific ocean drilling and core retrieval by reaching a depth of 2119.5 meters below the seafloor (mbsf) on 6 September. This is 8.5 meters deeper than the prior record, set 19 years ago. Three days later, on 9 September, Chikyu set another record by reaching a drilling depth of 2466 mbsf, the maximum depth that will be attempted during the current expedition. The 6 September record was set on day 44 of the Deep Coalbed Biosphere off Shimokita expedition, which is expedition 337 of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). It occurred at drilling site C0020 in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, approximately 80 kilometers northeast from Hachinohe, Japan. The expedition is scheduled to conclude on 30 September.

Declining performance of master athletes: silhouettes of the trajectory of healthy human ageing?

PubMed

Lazarus, Norman R; Harridge, Stephen D R

2017-05-01

Analysis of world record performances by master athletes suggests an essentially linear decline with age until around the eighth decade after which performance decline accelerates. Because these records are obtained from highly trained individuals they can be viewed as being reflective of the diminution of integrative physiological prowess that occurs solely as a result of ageing, unaffected by the confounding effects of inactivity. It can also be argued that these performance profiles mirror and provide an insight into the trajectory of the physiology of the human ageing process. Here we propose a set point theory that hypothesises that a given threshold of physical activity is needed to age optimally and to maximise the 'healthspan'. Exercising at levels below the set point will result in ageing being contaminated by the unpredictable and pathological effects of inactivity. Exercise above this threshold stimulates adaptations towards maximising athletic performance, but is unlikely to have further beneficial effects on health. Thus the decades-long, controlled diminution in athletic performance, should not be seen as a disease process. The ageing process is separate from, and independent of, exercise-mediated processes that maintain or adapt physiological function. Whether an understanding of these mechanisms will also help uncover mechanisms underpinning the ageing process itself is open to question. However, any model which does not take into account the effects of activity will not adequately describe the inherent ageing process. © 2016 The Authors. The Journal of Physiology © 2016 The Physiological Society.

Educational Data Mining Application for Estimating Students Performance in Weka Environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gowri, G. Shiyamala; Thulasiram, Ramasamy; Amit Baburao, Mahindra

2017-11-01

Educational data mining (EDM) is a multi-disciplinary research area that examines artificial intelligence, statistical modeling and data mining with the data generated from an educational institution. EDM utilizes computational ways to deal with explicate educational information keeping in mind the end goal to examine educational inquiries. To make a country stand unique among the other nations of the world, the education system has to undergo a major transition by redesigning its framework. The concealed patterns and data from various information repositories can be extracted by adopting the techniques of data mining. In order to summarize the performance of students with their credentials, we scrutinize the exploitation of data mining in the field of academics. Apriori algorithmic procedure is extensively applied to the database of students for a wider classification based on various categorizes. K-means procedure is applied to the same set of databases in order to accumulate them into a specific category. Apriori algorithm deals with mining the rules in order to extract patterns that are similar along with their associations in relation to various set of records. The records can be extracted from academic information repositories. The parameters used in this study gives more importance to psychological traits than academic features. The undesirable student conduct can be clearly witnessed if we make use of information mining frameworks. Thus, the algorithms efficiently prove to profile the students in any educational environment. The ultimate objective of the study is to suspect if a student is prone to violence or not.

Aurora candidates from the chronicle of Qíng dynasty in several degrees of relevance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kawamura, Akito D.; Hayakawa, Hisashi; Tamazawa, Harufumi; Miyahara, Hiroko; Isobe, Hiroaki

2016-10-01

We present the result of a survey of sunspots and auroras in Qíngshǐgǎo (清史稿), a draft chronicle of Qíng dynasty, for the period of 1559-1912 CE. This is a sequel to a series of works surveying historical sunspot and aurora records, and providing online data to the scientific community regarding the attained results. In total of this Qíngshǐgǎo survey, we found 111 records of night-sky luminous events with such keywords as vapor (氣, qì), cloud (雲, yún), and light (光, guāng), which may indicate auroras as well as some other phenomena. Similarly, a keyword survey for sunspots was conducted, but no sunspot record was found. In comparison with the aurora records in the western world, we found that 14 of the 111 records have a corresponding record of simultaneous observation in the western world, and hence are very likely to be aurora. In order to investigate the likeliness of the remainder of the record being aurora, we calculated the lunar age and the phase of a solar cycle for each record. After these calculations, a notable fraction of these records clustered near the full moon were to be found statistically doubtful in considerations with atmospheric optics; meanwhile, a few records of observations near the new moon could be more likely interpreted as being auroras, including three records during the Maunder minimum.

Analysis of Technique to Extract Data from the Web for Improved Performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gupta, Neena; Singh, Manish

2010-11-01

The World Wide Web rapidly guides the world into a newly amazing electronic world, where everyone can publish anything in electronic form and extract almost all the information. Extraction of information from semi structured or unstructured documents, such as web pages, is a useful yet complex task. Data extraction, which is important for many applications, extracts the records from the HTML files automatically. Ontologies can achieve a high degree of accuracy in data extraction. We analyze method for data extraction OBDE (Ontology-Based Data Extraction), which automatically extracts the query result records from the web with the help of agents. OBDE first constructs an ontology for a domain according to information matching between the query interfaces and query result pages from different web sites within the same domain. Then, the constructed domain ontology is used during data extraction to identify the query result section in a query result page and to align and label the data values in the extracted records. The ontology-assisted data extraction method is fully automatic and overcomes many of the deficiencies of current automatic data extraction methods.

Real-world perceptions of emerging event data recorder (EDR) technologies

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2002-01-01

This research focuses on what college-age motorists perceive to be the positive and negative aspects of implementing on-board Event Data Recorders (EDRs) in the highway mode of transport. The achievements and findings offer safety researchers insi...

Do We Really Understand What a Meter of Sea-level Rise by 2100 Means for the Coast?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thieler, E. R.; Plant, N. G.; Gutierrez, B.

2014-12-01

Many projections of sea-level rise (SLR) by 2100 require rise rates of >7 mm/yr after about 2050. Thus, in the latter half of this century, the global average SLR rate may be higher than it has been since about 7000 years ago. That includes a prolonged period of relatively slow sea-level rise over the past 2000-4000 years, during which many coastal landforms and their associated ecosystems (e.g., barrier islands, estuaries, wetlands) matured and extended across the landscape, building rich sedimentary archives. The understanding of coastal evolution in these settings is typically based on both recent geologic history and modern process observations. The recent geologic history can be sampled from relatively accessible sedimentary records, as opposed to earlier records deposited more than ~5000 years ago, which are scarce on the transgressed continental margin. In addition, few to no modern analogs exist for many coastal settings that will experience high SLR rates and where there is significant human infrastructure and development. These settings provide valuable resources and ecosystem services on which society depends (e.g., sandy recreational beaches and fisheries), where useful projections are most needed. Thus, traditional sources of insight - the stratigraphic record and modern analogs - are lacking and limit our ability, and confidence, to predict the form, magnitude, and spatial extent of future changes to the coastal landscape. If sea-level is indeed heading towards ~1 m SLR by 2100, we have a limited timeframe to understand coastal change at higher SLR rates, communicate information to decision makers, and allow sufficient time for action. This is a moderate probability, but extraordinarily high risk, high impact scenario. It is a region of the coastal evolution parameter space that warrants focused exploration to identify critical knowledge gaps, conduct research to fill these gaps, and build our understanding. We also need to apply current knowledge to this problem; we know how to make skillful, yet imperfect models. Are we ready to set them against reality and evaluate their utility for a rapidly-changing world? We present some examples of current landscape-change predictive capability and discuss their application with and without updated understanding of higher-end SLR scenarios.

Suitability of satellite derived and gridded sea surface temperature data sets for calibrating high-resolution marine proxy records

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ouellette, G., Jr.; DeLong, K. L.

2016-02-01

High-resolution proxy records of sea surface temperature (SST) are increasingly being produced using trace element and isotope variability within the skeletal materials of marine organisms such as corals, mollusks, sclerosponges, and coralline algae. Translating the geochemical variations within these organisms into records of SST requires calibration with SST observations using linear regression methods, preferably with in situ SST records that span several years. However, locations with such records are sparse; therefore, calibration is often accomplished using gridded SST data products such as the Hadley Center's HADSST (5º) and interpolated HADISST (1º) data sets, NOAA's extended reconstructed SST data set (ERSST; 2º), optimum interpolation SST (OISST; 1º), and Kaplan SST data sets (5º). From these data products, the SST used for proxy calibration is obtained for a single grid cell that includes the proxy's study site. The gridded data sets are based on the International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (ICOADS) and each uses different methods of interpolation to produce the globally and temporally complete data products except for HadSST, which is not interpolated but quality controlled. This study compares SST for a single site from these gridded data products with a high-resolution satellite-based SST data set from NOAA (Pathfinder; 4 km) with in situ SST data and coral Sr/Ca variability for our study site in Haiti to assess differences between these SST records with a focus on seasonal variability. Our results indicate substantial differences in the seasonal variability captured for the same site among these data sets on the order of 1-3°C. This analysis suggests that of the data products, high-resolution satellite SST best captured seasonal variability at the study site. Unfortunately, satellite SST records are limited to the past few decades. If satellite SST are to be used to calibrate proxy records, collecting modern, living samples is desirable.

Prevention of violence in prison - The role of health care professionals.

PubMed

Pont, Jörg; Stöver, Heino; Gétaz, Laurent; Casillas, Alejandra; Wolff, Hans

2015-08-01

The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies violence prevention as a public health priority. In custodial settings, where violence is problematic, administrators and custodial officials are usually tasked with the duty of addressing this complicated issue-leaving health care professionals largely out of a discussion and problem-solving process that should ideally be multidisciplinary in approach. Health care professionals who care for prisoners are in a unique position to help identify and prevent violence, given their knowledge about health and violence, and because of the impartial position they must sustain in the prison environment in upholding professional ethics. Thus, health care professionals working in prisons should be charged with leading violence prevention efforts in custodial settings. In addition to screening for violence and detecting violent events upon prison admission, health care professionals in prison must work towards uniform in-house procedures for longitudinal and systemized medical recording/documentation of violence. These efforts will benefit the future planning, implementation, and evaluation of focused strategies for violence prevention in prisoner populations. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Characterization of hidden rules linking symptoms and selection of acupoint using an artificial neural network model.

PubMed

Jung, Won-Mo; Park, In-Soo; Lee, Ye-Seul; Kim, Chang-Eop; Lee, Hyangsook; Hahm, Dae-Hyun; Park, Hi-Joon; Jang, Bo-Hyoung; Chae, Younbyoung

2018-04-12

Comprehension of the medical diagnoses of doctors and treatment of diseases is important to understand the underlying principle in selecting appropriate acupoints. The pattern recognition process that pertains to symptoms and diseases and informs acupuncture treatment in a clinical setting was explored. A total of 232 clinical records were collected using a Charting Language program. The relationship between symptom information and selected acupoints was trained using an artificial neural network (ANN). A total of 11 hidden nodes with the highest average precision score were selected through a tenfold cross-validation. Our ANN model could predict the selected acupoints based on symptom and disease information with an average precision score of 0.865 (precision, 0.911; recall, 0.811). This model is a useful tool for diagnostic classification or pattern recognition and for the prediction and modeling of acupuncture treatment based on clinical data obtained in a real-world setting. The relationship between symptoms and selected acupoints could be systematically characterized through knowledge discovery processes, such as pattern identification.

The process of spoken word recognition in the face of signal degradation.

PubMed

Farris-Trimble, Ashley; McMurray, Bob; Cigrand, Nicole; Tomblin, J Bruce

2014-02-01

Though much is known about how words are recognized, little research has focused on how a degraded signal affects the fine-grained temporal aspects of real-time word recognition. The perception of degraded speech was examined in two populations with the goal of describing the time course of word recognition and lexical competition. Thirty-three postlingually deafened cochlear implant (CI) users and 57 normal hearing (NH) adults (16 in a CI-simulation condition) participated in a visual world paradigm eye-tracking task in which their fixations to a set of phonologically related items were monitored as they heard one item being named. Each degraded-speech group was compared with a set of age-matched NH participants listening to unfiltered speech. CI users and the simulation group showed a delay in activation relative to the NH listeners, and there is weak evidence that the CI users showed differences in the degree of peak and late competitor activation. In general, though, the degraded-speech groups behaved statistically similarly with respect to activation levels. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Meteorological Support of the Helios World Record High Altitude Flight to 96,863 Feet

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Teets, Edward H., Jr.; Donohue, Casey J.; Wright, Patrick T.; DelFrate, John (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

In characterizing and understanding atmospheric behavior when conducting high altitude solar powered flight research flight planning engineers and meteorologists are able to maximize the use of available airspace and coordinate aircraft maneuvers with pilots to make the best use of changing sun elevation angles. The result of this cooperative research produced a new world record for absolute altitude of a non-rocket powered aircraft of 96,863 ft (29,531.4 m). The Helios prototype solar powered aircraft, with a wingspan of 247 ft (75.0m), reached this altitude on August 13, 2001, off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii. The analyses of the weather characterization, the planning efforts, and the weather-of-the-day summary that led to at record flight are described in this paper.

Confined to ignorance: the absence of prisoner information from nationally representative health data sets.

PubMed

Ahalt, Cyrus; Binswanger, Ingrid A; Steinman, Michael; Tulsky, Jacqueline; Williams, Brie A

2012-02-01

Incarceration is associated with poor health and high costs. Given the dramatic growth in the criminal justice system's population and associated expenses, inclusion of questions related to incarceration in national health data sets could provide essential data to researchers, clinicians and policy-makers. To evaluate a representative sample of publically available national health data sets for their ability to be used to study the health of currently or formerly incarcerated persons and to identify opportunities to improve criminal justice questions in health data sets. DESIGN & APPROACH: We reviewed the 36 data sets from the Society of General Internal Medicine Dataset Compendium related to individual health. Through content analysis using incarceration-related keywords, we identified data sets that could be used to study currently or formerly incarcerated persons, and we identified opportunities to improve the availability of relevant data. While 12 (33%) data sets returned keyword matches, none could be used to study incarcerated persons. Three (8%) could be used to study the health of formerly incarcerated individuals, but only one data set included multiple questions such as length of incarceration and age at incarceration. Missed opportunities included: (1) data sets that included current prisoners but did not record their status (10, 28%); (2) data sets that asked questions related to incarceration but did not specifically record a subject's status as formerly incarcerated (8, 22%); and (3) longitudinal studies that dropped and/or failed to record persons who became incarcerated during the study (8, 22%). Few health data sets can be used to evaluate the association between incarceration and health. Three types of changes to existing national health data sets could substantially expand the available data, including: recording incarceration status for study participants who are incarcerated; recording subjects' history of incarceration when this data is already being collected; and expanding incarceration-related questions in studies that already record incarceration history.

Exploring the complexity of inquiry learning in an open-ended problem space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clarke, Jody

Data-gathering and problem identification are key components of scientific inquiry. However, few researchers have studied how students learn these skills because historically this required a time-consuming, complicated method of capturing the details of learners' data-gathering processes. Nor are classroom settings authentic contexts in which students could exhibit problem identification skills parallel to those involved in deconstructing complex real world situations. In this study of middle school students, because of my access to an innovative technology, I simulated a disease outbreak in a virtual community as a complicated, authentic problem. As students worked through the curriculum in the virtual world, their time-stamped actions were stored by the computer in event-logs. Using these records, I tracked in detail how the student scientists made sense of the complexity they faced and how they identified and investigated the problem using science-inquiry skills. To describe the degree to which students' data collection narrowed and focused on a specific disease over time, I developed a rubric and automated the coding of records in the event-logs. I measured the ongoing development of the students' "systematicity" in investigating the disease outbreak. I demonstrated that coding event-logs is an effective yet non-intrusive way of collecting and parsing detailed information about students' behaviors in real time in an authentic setting. My principal research question was "Do students who are more thoughtful about their inquiry prior to entry into the curriculum demonstrate increased systematicity in their inquiry behavior during the experience, by narrowing the focus of their data-gathering more rapidly than students who enter with lower levels of thoughtfulness about inquiry?" My sample consisted of 403 middle-school students from public schools in the US who volunteered to participate in the River City Project in spring 2008. Contrary to my hypothesis, I found that prior thoughtfulness of inquiry was not a predictor of the subsequent development of systematicity. However, all students did indeed become more systematic in their scientific behavior over time. On average, boys were generally more systematic than girls, but the rates at which systematicity increased with time was identical across the genders.

Looking Backwards in Time to the Early Earth Using the Lens of Stable Isotope Geodynamic Cycles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gregory, R. T.

2016-12-01

The stable isotope ratios of hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and sulfur provide of means of tracing interactions between the major reservoirs of the Earth. The oceans and the dichotomy between continental and oceanic crust are key differences between the Earth and other terrestrial bodies. The existence of plate tectonics and the recognition that no primary crust survives at the Earth's surface sets this planet apart from the smaller terrestrial bodies. The thermostatic control of carbonate-silicate cycle works because of the hydrosphere and plate tectonics. Additionally, the contrast between the carbon isotope ratios for reduced and oxidized species appear to also be invariant over geologic time with evidence of old recycled carbon in the form of diamond inclusions in mantle-derived igneous rocks. Lessons from comparative planetology suggest that early differentiation of the Earth would have likely resulted in the rapid formation of the oceans, a water world over the primary crust. Plate tectonics provides a mechanism for buffering the oxygen isotope fractionation between the oceans and the mantle. The set point for hydrosphere's oxygen isotope composition is a result of the geometry of mid-ocean ridge accretion that is stable over an order magnitude change in spreading rates with time constants much younger shorter than the age of the Earth. The recognition that the "normal" ranges for hydrogen isotope ratios of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks of any age generally overlap with similar ranges, with the exception of rocks that have interacted with D- and 18O-depleted meteoric waters (generally at high latitudes), is an argument for a constant volume ocean over geologic time. Plate tectonics with a constant volume ocean constrains the thickness of the continental crust because of the rapidity of the mechanical weathering cycle (characteristic times of 10's of millions of years; freeboard of the continents argument). In a plate tectonic regime, chemical weathering and the subduction of abyssal plain sediments represents true continental recycling and characteristic times for the age of the continents are consistent with modern chemical weathering rates. Two records, zircon and quartz oxygen isotopes, may be recording the transition from the water-world to the modern earth.

Human impact on long-term organic carbon export to rivers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Noacco, Valentina; Wagener, Thorsten; Worrall, Fred; Burt, Tim P.; Howden, Nicholas J. K.

2017-04-01

Anthropogenic landscape alterations have increased global carbon transported by rivers to oceans since preindustrial times. Few suitable observational data sets exist to distinguish different drivers of carbon increase, given that alterations only reveal their impact on fluvial dissolved organic carbon (DOC) over long time periods. We use the world's longest record of DOC concentrations (130 years) to identify key drivers of DOC change in the Thames basin (UK). We show that 90% of the long-term rise in fluvial DOC is explained by increased urbanization, which released to the river 671 kt C over the entire period. This source of carbon is linked to rising population, due to increased sewage effluent. Soil disturbance from land use change explained shorter-term fluvial responses. The largest land use disturbance was during the Second World War, when almost half the grassland area in the catchment was converted into arable land, which released 45 kt C from soils to the river. Carbon that had built up in soils over decades was released to the river in only a few years. Our work suggests that widespread population growth may have a greater influence on fluvial DOC trends than previously thought.

Clinical outcomes research in gynecologic oncology.

PubMed

Melamed, Alexander; Rauh-Hain, J Alejandro; Schorge, John O

2017-09-01

Clinical outcomes research seeks to understand the real-world manifestations of clinical care. In particular, outcomes research seeks to reveal the effects of pharmaceutical, procedural, and structural aspects of healthcare on patient outcomes, including mortality, disease control, toxicity, cost, and quality of life. Although outcomes research can utilize interventional study designs, insightful use of observational data is a defining feature of this field. Many questions in gynecologic oncology are not amenable to investigation in randomized clinical trials due to cost, feasibility, or ethical concerns. When a randomized trial is not practical or has not yet been conducted, well-designed observational studies have the potential to provide the best available evidence about the effects of clinical care. Such studies may use surveys, medical records, disease registries, and a variety of administrative data sources. Even when a randomized trial has been conducted, observational studies can be used to estimate the real-world effect of an intervention, which may differ from the results obtained in the controlled setting of a clinical trial. This article reviews the goals, methodologies, data sources, and limitations of clinical outcomes research, with a focus on gynecologic oncology. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Extending emotion and decision-making beyond the laboratory: The promise of palliative care contexts.

PubMed

Ferrer, Rebecca A; Padgett, Lynne; Ellis, Erin M

2016-08-01

Although laboratory-based research on emotion and decision-making holds the distinct advantage of rigorous experimental control conditions that allow causal inferences, the question of how findings in a laboratory generalize to real-world settings remains. Identifying ecologically valid, real-world opportunities to extend laboratory findings is a valuable means of advancing this field. Palliative care-or care intended to provide relief from serious illness and aging-related complications during treatment or at the end of life-provides a particularly rich opportunity for such work. Here, we present an overview of palliative care, summarize existing research on emotion and palliative care decision-making, highlight challenges associated with conducting such research, outline examples of collaborative projects leveraging palliative care as a context for generating fundamental knowledge about emotion and decision-making, and describe the resources and collaborations necessary to conduct this type of research. In sum, palliative care holds unique promise as an emotionally laden context in which to answer fundamental questions about emotion and decision-making that extends our theoretical understanding of the role of emotion in high-stakes decision-making while simultaneously generating knowledge that can improve palliative care implementation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Open Access to Geophysical Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sergeyeva, Nataliya A.; Zabarinskaya, Ludmila P.

2017-04-01

Russian World Data Centers for Solar-Terrestrial Physics & Solid Earth Physics hosted by the Geophysical Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences are the Regular Members of the ICSU-World Data System. Guided by the principles of the WDS Constitution and WDS Data Sharing Principles, the WDCs provide full and open access to data, long-term data stewardship, compliance with agreed-upon data standards and conventions, and mechanisms to facilitate and improve access to data. Historical and current geophysical data on different media, in the form of digital data sets, analog records, collections of maps, descriptions are stored and collected in the Centers. The WDCs regularly fill up repositories and database with new data, support them up to date. Now the WDCs focus on four new projects, aimed at increase of data available in network by retrospective data collection and digital preservation of data; creation of a modern system of registration and publication of data with digital object identifier (DOI) assignment, and promotion of data citation culture; creation of databases instead of file system for more convenient access to data; participation in the WDS Metadata Catalogue and Data Portal by creating of metadata for information resources of WDCs.

Using Technology to Learn from Travelmates' Adventures.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Braun, Joseph A., Jr.; Kraft, Christine

1995-01-01

Describes a thematic curriculum unit in which elementary students simulate travel around the world and record their experiences using word processors and databases. Includes figures listing student directions and an actual student journal entry. Asserts that technology can heighten student motivation and improve knowledge about the world. (CFR)

Overcoming the Fundamental Bottlenecks to a new world-record silicon solar cell. Final Technical Report

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

Rohatgi, Ajeet; Zimbardi, Francesco; Rounsaville, Brian

The objective of the work performed within this contract is to reveal the materials and device physics that currently limit the experimental world record efficiency to 25% for single junction Si (2013), and to demonstrate 26.5% efficiency. The starting efficiency for this project was 23.9% in 2013. Four strategies are being combined throughout the project to achieve 26.5% cell efficiency: (1) passivated contacts via tunnel dielectrics, (2) emitter optimization and passivation through dopant profile engineering, (3) enhanced light trapping through development of photonic crystals and (4) base optimization.

Pseudococcus saccharicola Takahashi (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) in the British Virgin Islands: first Western Hemisphere records, with records of a co-occurring lady beetle, Hyperaspis Scutifera (Mulsant)

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Pseudococcus saccharicola Takahashi was collected on Guana Island, and nearby Beef Island and Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). The records are the first in the Western Hemisphere for this potentially important Old World pest of sugarcane and certain other graminoid crops. Host plants on...

Smart Helmet: Wearable Multichannel ECG and EEG

PubMed Central

Chanwimalueang, Theerasak; Goverdovsky, Valentin; Looney, David; Sharp, David; Mandic, Danilo P.

2016-01-01

Modern wearable technologies have enabled continuous recording of vital signs, however, for activities such as cycling, motor-racing, or military engagement, a helmet with embedded sensors would provide maximum convenience and the opportunity to monitor simultaneously both the vital signs and the electroencephalogram (EEG). To this end, we investigate the feasibility of recording the electrocardiogram (ECG), respiration, and EEG from face-lead locations, by embedding multiple electrodes within a standard helmet. The electrode positions are at the lower jaw, mastoids, and forehead, while for validation purposes a respiration belt around the thorax and a reference ECG from the chest serve as ground truth to assess the performance. The within-helmet EEG is verified by exposing the subjects to periodic visual and auditory stimuli and screening the recordings for the steady-state evoked potentials in response to these stimuli. Cycling and walking are chosen as real-world activities to illustrate how to deal with the so-induced irregular motion artifacts, which contaminate the recordings. We also propose a multivariate R-peak detection algorithm suitable for such noisy environments. Recordings in real-world scenarios support a proof of concept of the feasibility of recording vital signs and EEG from the proposed smart helmet. PMID:27957405

Designing and incorporating a real world data approach to international drug development and use: what the UK offers.

PubMed

Bate, Andrew; Juniper, Jane; Lawton, Andy M; Thwaites, Rob M A

2016-03-01

Assessments of the safety, efficacy and appropriate use of new medicines lie at the heart of treatment development and subsequent adoption in clinical practice. Highly controlled randomised clinical trials routinely inform decisions on the approval, coverage and use of a medicine. Researchers and decision makers have become increasingly aware that these experimental data alone are insufficient to address those decisions fully. Real world data recorded from routine healthcare delivery by healthcare professionals and patients help provide a more complete picture of care. The UK, with its connectivity and rich longitudinal patient records, accumulated research and informatics experience and National Health Service, provides an exemplar of how real world data address a wide range of challenges across drug development. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Women and Men in Sport Performance: The Gender Gap has not Evolved since 1983.

PubMed

Thibault, Valérie; Guillaume, Marion; Berthelot, Geoffroy; Helou, Nour El; Schaal, Karine; Quinquis, Laurent; Nassif, Hala; Tafflet, Muriel; Escolano, Sylvie; Hermine, Olivier; Toussaint, Jean-François

2010-01-01

Sex is a major factor influencing best performances and world records. Here the evolution of the difference between men and women's best performances is characterized through the analysis of 82 quantifiable events since the beginning of the Olympic era. For each event in swimming, athletics, track cycling, weightlifting and speed skating the gender gap is fitted to compare male and female records. It is also studied through the best performance of the top 10 performers in each gender for swimming and athletics. A stabilization of the gender gap in world records is observed after 1983, at a mean difference of 10.0% ± 2.94 between men and women for all events. The gender gap ranges from 5.5% (800-m freestyle, swimming) to 18.8% (long jump). The mean gap is 10.7% for running performances, 17.5% for jumps, 8.9% for swimming races, 7.0% for speed skating and 8.7% in cycling. The top ten performers' analysis reveals a similar gender gap trend with a stabilization in 1982 at 11.7%, despite the large growth in participation of women from eastern and western countries, that coincided with later- published evidence of state-institutionalized or individual doping. These results suggest that women will not run, jump, swim or ride as fast as men. Key pointsSex is a major factor influencing best performances and world records.A stabilization of the gender gap in world records is observed after 1983, at a mean difference of 10.0% ± 2.94 between men and women for all events.The gender gap ranges from 5.5% (800-m freestyle, swimming) to 36.8% (weight lifting).The top ten performers' analysis reveals a similar gender gap trend with a stabilization in 1982 at 11.7%.Results suggest that women will not run, jump, swim or ride as fast as men.

Women and Men in Sport Performance: The Gender Gap has not Evolved since 1983

PubMed Central

Thibault, Valérie; Guillaume, Marion; Berthelot, Geoffroy; Helou, Nour El; Schaal, Karine; Quinquis, Laurent; Nassif, Hala; Tafflet, Muriel; Escolano, Sylvie; Hermine, Olivier; Toussaint, Jean-François.

2010-01-01

Sex is a major factor influencing best performances and world records. Here the evolution of the difference between men and women’s best performances is characterized through the analysis of 82 quantifiable events since the beginning of the Olympic era. For each event in swimming, athletics, track cycling, weightlifting and speed skating the gender gap is fitted to compare male and female records. It is also studied through the best performance of the top 10 performers in each gender for swimming and athletics. A stabilization of the gender gap in world records is observed after 1983, at a mean difference of 10.0% ± 2.94 between men and women for all events. The gender gap ranges from 5.5% (800-m freestyle, swimming) to 18.8% (long jump). The mean gap is 10.7% for running performances, 17.5% for jumps, 8.9% for swimming races, 7.0% for speed skating and 8.7% in cycling. The top ten performers’ analysis reveals a similar gender gap trend with a stabilization in 1982 at 11.7%, despite the large growth in participation of women from eastern and western countries, that coincided with later- published evidence of state-institutionalized or individual doping. These results suggest that women will not run, jump, swim or ride as fast as men. Key points Sex is a major factor influencing best performances and world records. A stabilization of the gender gap in world records is observed after 1983, at a mean difference of 10.0% ± 2.94 between men and women for all events. The gender gap ranges from 5.5% (800-m freestyle, swimming) to 36.8% (weight lifting). The top ten performers’ analysis reveals a similar gender gap trend with a stabilization in 1982 at 11.7%. Results suggest that women will not run, jump, swim or ride as fast as men. PMID:24149688

Modeling of Women's 100-m Dash World Record: Wind-Aided or Not?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hazelrigg, Conner; Waibel, Bryson; Baker, Blane

2015-11-01

On July 16, 1988, Florence Griffith Joyner (FGJ) shattered the women's 100-m dash world record (WR) with a time of 10.49 s, breaking the previous mark by an astonishing 0.27 s. By all accounts FGJ dominated the race that day, securing her place as the premiere female sprinter of that era, and possibly all time. In the aftermath of such an extraordinary performance, track officials immediately assumed that her posted time was wind aided—that is, attained under tailwind conditions beyond the legal limit of 2.0 m/s for world records. However, wind-measuring devices at the track site showed zero wind conditions during her WR performance. Before and during FGJ's race, other wind-measuring devices indicated speeds exceeding 4.0 m/s at the site of the triple jump runway, located on the same field as the running track. Video clips of flags placed near the starting line of FGJ's race also revealed tailwind conditions. Using available data from that era, the study here incorporates modeling techniques to compute velocity and position as functions of time for no wind and tailwind conditions. Modeling under no wind conditions produces a 100-m time of 10.70 s, a performance clearly attainable by FGJ during this stage of her sprinting career. Incorporating tailwinds of 4.0 m/s into the computations reduces this time by approximately 0.20 s, in close agreement with FGJ's record-breaking performance. These results strongly suggest that tailwinds of order 4 m/s were present during FGJ's world record race even though wind-measuring devices at the track site did not register these speeds. In spite of such strong evidence to support a wind-aided race on July 16, 1988, FGJ remains one of the top female sprinters in history and would likely hold the WR even today, given that she attained a non-wind-aided 100-m time of 10.61 s on the day following her WR performance.

A Musing on Schuller's "Musings"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Asia, Daniel

2013-01-01

For many years Gunther Schuller was at the center of the classical music world, as a player, composer, conductor, writer, record producer, polemicist and publisher for new music and jazz, educator, and president of New England Conservatory. His book, entitled, "Musings: The Musical Worlds of Gunther Schuller: A Collection of His…

Project Basic Instructional Guide. Instructional Resources. Volume IV. World of Work.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maryland State Dept. of Education, Baltimore.

Designed to provide a listing of suggested resources to support the Project Basic instructional guide on the world of work, this bibliography consists of annotated listings of student-use materials (library books, films, filmstrips, kits, records, games, audio and videotapes, filmloops, transparencies, periodicals, and pamphlets) arranged…

From -40 C to 40 C: Measuring air pollution around the world

EPA Science Inventory

Abstract. How would you go about studying the air and improving air quality? Did you know that there are instruments recording air pollution levels all over the world, reporting out information that has importance both locally and globally? Did you know that there are diverse t...

36 CFR 73.9 - World Heritage criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town... significant stage(s) in human history; or (v) Be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement or... history, including the record of life, significant on-going geological processes in the development of...

37 CFR 2.171 - New certificate on change of ownership.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... World Intellectual Property Organization before it can be recorded in the Office (see § 7.22). (b... International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization notifies the Office that an international...), issue an updated certificate for the parent registration, and publish notice of the parent registration...

A freely-moving monkey treadmill model.

PubMed

Foster, Justin D; Nuyujukian, Paul; Freifeld, Oren; Gao, Hua; Walker, Ross; I Ryu, Stephen; H Meng, Teresa; Murmann, Boris; J Black, Michael; Shenoy, Krishna V

2014-08-01

Motor neuroscience and brain-machine interface (BMI) design is based on examining how the brain controls voluntary movement, typically by recording neural activity and behavior from animal models. Recording technologies used with these animal models have traditionally limited the range of behaviors that can be studied, and thus the generality of science and engineering research. We aim to design a freely-moving animal model using neural and behavioral recording technologies that do not constrain movement. We have established a freely-moving rhesus monkey model employing technology that transmits neural activity from an intracortical array using a head-mounted device and records behavior through computer vision using markerless motion capture. We demonstrate the flexibility and utility of this new monkey model, including the first recordings from motor cortex while rhesus monkeys walk quadrupedally on a treadmill. Using this monkey model, we show that multi-unit threshold-crossing neural activity encodes the phase of walking and that the average firing rate of the threshold crossings covaries with the speed of individual steps. On a population level, we find that neural state-space trajectories of walking at different speeds have similar rotational dynamics in some dimensions that evolve at the step rate of walking, yet robustly separate by speed in other state-space dimensions. Freely-moving animal models may allow neuroscientists to examine a wider range of behaviors and can provide a flexible experimental paradigm for examining the neural mechanisms that underlie movement generation across behaviors and environments. For BMIs, freely-moving animal models have the potential to aid prosthetic design by examining how neural encoding changes with posture, environment and other real-world context changes. Understanding this new realm of behavior in more naturalistic settings is essential for overall progress of basic motor neuroscience and for the successful translation of BMIs to people with paralysis.

Multi-layered reasoning by means of conceptual fuzzy sets

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Takagi, Tomohiro; Imura, Atsushi; Ushida, Hirohide; Yamaguchi, Toru

1993-01-01

The real world consists of a very large number of instances of events and continuous numeric values. On the other hand, people represent and process their knowledge in terms of abstracted concepts derived from generalization of these instances and numeric values. Logic based paradigms for knowledge representation use symbolic processing both for concept representation and inference. Their underlying assumption is that a concept can be defined precisely. However, as this assumption hardly holds for natural concepts, it follows that symbolic processing cannot deal with such concepts. Thus symbolic processing has essential problems from a practical point of view of applications in the real world. In contrast, fuzzy set theory can be viewed as a stronger and more practical notation than formal, logic based theories because it supports both symbolic processing and numeric processing, connecting the logic based world and the real world. In this paper, we propose multi-layered reasoning by using conceptual fuzzy sets (CFS). The general characteristics of CFS are discussed along with upper layer supervision and context dependent processing.

Open database of epileptic EEG with MRI and postoperational assessment of foci--a real world verification for the EEG inverse solutions.

PubMed

Zwoliński, Piotr; Roszkowski, Marcin; Zygierewicz, Jaroslaw; Haufe, Stefan; Nolte, Guido; Durka, Piotr J

2010-12-01

This paper introduces a freely accessible database http://eeg.pl/epi , containing 23 datasets from patients diagnosed with and operated on for drug-resistant epilepsy. This was collected as part of the clinical routine at the Warsaw Memorial Child Hospital. Each record contains (1) pre-surgical electroencephalography (EEG) recording (10-20 system) with inter-ictal discharges marked separately by an expert, (2) a full set of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans for calculations of the realistic forward models, (3) structural placement of the epileptogenic zone, recognized by electrocorticography (ECoG) and post-surgical results, plotted on pre-surgical MRI scans in transverse, sagittal and coronal projections, (4) brief clinical description of each case. The main goal of this project is evaluation of possible improvements of localization of epileptic foci from the surface EEG recordings. These datasets offer a unique possibility for evaluating different EEG inverse solutions. We present preliminary results from a subset of these cases, including comparison of different schemes for the EEG inverse solution and preprocessing. We report also a finding which relates to the selective parametrization of single waveforms by multivariate matching pursuit, which is used in the preprocessing for the inverse solutions. It seems to offer a possibility of tracing the spatial evolution of seizures in time.

Model for small arms fire muzzle blast wave propagation in air

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aguilar, Juan R.; Desai, Sachi V.

2011-11-01

Accurate modeling of small firearms muzzle blast wave propagation in the far field is critical to predict sound pressure levels, impulse durations and rise times, as functions of propagation distance. Such a task being relevant to a number of military applications including the determination of human response to blast noise, gunfire detection and localization, and gun suppressor design. Herein, a time domain model to predict small arms fire muzzle blast wave propagation is introduced. The model implements a Friedlander wave with finite rise time which diverges spherically from the gun muzzle. Additionally, the effects in blast wave form of thermoviscous and molecular relaxational processes, which are associated with atmospheric absorption of sound were also incorporated in the model. Atmospheric absorption of blast waves is implemented using a time domain recursive formula obtained from numerical integration of corresponding differential equations using a Crank-Nicholson finite difference scheme. Theoretical predictions from our model were compared to previously recorded real world data of muzzle blast wave signatures obtained by shooting a set different sniper weapons of varying calibers. Recordings containing gunfire acoustical signatures were taken at distances between 100 and 600 meters from the gun muzzle. Results shows that predicted blast wave slope and exponential decay agrees well with measured data. Analysis also reveals the persistency of an oscillatory phenomenon after blast overpressure in the recorded wave forms.

20 CFR 404.1302 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... on September 16, 1940, with a country with which the United States was at war during the World War II... under a program or pension system set up by the agency or instrumentality. Post-World War II period... detailed definition of the World War II veteran and a post-World War II veteran, see §§ 404.1310 and 404...

20 CFR 404.1302 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... on September 16, 1940, with a country with which the United States was at war during the World War II... under a program or pension system set up by the agency or instrumentality. Post-World War II period... detailed definition of the World War II veteran and a post-World War II veteran, see §§ 404.1310 and 404...

20 CFR 404.1302 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... on September 16, 1940, with a country with which the United States was at war during the World War II... under a program or pension system set up by the agency or instrumentality. Post-World War II period... detailed definition of the World War II veteran and a post-World War II veteran, see §§ 404.1310 and 404...

20 CFR 404.1302 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... on September 16, 1940, with a country with which the United States was at war during the World War II... under a program or pension system set up by the agency or instrumentality. Post-World War II period... detailed definition of the World War II veteran and a post-World War II veteran, see §§ 404.1310 and 404...

Critical Education for Systemic Change: A World-Systems Analysis Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Griffiths, Tom G.

2015-01-01

This paper both draws on, and seeks to apply, world-systems analysis to a broad, critical education project that builds mass schooling's potential contribution to the process of world-systemic change. In short, this is done by first setting out the world-systems analysis account of the current state, and period of transition, of the capitalist…

The Next 25 Years: Crises and Challenges.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Amara, Roy

Within the next 25 years each major world problem will continue to grow and challenge the finest minds for equitable solutions. Yet the core world issue, from which most other problems stem, is the maintenance of an equitable and dynamic equilibrium between world populations and world resources. We are faced with a set of challenges stemming from…

New species and host records of New World, mostly Neotropical, opiine Braconidae (Hymenoptera) reared from flower-infesting, stem-galling, and stem-mining Tephritidae (Diptera)

PubMed Central

Wharton, Robert; Norrbom, Allen L.

2013-01-01

Abstract New host records (all members of the family Tephritidae) are presented for 14 newly described species of opiine Braconidae from the neotropics and two previously described species, one from the neotropics and one from the Nearctic Region. Doryctobracon anneae Wharton, Opius baderae Wharton, O. baeblus Wharton, O. cablus Wharton, O. dablus Wharton, O. danielsae Wharton, O. gabriellae Wharton, O. godfrayi Wharton, O. marshi Wharton, O. nablus Wharton, O. pipitae Wharton, O. stecki Wharton, O. taramegillae Wharton, and O. yoderi Wharton are newly described. Hosts are newly recorded for the previously described species Opius nympha Fischer and O. peleus Fischer. A key is presented to Opiinae that have been reared from flower, stem, and leaf feeding tephritids in the New World. Host and host plant associations are discussed; a few of the tephritid host plant records are also new. Opius cosa (Fischer), is a comb. n. PMID:24294078

Global land information system (GLIS) access to worldwide Landsat data

USGS Publications Warehouse

Smith, Timothy B.; Goodale, Katherine L.

1993-01-01

The Landsat Technical Working Group (LTWG) and the Landsat Ground Station Operations Working Group (LGSOWG) have encouraged Landsat receiving stations around the world to share information about their data holdings through the exchange of metadata records. Receiving stations forward their metadata records to the U.S. Geological Survey's EROS Data Center (EDC) on a quarterly basis. The EDC maintains the records for each station, coordinates changes to the database, and provides metadata to the stations as requested. The result is a comprehensive international database listing most of the world's Landsat data acquisitions This exchange of information began in the early 1980's with the inclusion in the EDC database os scenes acquired by a receiving station in Italy. Through the years other stations have agreed to participate; currently ten of the seventeen stations actively share their metadata records. Coverage maps have been generated to depict the status of the database. The Worldwide Landsat database is also available though the Global Land Information System (GLIS).

Quantum origins of objectivity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Horodecki, R.; Korbicz, J. K.; Horodecki, P.

2015-03-01

In spite of all of its successes, quantum mechanics leaves us with a central problem: How does nature create a bridge from fragile quanta to the objective world of everyday experience? Here we find that a basic structure within quantum mechanics that leads to the perceived objectivity is a so-called spectrum broadcast structure. We uncover this based on minimal assumptions, without referring to any dynamical details or a concrete model. More specifically, working formally within the decoherence theory setting with multiple environments (called quantum Darwinism), we show how a crucial for quantum mechanics notion of nondisturbance due to Bohr [N. Bohr, Phys. Rev. 48, 696 (1935), 10.1103/PhysRev.48.696] and a natural definition of objectivity lead to a canonical structure of a quantum system-environment state, reflecting objective information records about the system stored in the environment.

Hand-held dynamic visual noise reduces naturally occurring food cravings and craving-related consumption.

PubMed

Kemps, Eva; Tiggemann, Marika

2013-09-01

This study demonstrated the applicability of the well-established laboratory task, dynamic visual noise, as a technique for reducing naturally occurring food cravings and subsequent food intake. Dynamic visual noise was delivered on a hand-held computer device. Its effects were assessed within the context of a diary study. Over a 4-week period, 48 undergraduate women recorded their food cravings and consumption. Following a 2-week baseline, half the participants watched the dynamic visual noise display whenever they experienced a food craving. Compared to a control group, these participants reported less intense cravings. They were also less likely to eat following a craving and consequently consumed fewer total calories following craving. These findings hold promise for curbing unwanted food cravings and craving-driven consumption in real-world settings. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An Efficient Pattern Mining Approach for Event Detection in Multivariate Temporal Data

PubMed Central

Batal, Iyad; Cooper, Gregory; Fradkin, Dmitriy; Harrison, James; Moerchen, Fabian; Hauskrecht, Milos

2015-01-01

This work proposes a pattern mining approach to learn event detection models from complex multivariate temporal data, such as electronic health records. We present Recent Temporal Pattern mining, a novel approach for efficiently finding predictive patterns for event detection problems. This approach first converts the time series data into time-interval sequences of temporal abstractions. It then constructs more complex time-interval patterns backward in time using temporal operators. We also present the Minimal Predictive Recent Temporal Patterns framework for selecting a small set of predictive and non-spurious patterns. We apply our methods for predicting adverse medical events in real-world clinical data. The results demonstrate the benefits of our methods in learning accurate event detection models, which is a key step for developing intelligent patient monitoring and decision support systems. PMID:26752800

High-performance execution of psychophysical tasks with complex visual stimuli in MATLAB

PubMed Central

Asaad, Wael F.; Santhanam, Navaneethan; McClellan, Steven

2013-01-01

Behavioral, psychological, and physiological experiments often require the ability to present sensory stimuli, monitor and record subjects' responses, interface with a wide range of devices, and precisely control the timing of events within a behavioral task. Here, we describe our recent progress developing an accessible and full-featured software system for controlling such studies using the MATLAB environment. Compared with earlier reports on this software, key new features have been implemented to allow the presentation of more complex visual stimuli, increase temporal precision, and enhance user interaction. These features greatly improve the performance of the system and broaden its applicability to a wider range of possible experiments. This report describes these new features and improvements, current limitations, and quantifies the performance of the system in a real-world experimental setting. PMID:23034363

Fossil Crinoids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hess, Hans; Ausich, William I.; Brett, Carlton E.; Simms, Michael J.

1999-10-01

Crinoids have graced the oceans for more than 500 million years. Among the most attractive fossils, crinoids had a key role in the ecology of marine communities through much of the fossil record, and their remains are prominent rock forming constituents of many limestones. This is the first comprehensive volume to bring together their form and function, classification, evolutionary history, occurrence, preservation and ecology. The main part of the book is devoted to assemblages of intact fossil crinoids, which are described in their geological setting in twenty-three chapters ranging from the Ordovician to the Tertiary. The final chapter deals with living sea lilies and feather stars. The volume is exquisitely illustrated with abundant photographs and line drawings of crinoids from sites around the world. This authoritative account recreates a fascinating picture of fossil crinoids for paleontologists, geologists, evolutionary and marine biologists, ecologists and amateur fossil collectors.

Fossil Crinoids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hess, Hans; Ausich, William I.; Brett, Carlton E.; Simms, Michael J.

2003-01-01

Crinoids have graced the oceans for more than 500 million years. Among the most attractive fossils, crinoids had a key role in the ecology of marine communities through much of the fossil record, and their remains are prominent rock forming constituents of many limestones. This is the first comprehensive volume to bring together their form and function, classification, evolutionary history, occurrence, preservation and ecology. The main part of the book is devoted to assemblages of intact fossil crinoids, which are described in their geological setting in twenty-three chapters ranging from the Ordovician to the Tertiary. The final chapter deals with living sea lilies and feather stars. The volume is exquisitely illustrated with abundant photographs and line drawings of crinoids from sites around the world. This authoritative account recreates a fascinating picture of fossil crinoids for paleontologists, geologists, evolutionary and marine biologists, ecologists and amateur fossil collectors.

The Belle II DEPFET pixel detector

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lütticke, F.

2013-02-01

The existing Japanese Flavour Factory (KEKB) is currently being upgraded and is foreseen to be comissioned by 2014. The new e+e- collider (SuperKEKB) will have an instantaneous luminosity of 8 × 1035cm-2s-1, 40 times higher than the current world record set by KEKB. In order to handle the increased event rate and the higher background and provide high data quality, the Belle detector is upgraded to Belle II. The increased particle rate requires a new vertex pixel detector with high granularity. This silicon detector will be based on DEPFET technology and will consist of two layers of active pixel sensors. By integrating a field effect transistor into every pixel on top of a fully depleted bulk, the DEPFET technology combines detection and in-pixel amplification. This technology allows good signal to noise performance with a very low material budget.

Probing the Natural World, Level III, Record Book, Teacher's Guide: What's Up? Intermediate Science Curriculum Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bonar, John R., Ed.; Hathway, James A., Ed.

This is the teacher's edition of the Record Book for the unit "What's Up" of the Intermediate Science Curriculum Study (ISCS) for level III students (grade 9). The correct answers to the questions from the student text are recorded. An introductory note to the teacher explains how to use the book. Answers are included for the activities…

Phlebotomine sandflies and the spreading of leishmaniases and other diseases of public health concern.

PubMed

Maroli, M; Feliciangeli, M D; Bichaud, L; Charrel, R N; Gradoni, L

2013-06-01

Phlebotomine sandflies transmit pathogens that affect humans and animals worldwide. We review the roles of phlebotomines in the spreading of leishmaniases, sandfly fever, summer meningitis, vesicular stomatitis, Chandipura virus encephalitis and Carrión's disease. Among over 800 species of sandfly recorded, 98 are proven or suspected vectors of human leishmaniases; these include 42 Phlebotomus species in the Old World and 56 Lutzomyia species in the New World (all: Diptera: Psychodidae). Based on incrimination criteria, we provide an updated list of proven or suspected vector species by endemic country where data are available. Increases in sandfly diffusion and density resulting from increases in breeding sites and blood sources, and the interruption of vector control activities contribute to the spreading of leishmaniasis in the settings of human migration, deforestation, urbanization and conflict. In addition, climatic changes can be expected to affect the density and dispersion of sandflies. Phlebovirus infections and diseases are present in large areas of the Old World, especially in the Mediterranean subregion, in which virus diversity has proven to be higher than initially suspected. Vesiculovirus diseases are important to livestock and humans in the southeastern U.S.A. and Latin America, and represent emerging human threats in parts of India. Carrión's disease, formerly restricted to regions of elevated altitude in Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, has shown recent expansion to non-endemic areas of the Amazon basin. © 2012 The Authors. Medical and Veterinary Entomology © 2012 The Royal Entomological Society.

In which wretched part of the world? A glimpse into western drug- and device-makers (and others) behaving badly.

PubMed

Gillon, John J

2013-01-01

A bioethics colleague wrote of the efforts of those in India "who struggle each and every day in this wretched part of the world" to eliminate corruption from the clinical and research practice of medicine, and from medical education. Wretchedness is the human condition. Corruption is endemic- and is a pandemic. Both have anchors as firm in the West as anywhere else in the world. The record of wretchedness-whether personal, corporate, institutional, or a combination thereof-is not measured in events, weeks, or months, but in patterns of practice often across decades. The conditions have no single home, residence, or country of origin. They exist when and where one abets acts or omissions that take advantage of power, or access to it, and adulterate or debase a system-particularly one of governance. The answer is to identify and share information on the problems and problem-makers, and so cooperate in efforts to increase transparency at all levels of medical research, care, and education. A reasoned first step in this regard would be the institution of a central website at which, inter alia, questioned research might be identified by journal, article, subject matter, publication date, and authors-and, where appropriate, company; specifics as to questioned data elements and history regarding communication to and with the authors as to the questioned data elements might be set forth; and some resolution of a matter might be posted.

Application of probabilistic event attribution in the summer heat extremes in the western US to emissions traced to major industrial carbon producers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mera, R. J.; Allen, M. R.; Mote, P.; Ekwurzel, B.; Frumhoff, P. C.; Rupp, D. E.

2015-12-01

Heat waves in the western US have become progressively more severe due to increasing relative humidity and nighttime temperatures, increasing the health risks of vulnerable portions of the population, including Latino farmworkers in California's Central Valley and other socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. Recent research has shown greenhouse gas emissions doubled the risk of the hottest summer days during the 2000's in the Central Valley, increasing public health risks and costs, and raising the question of which parties are responsible for paying these costs. It has been argued that these costs should not be taken up solely by the general public through taxation, but that additional parties can be considered, including multinational corporations who have extracted and marketed a large proportion of carbon-based fuels. Here, we apply probabilistic event attribution (PEA) to assess the contribution of emissions traced to the world's 90 largest major industrial carbon producers to the severity and frequency of these extreme heat events. Our research uses very large ensembles of regional climate model simulations to calculate fractional attribution of policy-relevant extreme heat variables. We compare a full forcings world with observed greenhouse gases, sea surface temperatures and sea ice extent to a counter-factual world devoid of carbon pollution from major industrial carbon producers. The results show a discernable fraction of record-setting summer temperatures in the western US during the 2000's can be attributed to emissions sourced from major carbon producers.

Reductive evolution of architectural repertoires in proteomes and the birth of the tripartite world

PubMed Central

Wang, Minglei; Yafremava, Liudmila S.; Caetano-Anollés, Derek; Mittenthal, Jay E.; Caetano-Anollés, Gustavo

2007-01-01

The repertoire of protein architectures in proteomes is evolutionarily conserved and capable of preserving an accurate record of genomic history. Here we use a census of protein architecture in 185 genomes that have been fully sequenced to generate genome-based phylogenies that describe the evolution of the protein world at fold (F) and fold superfamily (FSF) levels. The patterns of representation of F and FSF architectures over evolutionary history suggest three epochs in the evolution of the protein world: (1) architectural diversification, where members of an architecturally rich ancestral community diversified their protein repertoire; (2) superkingdom specification, where superkingdoms Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya were specified; and (3) organismal diversification, where F and FSF specific to relatively small sets of organisms appeared as the result of diversification of organismal lineages. Functional annotation of FSF along these architectural chronologies revealed patterns of discovery of biological function. Most importantly, the analysis identified an early and extensive differential loss of architectures occurring primarily in Archaea that segregates the archaeal lineage from the ancient community of organisms and establishes the first organismal divide. Reconstruction of phylogenomic trees of proteomes reflects the timeline of architectural diversification in the emerging lineages. Thus, Archaea undertook a minimalist strategy using only a small subset of the full architectural repertoire and then crystallized into a diversified superkingdom late in evolution. Our analysis also suggests a communal ancestor to all life that was molecularly complex and adopted genomic strategies currently present in Eukarya. PMID:17908824

Influence of erroneous patient records on population pharmacokinetic modeling and individual bayesian estimation.

PubMed

van der Meer, Aize Franciscus; Touw, Daniël J; Marcus, Marco A E; Neef, Cornelis; Proost, Johannes H

2012-10-01

Observational data sets can be used for population pharmacokinetic (PK) modeling. However, these data sets are generally less precisely recorded than experimental data sets. This article aims to investigate the influence of erroneous records on population PK modeling and individual maximum a posteriori Bayesian (MAPB) estimation. A total of 1123 patient records of neonates who were administered vancomycin were used for population PK modeling by iterative 2-stage Bayesian (ITSB) analysis. Cut-off values for weighted residuals were tested for exclusion of records from the analysis. A simulation study was performed to assess the influence of erroneous records on population modeling and individual MAPB estimation. Also the cut-off values for weighted residuals were tested in the simulation study. Errors in registration have limited the influence on outcomes of population PK modeling but can have detrimental effects on individual MAPB estimation. A population PK model created from a data set with many registration errors has little influence on subsequent MAPB estimates for precisely recorded data. A weighted residual value of 2 for concentration measurements has good discriminative power for identification of erroneous records. ITSB analysis and its individual estimates are hardly affected by most registration errors. Large registration errors can be detected by weighted residuals of concentration.

The medical officer's journal: HMAS Sydney 1913-1922. An Australian Naval record of surgery and anaesthesia at the time of the outbreak of World War I.

PubMed

McDonald, J M; Todd, E M

2014-07-01

The Medical Officer's Journal of HMAS Sydney was a record kept by the ship's Surgeon, Leonard Darby, of the conditions on the ship and the health, diseases, injuries and treatment of the sailor's under his care. Records of anaesthesia and surgery indicate chloroform was mostly administered as was ether occasionally. There was some use of intravenous and subcutaneous fluids for resuscitation. The journal also provides an eyewitness account of the Sydney-Emden battle on 9 November 1914 which occurred off the Cocos Keeling Islands and was a famous first victory for the young Australian Navy, making headlines around the world. The treatment of the many injured, mostly Germans, is described; with the two Australian surgeons and the surviving German surgeon working together.

78 FR 17778 - Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-03-22

... System,'' paragraph (iii), first sentence, we inadvertently left out ``minimum data set''. We are adding ``minimum data set'' right after the word ``registry''. And under the heading, ``Routine Uses of Records... sentence, insert ``minimum data set,'' immediately after the word ``registry,''. On the same page, renumber...

Words matter: Implementing the electronically activated recorder in schizotypy.

PubMed

Minor, Kyle S; Davis, Beshaun J; Marggraf, Matthew P; Luther, Lauren; Robbins, Megan L

2018-03-01

In schizophrenia-spectrum populations, analyzing the words people use has offered promise for unlocking information about affective states and social behaviors. The electronically activated recorder (EAR) is an application-based program that is combined with widely used smartphone technology to capture a person's real-world interactions via audio recordings. It improves on the ecological validity of current methodologies by providing objective and naturalistic samples of behavior. This study is the first to implement the EAR in people endorsing elevated traits of schizophrenia-spectrum personality disorders (i.e., schizotypy), and we expected the EAR to (a) differentiate high and low schizotypy groups on affective disturbances and social engagement and (b) show that high schizotypy status moderates links between affect and social behavior using a multimethod approach. Lexical analysis of EAR recordings revealed greater negative affect and decreased social engagement in those high in schizotypy. When assessing specific traits, EAR and ecological momentary assessment (EMA) converged to show that positive schizotypy predicted negative affect. Finally, high schizotypy status moderated links between negative affect and social engagement when the EAR was combined with EMA. Adherence did not influence results, as both groups wore the EAR more than 90% of their waking hours. Findings supported using the EAR to assess real-world expressions of personality and functioning in schizotypy. Evidence also showed that the EAR can be used alongside EMA to provide a mixed-method, real-world assessment that is high in ecological validity and offers a window into the daily lives of those with elevated traits of schizophrenia-spectrum personality disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Learning User Preferences for Sets of Objects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

desJardins, Marie; Eaton, Eric; Wagstaff, Kiri L.

2006-01-01

Most work on preference learning has focused on pairwise preferences or rankings over individual items. In this paper, we present a method for learning preferences over sets of items. Our learning method takes as input a collection of positive examples--that is, one or more sets that have been identified by a user as desirable. Kernel density estimation is used to estimate the value function for individual items, and the desired set diversity is estimated from the average set diversity observed in the collection. Since this is a new learning problem, we introduce a new evaluation methodology and evaluate the learning method on two data collections: synthetic blocks-world data and a new real-world music data collection that we have gathered.

Constraint-Induced Therapy Combined with Conventional Neurorehabilitation Techniques in Chronic Stroke Patients with Plegic Hands: A Case Series

PubMed Central

Taub, Edward; Uswatte, Gitendra; Bowman, Mary H.; Mark, Victor W.; Delgado, Adriana; Bryson, Camille; Morris, David; Bishop-McKay, Staci

2012-01-01

Objective To determine in this pilot study whether the combination of CI therapy and conventional rehabilitation techniques can produce meaningful motor improvement in chronic stroke patients with initially fisted hands. In the past, limited success has been achieved using CI therapy alone for stroke patients with plegic hands. Design Case series Setting University hospital outpatient laboratory Participants Consecutive sample of 6 patients > 1 yr post-stroke with plegic hands Interventions Treatment consisted of an initial period of 3 weeks (Phase A) when adaptive equipment in the home, orthotics and splints were employed to improve ability to engage in activities of daily living. This was continued in Phase B, when CI therapy along with selected neurodevelopmental treatment techniques were added. Main Outcome Measures Motor Activity Log (MAL), accelerometry, Fugl-Meyer Motor Assessment (F-M) Results Patients exhibited a large improvement in spontaneous real-world use of the more-affected arm (mean lower-functioning MAL change = 1.3±0.4 points, P <0.001, d′ = 3.0), and a similar pattern of increase in an objective measure of real-world more-affected arm movement (mean change in ratio of more- to less-affected arm accelerometer recordings = 0.12±0.1 points, P = 0.016 d′ = 1.2). A large improvement in motor status was also recorded (mean F-M change = 5.3±3.3 points, P = 0.005, d′ = 1.6). Conclusions The findings of this pilot study suggest that stroke patients with plegic hands can benefit from CI therapy combined with some conventional rehabilitation techniques, even long after brain injury. More research is warranted. PMID:22922823

Inorganic and organic carbon spatial variability in the Congo River during high waters (December 2013)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borges, Alberto V.; Bouillon, Steven; Teodoru, Cristian; Leporcq, Bruno; Descy, Jean-Pïerre; Darchambeau, François

2014-05-01

Rivers are important components of the global carbon cycle, as they transport terrestrial organic matter from the land to the sea, and emit CO2 to the atmosphere. In particular, tropical systems that account for 60% of global freshwater discharge to the oceans. In contrast with south American rivers, very little information is available for African rivers on their carbon flows and stocks, in particular the Congo river, the second largest river in the World in terms of freshwater discharge (1457 km3 yr-1) and in terms of drainage basin (3.75 106 km2) located the second largest tropical forest in the World. Here, we report a data-set of continuous (every minute) records of the partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) (total of 10,000 records), and discrete samples of particulate (POC) and dissolved (DOC) organic carbon (total of 75 samples) in the mainstem and major tributaries of the Congo river, along the 1700 km stretch from Kisangani to Kinshasa (total river length = 4374 km), during the high water period (December 2013). The pCO2 dynamic range was high ranging from minimum values of 2000 ppm in white waters tributaries (higher turbidity, conductivity and O2, lower DOC), up to maximal values of 18,000 ppm in blackwaters tributaries (lower turbidity, conductivity and O2, higher DOC). In the mainstem, very strong horizontal (cross-section) gradients were imposed by the presence of blackwaters close to the riverbanks and the presence of whitewaters in the middle of the river. In the mainstem, a distinct horizontal (longitudinal) pattern was observed with pCO2 increasing, and conductivity and turbidity decreasing downstream.

Real-world outcomes in patients with ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer treated with crizotinib.

PubMed

Davis, K L; Kaye, J A; Masters, E T; Iyer, S

2018-02-01

Crizotinib has shown greater efficacy in clinical trials than chemotherapy in patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase-positive (alk+) non-small cell lung cancer (nsclc), but little information is available on its use and outcomes in real-world settings. We therefore assessed treatment patterns and outcomes in alk+ nsclc patients treated with crizotinib in regular clinical practice. A retrospective medical record review was conducted in North America for adults with alk+ nsclc treated with crizotinib as first- or later-line therapy for metastatic disease between 1 August 2011 and 31 March 2013 (for the United States) or 1 May 2012 and 31 March 2013 (for Canada). Crizotinib-related trial enrollees were excluded. Descriptive analyses were conducted to assess treatment patterns and objective response rate (orr). Progression-free survival (pfs) and overall survival (os) were descriptively analyzed using Kaplan-Meier methods. Data were extracted for 212 patients in the United States ( n = 147) and Canada ( n = 65). Mean (standard deviation [sd]) age was 58.9 (9.5) years, and 69% were male. Seventy-nine patients (37%) were deceased at record abstraction. Sixty-five percent ( n = 137) initiated crizotinib as first-line therapy. Mean (sd) duration of crizotinib treatment was 8.7 (4.9) months. Objective response rate was 66% (69% for first-line recipients, 60% for second-/later-line). Median (95% ci) pfs and os from crizotinib initiation were 9.5 (8.7, 10.1) and 23.4 (19.5, -) months, respectively. One- and two-year survival probabilities were 82% and 49%, respectively. Outcomes for crizotinib recipients in this study align with previous trials, with orr appearing more favourable in first-line recipients. Our findings indicate that crizotinib outcomes in clinical studies may translate to regular clinical practice.

Real-world experience with 0.2 μg/day fluocinolone acetonide intravitreal implant (ILUVIEN) in the United Kingdom

PubMed Central

Bailey, C; Chakravarthy, U; Lotery, A; Menon, G; Talks, J; Bailey, Clare; Kamal, Aintree; Ghanchi, Faruque; Khan, Calderdale; Johnston, Robert; McKibbin, Martin; Varma, Atul; Mustaq, Bushra; Brand, Christopher; Talks, James; Glover,, Nick

2017-01-01

Aims To compare safety outcomes and visual function data acquired in the real-world setting with FAME study results in eyes treated with 0.2 μg/day fluocinolone acetonide (FAc). Methods Fourteen UK clinical sites contributed to pseudoanonymised data collected using the same electronic medical record system. Data pertaining to eyes treated with FAc implant for diabetic macular oedema (DMO) was extracted. Intraocular pressure (IOP)-related adverse events were defined as use of IOP-lowering medication, any rise in IOP>30 mm Hg, or glaucoma surgery. Other measured outcomes included visual acuity, central subfield thickness (CSFT) changes and use of concomitant medications. Results In total, 345 eyes had a mean follow-up of 428 days. Overall, 13.9% of patients required IOP-lowering drops (included initiation, addition and switching of current drops), 7.2% had IOP elevation >30 mm Hg and 0.3% required glaucoma surgery. In patients with prior steroid exposure and no prior IOP-related event, there were no new IOP-related events. In patients without prior steroid use and without prior IOP-related events, 10.3% of eyes required IOP-lowering medication and 4.3% exhibited IOP >30 mm Hg at some point during follow-up. At 24 months, mean best-recorded visual acuity increased from 51.9 to 57.2 letters and 20.8% achieved ≥15-letter improvement. Mean CSFT reduced from 451.2 to 355.5 μm. Conclusions While overall IOP-related emergent events were observed in similar frequency to FAME, no adverse events were seen in the subgroup with prior steroid exposure and no prior IOP events. Efficacy findings confirm that the FAc implant is a useful treatment option for chronic DMO. PMID:28737758

TrustRank: a Cold-Start tolerant recommender system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zou, Haitao; Gong, Zhiguo; Zhang, Nan; Zhao, Wei; Guo, Jingzhi

2015-02-01

The explosive growth of the World Wide Web leads to the fast advancing development of e-commerce techniques. Recommender systems, which use personalised information filtering techniques to generate a set of items suitable to a given user, have received considerable attention. User- and item-based algorithms are two popular techniques for the design of recommender systems. These two algorithms are known to have Cold-Start problems, i.e., they are unable to effectively handle Cold-Start users who have an extremely limited number of purchase records. In this paper, we develop TrustRank, a novel recommender system which handles the Cold-Start problem by leveraging the user-trust networks which are commonly available for e-commerce applications. A user-trust network is formed by friendships or trust relationships that users specify among them. While it is straightforward to conjecture that a user-trust network is helpful for improving the accuracy of recommendations, a key challenge for using user-trust network to facilitate Cold-Start users is that these users also tend to have a very limited number of trust relationships. To address this challenge, we propose a pre-processing propagation of the Cold-Start users' trust network. In particular, by applying the personalised PageRank algorithm, we expand the friends of a given user to include others with similar purchase records to his/her original friends. To make this propagation algorithm scalable to a large amount of users, as required by real-world recommender systems, we devise an iterative computation algorithm of the original personalised TrustRank which can incrementally compute trust vectors for Cold-Start users. We conduct extensive experiments to demonstrate the consistently improvement provided by our proposed algorithm over the existing recommender algorithms on the accuracy of recommendations for Cold-Start users.

A Signal-Detection Analysis of Fast-and-Frugal Trees

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luan, Shenghua; Schooler, Lael J.; Gigerenzer, Gerd

2011-01-01

Models of decision making are distinguished by those that aim for an optimal solution in a world that is precisely specified by a set of assumptions (a so-called "small world") and those that aim for a simple but satisfactory solution in an uncertain world where the assumptions of optimization models may not be met (a so-called "large world"). Few…

Global Assessment of Seasonal Potential Distribution of Mediterranean Fruit Fly, Ceratitis capitata (Diptera: Tephritidae)

PubMed Central

Szyniszewska, Anna M.; Tatem, Andrew J.

2014-01-01

The Mediterranean fruit fly (Medfly) is one of the world's most economically damaging pests. It displays highly seasonal population dynamics, and the environmental conditions suitable for its abundance are not constant throughout the year in most places. An extensive literature search was performed to obtain the most comprehensive data on the historical and contemporary spatio-temporal occurrence of the pest globally. The database constructed contained 2328 unique geo-located entries on Medfly detection sites from 43 countries and nearly 500 unique localities, as well as information on hosts, life stages and capture method. Of these, 125 localities had information on the month when Medfly was recorded and these data were complemented by additional material found in comprehensive databases available online. Records from 1980 until present were used for medfly environmental niche modeling. Maximum Entropy Algorithm (MaxEnt) and a set of seasonally varying environmental covariates were used to predict the fundamental niche of the Medfly on a global scale. Three seasonal maps were also produced: January-April, May-August and September-December. Models performed significantly better than random achieving high accuracy scores, indicating a good discrimination of suitable versus unsuitable areas for the presence of the species. PMID:25375649

Baseline Face Detection, Head Pose Estimation, and Coarse Direction Detection for Facial Data in the SHRP2 Naturalistic Driving Study

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

Paone, Jeffrey R; Bolme, David S; Ferrell, Regina Kay

Keeping a driver focused on the road is one of the most critical steps in insuring the safe operation of a vehicle. The Strategic Highway Research Program 2 (SHRP2) has over 3,100 recorded videos of volunteer drivers during a period of 2 years. This extensive naturalistic driving study (NDS) contains over one million hours of video and associated data that could aid safety researchers in understanding where the driver s attention is focused. Manual analysis of this data is infeasible, therefore efforts are underway to develop automated feature extraction algorithms to process and characterize the data. The real-world nature, volume,more » and acquisition conditions are unmatched in the transportation community, but there are also challenges because the data has relatively low resolution, high compression rates, and differing illumination conditions. A smaller dataset, the head pose validation study, is available which used the same recording equipment as SHRP2 but is more easily accessible with less privacy constraints. In this work we report initial head pose accuracy using commercial and open source face pose estimation algorithms on the head pose validation data set.« less

Waiting time distributions in financial markets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sabatelli, L.; Keating, S.; Dudley, J.; Richmond, P.

2002-05-01

We study waiting time distributions for data representing two completely different financial markets that have dramatically different characteristics. The first are data for the Irish market during the 19th century over the period 1850 to 1854. A total of 10 stocks out of a database of 60 are examined. The second database is for Japanese yen currency fluctuations during the latter part of the 20th century (1989-1992). The Irish stock activity was recorded on a daily basis and activity was characterised by waiting times that varied from one day to a few months. The Japanese yen data was recorded every minute over 24 hour periods and the waiting times varied from a minute to a an hour or so. For both data sets, the waiting time distributions exhibit power law tails. The results for Irish daily data can be easily interpreted using the model of a continuous time random walk first proposed by Montroll and applied recently to some financial data by Mainardi, Scalas and colleagues. Yen data show a quite different behaviour. For large waiting times, the Irish data exhibit a cut off; the Yen data exhibit two humps that could arise as result of major trading centres in the World.

HIV Drug Resistance Early Warning Indicators in Namibia for Public Health Action

PubMed Central

Jonas, Anna; Gweshe, Justice; Siboleka, Milner; DeKlerk, Michael; Gawanab, Michael; Badi, Alfons; Sumbi, Victor; Pereko, Dawn; Blom, Abraham; Mwinga, Samson; Jordan, Michael R.; Jerger, Logan; Lau, Kiger; Hong, Steven Y.

2013-01-01

Background HIV drug resistance (HIVDR) testing is not routinely available in many resource-limited settings, therefore antiretroviral therapy (ART) program and site factors known to be associated with emergence of HIVDR should be monitored to optimize the quality of patient care and minimize the emergence of preventable HIVDR. Methods In 2010, Namibia selected five World Health Organization Early Warning Indicators (EWIs) and scaled-up monitoring from 9 to 33 ART sites: ART prescribing practices, Patients lost to follow-up (LTFU) at 12 months, Patients switched to a second-line regimen at 12 months, On-time antiretroviral (ARV) drug pick-up, and ARV drug-supply continuity. Results Records allowed reporting on three of the five selected EWIs. 22 of 33 (67%) sites met the target of 100% initiated on appropriate first-line regimens. 17 of 33 (52%) sites met the target of ≤20% LTFU. 15 of 33 (45%) sites met the target of 0% switched to a second-line regimen. Conclusions EWI monitoring directly resulted in public health action which will optimize the quality of care, specifically the strengthening of ART record systems, engagement of ART sites, and operational research for improved adherence assessment and ART patient defaulter tracing. PMID:23762406

Leveraging the Value of Human Relationships to Improve Health Outcomes. Lessons learned from the OpenMRS Electronic Health Record System.

PubMed

Kasthurirathne, Suranga N; Mamlin, Burke W; Cullen, Theresa

2017-02-01

Despite significant awareness on the value of leveraging patient relationships across the healthcare continuum, there is no research on the potential of using Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems to store structured patient relationship data, or its impact on enabling better healthcare. We sought to identify which EHR systems supported effective patient relationship data collection, and for systems that do, what types of relationship data is collected, how this data is used, and the perceived value of doing so. We performed a literature search to identify EHR systems that supported patient relationship data collection. Based on our results, we defined attributes of an effective patient relationship model. The Open Medical Record System (OpenMRS), an open source medical record platform for underserved settings met our eligibility criteria for effective patient relationship collection. We performed a survey to understand how the OpenMRS patient relationship model was used, and how it brought value to implementers. The OpenMRS patient relationship model has won widespread adoption across many implementations and is perceived to be valuable in enabling better health care delivery. Patient relationship information is widely used for community health programs and enabling chronic care. Additionally, many OpenMRS implementers were using this feature to collect custom relationship types for implementation specific needs. We believe that flexible patient relationship data collection is critical for better healthcare, and can inform community care and chronic care initiatives across the world. Additionally, patient relationship data could also be leveraged for many other initiatives such as patient centric care and in the field of precision medicine.

Habitat and environment of islands: primary and supplemental island sets

USGS Publications Warehouse

Matalas, Nicholas C.; Grossling, Bernardo F.

2002-01-01

The original intent of the study was to develop a first-order synopsis of island hydrology with an integrated geologic basis on a global scale. As the study progressed, the aim was broadened to provide a framework for subsequent assessments on large regional or global scales of island resources and impacts on those resources that are derived from global changes. Fundamental to the study was the development of a comprehensive framework?a wide range of parameters that describe a set of 'saltwater' islands sufficiently large to Characterize the spatial distribution of the world?s islands; Account for all major archipelagos; Account for almost all oceanically isolated islands, and Account collectively for a very large proportion of the total area of the world?s islands whereby additional islands would only marginally contribute to the representativeness and accountability of the island set. The comprehensive framework, which is referred to as the ?Primary Island Set,? is built on 122 parameters that describe 1,000 islands. To complement the investigations based on the Primary Island Set, two supplemental island sets, Set A?Other Islands (not in the Primary Island Set) and Set B?Lagoonal Atolls, are included in the study. The Primary Island Set, together with the Supplemental Island Sets A and B, provides a framework that can be used in various scientific disciplines for their island-based studies on broad regional or global scales. The study uses an informal, coherent, geophysical organization of the islands that belong to the three island sets. The organization is in the form of a global island chain, which is a particular sequential ordering of the islands referred to as the 'Alisida.' The Alisida was developed through a trial-and-error procedure by seeking to strike a balance between 'minimizing the length of the global chain' and 'maximizing the chain?s geophysical coherence.' The fact that an objective function cannot be minimized and maximized simultaneously indicates that the Alisida is not unique. Global island chains other than the Alisida may better serve disciplines other than those of hydrology and geology.

Neem (Azadirachta indica): Prehistory to contemporary medicinal uses to humankind

PubMed Central

Kumar, Venugopalan Santhosh; Navaratnam, Visweswaran

2013-01-01

The divine tree neem (Azadirachta indica) is mainly cultivated in the Indian subcontinent. Neem has been used extensively by humankind to treat various ailments before the availability of written records which recorded the beginning of history. The world health organization estimates that 80% of the population living in the developing countries relies exclusively on traditional medicine for their primary health care. More than half of the world's population still relies entirely on plants for medicines, and plants supply the active ingredients of most traditional medical products. The review shows the neem has been used by humankind to treat various ailments from prehistory to contemporary. PMID:23835719

Contribution to the knowledge of pathogenic fungi of spiders in Argentina. Southernmost record in the world.

PubMed

Manfrino, Romina G; González, Alda; Barneche, Jorge; Tornesello Galván, Julieta; Hywell-Jones, Nigel; López Lastra, Claudia C

The aim of this study was to identify entomopathogenic fungi infecting spiders (Araneae) in a protected area of Buenos Aires province, Argentina. The Araneae species identified was Stenoterommata platensis. The pathogens identified were Lecanicillium aphanocladii Zare & W. Gams, Purpureocillium lilacinum (Thom) Luangsa-ard, Houbraken, Hywel Jones & Samson and Ophiocordyceps caloceroides (Berk & M.A. Curtis). This study constitutes the southernmost records in the world and contributes to expanding the knowledge of the biodiversity of pathogenic fungi of spiders in Argentina. Copyright © 2016 Asociación Argentina de Microbiología. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Neem (Azadirachta indica): prehistory to contemporary medicinal uses to humankind.

PubMed

Kumar, Venugopalan Santhosh; Navaratnam, Visweswaran

2013-07-01

The divine tree neem (Azadirachta indica) is mainly cultivated in the Indian subcontinent. Neem has been used extensively by humankind to treat various ailments before the availability of written records which recorded the beginning of history. The world health organization estimates that 80% of the population living in the developing countries relies exclusively on traditional medicine for their primary health care. More than half of the world's population still relies entirely on plants for medicines, and plants supply the active ingredients of most traditional medical products. The review shows the neem has been used by humankind to treat various ailments from prehistory to contemporary.

The History of Neurosurgery at the National Hospital, Queen Square, London, with Some Personal Recollections from 1948 Onwards: The Early Years.

PubMed

Powell, Michael P

2017-07-01

The National Hospital, Queen Square, London was founded as a charitable institution in 1860, becoming the first dedicated neuroscience hospital in the world. Sir Victor Horsley, the first neurosurgeon was appointed in 1886, and since that time, Queen Square neurosurgeons have been prominent on the World neurosurgical stage, including Sir Wylie McKissock and Prof Lindsay Symon, inter alia. This article gives the history taken from both published records and personal stories, recorded by a neurosurgeon who has worked at the hospital for thirty five years. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Eocene primates of South America and the African origins of New World monkeys

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bond, Mariano; Tejedor, Marcelo F.; Campbell, Kenneth E.; Chornogubsky, Laura; Novo, Nelson; Goin, Francisco

2015-04-01

The platyrrhine primates, or New World monkeys, are immigrant mammals whose fossil record comes from Tertiary and Quaternary sediments of South America and the Caribbean Greater Antilles. The time and place of platyrrhine origins are some of the most controversial issues in primate palaeontology, although an African Palaeogene ancestry has been presumed by most primatologists. Until now, the oldest fossil records of New World monkeys have come from Salla, Bolivia, and date to approximately 26 million years ago, or the Late Oligocene epoch. Here we report the discovery of new primates from the ?Late Eocene epoch of Amazonian Peru, which extends the fossil record of primates in South America back approximately 10 million years. The new specimens are important for understanding the origin and early evolution of modern platyrrhine primates because they bear little resemblance to any extinct or living South American primate, but they do bear striking resemblances to Eocene African anthropoids, and our phylogenetic analysis suggests a relationship with African taxa. The discovery of these new primates brings the first appearance datum of caviomorph rodents and primates in South America back into close correspondence, but raises new questions about the timing and means of arrival of these two mammalian groups.

Taking the Earth's Pulse

USGS Publications Warehouse

Woodward, Robert L.; Benz, Harley Mitchell; Shedlock, Kaye M.; Brown, William M.

2000-01-01

During the past 35 years, scientists have developed a vast network of seismometers that record earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and nuclear explosions throughout the world. Seismographic data support disaster response, scientific research, and global security. With this network, the United States maintains world leadership in monitoring the greatest natural and technological events that threaten our planet's population.

Taking the Earth's pulse

USGS Publications Warehouse

Woodward, Robert L.; Benz, Harly M.; Brown, William M.

1997-01-01

During the past 35 years, scientists have developed a vast network of seismometers that record earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and nuclear explosions throughout the world. Seismographic data support disaster response, scientific research, and global security. With this network, the United States maintains world leadership in monitoring the greatest natural and technological events that threaten our planet's population.

Australia's National Research Collection: Overlap, Uniqueness, and Distribution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Genoni, Paul; Wright, Janette

2011-01-01

This paper reports on the results of an overlap study of Australian research library collections. The study used OCLC's WorldCat Collection Analysis software to mine data recording Australian holdings on the WorldCat database. The data is analysed according to the results obtained for six "groups" which represent various coalitions of…

A Survey of Recent Advances in Optical and Multimedia Information Technologies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jessop, Deborah

1997-01-01

Examines developments in multimedia technologies and in the World Wide Web. Discusses CD-recordable, CD-rewritable, cable modems, personal digital assistants, digital video discs, interactivity and virtual worlds, advertising on the Web, and Intranets and CD-ROM networks. Eight tables and figures show costs, download time, estimated sales, storage…

Mixed Methods for Mixed Reality: Understanding Users' Avatar Activities in Virtual Worlds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feldon, David F.; Kafai, Yasmin B.

2008-01-01

This paper examines the use of mixed methods for analyzing users' avatar-related activities in a virtual world. Server logs recorded keystroke-level activity for 595 participants over a six-month period in Whyville.net, an informal science website. Participants also completed surveys and participated in interviews regarding their experiences.…

Point-of-Care Diagnostics in Low Resource Settings: Present Status and Future Role of Microfluidics

PubMed Central

Sharma, Shikha; Zapatero-Rodríguez, Julia; Estrela, Pedro; O’Kennedy, Richard

2015-01-01

The inability to diagnose numerous diseases rapidly is a significant cause of the disparity of deaths resulting from both communicable and non-communicable diseases in the developing world in comparison to the developed world. Existing diagnostic instrumentation usually requires sophisticated infrastructure, stable electrical power, expensive reagents, long assay times, and highly trained personnel which is not often available in limited resource settings. This review will critically survey and analyse the current lateral flow-based point-of-care (POC) technologies, which have made a major impact on diagnostic testing in developing countries over the last 50 years. The future of POC technologies including the applications of microfluidics, which allows miniaturisation and integration of complex functions that facilitate their usage in limited resource settings, is discussed The advantages offered by such systems, including low cost, ruggedness and the capacity to generate accurate and reliable results rapidly, are well suited to the clinical and social settings of the developing world. PMID:26287254

Is “morphodynamic equilibrium” an oxymoron?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Zhou, Zeng; Coco, Giovanni; Townend, Ian; Olabarrieta, Maitane; van der Wegen, Mick; Gong, Zheng; D'Alpaos, Andrea; Gao, Shu; Jaffe, Bruce E.; Gelfenbaum, Guy R.; He, Qing; Wang, Yaping; Lanzoni, Stefano; Wang, Zhengbing; Winterwerp, Han; Zhang, Changkuan

2017-01-01

Morphodynamic equilibrium is a widely adopted yet elusive concept in the field of geomorphology of coasts, rivers and estuaries. Based on the Exner equation, an expression of mass conservation of sediment, we distinguish three types of equilibrium defined as static and dynamic, of which two different types exist. Other expressions such as statistical and quasi-equilibrium which do not strictly satisfy the Exner conditions are also acknowledged for their practical use. The choice of a temporal scale is imperative to analyse the type of equilibrium. We discuss the difference between morphodynamic equilibrium in the “real world” (nature) and the “virtual world” (model). Modelling studies rely on simplifications of the real world and lead to understanding of process interactions. A variety of factors affect the use of virtual-world predictions in the real world (e.g., variability in environmental drivers and variability in the setting) so that the concept of morphodynamic equilibrium should be mathematically unequivocal in the virtual world and interpreted over the appropriate spatial and temporal scale in the real world. We draw examples from estuarine settings which are subject to various governing factors which broadly include hydrodynamics, sedimentology and landscape setting. Following the traditional “tide-wave-river” ternary diagram, we summarize studies to date that explore the “virtual world”, discuss the type of equilibrium reached and how it relates to the real world.

The Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP): Results, Status and Future

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Adler, Robert F.

2007-01-01

The Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) is one of a number of long-term, satellite-based, global analyses routinely produced under the auspices of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP) and its Global Energy and Watercycle EXperiment (GEWEX) program. The research quality analyses are produced a few months after real-time through the efforts of scientists at various national agencies and universities in the U.S., Europe and Japan. The primary product is a monthly analysis of surface precipitation that is globally complete and spans the period 1979-present. There are also pentad analyses for the same period and a daily analysis for the 1997-present period. Although generated with somewhat different data sets and analysis schemes, the pentad and daily data sets are forced to agree with the primary monthly analysis on a grid box by grid box basis. The primary input data sets are from low-orbit passive microwave observations, geostationary infrared observations and surface raingauge information. Examples of research with the data sets are discussed, focusing on tropical (25N-25s) rainfall variations and possible long-term changes in the 28-year (1979-2006) monthly dataset. Techniques are used to discriminate among the variations due to ENSO, volcanic events and possible long-term changes for rainfall over both land and ocean. The impact of the two major volcanic eruptions over the past 25 years is estimated to be about a 5% maximum reduction in tropical rainfall during each event. Although the global change of precipitation in the data set is near zero, a small upward linear change over tropical ocean (0.06 mm/day/l0yr) and a slight downward linear change over tropical land (-0.03 mm/day/l0yr) are examined to understand the impact of the inhomogeneity in the data record and the length of the data set. These positive changes correspond to about a 5% increase (ocean) and 3% increase (ocean plus land) during this time period. Relations between variations in surface temperature and precipitation are analyzed on seasonal to inter-decadal time scales. A new, version 3 of GPCP is being planned to incorporate new satellite information (e.g., TRMM) and provide higher spatial and temporal resolution for at least part of the data record. The goals and plans for that GPCP re-processing will be outlined.

75 FR 999 - Records Schedules; Availability and Request for Comments

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-01-07

... temporary items). Claims, allowances, and individual trusts relating to the World War I alien property... process is available on request. Schedules Pending 1. Department of Agriculture, Agency-wide (N1-16-10-4, 1 item, 1 temporary item). Routine surveillance recordings, which were previously approved for...

Adoption and Use of Videocassette Recorders in the Third World.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Straubhaar, Joseph; Boyd, Douglas A.

Videocassette recorder (VCR) acquisition and use in developing nations is largely an individual or household decision, and their rapid diffusion is influenced by several factors: price, and its variations due to government restrictions; income and income distribution; the content of broadcast television; the diversity of entertainment media…

First North American record of the Palearctic Microplax albofasciata (Costa) (Hemiptera: Lygaeoidea: Oxycarenidae)

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Microplax albofasciata (Costa), a Palearctic (mainly Mediterranean) species of the small family Oxycarenidae, is reported from California as the first record for the New World. Adults of this little-known lygaeoid bug were found in 2012 and 2013 at the Hastings Natural History Reservation in norther...

Exploring the Relationships between the Electronic Health Record System Components and Patient Outcomes in an Acute Hospital Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wiggley, Shirley L.

2011-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the electronic health record system components and patient outcomes in an acute hospital setting, given that the current presidential administration has earmarked nearly $50 billion to the implementation of the electronic health record. The relationship between the…

East Asian observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stephenson, F. R.

East Asian observations are of established importance in Applied Historical Astronomy. The earliest astronomical records from this part of the world (China, Japan and Korea) originate from China. These observations, mainly of lunar eclipses, are recorded on oracle bones from the period ca. 1300 - 1050 BC. Virtually all later Chinese and other East Asian astronomical records now exist only in printed copies. The earliest surviving series of solar eclipse observations from any part of the world is contained in the Chunqiu (722 - 481 BC), a chronicle of the Chinese state of Lu. However, not until after 200 BC, with the establishment of a stable empire in China, do detailed astronomical records survive. These are mainly contained in specially compiled astrological treatises in the official dynastic histories. Such records, following the traditional style, extend down to the start of the present century. All classes of phenomena visible to the unaided eye are represented: solar and lunar eclipses, lunar and planetary movements among the constellations, comets, novae and supernovae, meteors, sunspots and the aurora borealis. Parallel, but independent series of observations are recorded in Japanese and Korean history, especially after about AD 800. Sources of Japanese records tend to be more diverse than their Chinese and Korean counterparts, but fortunately Kanda Shigeru (1935) and Ohsaki Shyoji (1994) have made extensive compilations of Japanese astronomical observations down to the 1860s. Throughout East Asia, dates were expressed in terms of a luni-solar calendar.

Play Therapy in Elementary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Landreth, Garry L.; Ray, Dee C.; Bratton, Sue C.

2009-01-01

Because the child's world is a world of action and activity, play therapy provides the psychologist in elementary-school settings with an opportunity to enter the child's world. In the play therapy relationship, toys are like the child's words and play is the child's language. Therefore, children play out their problems, experiences, concerns, and…

American High Schools Can Be World Class.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chalker, Donald M.; Haynes, Richard M.; Smith, Mark

1999-01-01

Compares characteristics of high school educational systems from 10 countries with exemplary educational systems. Describes a resulting set of world class standards and observes the acceptance or rejection of these standards in the United States. Discusses world class practices in American high schools. Offers a starter agenda for delivering world…

The Two World Histories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dunn, Ross E.

2008-01-01

In the arenas where the two world histories have taken shape, educators vigorously debate among themselves intellectual, pedagogical, and policy issues surrounding world history as a school subject. The people in each arena tend to share, despite internal disagreements, a common set of premises and assumptions for ordering the discussion of world…

Visual geography

USGS Publications Warehouse

,; ,; ,

1991-01-01

Maps are, among other things, a way of making geography visual. They are world views, ways of thinking, and ways of communicating. They depict our world and guide us through it. Visual Geography probes the essence of maps and mapmaking. It follows the story of cartography through the millennia, across the globe, and beyond the solar system. It includes some of the world's most beautiful and enduring maps, some of its most historic - a map in Columbus' hand, the map that was carried to the Moon, the first map to show America - and it examines the urge to map, to measure our world, and to record it graphically.

The Experience of Soviet Medicine in World War II 1941-1945. Volume I.

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-02-25

Soviet state has withstood the tests of war and shown itself to be viable." During World War II, the noble humanism of the Soviet Army, the army...factors if one looks at the health records of the Russian Army during World War I in 1914-1918. In spite of the fact that in this war the pos...to duty in the Russian Army varied in limits of X.6 40-45% and in any case did not exceed 50%. In the Soviet Army during World War II, more than 72

Improving record linkage performance in the presence of missing linkage data.

PubMed

Ong, Toan C; Mannino, Michael V; Schilling, Lisa M; Kahn, Michael G

2014-12-01

Existing record linkage methods do not handle missing linking field values in an efficient and effective manner. The objective of this study is to investigate three novel methods for improving the accuracy and efficiency of record linkage when record linkage fields have missing values. By extending the Fellegi-Sunter scoring implementations available in the open-source Fine-grained Record Linkage (FRIL) software system we developed three novel methods to solve the missing data problem in record linkage, which we refer to as: Weight Redistribution, Distance Imputation, and Linkage Expansion. Weight Redistribution removes fields with missing data from the set of quasi-identifiers and redistributes the weight from the missing attribute based on relative proportions across the remaining available linkage fields. Distance Imputation imputes the distance between the missing data fields rather than imputing the missing data value. Linkage Expansion adds previously considered non-linkage fields to the linkage field set to compensate for the missing information in a linkage field. We tested the linkage methods using simulated data sets with varying field value corruption rates. The methods developed had sensitivity ranging from .895 to .992 and positive predictive values (PPV) ranging from .865 to 1 in data sets with low corruption rates. Increased corruption rates lead to decreased sensitivity for all methods. These new record linkage algorithms show promise in terms of accuracy and efficiency and may be valuable for combining large data sets at the patient level to support biomedical and clinical research. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Physical and technical demands of elite beach volleyball according to playing position and gender.

PubMed

Natali, Simone; Ferioli, Davide; LA Torre, Antonio; Bonato, Matteo

2017-12-01

Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two players on a sand court divided by a net. To date, research has mainly focused on male beach volleyball players. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess work-rest ratio and physical actions between males and females according to their role. Forty-two elite beach volley players (24 males and 18 females) were filmed during 12 beach volleyball matches of the Swatch Major Series 2016 of the beach volleyball World Tour in Poreč in (Croatia). Duration of point rallies, work rest ratio and the number of jumps and hits performed by the players according to their role (blockers and defenders) were recorded. Twenty-one teams (12 males and 9 females) were recorded during a total of 12 matches comprising 11 sets for males and 9 sets for females. Males scored a total of 428 points whereas females scored 440 points. Un-paired t-test did not show significant differences between males and females. Two-way analysis of variance showed a significant difference in the jumps performed between blockers and defenders and not between males and females. No significant differences in the other variables were detected. The present study provides new inside into female beach volleyball matches, giving preliminary normative data. Technical and physical aspects of beach volleyball performance appear not to be influenced by gender and to be only partially different according to playing positions. These results should be considered during the daily training scheduling.

Total ozone changes over Eurasia since 1973 based on reevaluated filter ozonometer data

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

Bojkov, R.D.; Fioletov, V.E.; Shalamjansky, A.M.

1994-11-01

Since the early 1960s, on the vast territory of the former USSR, 45 stations have been in continuous operation, utilizing the broadband filter M-83 ozonometer. The quality of the ozone data during the first decade was unsatisfactory. After 1972 an improved version of the ozonometer was introduced together with improved quality control practices, including methodology of observations. The more reliable data of 1973 through March 1994 have been rigorously reexamined by applying variability analysis, comparison with lower-stratosphere temperatures and/or nearby Dobson stations, and overpassing Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) for identifying concurrence or discrepancies. These control procedures together with themore » information on instrument relocation and calibrations made it possible to reevaluate the record of all 45 stations. The accuracy of the improved ozonometer data is about 3% for direct Sun measurements and approximately 5% for zenith sky observations; although not so good as that of the Dobson, in the long run it provides consistent ozone data sets. This data set is now made available to the World Ozone Data Center (WO3DC), Toronto. Thus for the first time, based on a 21-year long record, information is deduced on the differences in the ozone annual cycle between Eastern Siberia and the European part, on the strong appearance of quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) signals especially pronounced as ozone deficiency during the western phase of the QBO, on the ozone variability, and on the long-term changes over the huge territory from Central Europe to the Far East.« less

One hundred and fifty years of sprint and distance running – Past trends and future prospects

PubMed Central

Weiss, Martin; Newman, Alexandra; Whitmore, Ceri; Weiss, Stephan

2016-01-01

Abstract Sprint and distance running have experienced remarkable performance improvements over the past century. Attempts to forecast running performances share an almost similarly long history but have relied so far on relatively short data series. Here, we compile a comprehensive set of season-best performances for eight Olympically contested running events. With this data set, we conduct (1) an exponential time series analysis and (2) a power-law experience curve analysis to quantify the rate of past performance improvements and to forecast future performances until the year 2100. We find that the sprint and distance running performances of women and men improve exponentially with time and converge at yearly rates of 4% ± 3% and 2% ± 2%, respectively, towards their asymptotic limits. Running performances can also be modelled with the experience curve approach, yielding learning rates of 3% ± 1% and 6% ± 2% for the women's and men's events, respectively. Long-term trends suggest that: (1) women will continue to run 10–20% slower than men, (2) 9.50 s over 100 m dash may only be broken at the end of this century and (3) several middle- and long-distance records may be broken within the next two to three decades. The prospects of witnessing a sub-2 hour marathon before 2100 remain inconclusive. Our results should be interpreted cautiously as forecasting human behaviour is intrinsically uncertain. The future season-best sprint and distance running performances will continue to scatter around the trends identified here and may yield unexpected improvements of standing world records. PMID:26088705

The Child's View of the World: The Origin of Moon, Sun and Stars.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Monteiro, M. T. de Lima; And Others

A study evaluated the world view of children from a third world low-income family setting. A secondary aim of the study was to see if the developmental stages of world concept formation, first described by Piaget in 1929, were present in the children studied. Ten 5- to 12-year-old Brazilian children were interviewed concerning the origins of the…

Feasibility of Using Mobile ECG Recording Technology to Detect Atrial Fibrillation in Low-Resource Settings.

PubMed

Evans, Grahame F; Shirk, Arianna; Muturi, Peter; Soliman, Elsayed Z

2017-12-01

Screening for atrial fibrillation (AF), a major risk factor for stroke that is on the rise in Africa, is becoming increasingly critical. This study sought to examine the feasibility of using mobile electrocardiogram (ECG) recording technology to detect AF. In this prospective observational study, we used a mobile ECG recorder to screen 50 African adults (66% women; mean age 54.3 ± 20.5 years) attending Kijabe Hospital (Kijabe, Kenya). Five hospital health providers involved in this study's data collection process also completed a self-administered survey to obtain information on their access to the Internet and mobile devices, both factors necessary to implement ECG mobile technology. Outcome measures included feasibility (completion of the study and recruitment of the patients on the planned study time frame) and the yield of the screening by the mobile ECG technology (ability to detect previously undiagnosed AF). Patients were recruited in a 2-week period as planned; only 1 of the 51 patients approached refused to participate (98% acceptance rate). All of the 50 patients who agreed to participate completed the test and produced readable ECGs (100% study completion rate). ECG tracings of 4 of the 50 patients who completed the study showed AF (8% AF yield), and none had been previously diagnosed with AF. When asked about continuous access to Internet and personal mobile devices, almost all of the health care providers surveyed answered affirmatively. Using mobile ECG technology in screening for AF in low-resource settings is feasible, and can detect a significant proportion of AF cases that will otherwise go undiagnosed. Further study is needed to examine the cost-effectiveness of this approach for detection of AF and its effect on reducing the risk of stroke in developing countries. Copyright © 2016 World Heart Federation (Geneva). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Teaching Poetry in TESOL Teacher Education: Heightened Attention to Language as Well as to Cultural and Political Critique through Poetry Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cahnmann-Taylor, Melisa; Bleyle, Susan; Hwang, Yohan; Zhang, Kuo

2017-01-01

Teachers of World English are no longer charged with teaching a fixed set of grammar rules and lexical choices but with teaching creative ways to navigate varieties of English and other world languages according to a wide set of contextual variables. Although there is a great deal of advocacy for teaching creativity and strategy in TESOL…

The Inter-Life Project: Researching the Potential of Art, Design and Virtual Worlds as a Vehicle for Assisting Young People with Key Life Changes and Transitions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lally, Victor; Sclater, Madeleine

2013-01-01

Careers work in the twenty-first century faces a key challenge in terms of digital technologies: to evaluate their potential for careers work in challenging settings. Given the rapidity of developments, technologies require evaluation in research innovations and naturalistic settings. Virtual worlds offer potential for careers and guidance work,…

Fall Detection in Individuals With Lower Limb Amputations Using Mobile Phones: Machine Learning Enhances Robustness for Real-World Applications.

PubMed

Shawen, Nicholas; Lonini, Luca; Mummidisetty, Chaithanya Krishna; Shparii, Ilona; Albert, Mark V; Kording, Konrad; Jayaraman, Arun

2017-10-11

Automatically detecting falls with mobile phones provides an opportunity for rapid response to injuries and better knowledge of what precipitated the fall and its consequences. This is beneficial for populations that are prone to falling, such as people with lower limb amputations. Prior studies have focused on fall detection in able-bodied individuals using data from a laboratory setting. Such approaches may provide a limited ability to detect falls in amputees and in real-world scenarios. The aim was to develop a classifier that uses data from able-bodied individuals to detect falls in individuals with a lower limb amputation, while they freely carry the mobile phone in different locations and during free-living. We obtained 861 simulated indoor and outdoor falls from 10 young control (non-amputee) individuals and 6 individuals with a lower limb amputation. In addition, we recorded a broad database of activities of daily living, including data from three participants' free-living routines. Sensor readings (accelerometer and gyroscope) from a mobile phone were recorded as participants freely carried it in three common locations-on the waist, in a pocket, and in the hand. A set of 40 features were computed from the sensors data and four classifiers were trained and combined through stacking to detect falls. We compared the performance of two population-specific models, trained and tested on either able-bodied or amputee participants, with that of a model trained on able-bodied participants and tested on amputees. A simple threshold-based classifier was used to benchmark our machine-learning classifier. The accuracy of fall detection in amputees for a model trained on control individuals (sensitivity: mean 0.989, 1.96*standard error of the mean [SEM] 0.017; specificity: mean 0.968, SEM 0.025) was not statistically different (P=.69) from that of a model trained on the amputee population (sensitivity: mean 0.984, SEM 0.016; specificity: mean 0.965, SEM 0.022). Detection of falls in control individuals yielded similar results (sensitivity: mean 0.979, SEM 0.022; specificity: mean 0.991, SEM 0.012). A mean 2.2 (SD 1.7) false alarms per day were obtained when evaluating the model (vs mean 122.1, SD 166.1 based on thresholds) on data recorded as participants carried the phone during their daily routine for two or more days. Machine-learning classifiers outperformed the threshold-based one (P<.001). A mobile phone-based fall detection model can use data from non-amputee individuals to detect falls in individuals walking with a prosthesis. We successfully detected falls when the mobile phone was carried across multiple locations and without a predetermined orientation. Furthermore, the number of false alarms yielded by the model over a longer period of time was reasonably low. This moves the application of mobile phone-based fall detection systems closer to a real-world use case scenario. ©Nicholas Shawen, Luca Lonini, Chaithanya Krishna Mummidisetty, Ilona Shparii, Mark V Albert, Konrad Kording, Arun Jayaraman. Originally published in JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth (http://mhealth.jmir.org), 11.10.2017.

Modelling Inland Flood Events for Hazard Maps in Taiwan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghosh, S.; Nzerem, K.; Sassi, M.; Hilberts, A.; Assteerawatt, A.; Tillmanns, S.; Mathur, P.; Mitas, C.; Rafique, F.

2015-12-01

Taiwan experiences significant inland flooding, driven by torrential rainfall from plum rain storms and typhoons during summer and fall. From last 13 to 16 years data, 3,000 buildings were damaged by such floods annually with a loss US$0.41 billion (Water Resources Agency). This long, narrow island nation with mostly hilly/mountainous topography is located at tropical-subtropical zone with annual average typhoon-hit-frequency of 3-4 (Central Weather Bureau) and annual average precipitation of 2502mm (WRA) - 2.5 times of the world's average. Spatial and temporal distributions of countrywide precipitation are uneven, with very high local extreme rainfall intensities. Annual average precipitation is 3000-5000mm in the mountainous regions, 78% of it falls in May-October, and the 1-hour to 3-day maximum rainfall are about 85 to 93% of the world records (WRA). Rivers in Taiwan are short with small upstream areas and high runoff coefficients of watersheds. These rivers have the steepest slopes, the shortest response time with rapid flows, and the largest peak flows as well as specific flood peak discharge (WRA) in the world. RMS has recently developed a countrywide inland flood model for Taiwan, producing hazard return period maps at 1arcsec grid resolution. These can be the basis for evaluating and managing flood risk, its economic impacts, and insured flood losses. The model is initiated with sub-daily historical meteorological forcings and calibrated to daily discharge observations at about 50 river gauges over the period 2003-2013. Simulations of hydrologic processes, via rainfall-runoff and routing models, are subsequently performed based on a 10000 year set of stochastic forcing. The rainfall-runoff model is physically based continuous, semi-distributed model for catchment hydrology. The 1-D wave propagation hydraulic model considers catchment runoff in routing and describes large-scale transport processes along the river. It also accounts for reservoir storage. Major historical flood events have been successfully simulated along with spatial patterns of flows. Comparison of stochastic discharge statistics w.r.t. observed ones from Hydrological Year Books of Taiwan over all recorded years are also in good agreement.

Why does Japan use the probability method to set design flood?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nakamura, S.; Oki, T.

2015-12-01

Design flood is hypothetical flood to make flood prevention plan. In Japan, a probability method based on precipitation data is used to define the scale of design flood: Tone River, the biggest river in Japan, is 1 in 200 years, Shinano River is 1 in 150 years, and so on. It is one of important socio-hydrological issue how to set reasonable and acceptable design flood in a changing world. The method to set design flood vary among countries. Although the probability method is also used in Netherland, but the base data is water level or discharge data and the probability is 1 in 1250 years (in fresh water section). On the other side, USA and China apply the maximum flood method which set the design flood based on the historical or probable maximum flood. This cases can leads a question: "what is the reason why the method vary among countries?" or "why does Japan use the probability method?" The purpose of this study is to clarify the historical process which the probability method was developed in Japan based on the literature. In the late 19the century, the concept of "discharge" and modern river engineering were imported by Dutch engineers, and modern flood prevention plans were developed in Japan. In these plans, the design floods were set based on the historical maximum method. Although the historical maximum method had been used until World War 2, however, the method was changed to the probability method after the war because of limitations of historical maximum method under the specific socio-economic situations: (1) the budget limitation due to the war and the GHQ occupation, (2) the historical floods: Makurazaki typhoon in 1945, Kathleen typhoon in 1947, Ione typhoon in 1948, and so on, attacked Japan and broke the record of historical maximum discharge in main rivers and the flood disasters made the flood prevention projects difficult to complete. Then, Japanese hydrologists imported the hydrological probability statistics from the West to take account of socio-economic situation in design flood, and they applied to Japanese rivers in 1958. The probability method was applied Japan to adapt the specific socio-economic and natural situation during the confusion after the war.

Lacustrine-fluvial interactions in Australia's Riverine Plains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kemp, Justine; Pietsch, Timothy; Gontz, Allen; Olley, Jon

2017-06-01

Climatic forcing of fluvial systems has been a pre-occupation of geomorphological studies in Australia since the 1940s. In the Riverine Plain, southeastern Australia, the stable tectonic setting and absence of glaciation have combined to produce sediment loads that are amongst the lowest in the world. Surficial sediments and landforms exceed 140,000 yr in age, and geomorphological change recorded in the fluvial, fluvio-lacustrine and aeolian features have provided a well-studied record of Quaternary environmental change over the last glacial cycle. The region includes the Willandra Lakes, whose distinctive lunette lakes preserve a history of water-level variations and ecological change that is the cornerstone of Australian Quaternary chronostratigraphy. The lunette sediments also contain an ancient record of human occupation that includes the earliest human fossils yet found on the Australian continent. To date, the lake-level and palaeochannel records in the Lachlan-Willandra system have not been fully integrated, making it difficult to establish the regional significance of hydrological change. Here, we compare the Willandra Lakes environmental record with the morphology and location of fluvial systems in the lower Lachlan. An ancient channel belt of the Lachlan, Willandra Creek, acted as the main feeder channel to Willandra Lakes before channel avulsion caused the lakes to dry out in the late Pleistocene. Electromagnetic surveys, geomorphological and sedimentary evidence are used to reconstruct the evolution of the first new channel belt following the avulsion. Single grain optical dating of floodplain sediments indicates that sedimentation in the new Middle Billabong Palaeochannel had commenced before 18.4 ± 1.1 ka. A second avulsion shifted its upper reaches to the location of the present Lachlan River by 16.2 ± 0.9 ka. The timing of these events is consistent with palaeohydrological records reconstructed from Willandra Lakes and with the record of palaeochannels on the Lachlan River upstream. Willandra Lakes shows high inflows during the Last Glacial Maximum (∼22 ka), but their subsequent drying between 20.5 ka and 19 ka was caused by river avulsion rather than regional aridity. This case study highlights the benefits of combining fluvial with lacustrine archives to build complementary records of hydrological change in lowland riverine plains.

The World of Barilla Taylor: Bringing History to Life through Primary Sources.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stearns, Liza

1997-01-01

Presents a lesson plan using material from a primary source-based curriculum kit titled "The World of Barilla Taylor." The kit uses personal letters, maps, hospital and work records, and other primary sources to document the life of a young woman working in the textile mills in 19th-century Massachusetts. (MJP)

Citius, Altius, Fortius: Faster, Higher, Stronger

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-06-01

international community and international sports, and domestic customs, or acceptance of international sports. Succinctly, sports do not exist within a void...and success of Chinese female athletics are effectively examined through a chronological historical examination. Upon displaying the information ...broke a world record, and Shi Baoshu (female shot putter) ranked seventh in the world. Remarkably, elite male athletes outnumbered elite female

An Exploration of the World Wide Web: Art Images and Visual Literacy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robinson, Rhonda S.; Koos, Marybeth

The introduction of affordable multimedia computers with CD-ROM capacity, videocassette recorders, and connections to the Internet and the World Wide Web have expanded opportunities to help society develop visual literacy. Art images are a natural choice for the teaching of visual literacy. At Northern Illinois University, a course was added in…

Recording Sensory Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ashbrook, Peggy

2007-01-01

From children's viewpoints, what they experience in the world is what the world is like--for everyone. "What do others experience with their senses when they are in the same situation?" is a question that young children can explore by collecting data as they use a "feely box," or take a "sensory walk." There are many ways to focus the children's…

Assessing the Collective Wealth of Australian Research Libraries: Measuring Overlap Using "Worldcat Collection Analysis"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Genoni, Paul; Wright, Jannette

2010-01-01

This paper reports the results of recent research examining the holdings of Australian research library collections recorded in the WorldCat database using OCLC WorldCat Collection Analysis software. The objectives of the research are: 1. To better understand the distribution of printed monographs amongst Australian research collections in order…

Understanding global climate change: paleoclimate perspective from the world's highest mountains.

PubMed

Thompson, Lonnie G

2010-06-01

Glaciers are among the world's best recorders of, and first responders to, natural and anthropogenic climate change and provide a time perspective for current climatic and environmental variations. Over the last 50 years such records have been recovered from the polar regions as well as low-latitude, high-elevation ice fields. Analyses of these ice cores and of the glaciers from which they have been drilled have yielded three lines of evidence for past and present abrupt climate change: (1) the temperature and precipitation histories recorded in the glaciers as revealed by the climate records extracted from the ice cores; (2) the accelerating loss of the glaciers themselves; and (3) the uncovering of ancient fauna and flora from the margins of the glaciers as a result of their recent melting, thus illustrating the significance of the current ice loss. The current melting of high-altitude, low-latitude ice fields is consistent with model predictions for a vertical amplification of temperature in the tropics. The ongoing rapid retreat of the world's mountain glaciers, as well as the margins of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, is not only contributing to global sea level rise, but also threatening fresh-water supplies in many of the most populous regions. More recently, strong evidence has appeared for the acceleration of the rate of ice loss in the tropics, which especially presents a clear and present danger to water supplies for at-risk populations in South America and Asia. The human response to this issue, however, is not so clear, for although the evidence from both data and models becomes more compelling, the rate of global CO2 emissions continues to accelerate. Climatologically, we are in unfamiliar territory, and the world's ice cover is responding dramatically. The loss of glaciers, which can be viewed as the world's water towers, threatens water resources that are essential for hydroelectric power, crop irrigation, municipal water supplies, and even tourism. As these glaciers are disappearing, we are also losing very valuable paleoclimate archives.

A method for recording verbal behavior in free-play settings.

PubMed

Nordquist, V M

1971-01-01

The present study attempted to test the reliability of a new method of recording verbal behavior in a free-play preschool setting. Six children, three normal and three speech impaired, served as subjects. Videotaped records of verbal behavior were scored by two experimentally naive observers. The results suggest that the system provides a means of obtaining reliable records of both normal and impaired speech, even when the subjects exhibit nonverbal behaviors (such as hyperactivity) that interfere with direct observation techniques.

An Analysis of a Video Game

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Allain, Rhett; Williams, Richard

2009-02-01

Suppose we had a brand new world to study—a world that possibly works with a different set of principles, a non-Newtonian world. Maybe this world is Newtonian, maybe it isn't. This world exists in video games, and it is open for exploration. Most video games try to incorporate realistic physics, but sometimes this does not happen. The obvious approach is to look at the source code for the game, but this would not allow students to apply analysis techniques.

World Religions. Senior Division.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ontario Dept. of Education, Toronto.

This curriculum guide provides a general view of the various considerations governing a senior year or high school course in world religions. An early section on objectives sets out some of the aims of a course in world religions. It states that the particular aim should be the development of a sympathetic understanding of the meaning of different…

Safety Experience During Real-World Use of Injectable Artesunate in Public Health Facilities in Ghana and Uganda: Outcomes of a Modified Cohort Event Monitoring Study (CEMISA).

PubMed

Ampadu, H Hilda; Dodoo, Alexander N O; Bosomprah, Samuel; Akakpo, Samantha; Hugo, Pierre; Gardarsdottir, Helga; Leufkens, H G M; Kajungu, Dan; Asante, Kwaku Poku

2018-04-25

Injectable artesunate (Inj AS) is the World Health Organization (WHO)-recommended product for treating severe malaria. However, despite widespread usage, there are few published safety studies involving large populations in real-world settings. In this study, we sought to assess the incidence of common adverse events (AEs) following the intake of Inj AS in real-life settings. This is a modified cohort event monitoring study involving patients who were administered with Inj AS at eight sites (four each in Ghana and Uganda) between May and December 2016. Patients were eligible for inclusion if they had severe/complicated malaria and were able and willing to participate in the study. Eligible patients were followed up by telephone or hospital or home visit on Days 7, 14, 21 and 28 after drug administration to document AEs and serious AEs (SAEs). Patients were also encouraged to report all AEs at any time during the study period. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate the proportion of patients with any AEs by end of Day 28. Causality assessment was made on all AEs/SAEs using the WHO/UMC (Uppsala Monitoring Centre) causality method. A total of 1103 eligible patients were administered Inj AS, of which 360 patients were in Ghana and 743 in Uganda. The incidence of any AE by the end of follow-up among patients treated with AS was estimated to be 17.9% (197/1103) (95% confidence interval [CI] 15.8-20.3). The median time-to-onset of any AEs was 9 days (interquartile range (IQR) = 4, 14). The top five AEs recorded among patients treated with AS were pyrexia (3.5%), abdominal pain (2.5%), diarrhoea (1.7%), cough (1.5%) and asthenia (1.5%). Most of these top five AEs occurred in the first 14 days following treatment. Regarding the relatedness of these AEs to Inj AS, 78.9% of pyrexia (30/38), 63.0% of pain (17/27), 68.4% of diarrhoea (13/19), 85.5% of cough (14/16) and 75.0% of asthenia (12/16) were assessed as 'possibly' related. There were 17 SAEs including 13 deaths. Two of the deaths are 'possibly' related to Inj AS, as were three non-fatal SAEs: severe abdominal pain, failure of therapy and severe anaemia. The incidence of common AEs among patients treated with Inj AS in real-world settings was found to be relatively low. Future studies should consider larger cohorts to document rare AEs as well. CLINICALTRIALS. NCT02817919.

40 CFR 1602.2 - Requests for access to records.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... Government Printing Office's World Wide Web site (which can be found at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs... requested records, you may also, at your option, include your social security number. (e) Verification of..., date and place of birth, and, at your option, the social security number of the individual; (2) Your...

40 CFR 1602.2 - Requests for access to records.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... Government Printing Office's World Wide Web site (which can be found at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs... requested records, you may also, at your option, include your social security number. (e) Verification of..., date and place of birth, and, at your option, the social security number of the individual; (2) Your...

The Miracle of Microfilm: The Foundation of the Largest Genealogical Record Collection in the World.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Powell, Ted F.

1985-01-01

Traces origins of the Genealogical Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon), highlighting microfilm technology, equipment used, development of the 16mm camera, film processing, quality control, filming techniques, specialized microfilming, archival storage (The Granite Mountain Records Vault), the genealogical library…

Early Nineteenth Century Christian Libertarian Newspapers: Rise and Decline of the Boston Recorder, 1816-1849.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olasky, Marvin N.

Recent history textbooks have conspicuously removed references to religion and religious publications, providing a distorted view of American and world history. One such neglected publication, the Boston "Recorder," was founded by Nathaniel Willis in 1816. A Christian newspaper, it was based on three principles: (1) to show theological…

20 CFR 408.405 - When do we require original records or copies as evidence?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... 20 Employees' Benefits 2 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false When do we require original records or copies as evidence? 408.405 Section 408.405 Employees' Benefits SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION SPECIAL BENEFITS FOR CERTAIN WORLD WAR II VETERANS Evidence Requirements General Information § 408.405 When do we...

20 CFR 408.405 - When do we require original records or copies as evidence?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 20 Employees' Benefits 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false When do we require original records or copies as evidence? 408.405 Section 408.405 Employees' Benefits SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION SPECIAL BENEFITS FOR CERTAIN WORLD WAR II VETERANS Evidence Requirements General Information § 408.405 When do we...

Lecture Capture: What Can Be Automated?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burdet, Benoit; Bontron, Cedric; Burgi, Pierre-Yves

2007-01-01

Online education encompasses a variety of technologies, one of which is lecture capture--a long-standing practice at the University of Geneva. The faculty of arts has recorded most of its lectures on audiotapes since the 1970s, well before the World Wide Web existed. Modernization of the recording technologies, however, which until recently…

New North American records for the Old World psyllid Heterotrioza chenopodii (Reuter) with biological observations (Hemiptera: Psylloidea: Triozidae)

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The Palearctic psyllid Heterotrioza chenopodii belongs to a complex of psyllids having plants in the Chenopodiaceae as hosts. Geographic records for this introduced species in North America date back to 1988, and include coastal regions in eastern Canada and the Northeastern U.S.; inland Virginia; ...

Isotopic, Ecological and Technological Investigations of the Land Snail Record

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Faber, Meredith L.

2012-01-01

In the ever-evolving landscape of the natural world, change is the only constant. Investigating how life accommodates that change can provide valuable insights into the biological, ecological and geological history of our planet. The fossil record is replete with examples of organisms which failed to survive in the wake of ongoing environmental…

The Psychological Record: Reaffirming the Past and Embracing the Future

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rehfeldt, Ruth Anne

2007-01-01

In providing an outlet for manuscripts from all areas of scientific psychology, it was the founders' intentions that authors would experience a more rapid turn-around from submission to publication than was the case with other general psychology journals at the time. Despite difficulties created by World War II, "The Psychological Record" remained…

USSR Report, International Affairs

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-04-08

include above all the European Economic Community (EEC), a major economic grouping in the capitalist world . In setting up the EEC its participants...not be able to withstand the competition of the other imperi- alist powers and maintain its positions in the capitalist world . At present the...15 per cent. It is indicative that with Western Europe’s relative weight in the world export topping one-third, its share in the world export of

First record of the common sandpiper for the Hawaiian Islands

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pratt, Thane K.

2016-01-01

With a breeding range spanning Eurasia and a winter range extending from Africa to Australasia, the Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) is indeed the common and familiar sandpiper of the Old World. It is the Old World counterpart of the Spotted Sandpiper (A. macularius) of the Americas and its only congener. The Spotted Sandpiper is a vagrant to the Hawaiian Islands (David 1991, Pyle and Pyle 2009), but no Common Sandpiper had been reported until one spent the winter of 2010–2011 at Honuapo lagoon, Whittington Beach County Park, Hawaii Island. Previously, Pyle and Pyle (2009) summarized all records of Actitis for the islands and concluded that 21 of the 32 could be identified with certainty as Spotted Sandpipers. Among the remaining 11 records, the Common Sandpiper could not be ruled out. The Common Sandpiper is a possibility because it reaches Micronesia as a regular winter visitor (Baker 1951) and western Polynesia and Alaska as a vagrant (Kessel and Gibson 1978, Pratt et al. 1987, Gibson and Byrd 2007). There are no records elsewhere in North America (Howell et al. 2014).

Antepartum fetal heart rate feature extraction and classification using empirical mode decomposition and support vector machine

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Cardiotocography (CTG) is the most widely used tool for fetal surveillance. The visual analysis of fetal heart rate (FHR) traces largely depends on the expertise and experience of the clinician involved. Several approaches have been proposed for the effective interpretation of FHR. In this paper, a new approach for FHR feature extraction based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD) is proposed, which was used along with support vector machine (SVM) for the classification of FHR recordings as 'normal' or 'at risk'. Methods The FHR were recorded from 15 subjects at a sampling rate of 4 Hz and a dataset consisting of 90 randomly selected records of 20 minutes duration was formed from these. All records were labelled as 'normal' or 'at risk' by two experienced obstetricians. A training set was formed by 60 records, the remaining 30 left as the testing set. The standard deviations of the EMD components are input as features to a support vector machine (SVM) to classify FHR samples. Results For the training set, a five-fold cross validation test resulted in an accuracy of 86% whereas the overall geometric mean of sensitivity and specificity was 94.8%. The Kappa value for the training set was .923. Application of the proposed method to the testing set (30 records) resulted in a geometric mean of 81.5%. The Kappa value for the testing set was .684. Conclusions Based on the overall performance of the system it can be stated that the proposed methodology is a promising new approach for the feature extraction and classification of FHR signals. PMID:21244712

Determination of Minimum Data Set (MSD) in Echocardiography Reporting System to Exchange with Iran's Electronic Health Record (EHR) System.

PubMed

Mahmoudvand, Zahra; Kamkar, Mehran; Shahmoradi, Leila; Nejad, Ahmadreza Farzaneh

2016-04-01

Determination of minimum data set (MDS) in echocardiography reports is necessary for documentation and putting information in a standard way, and leads to the enhancement of electrocardiographic studies through having access to precise and perfect reports and also to the development of a standard database for electrocardiographic reports. to determine the minimum data set of echocardiography reporting system to exchange with Iran's electronic health record (EHR) system. First, a list of minimum data set was prepared after reviewing texts and studying cardiac patients' records. Then, to determine the content validity of the prepared MDS, the expert views of 10 cardiologists and 10 health information management (HIM) specialists were obtained; to estimate the reliability of the set, test-retest method was employed. Finally, the data were analyzed using SPSS software. The highest degree of consensus was found for the following MDSs: patient's name and family name (5), accepting doctor's name and family name, familial death records due to cardiac disorders, the image identification code, mitral valve, aortic valve, tricuspid valve, pulmonary valve, left ventricle, hole, atrium valve, Doppler examination of ventricular and atrial movement models and diagnoses with an average of. To prepare a model of echocardiography reporting system to exchange with EHR system, creation a standard data set is the vital point. Therefore, based on the research findings, the minimum reporting system data to exchange with Iran's electronic health record system include information on entity, management, medical record, carried-out acts, and the main content of the echocardiography report, which the planners of reporting system should consider.

A 3,000-year quantitative drought record derived from XRF element data from a south Texas playa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Livsey, D. N.; Simms, A.; Hangsterfer, A.; Nisbet, R.; DeWitt, R.

2013-12-01

Recent droughts throughout the central United States highlight the need for a better understanding of the past frequency and severity of drought occurrence. Current records of past drought for the south Texas coast are derived from tree-ring data that span approximately the last 900 years before present (BP). In this study we utilize a supervised learning routine to create a transfer function between X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) derived elemental data from Laguna Salada, Texas core LS10-02 to a locally derived tree-ring drought record. From this transfer function the 900 BP tree-ring drought record was extended to 3,000 BP. The supervised learning routine was trained on the first 100 years of XRF element data and tree-ring drought data to create the transfer function and training data set output. The model was then projected from the XRF elemental data for the next 800 years to create a deployed data set output and to test the transfer function parameters. The coefficients of determination between the model output and observed values are 0.77 and 0.70 for the 100-year training data set and 900-year deployed data set respectively. Given the relatively high coefficients of determination for both the training data set and deployed data set we interpret the model parameters are fairly robust and that a high-resolution drought record can be derived from the XRF element data. These results indicate that XRF element data can be used as a quantitative tool to reconstruct past drought records.

Fuzzy Logic Based Anomaly Detection for Embedded Network Security Cyber Sensor

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

Ondrej Linda; Todd Vollmer; Jason Wright

Resiliency and security in critical infrastructure control systems in the modern world of cyber terrorism constitute a relevant concern. Developing a network security system specifically tailored to the requirements of such critical assets is of a primary importance. This paper proposes a novel learning algorithm for anomaly based network security cyber sensor together with its hardware implementation. The presented learning algorithm constructs a fuzzy logic rule based model of normal network behavior. Individual fuzzy rules are extracted directly from the stream of incoming packets using an online clustering algorithm. This learning algorithm was specifically developed to comply with the constrainedmore » computational requirements of low-cost embedded network security cyber sensors. The performance of the system was evaluated on a set of network data recorded from an experimental test-bed mimicking the environment of a critical infrastructure control system.« less

Identifying Anxiety Through Tracked Head Movements in a Virtual Classroom.

PubMed

Won, Andrea Stevenson; Perone, Brian; Friend, Michelle; Bailenson, Jeremy N

2016-06-01

Virtual reality allows the controlled simulation of complex social settings, such as classrooms, and thus provides an opportunity to test a range of theories in the social sciences in a way that is both naturalistic and controlled. Importantly, virtual environments also allow the body movements of participants in the virtual world to be tracked and recorded. In the following article, we discuss how tracked head movements were correlated with participants' reports of anxiety in a simulation of a classroom. Participants who reported a high sense of awareness of and concern about the other virtual people in the room showed different patterns of head movement (more lateral head movement, indicating scanning behavior) from those who reported a low level of concern. We discuss the implications of this research for understanding nonverbal behavior associated with anxiety and for the design of online educational systems.

High-Speed Video Analysis in a Conceptual Physics Class

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Desbien, Dwain M.

2011-09-01

The use of probe ware and computers has become quite common in introductory physics classrooms. Video analysis is also becoming more popular and is available to a wide range of students through commercially available and/or free software.2,3 Video analysis allows for the study of motions that cannot be easily measured in the traditional lab setting and also allows real-world situations to be analyzed. Many motions are too fast to easily be captured at the standard video frame rate of 30 frames per second (fps) employed by most video cameras. This paper will discuss using a consumer camera that can record high-frame-rate video in a college-level conceptual physics class. In particular this will involve the use of model rockets to determine the acceleration during the boost period right at launch and compare it to a simple model of the expected acceleration.

ECG signal analysis through hidden Markov models.

PubMed

Andreão, Rodrigo V; Dorizzi, Bernadette; Boudy, Jérôme

2006-08-01

This paper presents an original hidden Markov model (HMM) approach for online beat segmentation and classification of electrocardiograms. The HMM framework has been visited because of its ability of beat detection, segmentation and classification, highly suitable to the electrocardiogram (ECG) problem. Our approach addresses a large panel of topics some of them never studied before in other HMM related works: waveforms modeling, multichannel beat segmentation and classification, and unsupervised adaptation to the patient's ECG. The performance was evaluated on the two-channel QT database in terms of waveform segmentation precision, beat detection and classification. Our waveform segmentation results compare favorably to other systems in the literature. We also obtained high beat detection performance with sensitivity of 99.79% and a positive predictivity of 99.96%, using a test set of 59 recordings. Moreover, premature ventricular contraction beats were detected using an original classification strategy. The results obtained validate our approach for real world application.

The Cosmic Zoo: The (Near) Inevitability of the Evolution of Complex, Macroscopic Life

PubMed Central

Bains, William; Schulze-Makuch, Dirk

2016-01-01

Life on Earth provides a unique biological record from single-cell microbes to technologically intelligent life forms. Our evolution is marked by several major steps or innovations along a path of increasing complexity from microbes to space-faring humans. Here we identify various major key innovations, and use an analytical toolset consisting of a set of models to analyse how likely each key innovation is to occur. Our conclusion is that once the origin of life is accomplished, most of the key innovations can occur rather readily. The conclusion for other worlds is that if the origin of life can occur rather easily, we should live in a cosmic zoo, as the innovations necessary to lead to complex life will occur with high probability given sufficient time and habitat. On the other hand, if the origin of life is rare, then we might live in a rather empty universe. PMID:27376334

HIPAA, dermatology images, and the law.

PubMed

Scheinfeld, Noah; Rothstein, Brooke

2013-12-01

From smart phones to iPads, the world has grown increasingly reliant on new technology. In this ever-expanding digital age, medicine is at the forefront of these new technologies. In the field of dermatology and general medicine, digital images have become an important tool used in patient management. Today, one can even find physicians who use their cellular phone cameras to take patient images and transmit them to other physicians. However, as digital imaging technology has become more prevalent so too have concerns about the impact of this technology on the electronic medical record, quality of patient care, and medicolegal issues. This article will discuss the advent of digital imaging technology in dermatology and the legal ramifications digital images have on medical care, abiding by HIPAA, the use of digital images as evidence, and the possible abuses digital images can pose in a health care setting.

Geographically selective assortment of cycles in pandemics: meta-analysis of data collected by Chizhevsky.

PubMed

Gumarova, L; Cornélissen, G; Hillman, D; Halberg, F

2013-10-01

In the incidence patterns of cholera, diphtheria and croup during the past when they were of epidemic proportions, we document a set of cycles (periods), one of which was reported and discussed by A. L. Chizhevsky in the same data with emphasis on the mirroring in human disease of the ~11-year sunspot cycle. The data in this study are based on Chizhevsky’s book The Terrestrial Echo of Solar Storms and on records from the World Health Organization. For meta-analysis, we used the extended linear and nonlinear cosinor. We found a geographically selective assortment of various cycles characterizing the epidemiology of infections, which is the documented novel topic of this paper, complementing the earlier finding in the 21st century or shortly before, of a geographically selective assortment of cycles characterizing human sudden cardiac death. Solar effects, if any, interact with geophysical processes in contributing to this assortment.

Demography of human supercentenarians.

PubMed

Coles, L Stephen

2004-06-01

An international committee of demographers has created a carefully documented list of worldwide living supercentenarians (> or =110 years old) that has been published by the Los Angeles Gerontology Research Group on its web site and updated on a weekly basis for the past 6 years [see "snapshot" for the year 2003 in the Appendix]. What can be learned by studying this distinguished group of individuals? Also, what are the implications for understanding the fundamental biological limits to human longevity and maximum life span? Our conclusion: Although everyone agrees that average life expectancy has systematically advanced linearly over the last century, it is not realistic to expect that this pace can continue indefinitely. Our data suggest that, without the invention of some new unknown form of medical breakthrough, the Guinness Book of World Records benchmark established by French woman Jeanne Calment of 122 years, set back in 1997, will be exceedingly difficult to break in our lifetime.

[The computer assisted pacemaker clinic at the regional hospital of Udine (author's transl)].

PubMed

Feruglio, G A; Lestuzzi, L; Carminati, D

1978-01-01

For a close follow-up of large groups of pacemaker patients and for evaluation of long term pacing on a reliable statistical basis, many pacemaker centers in the world are now using computer systems. A patient data system with structured display records, designed to give complete, comprehensive and surveyable information and which are immediately retrievable 24 hours a day, on display or printed sets, seems to offer an ideal solution. The pacemaker clinic at the Regional Hospital of Udine has adopted this type of system. The clinic in linked to a live, on-line patient data system (G/3, Informatica Friuli-Venezia Giulia). The input and retrieval of information are made through a conventional keyboard. The input formats have fixed headings with coded alternatives and a limited space for comments in free text. The computer edits the coded information to surveyable reviews. Searches can be made on coded information and data of interest.

Five scientists at Johns Hopkins in the modern evolution of neuroscience.

PubMed

Harrison, T S

2000-08-01

Neuroscience's evolution at Johns Hopkins, from neurophysiology to the new field of neurobiology, though unplanned, was rapid and important. Beginning in 1933 when Philip Bard became professor of physiology at Johns Hopkins, members of his department concentrated initially on neuroanatomical control of placing reactions and sexual activity. Vernon Mountcastle, extending available techniques, discovered vertical somato-sensory columns in the 1950's. Stephen Kuffler, who arrived at Hopkins in 1947, was a pioneer in single unit microelectrode recording techniques. He soon attracted scientists from all over the world to his laboratory. Among them, Torsten Wiesel and David Hubel discovered vertical neuronal columns in the visual cortex. During several decades at Johns Hopkins, these five scientists set extremely high scientific standards and established a climate of inquiry in which ideas were shared and young scientists encouraged. They contributed significantly to the emerging discipline of neuroscience.

ER-2 #809 landing in Kiruna, Sweden after second flight of the SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE)

NASA Image and Video Library

2000-01-26

ER-2s bearing tail numbers 806 and 809 are used as airborne science platforms by NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center. The aircraft are platforms for a variety of high-altitude science missions flown over various parts of the world. They are also used for earth science and atmospheric sensor research and development, satellite calibration and data validation. The ER-2s are capable of carrying a maximum payload of 2,600 pounds of experiments in a nose bay, the main equipment bay behind the cockpit, two wing-mounted superpods and small underbody and trailing edges. Most ER-2 missions last about six hours with ranges of about 2,200 nautical miles. The aircraft typically fly at altitudes above 65,000 feet. On November 19, 1998, an ER-2 set a world record for medium weight aircraft reaching an altitude of 68,700 feet. The aircraft is 63 feet long, with a wingspan of 104 feet. The top of the vertical tail is 16 feet above ground when the aircraft is on the bicycle-type landing gear. Cruising speeds are 410 knots, or 467 miles per hour, at altitude. A single General Electric F-118 turbofan engine rated at 17,000 pounds thrust powers the ER-2.

ER-2 #809 outside Arena Arctica hangar in Kiruna, Sweden prior to the SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE)

NASA Image and Video Library

2000-01-24

ER-2s bearing tail numbers 806 and 809 are used as airborne science platforms by NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center. The aircraft are platforms for a variety of high-altitude science missions flown over various parts of the world. They are also used for earth science and atmospheric sensor research and development, satellite calibration and data validation. The ER-2s are capable of carrying a maximum payload of 2,600 pounds of experiments in a nose bay, the main equipment bay behind the cockpit, two wing-mounted superpods and small underbody and trailing edges. Most ER-2 missions last about six hours with ranges of about 2,200 nautical miles. The aircraft typically fly at altitudes above 65,000 feet. On November 19, 1998, an ER-2 set a world record for medium weight aircraft reaching an altitude of 68,700 feet. The aircraft is 63 feet long, with a wingspan of 104 feet. The top of the vertical tail is 16 feet above ground when the aircraft is on the bicycle-type landing gear. Cruising speeds are 410 knots, or 467 miles per hour, at altitude. A single General Electric F-118 turbofan engine rated at 17,000 pounds thrust powers the ER-2.

ER-2 #809 receives preflight fueling outside Arena Arctica hangar in Kiruna, Sweden prior to the SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE)

NASA Image and Video Library

2000-01-24

ER-2s bearing tail numbers 806 and 809 are used as airborne science platforms by NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center. The aircraft are platforms for a variety of high-altitude science missions flown over various parts of the world. They are also used for earth science and atmospheric sensor research and development, satellite calibration and data validation. The ER-2s are capable of carrying a maximum payload of 2,600 pounds of experiments in a nose bay, the main equipment bay behind the cockpit, two wing-mounted superpods and small underbody and trailing edges. Most ER-2 missions last about six hours with ranges of about 2,200 nautical miles. The aircraft typically fly at altitudes above 65,000 feet. On November 19, 1998, an ER-2 set a world record for medium weight aircraft reaching an altitude of 68,700 feet. The aircraft is 63 feet long, with a wingspan of 104 feet. The top of the vertical tail is 16 feet above ground when the aircraft is on the bicycle-type landing gear. Cruising speeds are 410 knots, or 467 miles per hour, at altitude. A single General Electric F-118 turbofan engine rated at 17,000 pounds thrust powers the ER-2.

ER-2 #809 during fueling for first flight in Kiruna, Sweden prior to the SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE)

NASA Image and Video Library

2000-01-24

ER-2s bearing tail numbers 806 and 809 are used as airborne science platforms by NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center. The aircraft are platforms for a variety of high-altitude science missions flown over various parts of the world. They are also used for earth science and atmospheric sensor research and development, satellite calibration and data validation. The ER-2s are capable of carrying a maximum payload of 2,600 pounds of experiments in a nose bay, the main equipment bay behind the cockpit, two wing-mounted superpods and small underbody and trailing edges. Most ER-2 missions last about six hours with ranges of about 2,200 nautical miles. The aircraft typically fly at altitudes above 65,000 feet. On November 19, 1998, an ER-2 set a world record for medium weight aircraft reaching an altitude of 68,700 feet. The aircraft is 63 feet long, with a wingspan of 104 feet. The top of the vertical tail is 16 feet above ground when the aircraft is on the bicycle-type landing gear. Cruising speeds are 410 knots, or 467 miles per hour, at altitude. A single General Electric F-118 turbofan engine rated at 17,000 pounds thrust powers the ER-2.

Lockheed ER-2 #806 high altitude research aircraft in flight

NASA Image and Video Library

1998-11-17

ER-2 tail number 806, is one of two Airborne Science ER-2s used as science platforms by Dryden. The aircraft are platforms for a variety of high-altitude science missions flown over various parts of the world. They are also used for earth science and atmospheric sensor research and development, satellite calibration and data validation. The ER-2s are capable of carrying a maximum payload of 2,600 pounds of experiments in a nose bay, the main equipment bay behind the cockpit, two wing-mounted superpods and small underbody and trailing edges. Most ER-2 missions last about six hours with ranges of about 2,200 nautical miles. The aircraft typically fly at altitudes above 65,000 feet. On November 19, 1998, the ER-2 set a world record for medium weight aircraft reaching an altitude of 68,700 feet. The aircraft is 63 feet long, with a wingspan of 104 feet. The top of the vertical tail is 16 feet above ground when the aircraft is on the bicycle-type landing gear. Cruising speeds are 410 knots, or 467 miles per hour, at altitude. A single General Electric F-118 turbofan engine rated at 17,000 pounds thrust powers the ER-2.

Lockheed ER-2 #809 high altitude research aircraft in flight

NASA Image and Video Library

2001-08-01

ER-2 tail number 809, is one of two Airborne Science ER-2s used as science platforms by Dryden. The aircraft are platforms for a variety of high-altitude science missions flown over various parts of the world. They are also used for earth science and atmospheric sensor research and development, satellite calibration and data validation. The ER-2s are capable of carrying a maximum payload of 2,600 pounds of experiments in a nose bay, the main equipment bay behind the cockpit, two wing-mounted superpods and small underbody and trailing edges. Most ER-2 missions last about six hours with ranges of about 2,200 nautical miles. The aircraft typically fly at altitudes above 65,000 feet. On November 19, 1998, the ER-2 set a world record for medium weight aircraft reaching an altitude of 68,700 feet. The aircraft is 63 feet long, with a wingspan of 104 feet. The top of the vertical tail is 16 feet above ground when the aircraft is on the bicycle-type landing gear. Cruising speeds are 410 knots, or 467 miles per hour, at altitude. A single General Electric F118 turbofan engine rated at 17,000 pounds thrust powers the ER-2.

Lockheed ER-2C #809 high altitude research aircraft in flight

NASA Image and Video Library

1998-04-29

ER-2C tail number 809, was one of two Airborne Science ER-2Cs used as science platforms by Dryden. The aircraft were platforms for a variety of high-altitude science missions flown over various parts of the world. They were also used for earth science and atmospheric sensor research and development, satellite calibration and data validation. The ER-2Cs were capable of carrying a maximum payload of 2,600 pounds of experiments in a nose bay, the main equipment bay behind the cockpit, two wing-mounted superpods and small underbody and trailing edges. Most ER-2C missions lasted about six hours with ranges of about 2,200 nautical miles. The aircraft typically flew at altitudes above 65,000 feet. On November 19, 1998, the ER-2C set a world record for medium weight aircraft reaching an altitude of 68,700 feet. The aircraft was 63 feet long, with a wingspan of 104 feet. The top of the vertical tail was 16 feet above ground when the aircraft was on the bicycle-type landing gear. Cruising speeds were 410 knots, or 467 miles per hour, at altitude. A single General Electric F-118 turbofan engine rated at 17,000 pounds thrust powers the ER-2C.

Lockheed ER-2 #806 high altitude research aircraft during landing

NASA Image and Video Library

1998-12-18

ER-2 tail number 806, is one of two Airborne Science ER-2s used as science platforms by Dryden. The aircraft are platforms for a variety of high-altitude science missions flown over various parts of the world. They are also used for earth science and atmospheric sensor research and development, satellite calibration and data validation. The ER-2s are capable of carrying a maximum payload of 2,600 pounds of experiments in a nose bay, the main equipment bay behind the cockpit, two wing-mounted superpods and small underbody and trailing edges. Most ER-2 missions last about six hours with ranges of about 2,200 nautical miles. The aircraft typically fly at altitudes above 65,000 feet. On November 19, 1998, the ER-2 set a world record for medium weight aircraft reaching an altitude of 68,700 feet. The aircraft is 63 feet long, with a wingspan of 104 feet. The top of the vertical tail is 16 feet above ground when the aircraft is on the bicycle-type landing gear. Cruising speeds are 410 knots, or 467 miles per hour, at altitude. A single General Electric F-118 turbofan engine rated at 17,000 pounds thrust powers the ER-2.

A retrospective study evaluating the tolerability and effectiveness of adjunctive antihypertensive drugs in patients with inadequate response to initial treatment.

PubMed

Ayyagari, Rajeev; Xie, Jipan; Cheng, David; Wu, Eric Q; Huang, Xing-Yue; Chen, Stephanie

2018-06-01

Real-world tolerability and effectiveness of nebivolol as first add-on therapy were compared with hydrochlorothiazide, metoprolol, and amlodipine. Medical records of hypertensive adults initiating nebivolol, hydrochlorothiazide, metoprolol, or amlodipine as first add-on therapy between December 16, 2010 and July 21, 2011 were retrospectively abstracted (N = 1600; 400/treatment). Outcomes included medication-related side-effect rates and blood pressure (BP) reduction and control. Compared with nebivolol, metoprolol and amlodipine had significantly higher side-effect rates (incidence rate ratio [95% CI]: 1.82 [1.14-2.92] and 2.67 [1.69-4.21]), respectively); the hydrochlorothiazide-nebivolol rate ratio was not significant (1.61 [0.95-2.71]). All treatments reduced BP at 2 months. Metoprolol, amlodipine, and hydrochlorothiazide were associated with significantly lower odds of achieving 2-month BP control than nebivolol (odds ratios [95% CI]: 0.34 [0.23-0.51], 0.51 [0.35-0.75] and 0.66 [0.44-0.99], respectively). In a real-world setting, nebivolol as first add-on therapy was associated with fewer side effects than metoprolol or amlodipine and with a higher BP control rate than hydrochlorothiazide, metoprolol, or amlodipine. © 2018 The Authors. The Journal of Clinical Hypertension Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Socio-Economic Instability and the Scaling of Energy Use with Population Size

PubMed Central

DeLong, John P.; Burger, Oskar

2015-01-01

The size of the human population is relevant to the development of a sustainable world, yet the forces setting growth or declines in the human population are poorly understood. Generally, population growth rates depend on whether new individuals compete for the same energy (leading to Malthusian or density-dependent growth) or help to generate new energy (leading to exponential and super-exponential growth). It has been hypothesized that exponential and super-exponential growth in humans has resulted from carrying capacity, which is in part determined by energy availability, keeping pace with or exceeding the rate of population growth. We evaluated the relationship between energy use and population size for countries with long records of both and the world as a whole to assess whether energy yields are consistent with the idea of an increasing carrying capacity. We find that on average energy use has indeed kept pace with population size over long time periods. We also show, however, that the energy-population scaling exponent plummets during, and its temporal variability increases preceding, periods of social, political, technological, and environmental change. We suggest that efforts to increase the reliability of future energy yields may be essential for stabilizing both population growth and the global socio-economic system. PMID:26091499

Eye gaze tracking reveals heightened attention to food in adults with binge eating when viewing images of real-world scenes.

PubMed

Popien, Avery; Frayn, Mallory; von Ranson, Kristin M; Sears, Christopher R

2015-08-01

Individuals with eating disorders often exhibit food-related biases in attention tasks. To assess the engagement and maintenance of attention to food in adults with binge eating, in the present study, eye gaze tracking was used to compare fixations to food among non-clinical adults with versus without binge eating while they viewed images of real-world scenes. Fifty-seven participants' eye fixations were tracked and recorded throughout 8-second presentations of scenes containing high-calorie and/or low-caloriefood items in various settings (restaurants, social gatherings, etc.). Participants with binge eating fixated on both high-calorie and low-calorie food items significantly more than controls, and this was the case when the high- and low-calorie food items were presented in the same image and in different images. Participants with binge eating also fixated on food items significantly earlier in the presentations. A time course analysis that divided each 8-second presentation into 2-second intervals revealed that participants with binge eating attended to food items more than control participants throughout the 8-second presentation. These results have implications for theory regarding the initiation and maintenance of binge eating. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Prospective study evaluating the use of nasal glucagon for the treatment of moderate to severe hypoglycaemia in adults with type 1 diabetes in a real‐world setting

PubMed Central

Seaquist, Elizabeth R.; Dulude, Hélène; Rabasa‐Lhoret, Remi; Tsoukas, George M.; Conway, James R.; Weisnagel, Stanley J.; Gerety, Gregg; Woo, Vincent C.; Zhang, Shuyu; Carballo, Dolorès; Pradhan, Sheetal; Piché, Claude A.; Guzman, Cristina B.

2018-01-01

In the present multicentre, open‐label, prospective, phase III study, we evaluated the real‐world effectiveness and ease of use of nasal glucagon (NG) in the treatment of moderate/severe hypoglycaemic events (HEs) in adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Patients and caregivers were taught how to use NG (3 mg) to treat moderate/severe HEs, record the time taken to awaken or return to normal status, and measure blood glucose (BG) levels over time. Questionnaires were used to collect information about adverse events and ease of use of NG. In the efficacy analysis population, 69 patients experienced 157 HEs. In 95.7% patients, HEs resolved within 30 minutes of NG administration. In all the 12 severe HEs, patients awakened or returned to normal status within 15 minutes of NG administration without additional external medical help. Most caregivers reported that NG was easy to use. Most adverse events were local and of low to moderate severity. In this study, a single, 3‐mg dose of NG demonstrated real‐life effectiveness in treating moderate and severe HEs in adults with T1D. NG was well tolerated and easy to use. PMID:29504662

ER-2 #809 in Kiruna, Sweden for the SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE) with pilot Dee Porter entry for first flight

NASA Image and Video Library

2000-01-24

ER-2s bearing tail numbers 806 and 809 are used as airborne science platforms by NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center. The aircraft are platforms for a variety of high-altitude science missions flown over various parts of the world. They are also used for earth science and atmospheric sensor research and development, satellite calibration and data validation. The ER-2s are capable of carrying a maximum payload of 2,600 pounds of experiments in a nose bay, the main equipment bay behind the cockpit, two wing-mounted superpods and small underbody and trailing edges. Most ER-2 missions last about six hours with ranges of about 2,200 nautical miles. The aircraft typically fly at altitudes above 65,000 feet. On November 19, 1998, an ER-2 set a world record for medium weight aircraft reaching an altitude of 68,700 feet. The aircraft is 63 feet long, with a wingspan of 104 feet. The top of the vertical tail is 16 feet above ground when the aircraft is on the bicycle-type landing gear. Cruising speeds are 410 knots, or 467 miles per hour, at altitude. A single General Electric F-118 turbofan engine rated at 17,000 pounds thrust powers the ER-2.

Acquiring Marine Data in the Canada Basin, Arctic Ocean

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hutchinson, Deborah R.; Jackson, H. Ruth; Shimeld, John W.; Chapman, C. Borden; Childs, Jonathan R.; Funck, Thomas; Rowland, Robert W.

2009-06-01

Despite the record minimum ice extent in the Arctic Ocean for the past 2 years, collecting geophysical data with towed sensors in ice-covered regions continues to pose enormous challenges. Significant parts of the Canada Basin in the western Arctic Ocean have remained largely unmapped because thick multiyear ice has limited access even by research vessels strengthened against ice [Jackson et al., 1990]. Because of the resulting paucity of data, the western Arctic Ocean is one of the few areas of ocean in the world where major controversies still exist with respect to its origin and tectonic evolution [Grantz et al., 1990; Lawver and Scotese, 1990; Lane, 1997; Miller et al., 2006]. This article describes the logistical challenges and initial data sets from geophysical seismic reflection, seismic refraction, and hydrographic surveys in the Canada Basin conducted by scientists with U.S. and Canadian government agencies (Figure 1a) to fulfill the requirements of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to determine sediment thickness, geological origin, and basin evolution in this unexplored part of the world. Some of these data were collected using a single ship, but the heaviest ice conditions necessitated using two icebreakers, similar to other recent Arctic surveys [e.g., Jokat, 2003].

Socio-Economic Instability and the Scaling of Energy Use with Population Size.

PubMed

DeLong, John P; Burger, Oskar

2015-01-01

The size of the human population is relevant to the development of a sustainable world, yet the forces setting growth or declines in the human population are poorly understood. Generally, population growth rates depend on whether new individuals compete for the same energy (leading to Malthusian or density-dependent growth) or help to generate new energy (leading to exponential and super-exponential growth). It has been hypothesized that exponential and super-exponential growth in humans has resulted from carrying capacity, which is in part determined by energy availability, keeping pace with or exceeding the rate of population growth. We evaluated the relationship between energy use and population size for countries with long records of both and the world as a whole to assess whether energy yields are consistent with the idea of an increasing carrying capacity. We find that on average energy use has indeed kept pace with population size over long time periods. We also show, however, that the energy-population scaling exponent plummets during, and its temporal variability increases preceding, periods of social, political, technological, and environmental change. We suggest that efforts to increase the reliability of future energy yields may be essential for stabilizing both population growth and the global socio-economic system.

Value of hemoglobin A1c in diagnosing diabetes mellitus within a chronic disease management system illustrated by the receiver operating characteristic curve.

PubMed

Eid, Wael E; Pottala, James V

2010-01-01

To develop a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) for diagnosing diabetes mellitus within a chronic disease management system. A case-control study including medical records from January 1, 1997, to December 31, 2005, was conducted at the Sioux Falls Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Medical records for the case group (patients with diabetes) were selected based on 1 of 3 criteria: International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification or Current Procedural Terminology codes specific for type 1 and type 2 diabetes; patients' use of medications (oral hypoglycemic agents, antidiabetes agents, or insulin); or results from random blood or plasma glucose tests (at least 2 measurements of blood glucose > or = 200 mg/dL). Records for the control group were selected based on patients having HbA1c measured, but not meeting the above diagnostic criteria for diabetes during the study period. Records for cases and controls were randomly frequency-matched, one-to-one. The control group was randomly divided into 5 sets of an equal number of records. Five sets of an equal number of cases were then randomly selected from the total number of cases. Each test data set included 1 case group and 1 control group, resulting in 5 independent data sets. In total, 5040 patient records met the case definition in the diabetes registry. Records of 15 patients who were prescribed metformin only, but did not meet any other case criteria, were reviewed and excluded after determining the patients were not diabetic. The control group consisted of 5 sets of 616 records each (totaling 3080 records), and the case group consisted of 5 sets of 616 records each (totaling 3080 records). Thus, each of the 5 independent data sets of 1 case group and 1 control group contained 1232 records. The case group was predominantly composed of white men (mean age, 69 years; mean body mass index, 31 kg/m2). Demographic data were similar for control patients. The ROC curve revealed that a HbA1c > or = 6.3% (mean + 1 SD) offered the most accurate cutoff value for diagnosing type 2 diabetes mellitus, with the following statistical values: C statistic, 0.78; sensitivity, 70%; specificity, 85%; and positive likelihood ratio, 4.6 (95% confidence interval, 4.2-5.0). A HbA1c value > or = 6.3% may be a useful benchmark for diagnosing diabetes mellitus within a chronic disease management system and may be a useful tool for monitoring high-risk populations.

Trastuzumab-induced cardiotoxicity and its risk factors in real-world setting of breast cancer patients.

PubMed

Moilanen, Tiina; Jokimäki, Anna; Tenhunen, Olli; Koivunen, Jussi P

2018-06-05

Cardiotoxicity is the most important side effect of trastuzumab treatment. Heart function monitoring is recommended during the treatment which has led to growing use of resources. The aim of this retrospective study was to determine the frequency and timing of trastuzumab cardiotoxicity and its risk factors in real-world setting. Single institute, retrospective collection of data on HER2+ breast cancer patients (n = 246) was carried out through a pharmacy search for patients who had received trastuzumab in 2006-2014. Clinical and pathological factors, treatment history, EF measurements, cardiac medications, cardiovascular disease history, cardiac symptoms, and survival data were collected from patient records. 32 patients (13%) had EF decline ≥ 10%, eleven (4.5%) had EF decline ≥ 20% within 1 year after trastuzumab initiation, and trastuzumab was discontinued due to suspected cardiotoxicity in six patients (2.4%). 49 patients (19.9%) experienced symptoms related to cardiotoxicity during therapy, which accumulated among those with EF drop. Underlying cardiovascular diseases and multiple (≥ 2) cardiac medications were related to EF drop (≥ 20%) and trastuzumab discontinuation. Majority of EF drops (≥ 10%) and trastuzumab discontinuations were seen within 6months of trastuzumab initiation and recovery of EF drop to < 10% of the baseline was seen in most cases (62.5%). There was no statistically significant difference in the survival of patients according to EF drop. Trastuzumab cardiotoxicity seems to accumulate among patients with underlying cardiac conditions. EF monitoring could be targeted to risk groups without compromising of the cardiac health or survival of HER2-positive breast cancer patients.

A scoping review of reporting 'Ethical Research Practices' in research conducted among refugees and war-affected populations in the Arab world.

PubMed

Makhoul, Jihad; Chehab, Rana F; Shaito, Zahraa; Sibai, Abla M

2018-05-15

Ethical research conduct is a cornerstone of research practice particularly when research participants include vulnerable populations. This study mapped the extent of reporting ethical research practices in studies conducted among refugees and war-affected populations in the Arab World, and assessed variations by time, country of study, and study characteristics. An electronic search of eight databases resulted in 5668 unique records published between 2000 and 2013. Scoping review yielded 164 eligible articles for analyses. Ethical research practices, including obtaining institutional approval, access to the community/research site, and informed consent/assent from the research participants, were reported in 48.2, 54.9, and 53.7% of the publications, respectively. Institutional approval was significantly more likely to be reported when the research was biomedical in nature compared to public health and social (91.7% vs. 54.4 and 32.4%), when the study employed quantitative compared to qualitative or mixed methodologies (61.7% vs. 26.8 and 42.9%), and when the journal required a statement on ethical declarations (57.4% vs. 27.1%). Institutional approval was least likely to be reported in papers that were sole-authored (9.5%), when these did not mention a funding source (29.6%), or when published in national journals (0%). Similar results were obtained for access to the community site and for seeking informed consent/assent from study participants. The responsibility of inadequacies in adherence to ethical research conduct in crisis settings is born by a multitude of stakeholders including funding agencies, institutional research boards, researchers and international relief organizations involved in research, as well as journal editors, all of whom need to play a more proactive role for enhancing the practice of ethical research conduct in conflict settings.

Clinical case review: a method to improve identification of true clinical and radiographic pneumonia in children meeting the World Health Organization definition for pneumonia.

PubMed

Puumalainen, Taneli; Quiambao, Beatriz; Abucejo-Ladesma, Erma; Lupisan, Socorro; Heiskanen-Kosma, Tarja; Ruutu, Petri; Lucero, Marilla G; Nohynek, Hanna; Simoes, Eric A F; Riley, Ian

2008-07-21

The World Health Organization's (WHO) case definition for childhood pneumonia, composed of simple clinical signs of cough, difficult breathing and fast breathing, is widely used in resource poor settings to guide management of acute respiratory infections. The definition is also commonly used as an entry criteria or endpoint in different intervention and disease burden studies. A group of paediatricians conducted a retrospective review of clinical and laboratory data including C-reactive protein concentration and chest radiograph findings among Filipino children hospitalised in the Bohol Regional Hospital who were enrolled in a pneumococcal vaccine efficacy study and had an episode of respiratory disease fulfilling the WHO case definition for clinical pneumonia. Our aim was to evaluate which disease entities the WHO definition actually captures and what is the probable aetiology of respiratory infections among these episodes diagnosed in this population. Among the 12,194 children enrolled to the vaccine study we recorded 1,195 disease episodes leading to hospitalisation which fulfilled the WHO criteria for pneumonia. In total, 34% of these episodes showed radiographic evidence of pneumonia and 11% were classified as definitive or probable bacterial pneumonia. Over 95% of episodes of WHO-defined severe pneumonia (with chest indrawing) had an acute lower respiratory infection as final diagnosis whereas 34% of those with non-severe clinical pneumonia had gastroenteritis or other non-respiratory infection as main cause of hospitalisation. The WHO definition for severe pneumonia shows high specificity for acute lower respiratory infection and provides a tool to compare the total burden of lower respiratory infections in different settings. ISRCTN62323832.

Lung function measures following simulated wildland firefighter exposures.

PubMed

Ferguson, Matthew D; Semmens, Erin O; Weiler, Emily; Domitrovich, Joe; French, Mary; Migliaccio, Christopher; Palmer, Charles; Dumke, Charles; Ward, Tony

2017-09-01

Across the world, biomass smoke is a major source of air pollution and is linked with a variety of adverse health effects. This is particularly true in the western U.S. where wood smoke from wildland forest fires are a significant source of PM 2.5 . Wildland firefighters are impacted as they experience elevated PM 2.5 concentrations over extended periods of time, often occurring during physical exertion. Various epidemiological studies have investigated wood smoke impacts on human health, including occupational field exposures experienced by wildland firefighters. As there are numerous challenges in carrying out these field studies, having the ability to research the potential health impacts to this occupational cohort in a controlled setting would provide important information that could be translated to the field setting. To this end, we have carried out a simulated wildland firefighter exposure study in a wood smoke inhalation facility. Utilizing a randomized crossover trial design, we exposed 10 participants once to clean filtered-air, 250 µg/m 3 , and 500 µg/m 3 wood stove-generated wood smoke PM 2.5 . Participants exercised on a treadmill at an absolute intensity designed to simulate wildland firefighting for 1.5 hr. In addition to measured PM 2.5 smoke concentrations, mean levels of CO 2 , CO, and % relative humidity were continuously monitored and recorded and were representative of occupational "real-world" exposures. Pulmonary function was measured at three time points: before, immediately after, and 1-hr post-exposure. Although there were some reductions in FVC, FEV 1 , and FVC:FEV 1 measures, results of the spirometry testing did not show significant changes in lung function. The development of this wood smoke inhalational facility provides a platform to further address unique research questions related to wood smoke exposures and associated adverse health effects.

Yellowstone and the biology of time: Photographs across a century

USGS Publications Warehouse

Meagher, Mary; Houston, Douglas B.

1999-01-01

Established in 1872, Yellowstone National Park is the oldest and one of the largest national parks in the world. In this remarkable book, scientists Mary Meagher and Douglas B. Houston present 100 sets of photographs that compare the Yellowstone of old with the park of today.Most of the photo sets include three pictures-not the usual two-with many of the original views dating back to the 1870s and 1880s. From the same photo points used by early photographers, Meagher and Houston rephotographed the scenes in the 1970s, and then, following the great fires of 1988, again in the 1990s. The result is an illuminating record of Yellowstone’s dynamic ecosystem and its changes over time.Through close analysis of the photos and reference to the vast amount of available data, Meagher and Houston describe changes in vegetation, growth of wildlife populations, the effect of beaver occupancy on wetland areas, and geothermal and elevational shifts. At the same time they point out the extent to which many sites have not changed-despite important switches in park policy and an increase in human activity.Yellowstone National Park has long been the focus of major ecological debates. Should managers allow wildfires to burn? Should the elk and bison populations be controlled? Are too many people visiting the park? Yellowstone And The Biology Of Time offers a wealth of information to help us answer these questions. A visual treasure, this book will be of value to scientists from various disciplines as well as to the many people who care about Yellowstone and other protected wilderness areas around the world.

Music mixing preferences of cochlear implant recipients: a pilot study.

PubMed

Buyens, Wim; van Dijk, Bas; Moonen, Marc; Wouters, Jan

2014-05-01

Music perception and appraisal are generally poor in cochlear implant recipients. Simple musical structures, lyrics that are easy to follow, and clear rhythm/beat have been reported among the top factors to enhance music enjoyment. The present study investigated the preference for modified relative instrument levels in music with normal-hearing and cochlear implant subjects. In experiment 1, test subjects were given a mixing console and multi-track recordings to determine their most enjoyable audio mix. In experiment 2, a preference rating experiment based on the preferred relative level settings in experiment 1 was performed. Experiment 1 was performed with four postlingually deafened cochlear implant subjects, experiment 2 with ten normal-hearing and ten cochlear implant subjects. A significant difference in preference rating was found between normal-hearing and cochlear implant subjects. The latter preferred an audio mix with larger vocals-to-instruments ratio. In addition, given an audio mix with clear vocals and attenuated instruments, cochlear implant subjects preferred the bass/drum track to be louder than the other instrument tracks. The original audio mix in real-world music might not be suitable for cochlear implant recipients. Modifying the relative instrument level settings potentially improves music enjoyment.

Report on the Third Workshop on Sustainable Software for Science: Practice and Experiences (WSSSPE3)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Katz, Daniel S.; Choi, Sou-Cheng T.; Niemeyer, Kyle E.; Hetherington, James; Löffler, Frank; Gunter, Dan; Idaszak, Ray; Brandt, Steven R.; Miller, Mark A.; Gesing, Sandra; Jones, Nick D.; Weber, Nic; Marru, Suresh; Allen, Gabrielle; Penzenstadler, Birgit; Venters, Colin C.; Davis, Ethan; Hwang, Lorraine; Todorov, Ilian; Patra, Abani; de Val-Borro, Miguel

2016-02-01

This report records and discusses the Third Workshop on Sustainable Software for Science: Practice and Experiences (WSSSPE3). The report includes a description of the keynote presentation of the workshop, which served as an overview of sustainable scientific software. It also summarizes a set of lightning talks in which speakers highlighted to-the-point lessons and challenges pertaining to sustaining scientific software. The final and main contribution of the report is a summary of the discussions, future steps, and future organization for a set of self-organized working groups on topics including developing pathways to funding scientific software; constructing useful common metrics for crediting software stakeholders; identifying principles for sustainable software engineering design; reaching out to research software organizations around the world; and building communities for software sustainability. For each group, we include a point of contact and a landing page that can be used by those who want to join that group's future activities. The main challenge left by the workshop is to see if the groups will execute these activities that they have scheduled, and how the WSSSPE community can encourage this to happen.

Effect of concentration of dispersed organic matter on optical maturity parameters: Interlaboratory results of the organic matter concentration working group of the ICCP.

USGS Publications Warehouse

Mendonca, Filho J.G.; Araujo, C.V.; Borrego, A.G.; Cook, A.; Flores, D.; Hackley, P.; Hower, J.C.; Kern, M.L.; Kommeren, K.; Kus, J.; Mastalerz, Maria; Mendonca, J.O.; Menezes, T.R.; Newman, J.; Ranasinghe, P.; Souza, I.V.A.F.; Suarez-Ruiz, I.; Ujiie, Y.

2010-01-01

The main objective of this work was to study the effect of the kerogen isolation procedures on maturity parameters of organic matter using optical microscopes. This work represents the results of the Organic Matter Concentration Working Group (OMCWG) of the International Committee for Coal and Organic Petrology (ICCP) during the years 2008 and 2009. Four samples have been analysed covering a range of maturity (low and moderate) and terrestrial and marine geological settings. The analyses comprise random vitrinite reflectance measured on both kerogen concentrate and whole rock mounts and fluorescence spectra taken on alginite. Eighteen participants from twelve laboratories from all over the world performed the analyses. Samples of continental settings contained enough vitrinite for participants to record around 50 measurements whereas fewer readings were taken on samples from marine setting. The scatter of results was also larger in the samples of marine origin. Similar vitrinite reflectance values were in general recorded in the whole rock and in the kerogen concentrate. The small deviations of the trend cannot be attributed to the acid treatment involved in kerogen isolation but to reasons related to components identification or to the difficulty to achieve a good polish of samples with high mineral matter content. In samples difficult to polish, vitrinite reflectance was measured on whole rock tended to be lower. The presence or absence of rock fabric affected the selection of the vitrinite population for measurement and this also had an influence in the average value reported and in the scatter of the results. Slightly lower standard deviations were reported for the analyses run on kerogen concentrates. Considering the spectral fluorescence results, it was observed that the ??max presents a shift to higher wavelengths in the kerogen concentrate sample in comparison to the whole-rock sample, thus revealing an influence of preparation methods (acid treatment) on fluorescence properties. ?? 2010 Elsevier B.V.

The role of the World Data Centers in handling ocean climate data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Webster, Ferris

1992-01-01

The World Data Center System, set up for the International Geophysical Year in 1957, is an international network of data centers that links data contributors to data users in the geosciences. It includes means for the synthesis, analysis, and preparation of data products. It was set up in response to the needs of the international scientific community, and is still overseen by non-governmental scientific organizations. Because it is freely available to researchers in all countries, the World Data Center System has a special role to play in support of ocean climate research and monitoring programs. The World Data Centers face a number of challenges today. Apathy is probably the greatest, since many scientists take the system for granted. There is need to improve access and exploit new technology. The system must establish new links to assure continuity in a world with political changes. The multidisciplinary needs of global change research will demand capabilities for data and information management that go beyond the traditional emphasis on geophysics.

Historic and recent nesting records of Turkey Vultures in South Dakota

USGS Publications Warehouse

Igl, Lawrence D.; Chepulis, Brian J.; McLean, Kyle E.

2014-01-01

Present-day vultures are generally classified into two distinct groups: Old World vultures and new World vultures. The two groups share morphological and behavioral characters (e.g. scavenger diet, energy-efficient soaring, mostly featherless head), but historically the two groups were considered phylogenetically distant with long and independent histories (Rich 198., Wink 1995, Zhang et al. 2012). Old World vultures occur in the family Accipitridae and are closely related to hawks and eagles. New World Vultures occur in the family Cathartidae but their taxonomic placement has been controversial. New World vultures were previously allied with storks (Ciconiidae) but were usually placed within the order Falconiformes. Recent phylogenomic analyses using DNA sequencing suggest that new World vultures show no affinity with storks and support placement of New World vultures with other landbirds (in the order Accipitriformes, near Accipitridae) rather than with waterbirds (Hackett et al. 2008). Old World vultures presently are confined to Europe, Asia, and Africa, and New World vultures presently occur in North and South America.

Home page of Arnold Air Force Base

Science.gov Websites

time to reflect on the men and women who have gi... Facebook Logo Free-jet engine test at AEDC facility record for free-jet mode engines by achieving transonic speeds! @AEDCnews https://t.co/6lD4T5bnte Free-jet engine test at AEDC facility sets record Free-jet engine test at AEDC facility sets record

Detection capability of a pulsed Ground Penetrating Radar utilizing an oscilloscope and Radargram Fusion Approach for optimal signal quality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seyfried, Daniel; Schoebel, Joerg

2015-07-01

In scientific research pulsed radars often employ a digital oscilloscope as sampling unit. The sensitivity of an oscilloscope is determined in general by means of the number of digits of its analog-to-digital converter and the selected full scale vertical setting, i.e., the maximal voltage range displayed. Furthermore oversampling or averaging of the input signal may increase the effective number of digits, hence the sensitivity. Especially for Ground Penetrating Radar applications high sensitivity of the radar system is demanded since reflection amplitudes of buried objects are strongly attenuated in ground. Hence, in order to achieve high detection capability this parameter is one of the most crucial ones. In this paper we analyze the detection capability of our pulsed radar system utilizing a Rohde & Schwarz RTO 1024 oscilloscope as sampling unit for Ground Penetrating Radar applications, such as detection of pipes and cables in the ground. Also effects of averaging and low-noise amplification of the received signal prior to sampling are investigated by means of an appropriate laboratory setup. To underline our findings we then present real-world radar measurements performed on our GPR test site, where we have buried pipes and cables of different types and materials in different depths. The results illustrate the requirement for proper choice of the settings of the oscilloscope for optimal data recording. However, as we show, displaying both strong signal contributions due to e.g., antenna cross-talk and direct ground bounce reflection as well as weak reflections from objects buried deeper in ground requires opposing trends for the oscilloscope's settings. We therefore present our Radargram Fusion Approach. By means of this approach multiple radargrams recorded in parallel, each with an individual optimized setting for a certain type of contribution, can be fused in an appropriate way in order to finally achieve a single radargram which displays all contributions occurring originally at different strengths in an equalized and normalized way by means of appropriate digital signal post-processing.

The last frontier? High-resolution, near-bottom measurements of the Hawaiian Jurassic magnetic anomaly sequence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tivey, M.; Tominaga, M.; Sager, W. W.

2012-12-01

The Jurassic sequence of marine magnetic anomalies i.e. older than M29 remain the last part of the marine magnetic anomaly sequence of the geomagnetic polarity timescale (GPTS) that can be gleaned from the ocean crustal record. While Jurassic crust is present in several areas of the world's ocean basins, the oldest and arguably best preserved sequence is in the western Pacific where three lineations sets (Japanese, Hawaiian and Phoenix) converge on the oldest remaining ocean crust on the planet (i.e. crust that has not been subducted). The magnetic anomalies in these 3 lineation sets are marked by low amplitude, relatively indistinct anomalies (tiny wiggles) that collectively have been called the Jurassic quiet Zone (JQZ). Over the past 20 years we have been working on resolving the character and origin of these anomalies with various technologies to improve our resolution of this period. Following an aeromagnetic survey that revealed the possible presence of lineated anomalies older than M29 in the Japanese lineations, we conducted a deeptow magnetometer survey of the Japanese sequence in 1992. In 2002/03 we extended and confirmed this deeptow record with a deeptowed sidescan and magnetometer survey of the Japanese lineation sequence by tying in ODP Hole 801C and extending the anomaly sequence between M29 and M44. These surveys reveal remarkably fast reversals that are lineated and decrease in intensity back in time until M38, prior to which the sequence becomes somewhat confused (the LAZ or low amplitude zone) before recovering in both amplitude and lineated character around Hole 801C (M42). These results are partially supported by recently reported terrestrial magnetostratigraphy records that show the existence of reversals back to M38. A Jurassic GPTS was constructed from this Japanese anomaly sequence, but the overall global significance of the reversal sequence and systematic field intensity changes require confirmation from crustal records created at different spreading centers. In 2011, we undertook the next generation of near-bottom magnetic studies utilizing new autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) technology (Sentry) and concurrent deeptow and seismic profiling surveys of the Hawaiian anomaly sequence. Preliminary results show a similar anomaly record to the Japanese sequence: an overall decrease in anomaly amplitude from M19 to M38 and a period of low amplitude, which in turn is preceded by a return to stronger amplitude anomalies. The magnetic anomaly correlations between Hawaiian and Japanese sea-surface level profiles confirm the reversal record back in time, at least, to M38. At the mid-water and near-bottom AUV levels, the magnetic data clearly show the short-wavelength anomaly character of the M29-M38 sequence, indicating that the fast reversals observed in the Japanese lineations are also present in the Hawaiian lineation set. The strong similarity of overall anomaly patterns between Japanese and Hawaiian sequences supports the preliminary conclusion that geomagnetic field behavior during the Jurassic was dynamic, with fast reversals and changing intensity, and certainly not "quiet". Finally, AUV surveys provide measurements of the marine magnetic anomaly record whose resolution is limited only by the crustal recording process and crustal magnetic architecture rather than spatial resolution.

Unlocking the Ice House: Oligocene-Miocene oxygen isotopes, eustasy, and margin erosion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miller, Kenneth G.; Wright, James D.; Fairbanks, Richard G.

1991-04-01

Oxygen isotope records and glaciomarine sediments indicate at least an intermittent presence of large continental ice sheets on Antarctica since the earliest Oligocene (circa 35 Ma). The growth and decay of ice sheets during the Oligocene to modern "ice house world" caused glacioeustatic sea level changes. The early Eocene was an ice-free "greenhouse world," but it is not clear if ice sheets existed during the middle to late Eocene "doubt house world." Benthic foraminiferal δ18O records place limits on the history of glaciation, suggesting the presence of ice sheets at least intermittently since the earliest Oligocene. The best indicator of ice growth is a coeval increase in global benthic and western equatorial planktonic δ18O records. Although planktonic isotope records from the western equatorial regions are limited, subtropical planktonic foraminifera may also record such ice volume changes. It is difficult to apply these established principles to the Cenozoic δ18O record because of the lack of adequate data and problems in stratigraphic correlations that obscure isotope events. We improved Oligocene to Miocene correlations of δ18O records and erected eight oxygen isotope zones (Oi1-Oi2, Mi1-Mi6). Benthic foraminiferal δ18O increases which are associated with the bases of Zones Oil (circa 35.8 Ma), Oi2 (circa 32.5 Ma), and Mil (circa 23.5 Ma) can be linked with δ18O increases in subtropical planktonic foraminifera and with intervals of glacial sedimentation on or near Antarctica. Our new correlations of middle Miocene benthic and western equatorial planktonic δ18O records show remarkable agreement in timing and amplitude. We interpret benthic-planktonic covariance to reflect substantial ice volume increases near the bases of Zones Mi2 (circa 16.1 Ma), Mi3 (circa 13.6 Ma), and possibly Mi5 (circa 11.3 Ma). Possible glacioeustatic lowerings are associated with the δ18O increases which culminated with the bases of Zone Mi4 (circa 12.6 Ma) and Mi6 (circa 9.6 Ma), although low-latitude planktonic δ18O records are required to test this. These inferred glacioeustatic lowerings can be linked to seismic and rock disconformities. For example, we link 12 Oligocene-early late Miocene inferred glacioeustatic lowerings with 12 of the sequence boundaries (= inferred eustatic lowerings) of Haq et al. (1987).

Challenges of Maintaining Good Clinical Laboratory Practices in Low-Resource Settings:  A Health Program Evaluation Framework Case Study From East Africa.

PubMed

Zhang, Helen L; Omondi, Michael W; Musyoka, Augustine M; Afwamba, Isaac A; Swai, Remigi P; Karia, Francis P; Muiruri, Charles; Reddy, Elizabeth A; Crump, John A; Rubach, Matthew P

2016-08-01

Using a clinical research laboratory as a case study, we sought to characterize barriers to maintaining Good Clinical Laboratory Practice (GCLP) services in a developing world setting. Using a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention framework for program evaluation in public health, we performed an evaluation of the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre-Duke University Health Collaboration clinical research laboratory sections of the Kilimanjaro Clinical Research Institute in Moshi, Tanzania. Laboratory records from November 2012 through October 2014 were reviewed for this analysis. During the 2-year period of study, seven instrument malfunctions suspended testing required for open clinical trials. A median (range) of 9 (1-55) days elapsed between instrument malfunction and biomedical engineer service. Sixteen (76.1%) of 21 suppliers of reagents, controls, and consumables were based outside Tanzania. Test throughput among laboratory sections used a median (range) of 0.6% (0.2%-2.7%) of instrument capacity. Five (55.6%) of nine laboratory technologists left their posts over 2 years. These findings demonstrate that GCLP laboratory service provision in this setting is hampered by delays in biomedical engineer support, delays and extra costs in commodity procurement, low testing throughput, and high personnel turnover. © American Society for Clinical Pathology, 2016. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Potash

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jasinski, S.M.

2010-01-01

In 2009, the world potash market deteriorated as world demand, trade and sales fell dramatically. After potash prices reached record high levels in 2008, many consumers and dealers delayed purchases until the price dropped. Potash prices did not recede as quickly as other fertilizer commodities, which led to further increases in potash stocks. In 2009, high stocks and lower demand contributed to a drop in world production of more than 30 percent from 2008. Nearly all major producers reported lower production in 2009, as many mines were idle in the first half of the year and world production was at 50 percent of capacity. Consumption of both fertilizers and industrial uses dropped significantly in 2009.

A quantitative philology of introspection

PubMed Central

Diuk, Carlos G.; Slezak, D. Fernandez; Raskovsky, I.; Sigman, M.; Cecchi, G. A.

2012-01-01

The cultural evolution of introspective thought has been recognized to undergo a drastic change during the middle of the first millennium BC. This period, known as the “Axial Age,” saw the birth of religions and philosophies still alive in modern culture, as well as the transition from orality to literacy—which led to the hypothesis of a link between introspection and literacy. Here we set out to examine the evolution of introspection in the Axial Age, studying the cultural record of the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian literary traditions. Using a statistical measure of semantic similarity, we identify a single “arrow of time” in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, and a more complex non-monotonic dynamics in the Greco-Roman tradition reflecting the rise and fall of the respective societies. A comparable analysis of the twentieth century cultural record shows a steady increase in the incidence of introspective topics, punctuated by abrupt declines during and preceding the First and Second World Wars. Our results show that (a) it is possible to devise a consistent metric to quantify the history of a high-level concept such as introspection, cementing the path for a new quantitative philology and (b) to the extent that it is captured in the cultural record, the increased ability of human thought for self-reflection that the Axial Age brought about is still heavily determined by societal contingencies beyond the orality-literacy nexus. PMID:23015783

Reducing uncertainty with flood frequency analysis: The contribution of paleoflood and historical flood information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lam, Daryl; Thompson, Chris; Croke, Jacky; Sharma, Ashneel; Macklin, Mark

2017-03-01

Using a combination of stream gauge, historical, and paleoflood records to extend extreme flood records has proven to be useful in improving flood frequency analysis (FFA). The approach has typically been applied in localities with long historical records and/or suitable river settings for paleoflood reconstruction from slack-water deposits (SWDs). However, many regions around the world have neither extensive historical information nor bedrock gorges suitable for SWDs preservation and paleoflood reconstruction. This study from subtropical Australia demonstrates that confined, semialluvial channels such as macrochannels provide relatively stable boundaries over the 1000-2000 year time period and the preserved SWDs enabled paleoflood reconstruction and their incorporation into FFA. FFA for three sites in subtropical Australia with the integration of historical and paleoflood data using Bayesian Inference methods showed a significant reduction in uncertainty associated with the estimated discharge of a flood quantile. Uncertainty associated with estimated discharge for the 1% Annual Exceedance Probability (AEP) flood is reduced by more than 50%. In addition, sensitivity analysis of possible within-channel boundary changes shows that FFA is not significantly affected by any associated changes in channel capacity. Therefore, a greater range of channel types may be used for reliable paleoflood reconstruction by evaluating the stability of inset alluvial units, thereby increasing the quantity of temporal data available for FFA. The reduction in uncertainty, particularly in the prediction of the ≤1% AEP design flood, will improve flood risk planning and management in regions with limited temporal flood data.

Motivation and intention to integrate physical activity into daily school life: the JAM World Record event.

PubMed

Vazou, Spyridoula; Vlachopoulos, Symeon P

2014-11-01

Research on the motivation of stakeholders to integrate physical activity into daily school life is limited. The purpose was to examine the motivation of stakeholders to participate in a world record physical activity event and whether motivation was associated with future intention to use activity breaks during the daily school life and future participation in a similar event. After the 2012 JAM (Just-a-Minute) World Record event, 686 adults (591 women; 76.1% participated for children <10 years) completed measures of motivational regulations and future intention to (a) use the activity breaks and (b) participate in the event. High intrinsic motivation and low extrinsic motivation and amotivation for participation in the next event were reported. Hierarchical regression analysis, controlling for age, gender, and occupation, showed that intrinsic forms of motivation positively predicted, whereas amotivation negatively predicted, future intention to participate in the event and use the activity breaks. Multivariate analyses of variance revealed that school-related participants were more intrinsically motivated and intended to use the activity breaks and repeat the event more than those who were not affiliated with a school. Nonschool participants reported higher extrinsic motivation and amotivation than school-related participants. © 2014 Society for Public Health Education.

Did recent world record marathon runners employ optimal pacing strategies?

PubMed

Angus, Simon D

2014-01-01

We apply statistical analysis of high frequency (1 km) split data for the most recent two world-record marathon runs: Run 1 (2:03:59, 28 September 2008) and Run 2 (2:03:38, 25 September 2011). Based on studies in the endurance cycling literature, we develop two principles to approximate 'optimal' pacing in the field marathon. By utilising GPS and weather data, we test, and then de-trend, for each athlete's field response to gradient and headwind on course, recovering standardised proxies for power-based pacing traces. The resultant traces were analysed to ascertain if either runner followed optimal pacing principles; and characterise any deviations from optimality. Whereas gradient was insignificant, headwind was a significant factor in running speed variability for both runners, with Runner 2 targeting the (optimal) parallel variation principle, whilst Runner 1 did not. After adjusting for these responses, neither runner followed the (optimal) 'even' power pacing principle, with Runner 2's macro-pacing strategy fitting a sinusoidal oscillator with exponentially expanding envelope whilst Runner 1 followed a U-shaped, quadratic form. The study suggests that: (a) better pacing strategy could provide elite marathon runners with an economical pathway to significant performance improvements at world-record level; and (b) the data and analysis herein is consistent with a complex-adaptive model of power regulation.

Pacing in Olympic track races: competitive tactics versus best performance strategy.

PubMed

Thiel, Christian; Foster, Carl; Banzer, Winfried; De Koning, Jos

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to describe pacing strategies in the 800 to 10,000-m Olympic finals. We asked 1) if Olympic finals differed from World Records, 2) how variable the pace was, 3) whether runners faced catastrophic events, and 4) for the winning strategy. Publically available data from the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games gathered by four transponder antennae under the 400-m track were analysed to extract descriptors of pacing strategies. Individual pacing patterns of 133 finalists were visualised using speed by distance plots. Six of eight plots differed from the patterns reported for World Records. The coefficient of running speed variation was 3.6-11.4%. In the long distance finals, runners varied their pace every 100 m by a mean 1.6-2.7%. Runners who were 'dropped' from the field achieved a stable running speed and displayed an endspurt. Top contenders used variable pacing strategies to separate themselves from the field. All races were decided during the final lap. Olympic track finalists employ pacing strategies which are different from World Record patterns. The observed micro- and macro-variations of pace may have implications for training programmes. Dropping off the pace of the leading group is an active step, and the result of interactive psychophysiological decision making.

Eocene primates of South America and the African origins of New World monkeys.

PubMed

Bond, Mariano; Tejedor, Marcelo F; Campbell, Kenneth E; Chornogubsky, Laura; Novo, Nelson; Goin, Francisco

2015-04-23

The platyrrhine primates, or New World monkeys, are immigrant mammals whose fossil record comes from Tertiary and Quaternary sediments of South America and the Caribbean Greater Antilles. The time and place of platyrrhine origins are some of the most controversial issues in primate palaeontology, although an African Palaeogene ancestry has been presumed by most primatologists. Until now, the oldest fossil records of New World monkeys have come from Salla, Bolivia, and date to approximately 26 million years ago, or the Late Oligocene epoch. Here we report the discovery of new primates from the ?Late Eocene epoch of Amazonian Peru, which extends the fossil record of primates in South America back approximately 10 million years. The new specimens are important for understanding the origin and early evolution of modern platyrrhine primates because they bear little resemblance to any extinct or living South American primate, but they do bear striking resemblances to Eocene African anthropoids, and our phylogenetic analysis suggests a relationship with African taxa. The discovery of these new primates brings the first appearance datum of caviomorph rodents and primates in South America back into close correspondence, but raises new questions about the timing and means of arrival of these two mammalian groups.

The James Webb Space Telescope RealWorld-InWorld Design Challenge: Involving Professionals in a Virtual Classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Masetti, Margaret; Bowers, S.

2011-01-01

Students around the country are becoming experts on the James Webb Space Telescope by designing solutions to two of the design challenges presented by this complex mission. RealWorld-InWorld has two parts; the first (the Real World portion) has high-school students working face to face in their classroom as engineers and scientists. The InWorld phase starts December 15, 2010 as interested teachers and their teams of high school students register to move their work into a 3D multi-user virtual world environment. At the start of this phase, college students from all over the country choose a registered team to lead InWorld. Each InWorld team is also assigned an engineer or scientist mentor. In this virtual world setting, each team refines their design solutions and creates a 3D model of the Webb telescope. InWorld teams will use 21st century tools to collaborate and build in the virtual world environment. Each team will learn, not only from their own team members, but will have the opportunity to interact with James Webb Space Telescope researchers through the virtual world setting, which allows for synchronous interactions. Halfway through the challenge, design solutions will be critiqued and a mystery problem will be introduced for each team. The top five teams will be invited to present their work during a synchronous Education Forum April 14, 2011. The top team will earn scholarships and technology. This is an excellent opportunity for professionals in both astronomy and associated engineering disciplines to become involved with a unique educational program. Besides the chance to mentor a group of interested students, there are many opportunities to interact with the students as a guest, via chats and presentations.

The 19 mm date recorders: Similarities and differences

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Atkinson, Steve

1991-01-01

Confusion over the use of non-video 19 mm data recorders is becoming more pronounced in the world of high performance computing. The following issues are addressed: (1) the difference between ID-1, ID-2, MIL-STD-2179, and DD-2; (2) the proper machine for the necessary application; and (3) integrating the machine into an existing environment. Also, an attempt is made to clear up any misconceptions there might be about 19 mm tape recorders.

Language-Mediated Eye Movements in the Absence of a Visual World: The "Blank Screen Paradigm"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Altmann, Gerry T. M.

2004-01-01

The "visual world paradigm" typically involves presenting participants with a visual scene and recording eye movements as they either hear an instruction to manipulate objects in the scene or as they listen to a description of what may happen to those objects. In this study, participants heard each target sentence only after the corresponding…

State of the art review: Intravaginal probes for recording electromyography from the pelvic floor muscles.

PubMed

Keshwani, Nadia; McLean, Linda

2015-02-01

To survey commercially available intravaginal probes designed to record electromyography (EMG) from the pelvic floor muscles (PFMs), and to discuss the strengths and limitations of current technology. The MEDLINE EMBASE, CINAHL, PEDRO, and Cochrane databases were searched for articles in which intravaginal probes were described as having been used to record EMG from the PFMs. The World Wide Web was also searched using the Google search engine to find devices used to record EMG from the PFMs. Finally, a Canadian distributer of intravaginal probes was contacted to identify intravaginal EMG probes not identified through other methods. The specifications of each probe were determined through the manufacturer or their website, and each device was acquired by the investigators to verify the specifications and electrode configuration. The devices were evaluated against international standards for recording EMG data. Sixteen different models of commercially available intravaginal probes were identified: seven from published research papers, seven using the World Wide Web, and two through communication with a distributer. The probes vary in shape, dimensions, electrode positioning, and electrode configuration, with many designs prone to recording motion artifact, crosstalk, and/or inappropriate EMG signals. All commercially available intravaginal probes had deficiencies in their design such as problems with probe geometry, electrode size, location, and/or configuration. Improved intravaginal EMG probes should be developed for use in research and clinical practice. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Making magnetic recording commercial: 1920-1955

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clark, Mark H.

1999-03-01

Although magnetic recording had been invented in 1898, it was not until the late 1920s that the technology was successfully marketed to the public. Firms in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States developed and sold magnetic recorders for specialized markets in broadcasting and telephone systems through the 1930s. The demands of World War II considerably expanded the use of magnetic recording, and with the end of the war, firms in the United States sought to bring magnetic recording to home and professional music recording. Using a combination of captured German technology and American wartime research, American companies such as Ampex, Magnecord, 3M, the Brush Development Company, and others created a vast new industry. By the mid-1950s, magnetic recording was firmly established as a method for recording both sound and data.

Designing and Developing Game-Like Learning Experience in Virtual Worlds: Challenges and Design Decisions of Novice Instructional Designers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yilmaz, Turkan Karakus; Cagiltay, Kursat

2016-01-01

Many virtual worlds have been adopted for implementation within educational settings because they are potentially useful for building effective learning environments. Since the flexibility of virtual worlds challenges to obtain effective and efficient educational outcomes, the design of such platforms need more attention. In the present study, the…

Virtual Worlds: A New Opportunity for People with Lifelong Disability?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stendal, Karen; Balandin, Susan; Molka-Danielsen, Judith

2011-01-01

Virtual worlds, such as Second Life[R], are the latest star in the online communication sky. Created by Linden Lab, Second Life is a three-dimensional environment that provides a context for avatars to communicate and socialise with other avatars in a variety of settings (Bell, 2009). Virtual worlds have been used to train people with intellectual…

The Hurdles to Being World Class: Narrative Analysis of the World-Class University Project in Korea

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jang, Deok-Ho; Ryu, Kiung; Yi, Pilnam; Craig, Daniel A.

2016-01-01

This study examines the Korean Government's policy scheme of setting up the World-Class University (WCU) Project by investigating the perceptions of major actors, including WCU scholars and government officials. In-depth interviews were held with 18 WCU scholars and three government officials. Our findings suggest that the limits of the…

Singapore Meeting of Education Research Associations Sets the Stage for Establishing a World Education Research Association

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Educational Researcher, 2009

2009-01-01

This article discusses a meeting of education research associations from around the world which achieved a major goal toward establishing a World Education Research Association (WERA) in Singapore on November 24-25, 2008. At the meeting, representatives reaffirmed a commitment to establish WERA and finalized several key documents for its…

Adapting veterinary infrastructures to meet the challenges of globalisation and the requirements of the World Trade Organization Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures.

PubMed

Thiermann, A

2004-04-01

To maximise the benefits of globalisation, countries and their stakeholders must become familiar with and adhere to the rights and obligations set out by the World Trade Organization under the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures. Furthermore, for trade in animals and animal products, they must adhere to the standards, guidelines and recommendations established by the OIE (World organisation for animal health), which also encourages participation of countries in the standard-setting process. Only after implementing these requirements and strengthening veterinary infrastructures and surveillance and monitoring systems, will countries be able to fully benefit from the new international trade rules.

The 19 mm data recorders similarities and differences

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Atkinson, Steve

1992-01-01

Confusion over the use of non-video 19 mm data recorders is becoming more pronounced as we enter the world of high performance computing. This paper addresses the following: the differences between ID-1, ID-2, MIL-STD-2179 and DD-2; what the proper machine is for various applications; how the machine can be integrated into an environment; and any misconceptions there might be about 19 mm tape recorders. DD-2 and 19 mm instrumentation recorders have missions for which each is well designed. While the differences may appear subtle, understanding the difference between the two is the key to picking the right recorder for a particular application.

NASA Snaps Picture of Eastern U.S. in a Record-Breaking "Freezer"

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-02-20

NASA's Terra satellite captured an image of the snow-covered eastern U.S. that looks like the states have been sitting in a freezer. In addition to the snow cover, Arctic and Siberian air masses have settled in over the Eastern U.S. triggering many record low temperatures in many states. On Feb. 19 at 16:40 UTC (11:40 a.m. EST), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument that flies aboard NASA's Terra satellite captured a picture of the snowy landscape. The snow cover combined with the frosty air mass made the eastern U.S. feel like the inside of freezer. The MODIS image was created at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. On the morning of Feb. 20, NOAA's Weather Prediction Center (WPC) noted, "There were widespread subzero overnight lows Thursday night (Feb. 19) extending from Illinois to western Virginia, and numerous record lows were set. Bitterly-cold arctic air is setting numerous temperature records across the eastern U.S. and will keep temperatures well below normal on Friday (Feb. 20)." In Baltimore, Maryland, a low temperature of 1F broke the record low for coldest morning recorded at the Thurgood Marshall Baltimore Washington-International Airport. In Louisville, Kentucky, temperatures dropped to -6F, breaking the old record low of 0F, according to meteorologist Brian Goode of WAVE-TV. Meanwhile, Richmond Kentucky bottomed out at a frigid -32F. In North Carolina, a record low temperature was set at Charlotte where the overnight temperature bottomed out at 7F breaking the old record of 13F in 1896. In Asheville, temperatures dropped to just 4F breaking the old record of 10F in 1979. Temperature records for Asheville extend back to 1876. Several records were also broken in Georgia, according to Matt Daniel, a meteorologist at WMAZ-TV, Macon Georgia, who cited data from the National Weather Service. Daniel said that Macon set a new record low when the temperature dropped to 18F, beating the previous record of 21F set in 1958. Athens broke a new record low, too dropping to 14F and beating the old record of 18F set in 1958/1928. NOAA's NPC noted that "Highs on Friday (Feb. 20) will struggle to get out of the teens from the Ohio Valley to the Mid-Atlantic region. After Friday, temperatures are forecast to moderate and get closer to February averages as a storm system approaches from the west." Image Credit: NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Privacy protection for personal health information and shared care records.

PubMed

Neame, Roderick L B

2014-01-01

The protection of personal information privacy has become one of the most pressing security concerns for record keepers: this will become more onerous with the introduction of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in mid-2014. Many institutions, both large and small, have yet to implement the essential infrastructure for data privacy protection and patient consent and control when accessing and sharing data; even more have failed to instil a privacy and security awareness mindset and culture amongst their staff. Increased regulation, together with better compliance monitoring, has led to the imposition of increasingly significant monetary penalties for failure to protect privacy: these too are set to become more onerous under the GDPR, increasing to a maximum of 2% of annual turnover. There is growing pressure in clinical environments to deliver shared patient care and to support this with integrated information. This demands that more information passes between institutions and care providers without breaching patient privacy or autonomy. This can be achieved with relatively minor enhancements of existing infrastructures and does not require extensive investment in inter-operating electronic records: indeed such investments to date have been shown not to materially improve data sharing. REQUIREMENTS FOR PRIVACY: There is an ethical duty as well as a legal obligation on the part of care providers (and record keepers) to keep patient information confidential and to share it only with the authorisation of the patient. To achieve this information storage and retrieval, communication systems must be appropriately configured. There are many components of this, which are discussed in this paper. Patients may consult clinicians anywhere and at any time: therefore, their data must be available for recipient-driven retrieval (i.e. like the World Wide Web) under patient control and kept private: a method for delivering this is outlined.

The Federal Cylinder Project: A Guide to Field Cylinder Collections in Federal Agencies. Volume 8, Early Anthologies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Dorothy Sara, Ed; And Others

This catalog describes wax cylinder recordings of music collected by two pioneers in ethnomusicology. The 101 cylinders in the Benjamin Ives Gilman Collection recorded at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago contain Fijian, Samoan, Uvean, Javanese, Turkish, and Kwakiutl or Vancouver Island Indian music. The Gilman Collection is…

20 CFR 408.944 - How can you review our records related to an SVB overpayment?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 20 Employees' Benefits 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false How can you review our records related to an SVB overpayment? 408.944 Section 408.944 Employees' Benefits SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION SPECIAL BENEFITS FOR CERTAIN WORLD WAR II VETERANS Underpayments and Overpayments Tax Refund Offset § 408.944 How...

First record of Tricoloured Munia (Lonchura malacca) for Nicaragua

Treesearch

W. J. Arendt; O. Lane; M.A. Torrez; J.C. Gamez Castellon

2013-01-01

We report the first published record of Tricolored Munia (Lonchura malacca) for Nicaragua, thus adding to our knowledge of its distribution in the New World. Escaped cage birds have established multi-focal feral populations, thereby expediting the species’ range expansion in Mesoamerica from Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama to northwestern South America (...

Automated Data Base Implementation Requirements for the Avionics Planning Baseline - Army

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-07-01

PJRQT PJRSG .... PRJR owns PJRQTR Item EFT A32 A26 In record EFR Item ESFT A36 A40 In record ESFR Item EQPOC ALCPOC A20 In record EQR Iten EPHONE LPHONE...USING EF DUPLICATES ARE NOT ALLOWED WITHIN EQSEG. EF TYPE CHARACTER 4. EFT TYPE CHARACTER 32. EG TYPE CHARACTER 4. RECORD NAME IS ESFR LOCATION MODE... ESFR MANDATORY AUTOMATIC LINKED TO OWNER ASCENDING KEY IS ESF DUPLICATES NOT SET SELECTION THRU LOCATION MODE OF OWNER. SET NAME IS ESEQ MODE CHAIN

A method for recording verbal behavior in free-play settings1

PubMed Central

Nordquist, Vey M.

1971-01-01

The present study attempted to test the reliability of a new method of recording verbal behavior in a free-play preschool setting. Six children, three normal and three speech impaired, served as subjects. Videotaped records of verbal behavior were scored by two experimentally naive observers. The results suggest that the system provides a means of obtaining reliable records of both normal and impaired speech, even when the subjects exhibit nonverbal behaviors (such as hyperactivity) that interfere with direct observation techniques. ImagesFig. 1Fig. 2 PMID:16795310

Publishing NASA Metadata as Linked Open Data for Semantic Mashups

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilson, Brian; Manipon, Gerald; Hua, Hook

2014-05-01

Data providers are now publishing more metadata in more interoperable forms, e.g. Atom or RSS 'casts', as Linked Open Data (LOD), or as ISO Metadata records. A major effort on the part of the NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) project is the aggregation of metadata that enables greater data interoperability among scientific data sets regardless of source or application. Both the Earth Observing System (EOS) ClearingHOuse (ECHO) and the Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) repositories contain metadata records for NASA (and other) datasets and provided services. These records contain typical fields for each dataset (or software service) such as the source, creation date, cognizant institution, related access URL's, and domain and variable keywords to enable discovery. Under a NASA ACCESS grant, we demonstrated how to publish the ECHO and GCMD dataset and services metadata as LOD in the RDF format. Both sets of metadata are now queryable at SPARQL endpoints and available for integration into "semantic mashups" in the browser. It is straightforward to reformat sets of XML metadata, including ISO, into simple RDF and then later refine and improve the RDF predicates by reusing known namespaces such as Dublin core, georss, etc. All scientific metadata should be part of the LOD world. In addition, we developed an "instant" drill-down and browse interface that provides faceted navigation so that the user can discover and explore the 25,000 datasets and 3000 services. The available facets and the free-text search box appear in the left panel, and the instantly updated results for the dataset search appear in the right panel. The user can constrain the value of a metadata facet simply by clicking on a word (or phrase) in the "word cloud" of values for each facet. The display section for each dataset includes the important metadata fields, a full description of the dataset, potentially some related URL's, and a "search" button that points to an OpenSearch GUI that is pre-configured to search for granules within the dataset. We will present our experiences with converting NASA metadata into LOD, discuss the challenges, illustrate some of the enabled mashups, and demonstrate the latest version of the "instant browse" interface for navigating multiple metadata collections.

Hydrologic conditions in Florida during Water Year 2008

USGS Publications Warehouse

Verdi, Richard J.; Holt, Sandra L.; Irvin, Ronald B.; Fulcher, David L.

2010-01-01

Record-high and record-low hydrologic conditions occurred during water year 2008 (October 1, 2007-September 30, 2008). Record-low levels were caused by a continuation of the 2007 water year drought conditions into the 2008 water year and persisting until summer rainfall. The gage at the Santa Fe River near Fort White site recorded record-low monthly mean discharges in October and November 2007. The previous records for this site were set in 1956 and 2002, respectively. Record-high conditions in northeast and northwest Florida were caused by the rainfall and runoff associated with Tropical Storm Fay. For example, St. Mary's River near Macclenny recorded a new record-high monthly mean discharge in August 2008. The previous record for this site was set in 1945. Lake Okeechobee in south Florida reached new minimum monthly mean lake levels since monitoring began in 1912 from October to March during the 2008 water year. Some wells throughout northwest and south Florida registered period-of-record lowest daily maximum water levels.

Privacy-preserving record linkage on large real world datasets.

PubMed

Randall, Sean M; Ferrante, Anna M; Boyd, James H; Bauer, Jacqueline K; Semmens, James B

2014-08-01

Record linkage typically involves the use of dedicated linkage units who are supplied with personally identifying information to determine individuals from within and across datasets. The personally identifying information supplied to linkage units is separated from clinical information prior to release by data custodians. While this substantially reduces the risk of disclosure of sensitive information, some residual risks still exist and remain a concern for some custodians. In this paper we trial a method of record linkage which reduces privacy risk still further on large real world administrative data. The method uses encrypted personal identifying information (bloom filters) in a probability-based linkage framework. The privacy preserving linkage method was tested on ten years of New South Wales (NSW) and Western Australian (WA) hospital admissions data, comprising in total over 26 million records. No difference in linkage quality was found when the results were compared to traditional probabilistic methods using full unencrypted personal identifiers. This presents as a possible means of reducing privacy risks related to record linkage in population level research studies. It is hoped that through adaptations of this method or similar privacy preserving methods, risks related to information disclosure can be reduced so that the benefits of linked research taking place can be fully realised. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Real world study of regimen containing bevacizumab as first-line therapy in Chinese patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

PubMed

Xing, Puyuan; Mu, Yuxin; Wang, Yan; Hao, Xuezhi; Zhu, Yixiang; Hu, Xingsheng; Wang, Hongyu; Liu, Peng; Lin, Lin; Wang, Zhijie; Li, Junling

2018-05-16

Large scale randomized controlled trials have demonstrated that the use of bevacizumab in addition to chemotherapy in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) conveys significant survival benefits. We explored the clinical impact of a first-line regimen containing bevacizumab (B+) versus a non-bevacizumab regimen (non-B) in advanced non-squamous NSCLC (NS-NSCLC) patients in a real world setting. The medical records of patients with advanced NS-NSCLC who received first-line therapy with or without bevacizumab were retrospectively collected. The primary outcome was progression-free survival (PFS), with secondary objectives of objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), and safety. Exploratory analysis of EGFR and ALK status was conducted in subgroup. One hundred and forty-nine patients met the selection criteria: 62 in the B+ and 87 in the non-B group. The baseline characteristics were well balanced. In the overall population, the median PFS was significantly longer in the B+ than in the non-B group (9.7 vs. 7.0 months, hazard ratio [HR] 0.52, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.30-0.91; P = 0.0184). Improved trends in both ORR and DCR were observed in the B+ group. In wild-type patients, the median PFS of the B+ was 11.3 compared to 5.5 months in the non-B group (HR 0.43, 95% CI 0.20-0.91; P = 0.0234). In wild type and unknown populations, the median PFS was 11.3 (B+) compared to 6.0 months (non-B) (HR 0.53; 95% CI 0.28-1.02; P = 0.0520). The safety profile was acceptable in both groups and no unexpected findings were observed. Our analysis confirmed that a first-line regimen containing bevacizumab showed superior clinical benefits over a non-bevacizumab regimen in Chinese patients with advanced NS-NSCLC in a real world setting. © 2018 The Authors. Thoracic Cancer published by China Lung Oncology Group and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

Compressibility of two polyvinyl siloxane interocclusal record materials and its effect on mounted cast relationships.

PubMed

Campos, A A; Nathanson, D

1999-10-01

Addition silicones (polyvinyl siloxanes) are universally accepted as accurate and stable impression materials. They have also gained popularity as interocclusal record materials. However, it has not been defined if it is possible to work with polyvinyl siloxanes without changing the recorded maxillomandibular relations. This study examined the compressibility of 2 addition silicones as interocclusal record materials, analyzing the changes of maxillomandibular relations at the condyle region when different compressive forces are used to stabilize articulated casts. Sixteen interocclusal records, obtained from the same patient (8 of each polyvinyl siloxane, Blu-Mousse, Fast Set), were interposed between the patient casts in a new measuring system obtaining 48 curves of load versus maxillomandibular positional changes in 3 axes (x, y, z). These curves were compared with curves obtained with the casts in maximum intercuspation without interocclusal records (reference curves). Analysis of variance was used to compare maxillomandibular positional changes among the 3 groups (n = 48 each): Blu-Mousse, Fast Set, and control group or maximum intercuspation without interocclusal record. There was no significant change in maxillomandibular relations when forces up to 1 kgf were applied to stabilize the casts related by means of Blu-Mousse and Fast Set addition silicone interocclusal records. It is possible to use these polyvinyl siloxanes as interocclusal record materials without changing the recorded maxillomandibular relations.

True gender ratios and stereotype rating norms

PubMed Central

Garnham, Alan; Doehren, Sam; Gygax, Pascal

2015-01-01

We present a study comparing, in English, perceived distributions of men and women in 422 named occupations with actual real world distributions. The first set of data was obtained from previous a large-scale norming study, whereas the second set was mostly drawn from UK governmental sources. In total, real world ratios for 290 occupations were obtained for our perceive vs. real world comparison, of which 205 were deemed to be unproblematic. The means for the two sources were similar and the correlation between them was high, suggesting that people are generally accurate at judging real gender ratios, though there were some notable exceptions. Beside this correlation, some interesting patterns emerged from the two sources, suggesting some response strategies when people complete norming studies. We discuss these patterns in terms of the way real world data might complement norming studies in determining gender stereotypicality. PMID:26257681

Virtual reality in the rehabilitation of people with intellectual disabilities: review.

PubMed

Standen, Penny J; Brown, David J

2005-06-01

Virtual reality (VR) possesses many qualities that give it rehabilitative potential for people with intellectual disabilities, both as an intervention and an assessment. It can provide a safe setting in which to practice skills that might carry too many risks in the real world. Unlike human tutors, computers are infinitely patient and consistent. Virtual worlds can be manipulated in ways the real world cannot be and can convey concepts without the use of language or other symbol systems. Published applications for this client group have all been as rehabilitative interventions. These are described in three groups: promoting skills for independent living, enhancing cognitive performance, and improving social skills. Five groups of studies are reviewed that utilize virtual technology to promote skills for independent living: grocery shopping, preparing food, orientation, road safety, and manufacturing skills. Fears that skills or habits learnt in a virtual setting would not transfer to the real world setting have not been supported by the available evidence, apart from those studies with people with autistic spectrum disorders. Future directions are in the development of more applications for independent living skills, exploring interventions for promoting motor and cognitive skills, and the developments of ecologically valid forms of assessment.

"Reversed" intraguild predation: red fox cubs killed by pine marten.

PubMed

Brzeziński, Marcin; Rodak, Lukasz; Zalewski, Andrzej

2014-01-01

Camera traps deployed at a badger Meles meles set in mixed pine forest in north-eastern Poland recorded interspecific killing of red fox Vulpes vulpes cubs by pine marten Martes martes . The vixen and her cubs settled in the set at the beginning of May 2013, and it was abandoned by the badgers shortly afterwards. Five fox cubs were recorded playing in front of the den each night. Ten days after the first recording of the foxes, a pine marten was filmed at the set; it arrived in the morning, made a reconnaissance and returned at night when the vixen was away from the set. The pine marten entered the den several times and killed at least two fox cubs. It was active at the set for about 2 h. This observation proves that red foxes are not completely safe from predation by smaller carnivores, even those considered to be subordinate species in interspecific competition.

A real-world approach to Evidence-Based Medicine in general practice: a competency framework derived from a systematic review and Delphi process.

PubMed

Galbraith, Kevin; Ward, Alison; Heneghan, Carl

2017-05-03

Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) skills have been included in general practice curricula and competency frameworks. However, GPs experience numerous barriers to developing and maintaining EBM skills, and some GPs feel the EBM movement misunderstands, and threatens their traditional role. We therefore need a new approach that acknowledges the constraints encountered in real-world general practice. The aim of this study was to synthesise from empirical research a real-world EBM competency framework for general practice, which could be applied in training, in the individual pursuit of continuing professional development, and in routine care. We sought to integrate evidence from the literature with evidence derived from the opinions of experts in the fields of general practice and EBM. We synthesised two sets of themes describing the meaning of EBM in general practice. One set of themes was derived from a mixed-methods systematic review of the literature; the other set was derived from the further development of those themes using a Delphi process among a panel of EBM and general practice experts. From these two sets of themes we constructed a real-world EBM competency framework for general practice. A simple competency framework was constructed, that acknowledges the constraints of real-world general practice: (1) mindfulness - in one's approach towards EBM itself, and to the influences on decision-making; (2) pragmatism - in one's approach to finding and evaluating evidence; and (3) knowledge of the patient - as the most useful resource in effective communication of evidence. We present a clinical scenario to illustrate how a GP might demonstrate these competencies in their routine daily work. We have proposed a real-world EBM competency framework for general practice, derived from empirical research, which acknowledges the constraints encountered in modern general practice. Further validation of these competencies is required, both as an educational resource and as a strategy for actual practice.

Whose point-of-view is it anyway?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garvey, Gregory P.

2011-03-01

Shared virtual worlds such as Second Life privilege a single point-of-view, namely that of the user. When logged into Second Life a user sees the virtual world from a default viewpoint, which is from slightly above and behind the user's avatar (the user's alter ego 'in-world.') This point-of-view is as if the user were viewing his or her avatar using a camera floating a few feet behind it. In fact it is possible to set the view to as if you were seeing the world through the eyes of your avatar or you can even move the camera completely independent of your avatar. A change in point-of-view, means, more than just a different camera point-of-view. The practice of using multiple avatars requires a transformation of identity and personality. When a user 'enacts' the identity of a particular avatar, their 'real' personality is masked by the assumed personality. The technology of virtual worlds permits both a change of point-of -view and also facilitates a change in identity. Does this cause any psychological distress? Or is the ability to be someone else and see a world (a game, a virtual world) through a different set of eyes somehow liberating and even beneficial?

Improving quality: bridging the health sector divide.

PubMed

Pringle, Mike

2003-12-01

All too often, quality assurance looks at just one small part of the complex system that is health care. However, evidently each individual patient has one set of experiences and outcomes, often involving a range of health professionals in a number of settings across multiple sectors. In order to solve the problems of this complexity, we need to establish high-quality electronic recording in each of the settings. In the UK, primary care has been leading the way in adopting information technology and can now use databases for individual clinical care, for quality assurance using significant event and conventional auditing, and for research. Before we can understand and quality-assure the whole health care system, we need electronic patient records in all settings and good communication to build a summary electronic health record for each patient. Such an electronic health record will be under the control of the patient concerned, will be shared with the explicit consent of the patient, and will form the vehicle for quality assurance across all sectors of the health service.

The injury profile of Karate World Championships: new rules, less injuries.

PubMed

Arriaza, Rafael; Leyes, Manuel; Zaeimkohan, Hamid; Arriaza, Alvaro

2009-12-01

The aim of this paper is to document the injury rate in high-level modern competitive karate after a change of competition rules was implemented in the year 2000, and to compare it with the injury rate found before the rules were changed. A prospective recording of the injuries resulting from 2,762 matches in three consecutive World Karate Championships (representing 7,425 min of active fighting) was performed, and compared with the results from 2,837 matches from the three last World Karate Championships (representing 7,631 min of active fighting) held before the change of competition rules. In total, 497 injuries were recorded, with an incidence of 0.180 injuries per match or 6.7 per 100 min of active fighting. There were 1,901 male category fights (in which 383 injuries were recorded), and 861 female category fights (in which 114 injuries were recorded). The global injury incidence was almost double with the old rules compared to the one with the new rules [OR 1.99, 95% CI (1.76-2.26); p < 0.00001]. In male category, the risk of injury was higher before the rules were changed [OR 1.81, 95% CI (1.56-2.09); p < 0.00001], and also in female category [OR 2.71; 95% CI (2.64-2.80); p < 0.00001]. The rate of severe injuries was not different before and after the change of rules. The implementation of the new competition rules in competitive karate has been associated with a significant reduction in injury rate, making competition safer for athletes.

Military Service Records and Unit Histories: A Guide to Locating Sources

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-07-26

records, therefoa- e , written authorization from the veta -an or ne.’Ct of kin is not rEqUired. However, in ordet" to protect the privacy of the...line E -mail: MPR.center@nara.gov Older military personnel records (generally prior to World War I, depending on the service branch) are located at...AFB, DC 20032-5000 E -mail: afhso.research@pentagon.af.mil http://www.afhso.af.mil/ (202) 404-2264 National Museum of the U.S. Air Force 1100

Mandibular fractures in India during the Second World War (1944 and 1945): analysis of the Snawdon series.

PubMed

Chambers, I G; Scully, C

1987-10-01

The records of Major J. W. E. Snawdon of the No. 2 Indian Maxillofacial Unit provide a rare and detailed insight into the treatment of mandibular fractures during the Second World War. Notable features were the high frequency of civilian-type injuries, the considerable delays between injury and definitive treatment, the lengthy periods of intermaxillary fixation required, the high incidence of infections and the common occurrence of delayed union. Despite these problems, only 12% of fractures resulted in non-union, usually when these were missile injuries with considerable destruction. Reporting of the details from Snawdon's records should be of interest particularly to young oral surgeons, whose experience of trauma belongs to an entirely different environment.

Ubiquitous Complete in a Web 2.0 World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bull, Glen; Ferster, Bill

2006-01-01

In the third wave of computing, people will interact with multiple computers in multiple ways in every setting. The value of ubiquitous computing is enhanced and reinforced by another trend: the transition to a Web 2.0 world. In a Web 2.0 world, applications and data reside on the Web itself. Schools are not yet approaching a ratio of one…

The Need for Integration of Technology in K-12 School Settings in Kenya, Africa

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Momanyi, Lilian; Norby, RenaFaye; Strand, Sharon

2006-01-01

Many computer users around the world have access to the latest advances in technology and use of the World Wide Web (WWW or Web). However, for a variety of political, economic, and social reasons, some peoples of the world do not have access to these resources. The educational systems of developing countries have not completely missed the…

Technical and physical analysis of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil: winners vs. losers.

PubMed

Rumpf, Michael C; Silva, Joao R; Hertzog, Maxime; Farooq, Abdulaziz; Nassis, George

2017-10-01

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the technical and physical performance parameters that distinguish between teams winning and losing matches in the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil. Data were derived from the FIFA website and from live-statistics provided during each game of the world cup. Twelve physical (such as total distance covered in meters (TD), TD in distinct locomotor categories: low-intensity running (LIR; <11 km/h), moderate-intensity running (MIR; 11 to 14 km/h) and high-intensity-running (HIR; >14 km/h)) and 21 technical parameters (total passes, short-, medium- and long-distance passes, total pass completion rate, dangerous attacks, attacking attempts, delivery in penalty area, ball possession, goals, goals from set-pieces, goals per shot on goal, defending saves, shots, shots on goal, shot accuracy, set-pieces, crosses, corners, clearances, yellow cards) were analyzed. Forty-two games in which a winner and consequently a loser were presented after 90 minutes of game time were investigated with independent t-tests. A binary-logistic regression was utilized to investigate whether the significant variables predicted success of the winning teams. The winning teams scored significantly (P<0.05) greater amount of goals, goals per set-pieces, goals per shots on goals, shots on goal and shot accuracy and received significantly lower yellow cards. The binary-logistic regression utilized showed that shot accuracy was the best predictor for success. The physical parameters did not differ between teams winning and losing a match. Technical performance related to goal scoring parameters play a decisive role in World Cup games. Furthermore, scoring efficacy from open-play as well as from set-pieces are crucial to win matches in a World Cup tournament. At this level, physical performance was not the factor to discriminate between winners and losers.

Youth Sports Clubs' Potential as Health-Promoting Setting: Profiles, Motives and Barriers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meganck, Jeroen; Scheerder, Jeroen; Thibaut, Erik; Seghers, Jan

2015-01-01

Setting and Objective: For decades, the World Health Organisation has promoted settings-based health promotion, but its application to leisure settings is minimal. Focusing on organised sports as an important leisure activity, the present study had three goals: exploring the health promotion profile of youth sports clubs, identifying objective…

Implementing an Open Source Electronic Health Record System in Kenyan Health Care Facilities: Case Study

PubMed Central

Magare, Steve; Monda, Jonathan; Kamau, Onesmus; Houston, Stuart; Fraser, Hamish; Powell, John; English, Mike; Paton, Chris

2018-01-01

Background The Kenyan government, working with international partners and local organizations, has developed an eHealth strategy, specified standards, and guidelines for electronic health record adoption in public hospitals and implemented two major health information technology projects: District Health Information Software Version 2, for collating national health care indicators and a rollout of the KenyaEMR and International Quality Care Health Management Information Systems, for managing 600 HIV clinics across the country. Following these projects, a modified version of the Open Medical Record System electronic health record was specified and developed to fulfill the clinical and administrative requirements of health care facilities operated by devolved counties in Kenya and to automate the process of collating health care indicators and entering them into the District Health Information Software Version 2 system. Objective We aimed to present a descriptive case study of the implementation of an open source electronic health record system in public health care facilities in Kenya. Methods We conducted a landscape review of existing literature concerning eHealth policies and electronic health record development in Kenya. Following initial discussions with the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization, and implementing partners, we conducted a series of visits to implementing sites to conduct semistructured individual interviews and group discussions with stakeholders to produce a historical case study of the implementation. Results This case study describes how consultants based in Kenya, working with developers in India and project stakeholders, implemented the new system into several public hospitals in a county in rural Kenya. The implementation process included upgrading the hospital information technology infrastructure, training users, and attempting to garner administrative and clinical buy-in for adoption of the system. The initial deployment was ultimately scaled back due to a complex mix of sociotechnical and administrative issues. Learning from these early challenges, the system is now being redesigned and prepared for deployment in 6 new counties across Kenya. Conclusions Implementing electronic health record systems is a challenging process in high-income settings. In low-income settings, such as Kenya, open source software may offer some respite from the high costs of software licensing, but the familiar challenges of clinical and administration buy-in, the need to adequately train users, and the need for the provision of ongoing technical support are common across the North-South divide. Strategies such as creating local support teams, using local development resources, ensuring end user buy-in, and rolling out in smaller facilities before larger hospitals are being incorporated into the project. These are positive developments to help maintain momentum as the project continues. Further integration with existing open source communities could help ongoing development and implementations of the project. We hope this case study will provide some lessons and guidance for other challenging implementations of electronic health record systems as they continue across Africa. PMID:29669709

Seniors' views on the use of electronic health records.

PubMed

Morin, Diane; Tourigny, Andre; Pelletier, Daniel; Robichaud, Line; Mathieu, Luc; Vézina, Aline; Bonin, Lucie; Buteau, Martin

2005-01-01

In the Mauricie and Centre-du-Québec region of the province of Quebec, Canada, an integrated services network has been implemented for frail seniors. It combines three of the best practices in the field of integrated services, namely: single-entry point, case management and personalized care plan. A shared interdisciplinary electronic health record (EHR) system was set up in 1998. A consensus on the relevance of using EHRs is growing in Quebec, in Canada and around the world. However, technology has out-paced interest in the notions of confidentiality, informed consent and the impact perceived by the clientele. This study specifically examines how frail seniors perceive these issues related to an EHR. The conceptual framework is inspired by the DeLone and McLean model whose main attributes are: system quality, information quality, utilisation modes and the impact on organisations and individuals. This last attribute is the focus of this study, which is a descriptive with quantitative and qualitative component. Thirty seniors were surveyed. Positive information they provided falls under three headings: (i) being better informed; (ii) trust and consideration for professionals; and (iii) appreciation of innovation. The opinions of the seniors are generally favourable regarding the use of computers and the EHR in their presence. Improvements in EHR systems for seniors can be encouraged.

User acquaintance with mobile interfaces.

PubMed

Ehrler, Frederic; Walesa, Magali; Sarrey, Evelyne; Wipfli, Rolf; Lovis, Christian

2013-01-01

Handheld technology finds slowly its place in the healthcare world. Some clinicians already use intensively dedicated mobile applications to consult clinical references. However, handheld technology hasn't still broadly embraced to the core of the healthcare business, the hospitals. The weak penetration of handheld technology in the hospitals can be partly explained by the caution of stakeholders that must be convinced about the efficiency of these tools before going forward. In a domain where temporal constraints are increasingly strong, caregivers cannot loose time on playing with gadgets. All users are not comfortable with tactile manipulations and the lack of dedicated peripheral complicates entering data for novices. Stakeholders must be convinced that caregivers will be able to master handheld devices. In this paper, we make the assumption that the proper design of an interface may influence users' performances to record information. We are also interested to find out whether users increase their efficiency when using handheld tools repeatedly. To answer these questions, we have set up a field study to compare users' performances on three different user interfaces while recording vital signs. Some user interfaces were familiar to users, and others were totally innovative. Results showed that users' familiarity with smartphone influences their performances and that users improve their performances by repeating a task.

Do-It-Yourself Whiteboard-Style Physics Video Lectures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Douglas, Scott Samuel; Aiken, John Mark; Greco, Edwin; Schatz, Michael; Lin, Shih-Yin

2017-01-01

Video lectures are increasingly being used in physics instruction. For example, video lectures can be used to "flip" the classroom, i.e., to deliver, via the Internet, content that is traditionally transmitted by in-class lectures (e.g., presenting concepts, working examples, etc.), thereby freeing up classroom time for more interactive instruction. To date, most video lectures are live lecture recordings or screencasts. The hand-animated "whiteboard" video is an alternative to these more common styles and affords unique creative opportunities such as stop-motion animation or visual "demonstrations" of phenomena that would be difficult to demo in a classroom. In the spring of 2013, a series of whiteboard-style videos were produced to provide video lecture content for Georgia Tech introductory physics instruction, including flipped courses and a MOOC. This set of videos (which also includes screencasts and live recordings) can be found on the "Your World is Your Lab" YouTube channel. In this article, we describe this method of video production, which is suitable for an instructor working solo or in collaboration with students; we explore students' engagement with these videos in a separate work. A prominent example of whiteboard animation is the "Minute Physics" video series by Henry Reich, whose considerable popularity and accessible, cartoony style were the original inspiration for our own video lectures.

Spearfishing data reveals the littoral fish communities' association to coastal configuration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boada, Jordi; Sagué, Oscar; Gordoa, Ana

2017-12-01

Increasing the knowledge about littoral fish communities is important for ecological sciences, fisheries and the sustainability of human communities. The scarcity of baseline data at large spatial scales in a fast-changing world makes it necessary to implement special programs to monitor natural ecosystems. In the present study, we evaluate littoral fish communities using data from spearfishing contests. The Catalan Federation of Underwater Activities (FECDAS) regularly organizes fishing contests across ca. 600 km of coast. Catch records made over the last sixteen years were used to study the fish communities along the coastline. We found two different communities that are closely related to the habitat configuration at a regional level. Interestingly, contests held on the northern coast were mainly grouped together and were characterized by species that inhabit complex rocky habitats, and contests held on the southern coast were grouped together and were mainly determined by soft bottoms species (i.e. mugilids and Sarpa salpa). In the south group the white sea bream was also very abundant compared to the north group. No significant changes in the community composition were found in the studied period and we successfully set descriptive baselines. Finally, based on these results we propose that studying the data from fishing contest records can be used to complement the available tools for monitoring fish communities.

Development of a Recommender System based on Personal History

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tanaka, Katsuaki; Hori, Koichi; Yamamoto, Masato

The flood of information on the Internet makes a person who surf it without some strong intention strayed into it. One of the ways to control the balance between a person and the flood is a recommender system by computer, and many web sites use it. These systems work on a web site for the same kind of items. However the field of personal activity is not limited to handle the same kind of thing and a web site, but also offline area in the real world. To handle personal offline activities, LifeLog is proposed as method to record it, but the main purpose of LifeLog is recording a personal history. How to use a history has still been studied stage. The authors have developed a recommender system that captures personal context from history of personal online and offline activities, treats information on web sites as a large set of context, and finds out and extends overlap of them, then recommends information located there. The aim of the system is that a person can enjoy waves of information again. The system worked as a part of My-life Assist Service. It was a service for mobile phones provided by NTT DoCoMo, Inc. as a field experiment from Dec. 2007 to Feb. 2008.

The science and application of forest carbon projects

Treesearch

Robert J. Moulton

2002-01-01

This year-1999, now in its 7th month-is well on its way to becoming the hottest year in what has already been documented as the hottest decade on record both in the United States and worldwide. This makes a good setting for discussing global climate change, a much better setting than, say, the second week of a record-setting cold spell in February, 1999 when some...

The genus Spathius Nees (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Doryctinae) in Mexico: occurrence of a highly diverse Old World taxon in the Neotropics.

PubMed

Belokobylskij, Sergey A; Zaldívar-Riverón, Alejandro

2014-01-01

Two new species of the parasitoid wasp genus Spathius Nees (Braconidae: Doryctinae) from Mexico, S. mexicanus sp. n. and S. chamelae sp. n., are described and illustrated. These represent the second and third described species of this highly diverse Old World genus in the Neotropics, and the first described species recorded for the Mexican territory.

The Implications of Virtual World Technology for K-12 Students in a Foreign Language Course of Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parrott, David L.

2014-01-01

The use of virtual world technology for language instruction is a recent development in education. The goal of this study was to provide a functioning 3D environment for German language students to experience as avatars. The student's impressions, attitudes, and perceptions of this learning activity would be recorded and analyzed to see if this…

Empower, not impose!-Preventing academic procrastination.

PubMed

Hoppe, Johannes D; Prokop, Philipp; Rau, Renate

2018-01-01

In the frame of the goal setting process between supervisor and student while writing a thesis, it is hypothesized that mutually set goals (participation) and writing down the results of the meeting (recording) can prevent procrastination and increase engagement of the student. With a questionnaire relating to the latest written thesis (n = 97, academic sample), the effects of goal setting characteristics (recording, participation) and task characteristics (ambiguity, control) on engagement and procrastination were examined. Results of a multiple mediation model indicate that recording indirectly influences engagement and procrastination through its effect on ambiguity. Moreover, participation indirectly influences engagement through its effect on control. It is concluded that goal setting characteristics and task characteristics can affect student's procrastination. Thus, the present research provides criteria for how supervisors can prevent students from procrastinating.

77 FR 65939 - Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-10-31

... Technology Architecture (VistA) Records-VA'' (79VA19) as set forth in the Federal Register 75 FR 4454. VA is... Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) Records-VA ROUTINE USES OF RECORDS...

Fourteen new species, one new genus, and eleven new country or state records for New World Lamiinae (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae).

PubMed

Martins, Ubirajara R; Santos-Silva, Antonio; Galileo, Maria Helena M

2015-06-26

Fourteen new species and one new genus are described from the New World in Lamiinae (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae): Bisaltes (Bisaltes) lingafelteri sp. nov., Trestonia skelleyi sp. nov. and Psapharochrus langeri sp. nov. from Bolivia; Eupogonius azteca sp. nov., Aegomorphus mexicanus sp. nov., Lamacoscylus albatus sp. nov., Lamacoscylus obscurus sp. nov. and Piruanycha wappesi sp. nov. from Mexico; Dolichestola egeri sp. nov. and Wappesellus cavus gen. nov., sp. nov. from Brazil (Rondônia); Scleronotus virgatus sp. nov. from Venezuela; Oreodera casariae sp. nov. from Panama; Alampyris bicolor sp. nov. from Costa Rica; and Emphytoeciosoma flava sp. nov. from Peru. Additionally, eleven new country/state records are established in Lamiinae: three for Peru; three for Bolivia; one for Mexico; one for Uruguay; and two for Brazil (Rondônia) (state records). Bisaltes (Bisaltes) lingafelteri, Eupogonius azteca, Aegomorphus mexicanus, Lamacoscylus albatus, Lamacoscylus obscurus, Piruanycha wappesi, Scleronotus virgatus, Alampyris bicolor, Emphytoeciosoma flava and Wappesellus are included in new or known keys.

Linking the Observation of Essential Variables to Societal Benefits

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sylak-Glassman, E.

2017-12-01

Different scientific communities have established sets of commonly agreed upon essential variables to help coordinate data collection in a variety of Earth observation areas. As an example, the World Meteorological Organization Global Climate Observing System has identified 50 Essential Climate Variables (ECVs), such as sea-surface temperature and carbon dioxide, which are required to monitoring the climate and detect and attribute climate change. In addition to supporting climate science, measuring these ECVs deliver many types of societal benefits, ranging from disaster mitigation to agricultural productivity to human health. While communicating the value in maintaining and improving observational records for these variables has been a challenge, quantifying how the measurement of these ECVs results in the delivery of many different societal benefits may help support their continued measurement. The 2016 National Earth Observation Assessment (EOA 2016) quantified the impact of individual Earth observation systems, sensors, networks, and surveys (or Earth observation systems, for short) on the achievement of 217 Federal objectives in 13 societal benefit areas (SBAs). This study will demonstrate the use of the EOA 2016 dataset to show the different Federal objectives and SBAs that are impacted by the Earth observation systems used to measure ECVs. Describing how the measurements from these Earth observation systems are used not only to maintain the climate record but also to meet additional Federal objectives may help articulate the continued measurement of the ECVs. This study will act as a pilot for the use of the EOA 2016 dataset to map between the measurements required to observe additional sets of variables, such as the Essential Ocean Variables and Essential Biodiversity Variables, and the ability to achieve a variety of societal benefits.

Variability in fluvial geomorphic response to anthropogenic disturbance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Verstraeten, Gert; Broothaerts, Nils; Van Loo, Maarten; Notebaert, Bastiaan; D'Haen, Koen; Dusar, Bert; De Brue, Hanne

2017-10-01

Humans have greatly impacted the processes and intensities of erosion, sediment transport and storage since the introduction of agriculture. In many regions around the world, accelerated floodplain sedimentation can be related to increases in human pressure on the environment. However, the relation between the intensity of anthropogenic disturbance and the magnitude of change in fluvial sediment dynamics is not straightforward and often non-linear. Here, we review a number of case studies from contrasting environmental settings in the European loess belt, the Eastern Mediterranean mountain ranges and the eastern USA. Detailed field-based sediment archive studies and sediment budgets covering time periods ranging from 200 to over 5000 year, as well as the use of pollen and sediment provenance techniques, show that no overarching concept of changes in floodplain sedimentation following anthropogenic disturbance can be established. Slope-channel (dis)connectivity controls the existence of thresholds or tipping points that need to be crossed before significant changes in downstream sediment dynamics are recorded following human impact. This coupling can be related to characteristics of human pressure such as its duration, intensity and spatial patterns, but also to the geomorphic and tectonic setting. Furthermore, internal feedback mechanisms, such as those between erosion and soil thickness, further complicate the story. All these factors controlling the propagation of sediment from eroding hillslopes to river channels vary between regions. Hence, only unique patterns of fluvial geomorphic response can be identified. As a result, unravelling the human impact from current-day sediment archives and predicting the impact of future human disturbances on fluvial sediment dynamics remain a major challenge. This has important implications for interpreting contemporary sediment yields as well as downstream sediment records in large floodplains, deltas and the marine environment, in terms of changes in the drivers of environmental change.

Using electronic health record data for substance use Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment among adults with type 2 diabetes: Design of a National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network study.

PubMed

Wu, Li-Tzy; Brady, Kathleen T; Spratt, Susan E; Dunham, Ashley A; Heidenfelder, Brooke; Batch, Bryan C; Lindblad, Robert; VanVeldhuisen, Paul; Rusincovitch, Shelley A; Killeen, Therese K; Ghitza, Udi E

2016-01-01

The Affordable Care Act encourages healthcare systems to integrate behavioral and medical healthcare, as well as to employ electronic health records (EHRs) for health information exchange and quality improvement. Pragmatic research paradigms that employ EHRs in research are needed to produce clinical evidence in real-world medical settings for informing learning healthcare systems. Adults with comorbid diabetes and substance use disorders (SUDs) tend to use costly inpatient treatments; however, there is a lack of empirical data on implementing behavioral healthcare to reduce health risk in adults with high-risk diabetes. Given the complexity of high-risk patients' medical problems and the cost of conducting randomized trials, a feasibility project is warranted to guide practical study designs. We describe the study design, which explores the feasibility of implementing substance use Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) among adults with high-risk type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) within a home-based primary care setting. Our study includes the development of an integrated EHR datamart to identify eligible patients and collect diabetes healthcare data, and the use of a geographic health information system to understand the social context in patients' communities. Analysis will examine recruitment, proportion of patients receiving brief intervention and/or referrals, substance use, SUD treatment use, diabetes outcomes, and retention. By capitalizing on an existing T2DM project that uses home-based primary care, our study results will provide timely clinical information to inform the designs and implementation of future SBIRT studies among adults with multiple medical conditions. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Constructing Worlds: Cosmovisions as Integral Parts of Human Ecosystems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rappenglück, M. A.

2009-08-01

Archaeological and ethnological records worldwide give evidence that cosmovisions played an important role in the life of man since Paleolithic epochs. Parallel to the reduction of instincts man developed cultural systems to establish and maintain order and rhythm in his personal and social life and to organize the world into a meaningful system. Cosmovisions helped man to integrate and orientate himself within changing human ecosystems. These concepts were also useful to answer fundamental human questions about the whys and wherefores of man and the world. Some of the main features of archaic cosmovisions in different cultures across the world and throughout the epochs are discussed with focus on human ecosystems and the human mind.

A freely-moving monkey treadmill model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Foster, Justin D.; Nuyujukian, Paul; Freifeld, Oren; Gao, Hua; Walker, Ross; Ryu, Stephen I.; Meng, Teresa H.; Murmann, Boris; Black, Michael J.; Shenoy, Krishna V.

2014-08-01

Objective. Motor neuroscience and brain-machine interface (BMI) design is based on examining how the brain controls voluntary movement, typically by recording neural activity and behavior from animal models. Recording technologies used with these animal models have traditionally limited the range of behaviors that can be studied, and thus the generality of science and engineering research. We aim to design a freely-moving animal model using neural and behavioral recording technologies that do not constrain movement. Approach. We have established a freely-moving rhesus monkey model employing technology that transmits neural activity from an intracortical array using a head-mounted device and records behavior through computer vision using markerless motion capture. We demonstrate the flexibility and utility of this new monkey model, including the first recordings from motor cortex while rhesus monkeys walk quadrupedally on a treadmill. Main results. Using this monkey model, we show that multi-unit threshold-crossing neural activity encodes the phase of walking and that the average firing rate of the threshold crossings covaries with the speed of individual steps. On a population level, we find that neural state-space trajectories of walking at different speeds have similar rotational dynamics in some dimensions that evolve at the step rate of walking, yet robustly separate by speed in other state-space dimensions. Significance. Freely-moving animal models may allow neuroscientists to examine a wider range of behaviors and can provide a flexible experimental paradigm for examining the neural mechanisms that underlie movement generation across behaviors and environments. For BMIs, freely-moving animal models have the potential to aid prosthetic design by examining how neural encoding changes with posture, environment and other real-world context changes. Understanding this new realm of behavior in more naturalistic settings is essential for overall progress of basic motor neuroscience and for the successful translation of BMIs to people with paralysis.

More than Data: Using Interactive Science Notebooks to Engage Students in Science and Engineering

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mason, Kevin; Bohl, Heather

2017-01-01

A traditional science notebook is an official record of a scientist's research. Even in today's digital world, it is still common practice for scientists to record their experimental procedures, data, analysis, results, notes, and other thoughts on the right pages of a bound notebook in permanent ink with nothing written on the left side or back…

Reconstructing fire history in central Mongolia from tree-rings

Treesearch

Amy E. Hessl; Uyanga Ariya; Peter Brown; Oyunsannaa Byambasuren; Tim Green; Gordon Jacoby; Elaine Kennedy Sutherland; Baatarbileg Nachin; R. Stockton Maxwell; Neil Pederson; Louis De Grandpre; Thomas Saladyga; Jacques C. Tardif

2012-01-01

Rising temperatures are expected to increase wildfire activity in many regions of the world. Over the last 60 years in Mongolia, mean annual temperatures have increased ~2°C and the recorded frequency and spatial extent of forest and steppe fires have increased. Few long records of fire history exist to place these recent changes in a historical perspective. The...

This Contest Can Give Recognition to Record-Breaking Kids. Front Lines.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Executive Educator, 1983

1983-01-01

THE FOLLOWING IS THE FULL TEXT OF THIS DOCUMENT: Your local high school students might never get to see their names up in lights. But with talent, luck, and determination, they might get to see their names in print--as winners in the World Almanac's high school records contest. As a way to recognize and reward teenage achievements (and undoubtedly…

5 CFR 1632.10 - Transcripts, recordings, and minutes.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... maintain a complete transcript or electronic recording or transcription thereof adequate to record fully.... Transcriptions of recordings will disclose the identity of each speaker. (b) The Board will maintain either such a transcript, recording or transcription thereof, or a set of minutes that will fully and clearly...

5 CFR 1632.10 - Transcripts, recordings, and minutes.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... maintain a complete transcript or electronic recording or transcription thereof adequate to record fully.... Transcriptions of recordings will disclose the identity of each speaker. (b) The Board will maintain either such a transcript, recording or transcription thereof, or a set of minutes that will fully and clearly...

Workgroup report: developing environmental health indicators for European children: World Health Organization Working Group.

PubMed

Pond, Kathy; Kim, Rokho; Carroquino, Maria-Jose; Pirard, Philippe; Gore, Fiona; Cucu, Alexandra; Nemer, Leda; MacKay, Morag; Smedje, Greta; Georgellis, Antonis; Dalbokova, Dafina; Krzyzanowski, Michal

2007-09-01

A working group coordinated by the World Health Organization developed a set of indicators to protect children's health from environmental risks and to support current and future European policy needs. On the basis of identified policy needs, the group developed a core set of 29 indicators for implementation plus an extended set of eight additional indicators for future development, focusing on exposure, health effects, and action. As far as possible, the indicators were designed to use existing information and are flexible enough to be developed further to meet the needs of policy makers and changing health priorities. These indicators cover most of the priority topic areas specified in the Children's Environment and Health Action Plan for Europe (CEHAPE) as adopted in the Fourth Ministerial Conference on Health and Environment in 2004, and will be used to monitor the implementation of CEHAPE. This effort can be viewed as an integral part of the Global Initiative on Children's Environmental Health Indicators, launched at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002.

Leveraging Strength: The Pillars of American Grand Strategy in World War II

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-01-01

Leveraging Strength: The Pillars of American Grand Strategy in World War II by Tami Davis Biddle Tami Davis Biddle is the Hoyt S. Vandenberg Chair of... world . The war was a transforming event for American society: the course of the war , and the consequences of it, set the conditions for the powerful...Pillars of American Grand Strategy in World War II 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) 5d. PROJECT NUMBER

Atmospheric Change in Antarctica since the 1957--1958 International Geophysical Year

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nicolas, Julien Pierre

The Antarctic Ice Sheet holds a volume of ice and snow equivalent to 55 meters of sea level. The melting of only a relatively small fraction of this volume could have dramatic consequences for populations around the world. With this in mind, the research presented here focuses on two atmospheric variables that are key controls of the state of the ice sheet: its surface mass balance (or net snowfall) and its near-surface air temperature. The analysis aims to understand how these two parameters have changed (if at all) since the 1957-1958 International Geophysical Year (IGY), the start of the instrumental era in Antarctica. Particular attention is given to the part of the continent known as West Antarctica, the most vulnerable to atmospheric and oceanic warming, and the one where rapid glacial change is currently taking place. The research is divided into three parts. The first part uses a set of seven global reanalyses to investigate the changes in Antarctic surface mass balance and Southern Ocean precipitation since 1979 (start of the reanalyses). This investigation is also intended to shed light on the reliability of these reanalyses, which often contained artifacts caused by changes in the observing system, particularly in high southern latitudes. Spurious changes in precipitation are found to various degrees in all data sets but with varying characteristics and origins. According to the two reanalyses deemed most reliable, neither Antarctic surface mass balance nor Southern Ocean precipitation have changed significantly over the past three decades. The second part consists of a multifaceted investigation of the near-surface temperature record from Byrd Station, in central West Antarctica. As the only meteorological record in this region to extend back to the IGY, it is a critical data set, but also one with a complicated history and substantial data gaps. A comprehensive revision of the record is undertaken and a novel approach is used to estimate the missing observations. The complete Byrd record reveals a marked increase in the annual mean temperature since the late 1950s. This warming is not only stronger than previously estimated by other studies, but also establishes central West Antarctica as one of the fastest-warming regions on Earth. A review of the atmospheric and oceanic drivers of the temperature trends highlights their strong seasonal dependence and the complex interplay between low-latitude sea surface temperature forcing and high-latitude atmospheric variability. The third and final part of the research builds upon the new Byrd record and the records from 14 other stations to generate an Antarctic-wide temperature reconstruction spanning the IGY to the present time. The spatial interpolation method is adapted from, and improves upon, a kriging technique previously employed for the same purpose. The reconstruction is then used to re-examine the relationship between the Southern Annular Mode (the dominant mode of high southern latitude atmospheric variability) and Antarctic temperatures. The analysis shows how the strengthening of the SAM in austral summer and fall seen in recent decades has mitigated an otherwise stronger background warming of Antarctica.

Buoyant despite Downturn

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berry, John N., III; Fialkoff, Francine; Fox, Bette-Lee; Hadro, Josh; Horrocks, Norman; Kuzyk, Raya; Oder, Norman

2009-01-01

Even as libraries face the economic downturn, a record-setting number of people attended the American Library Association (ALA) annual conference in Chicago, July 9-15. The tough economy, however, was felt in the number of exhibitors, which declined from the previous record set in 2007 in Washington, DC, and in anecdotal evidence that suggested…

Early Childhood Numeracy in a Multiage Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wood, Karen; Frid, Sandra

2005-01-01

This research is a case study examining numeracy teaching and learning practices in an early childhood multiage setting with Pre-Primary to Year 2 children. Data were collected via running records, researcher reflection notes, and video and audio recordings. Video and audio transcripts were analysed using a mathematical discourse and social…

32 CFR 286.23 - Initial determinations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... record is denied in whole or in part in accordance with procedures set forth in the FOIA. (c) Denial... a single request, which would otherwise satisfy the unusual circumstances set forth in paragraph (f... record or information (also known as “the submitter” for matters pertaining to proprietary data under 5 U...

32 CFR 286.23 - Initial determinations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... record is denied in whole or in part in accordance with procedures set forth in the FOIA. (c) Denial... a single request, which would otherwise satisfy the unusual circumstances set forth in paragraph (f... record or information (also known as “the submitter” for matters pertaining to proprietary data under 5 U...

Competing Activation during Fantasy Text Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Creer, Sarah D.; Cook, Anne E.; O'Brien, Edward J.

2018-01-01

During comprehension, readers' general world knowledge and contextual information compete for influence during integration and validation. Fantasy narratives, in which general world knowledge often conflicts with fantastical events, provide a setting to examine this competition. Experiment 1 showed that with sufficient elaboration, contextual…

A novel GLM-based method for the Automatic IDentification of functional Events (AIDE) in fNIRS data recorded in naturalistic environments.

PubMed

Pinti, Paola; Merla, Arcangelo; Aichelburg, Clarisse; Lind, Frida; Power, Sarah; Swingler, Elizabeth; Hamilton, Antonia; Gilbert, Sam; Burgess, Paul W; Tachtsidis, Ilias

2017-07-15

Recent technological advances have allowed the development of portable functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) devices that can be used to perform neuroimaging in the real-world. However, as real-world experiments are designed to mimic everyday life situations, the identification of event onsets can be extremely challenging and time-consuming. Here, we present a novel analysis method based on the general linear model (GLM) least square fit analysis for the Automatic IDentification of functional Events (or AIDE) directly from real-world fNIRS neuroimaging data. In order to investigate the accuracy and feasibility of this method, as a proof-of-principle we applied the algorithm to (i) synthetic fNIRS data simulating both block-, event-related and mixed-design experiments and (ii) experimental fNIRS data recorded during a conventional lab-based task (involving maths). AIDE was able to recover functional events from simulated fNIRS data with an accuracy of 89%, 97% and 91% for the simulated block-, event-related and mixed-design experiments respectively. For the lab-based experiment, AIDE recovered more than the 66.7% of the functional events from the fNIRS experimental measured data. To illustrate the strength of this method, we then applied AIDE to fNIRS data recorded by a wearable system on one participant during a complex real-world prospective memory experiment conducted outside the lab. As part of the experiment, there were four and six events (actions where participants had to interact with a target) for the two different conditions respectively (condition 1: social-interact with a person; condition 2: non-social-interact with an object). AIDE managed to recover 3/4 events and 3/6 events for conditions 1 and 2 respectively. The identified functional events were then corresponded to behavioural data from the video recordings of the movements and actions of the participant. Our results suggest that "brain-first" rather than "behaviour-first" analysis is possible and that the present method can provide a novel solution to analyse real-world fNIRS data, filling the gap between real-life testing and functional neuroimaging. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The use of gaming strategies in a transcultural setting.

PubMed

Gary, R; Marrone, S; Boyles, C

1998-01-01

Saudi Arabia's vast economic resources have enabled the development of state-of-the-art hospitals. Nurses recruited from around the world staff these hospitals creating one of the most multicultural practice settings in the world. Ethnic, educational, and experiential diversity; language and communication barriers; and alternative ways of knowing and learning challenge nurse educators to be more creative and explore opportunities for greater participation and learning among various cultural groups. Gaming, as a teaching-learning strategy for multicultural participants, affords the necessary flexibility and nonthreatening atmosphere which facilitates positive interactions among different, and often competing, communication patterns and learning styles. This article explores how and why gaming is as an effective educational strategy in a transcultural setting.

Storage-based Intrusion Detection: Watching storage activity for suspicious behavior

DTIC Science & Technology

2002-10-01

password management involves a pair of inter-related files (/etc/ passwd and /etc/shadow). The corresponding access pat- terns seen at the storage...example, consider a UNIX system password file (/etc/ passwd ), which con- sists of a set of well-defined records. Records are delimited by a line-break, and...etc/ passwd and verify that they conform to a set of basic integrity rules: 7-field records, non-empty password field, legal default shell, legal home